Yeah, you do, it is 656K . Man, really wish we could move White. I wonder if Morey is working the phones in that regard at all. I wonder what sort of things we were asked to give up to do such a deal? See, where are the insiders reporting on these little nuggets of vital information. Everyone is feasting at the trough of the Dwight Howard story -- but that carcass is picked clean people.
Sorry if this has been answered... If we sign Dwight to the max, can we S&T Asik for JSmith strait up at whatever he is expected to make?
If it's just Asik being traded, then the Rockets could pay Smith a starting salary of up to about $12.66 million. If they threw in, say, Terrence Jones, that starting salary jumps to about $14.93 million. Not advocating. Merely illustrating.
Since we'd likely be getting a Greater Terrence Jones before this move, it could make sense to do that. Still, I'd get a little worried about depth, given that we'd be capped out with only the room and minimum level exceptions to go. We'd still have Motiejunas and Smith as backups, but I'd rather not lose Jones. I do find it interesting that at least so far, all room exception candidates have been swingmen, though that may be because no good big men are out there to be had in that price range. You could accomplish the same thing with Royce White thrown in instead. I'd be curious to see if Morey goes Heat-like if we land Howard. You'd have to think pulling this off launches us into maybe the top 5 in the NBA, and sends the value of our pick way down. Would you include a first rounder to get rid of Royce? That may not be enough, but I'd guess the willingness by the Rockets to do that in a world where free agent plans work out goes way up. The other interesting thing about this scenario to me: if the Rockets do make a trade like that which puts them over the cap, the value of keeping or even trading Royce White disappears. Essentially, unless they could get anything of value for him, or have a team be willing to pay some fractional part of his salary, the Rockets may as well cut him at that point. Given if he had any value he'd be gone already, I think it's safe to say no one in the NBA is willing to take him at his current salary.
Hey Bima, from the way I'm looking at free agency there looks to be things the Rockets can do in a certain order to help them achieve a contender this offseason. Are any of the steps below invalid in any way? Here are the plans I would use to put a team around Dwight and Harden in 2013 free agency: 1. Sign Dwight Howard for max (or as close to max as he'll let me) 2. Lineup (but not yet execute) S&T with Atlanta for Josh Smith for Asik/Royce White/2nd round draft pick and $1.7 million in cash to cover Royce's contract. 3. Trade Jeremy Lin for draft picks then sign Calderon outright OR send Lin with picks in a S&T for Calderon ($4 mil / year for 3 years) 4. Use remaining cap space (around $4 mil) to sign backup Center - Chris Kaman is my first preference or Samuel Dalembert 5. Execute S&T from point 2. 6. Use Room Exception on Garcia ($2.6 million) 7. Fill out rest of the roster with veterans on the minimum - Chauncy Billups would be my first phone call! 8. Win! Roster would look something like this: Calderon/Beverley/Billups/Canaan Harden/Billups/Garcia Parsons/J.Smith/Garcia J.Smith/D-Mo/G.Smith/T.Jones Howard/Kaman(or Dalembert) Thoughts?
So much depends on what the Rockets do to create Dwight Max Room. You still have White, Beverley and G.Smith on the roster after signing Dwight. I'm guessing White will be gone to make room. Hence, he won't be around to be included in a J.Smith trade. Also, unless you trade Lin for little to no returning salary or to Detroit in a S&T deal, you won't be able to give Calderon that sized contract. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if the Rockets were at least exploring a plan that somewhat resembles yours.
I find it hard to believe that a team with unused cap space would not accept Royce in a trade if we included cash equaling his salary for this coming season. They get to cut him for free if he's useless - how is that not worth the risk?
I can't see any GM wanting to take on the distraction. Just devoting any focus on White is time away from the team core. There is no bigger fan of White's college career than me, but I just don't see him ever helping an NBA team. His chances of being a negative are greater than his chances of being a positive.
Bima, my question, how do we keep Chanlder after maxing out Dwight, Harden, and Smith via a sign and trade. I believe Chandler is more valuable than Smith and plays the game at a more intelligent level.
