I think we can achieve spending the rest of our NT MLE if we use a couple of roster spots on rookies like Ponds and whoever else impresses from summer league. When I do the math (very rough math that is) it seems possible, I'll lay it out. Paul - 38.5 Harden 38.2 Capela - 14.9 Gordon - 14 Tucker - 8.4 House - 3.5 Rivers - 1.6 Hartenstein - 1.4 Clark -1.4 Troy Williams dead cap - .1 9 players = roughly 122 million leaving 10.6 million for 4 more roster spots. We have roughly 5.7 million we can use of our remaining NT MLE, let's assume we only use 5.5 million of that and go with at least two rookie minimum guys. MLE - 5.5 million Vet min - 1.6 Vet min - 1.6 Rookie min - .9 Rookie min - .9 ='s 10.5 million So technically, I think we can use almost the entirety of our remaining MLE, and still barely squeeze under the taxpayer cap. That being said, not paying taxes isn't NEARLY as important as it was last year due to us no longer having to worry about the repeater tax with CP3 expiring before that would be enacted. Hou could comfortably use both the remaining MLE, and BAE without hitting the hard cap. The question is, do we go this route? Or do we stick with our 2.1 TP MLE, vet mins and try to sign Shump as a trade filler down the road.
TL;DR this thread, but if Tilman Fertitta is "willing to spend" on using the Non-Taxpayer MLE and the Bi-Annual Exception to add key pieces, the most luxury tax that the Rockets would even be ALLOWED to pay this season would be less than $9.8 million.
Great thread and question. I voted no. I think at this point (Jimmy Butler or bust) we’ll avoid it, and it explains more broadly why we’ve been bystanders so far in free agency.
+ gerald green too, already signed to vet min also i seem to remember something about our vet min contracts only partially counting towards the cap as well
At this point it’s a philosophical question in my mind. I don’t really care if they pay luxury tax, but I do care if avoidance is part of the calculation
Kawhi’s decision is holding up signings across the league. I’ll reserve judgment until after that point. Hope we do one of the following: 1. Use NT MLE and BAE to get quality free agents at a discount, OR 2. Sign Shumpert to a large one year deal via bird right to facilitate trades (SnT or a deal later in the year)
2016? https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/16719485/cleveland-cavaliers-owe-54-million-luxury-taxes The league's other three tax teams are the San Antonio Spurs ($4.9 million), Houston Rockets ($4.9 million) and Chicago Bulls ($4.2 million).
I hope you’re right about being aggressive with a Shump SnT, but I’m skeptical at this point. This feels like a repeat of last offseason and also the trade deadline. Plenty of scenarios discussed yet nothing materialized, so we decided to “punt”.
Yeah it’s crazy how teams haven’t been signing guys bc of kawhi. Wait wut I think the rockets might be the only team in the nba that hasn’t made an outside player transaction
I bought into the rationalization that we needed to avoid the repeater tax, and to this day defend Tillman (or at least holding off judgement). Mostly because that makes sense, it blows things up exponentially, and there werent players worth that. I trust him and Morey saying Tillman will be more than willing to spend well over the luxury cap moving forward. Not much of this has, or will change until after the trade deadline this year. If we stay under the cap this year, Im buying none of it anymore. Ill jump on the "Fertitta is a horrible owner who cares nothing about winning" bandwagon. I think that is a fair balance of trusting Tillman/Morey and completely turning on them this early into his ownership. Right now, I am stoked about Rivers and House, and expect one more big signing or trade to be done by playoffs.
There was a rush of moves at the start of free agency (with a lot of overpays too), but things have tapered off a bit. Guys like Danny Green, Jamychal, Demarcus, Jabari Parker and Marcus Morris are still out there. The only teams with meaningful cap space (both LA teams) are in a holding pattern for Kawhi. I bet once Kawhi signs, you’ll see these guys come off the board too. (For the record, I do wish the Rockets made a push for Jeff Green or WCS, but who knows if those two were interested in the Rockets in the first place)
It hasn’t tapered off though it’s just that big names are basically all gone except for the small group that wants la. There are multiple signings every day. Like I said, I believe we are the only team without a player transaction that didn’t involve our own players
I feel 100% the same way. A lot already wrote off Tilman because of his behavior before he owned the Rockets, but I'll give him a chance to prove himself here. But if we end up under the tax this year after what happened last year, I'm done.
We never had the cap space to bring in marquis players without gutting our team in the process. Since we can't do better than bench-worthy players, does it make sense to go over the LT line? It does make sense to use some of the MLE to get a backup wing player.
