He has to trade Shumpert for a role player to add salary. Simply swapping an expiring in Eric for a cheaper long term contract like RoCo doesn't count. You? You Think? You Think Capela? You Think Capela is Gone?
Are you saying Feigen is a writer for State-sponsored RT News (Rockets Time)? Doing God's work to police thoughtcrime?
Shumpert is a role player himself. And he could become that expiring salary by being re-signed to a deal with one the first year guaranteed. It makes more sense to me to move EGo now for a piece that we need that fits. And then re-signing Shump and keeping him on hand to flip after Dec. 15.
Yes, he counts too. If we sign Shumpert for more than the vet minimum thus catapulting us into the dreaded luxury tax, Tilman has spent money on a role player.
He does fit. But we can't pay him going forward. And we've got to pay Austin Rivers next summer for taking a hickie for us this summer. Rivers is going to be our third guard and EGo's replacement with one of the youngsters getting the 4th guard spot. EGo wants somewhere in the neighborhood of 3/75 to 4/100 or more. And he may get it next summer in a limited free agent market of players. We need to trade him to a team that will feature him and let him earn a big contract going forward. And we need to move forward. He's going to get even less minutes here this season with RustBrick here. Rustbrick 35 Harden 35 Rivers 10-20 EGo????? And we need a lengthy SF that can shoot and a center that can shoot. It's an even higher priority now that Rustbrick is here.
Even in a hyper-inflated market, ain't no one giving Austin Rivers $20,000,000 a season. EGO, $25,000,000, maybe. Certainly not from Daryl Fertitta.
I didn't say anybody was going to give Rivers $20,000,000. What I said was EGo was going to get paid big money. My numbers were referencing minutes per game, not salaries. I do think we owe Rivers a decent contract next summer. Probably the biggest one we can give him with Early Birds rights...which would start in the neighborhood of $10 million per season.
Now we learn the real reason why no Ryno trade really happened. That salary slot was always the impetus for getting under the tax. Without it there is almost no difficulty staying under. I doubt they even use the MLE in future years. Good luck retaining key players on vet mins. Hopefully Rivers gets paid but now we have to worry about EGo. So damn shortsighted. Operating profit for a few years vs team valuation. Could have made $1B with a title.
And this is during the Harden era. Harden is one of the greatest players we'll likely ever see in a Rockets uniform. If he's not willing to pay to win now, he never will be, and that confirms that he will be an awful owner going forward into the future.