I think room exception is going to be stretched thin. Things I see room exception being potentially used for: Need a little something to get Canaan for 4 years. Need a little something to get Aldemir for 4 years. Maybe handle buyout for Papanikolaou plus a little something to get 4 year deal Aaron Brooks? Probably need about a million since the minimum for 5 year vet is just under a million. A cheap wing (DJ Kennedy), but this may be done with a minimum contract instead. Could the Rockets live with a Beverley, Brooks, and Canaan PG rotation? If the answer is yes, I try to trade Lin instead of Asik with Ohlbrecht and White. To make room for Hoaward, I would try to trade Jones for future pick. I would trade or cut Smith and try to sign him back. Lineup would be something like Howard, Asik, Aldemir Smith, Motiejunas, Covington Parsons, Papanikolaou, Kennedy Harden, Anderson Beverley, Brooks, Canaan I don't see Rockets spending big on PG unless it is to keep Lin instead of Asik. I could also see Rockets just to sign Howard and wait until deadline to try to trade for third star.
I'm guessing we trade White, probably have to give up a pick and cash to make it happen to make room for Dwight. Trade Asik,Smith,Olbrecht for Josh Smith, maybe have to give up another small asset. Maybe trade Lin, hype and hate aside, I'm still not sure what the team's true feelings are on Lin. Could simply make cap space or turn one rotation player into 2. I'm hoping the Rockets keep D-Mo and Jones and don't just throw them in to make salaries work. They've become lost in the insanity, but i still think they can both be great NBA players with some exp. Morey isn't shortsighted so i have faith in him to make the right call on them. Filling out a decent bench isnt hard. The only pressing need is a backup wing, and we can use the room exception to fill that.
Most any team that would take on Royce's salary would immediately waive him and pocket any assets/net cash received in the deal. Not much distraction there. Rockets have full Bird rights on Chandler. They can exceed the cap/tax to sign him. Les would be willing to pay the luxury tax for a legit title contender. Rockets will never have to pay the "repeater" tax. The Room Exception is for a maximum of two years.
So even if after extending Parsons we are over the cap for multiple years, we won't have to pay the repeater tax? Does it not apply if what put you over the limit was resigning a player to whom you have Bird Rights? Interesting.
Thanks. I knew that, but it just slipped my mind when thinking on how the Rocket would get some extra money to the draft picks. I do think the Rockets will want to get Cannan, Aldemir, and Papanikolaou on 4 year deals. The Rocket would need to make room for Dwight and their contracts that are over the minimum.
Throwing this in here. I think the Rockets could put together a package to get Josh Smith without giving up Asik. It would be a 3 team trade much like what we saw with LAC/PHX/MIL where MIL just signed and traded a player that was leaving anyway (Reddick) for some draft picks. HOUSTON - DETROIT - ATLANTA HOUSTON gets S&T Josh Smith ~ 13M/per DETROIT gets Jeremy Lin (maybe D.Mo OR T Jones) ATLANTA gets Draft pick + (maybe D.Mo OR T Jones) The final trade would have to get smoothed out a bit but that is the basic structure. Rockets would only give up D.Mo OR T Jones in the package (in addition to Lin of course). I just don't know to which team. Rumors are Detroit likes Lin. Rumors are Detroit is offering Stucky+CharlieV for Rudy Gay. So they could be willing to take on Lin here. Atlanta "gets something for the effort" without losing Smith for nothing. They probably are on Tank mode anyway. (as is much of the league according to Chad Ford). They key for the Rockets, is that they move Lin's salary to get Josh Smith. Better value here since they have Beverley and significantly add to the PF spot with Smith. And then the kicker, is that the Rockets still have ASIK. Maybe the Rockets add a vet PG to fill out the PG rotation.
If the Rockets sign Howard and want Smith, something like this is what I would be hoping. Teague is a restricted free agent and if the Hawks lose him, Lin would fit their needs.
