The Rockets, however, remained in talks with Dan Fegan, Hakeem Olajuwon's agent, in an attempt to sign the veteran center. Because Olajuwon occupies $24.5 million of cap space until he signs a smaller contract or the team renounces its rights to him, the Rockets must sign Olajuwon first before they can sign anyone else under the salary cap. Shandon Anderson, Matt Bullard and Moochie Norris all have at least limited "Bird" rights, allowing the team to sign them to contracts that exceed the salary cap. Other than the cap space reserved for the team's unsigned free agents, the Rockets have committed slightly more than $24 million to contracts and hope to fit Olajuwon, Anderson and Maurice Taylor into the remaining space in the $42.5 million salary cap. Wednesday's delay did not slow the Rockets' negotiations. General manager Carroll Dawson said he proceeded as if the cap would eventually return to roughly $42.5 million. The issues facing the Rockets were unchanged by the haggling in New York. "We still talk about the same things," Dawson said. "They told us to work in that area (the $42.5 million salary cap.) We're still just focused on signing Dream and getting him back on this team. "It's another reason to be patient. Everybody signing players under the cap is delayed, us included. Everybody over the cap can go to the deals they negotiated. We're trying to sign people under the cap." ------------------ How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters
Jeff, Is TheCat on vacation or something since you are doing his usual Chronicle posts? --------------------------------------------- I thought that Dream and the Rockets would have worked out different contract scenarios before entering negotitations so they would have responses and counter strategies already prepped. Would lengthy negotiations indicate a deal is close or unlikely? Mango ------------------ Get it right or just don't do it! Resistance is futile....you will be assimilated. Start more Webber threads! [This message has been edited by Mango (edited July 19, 2001).]
Actually, what I think has happened the last couple of nights is that a few basketball stories have had a later deadline. I checked at a little after 10:30pm when the paper switches to tomorrow's stories and this one wasn't up there. If I remember from when my wife worked there correctly, most of their deadlines are between 11pm and midnight. Feigen is probably just running late. ------------------ How the hell should I know why God would allow the Holocaust. I don't even know how the electric can opener works. - from Hannah and Her Sisters
Sorry if I missed this somewhere, but why does Olajuwon occupy $24.5 mil in cap space? I thought it was 16. ------------------ "If you don't understand it, don't try to understand it." -Carl Everett
Is TheCat on vacation or something since you are doing his usual Chronicle posts? The Chronicle added a couple of new homes to Cat's paper route, so he was too busy to post the stories this week. ------------------
According to the CBA, FA's who have Full Bird rights (such as Dream) count as 150% of their previous salary until they are either A) renounced or B) re-signed to another contract and then that value is counted in the total team cap. In other words, until Dreams' contract is handled in some manner (including him signing outright with Toronto), the Rockets are over the cap and can sign no other non-bird FA's (Taylor, Webber, etc). ------------------ Raef to Rocks in '01-'02!
I'm still here. ------------------ Draftsource.net-- the premier source for draft info. Profiles, rankings, mock drafts, and more! The Mo Taylor Fan Site
Always so dry Mango! ------------------ [This message has been edited by DrNuegebauer (edited July 19, 2001).]
can someone explain to me where Feagan gets the $24m number for our salary commitments before free agents. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that would mean our maximum cap room is $18.5m. The highest number that I ever saw was Aelliott with $16m, while others show $13-14m
HP/crispee, The $24M is 150% of $16.0M. This is what is in Coon's FAQ's (#26) for a Full Bird not coming off a Rookie Scale contract. But there is an asterisk stating: *Not to exceed the player's maximum salary, based on years of service* I'm guessing that aelliott's $14M cap hit for Dream is the asterisk part because FAQ #9 has $14M as the max for a 10+ veteran. RealGM has a $17M figure which is 5% of $16M. Not sure where that %age comes from. ------------------ Raef to Rocks in '01-'02! [This message has been edited by GATER (edited July 19, 2001).]
GATER, I'm not talking about Dream's cap hit. I am talking about Fegan's number for our sign contracts added up to $24m. He isn't talking about Dream's cap hit there, as he is in the first paragraph. If $24m is correct, then our maximum cap space according to that number must be $18.5m, unless Feagan is forgetting about Maloney and MacLean, et al.
