[BimaThug] how the rockets can avoid the tax while signing buyout guys

Clint's has mouths to feed.

 

fwiw: this would also apply to any buyout candidates this year, assuming none sign for multiple years. Operating as a taxpayer next year, you likely don't get Full MLE to help resign expirings.

What sucks is we have no draft picks this year, and no cash to buy one.

but:

• Shumpert has full bird rights. So, if he does well, I have faith Morey will *this time* have green light to not worry about tax.
• With all the past money Faried has made, he just might sign for low, allowing us to land both him and Rivers with the mini MLE, or vet mins.
• Ideally, we can lock up House this year with all the MLE we can afford (per Bima's math) on last day. If we can go above the minimum, House might sign vs RFA offers later.

While I agree that there isn't much else other than vet mins to offer in the Summer, signing those will provide us real NBA trade assets, at least, to package with picks, EGo, Tucker, etc, for competitive offers.

 

I'm so tired of dealing in the abstract. Folks need to give concrete examples of scenarios that this "strategy" is preventing that would materially improve their chances against the Warriors in May 2019. Because as I see it, James Ennis as the 11th man over Gary Clark isn't it. And before anyone suggests non-Shumpert trades they wish Houston had made, I'd urge you to consider that there's a reason the Rockets waited until the final 24 hours to do these cost-saving moves. They explored bigger upgrade scenarios, but ultimately didn't have the assets (not money) to pull those off.

Side note: As far as not spending the $3M or so left of the MLE, if that was an error, I'd argue it was more of a strategic error than a financial one. Buyouts are usually all about situation. For example, Faried negotiated his buyout from Brooklyn after Capela's injury, knowing it'd get him 10+ games with starting minutes and allowing him to build a case for this summer. Wes Matthews went to Indiana because of Oladipo's injury and knowing that would put him in the best position to turn heads before his free agency. On a one-year, partial-season contract, the small gap between 60% or so of the Taxpayer MLE and the veteran's minimum is small potatoes for these players compared to the potential upside of finding the best fit and showcasing themselves for their next contract. You could easily argue that saving the MLE money for buyouts was always overrated because the priority for players is positioning themselves for their next contract.

With that said... that critique might be too theoretical as well. Is there really someone of note they could've signed for 1-year, $3M in the summer, but not the 1-year, $2.4M veteran's minimum? I suppose it's not impossible, and the closest example I can think of is Mbah a Moute... who signed for 1-year, $4M after turning down the 120% of the minimum offer from us. Then again, he's played in four games, so...

 

It’s fun watching accountants pinch pennies so our broken down half dead Supermax point guard can get his. Hopefully we can do this for years!

 

plenty of teams will agree to take on capela's contract into their capspace a couple of offseasons from now, which will get us well below the lux tax threshold. it will be too tasty for tilman to pass up

 

Thanks for the clarification.

 

I never said any of that. Rivers has been a very good pickup. He's slumping lately on his shot, but he's also been asked to play way more minutes than he normally would due to the CP3 and EG injuries. Faried has been outstanding. He's always been a lousy defender, but he's doing everything else that we could've asked for. The jury's still out obviously on Shumpert, although he'll have to try to be worse than Ennis.

 

The trade deadline was deflating given all the hype from the Rockets that they were going to be aggressive in trades this time. I’m just not going to expect things to be any different next year if we somehow end up paying luxury tax this season.

Yes. Last year’s success, particularly on defense, was largely due to having the same group from the start of training camp. Really hard to turnaround a defense mid season, which is what we’ll need to do if we have any hope for playoff success.

 

you didn't but like I said, you can easily go through tons of threads and see all of it.

 

Why?

The home court advantage provided that much of a swing in lasy year's playoffs? We were in it with one more game left to win, with a road and home game to go.

We don't need to push our starters like we did last season to gain home court advantage, that's the whole point.

And again, that's a way to approach it... IF they plan to go that route. We're all dealing in hypotheticals, so relax. I'm sure they'll all operate, business as usual, once Clint returns.

 

what counts as a turnaround though? getting into the top half? higher than that?

 

never really understood the hca obsession. it doesn't matter that much if you're a true championship contendor. definitely way overblown around here and for a older team, it's definitely not something you over push for. biggest thing is just getting this team healthy, no matter what seed they are.

 

Someone asked earlier if CP3 could restructure his contract in order to give the team more wiggle room to add talent so that we, and he, can have a better shot at what everyone in uniform, and Morey, wants more than anything. Winning the WCF and getting a legitimate shot at winning a title. I'm thinking it isn't possible, certainly not this season, but if Chris could lower our cap hit going forward next season and beyond, it could really be a huge help. I'm thinking his paychecks from State Farm could cover it. ;-)

Can someone clarify? I don't doubt that this must have been discussed somewhere around here, but I need about 3 more cups of coffee in an IV to summon the energy to look (another late night). Anyone know? @BimaThug?

 

You could still make it work, but as we've discussed, you'd probably be losing a contributor in Gordon or perhaps Shumpert to match. So yeah, not having that Knight salary-matching piece is a loss, though it is worth noting that if they really wanted Shumpert for this year, there was no way to get to his salary figure otherwise.

By and large, though, you hit the nail on the head. If there's something to be upset about, it's the Knight deal on Wednesday night. What was/is bizarre to me is that the reception to the Knight/Shumpert deal was largely positive at the time... but then some went absolutely batshit crazy on Thursday morning over deals involving James Ennis, Nik Stauskas, and Wade Baldwin. Good grief.

 

As of now, I would think they do know they need to be in the top 10 but realistically I would expect to climb just above the top half? That's if they're really serious about turning the defense around and capela being back will help and the addition of shumpert.

 

Why? Because you want Game 7 at home. Yes, we lost Game 7 in the WCF last season(in large part due to CP3's injury), but 80% of those are won by the home team. And the West is far more competitive this season than it was last year. EVERYONE knew it was gonna be the Rockets and Warriors in the WCF. Hell, the #3 seeded Blazers didn't even win 50 games.

This year, the top 6 teams in the West could conceivably win 50+ games. And there's an outside chance the 7th seed Spurs could hit that mark. The Rockets are not going to get far in the postseason if they have to play every series on the road. I don't even think they'll get out of the first round.