I can imagine how hard it is for Swift to take less Money!

THANK YOU Gator! In this league money talks and the Rockets simply don't have any to spend to go after the prime FAs.

 

Money talks in any corner of the world, not just this league

 

Swift is too injury prone. I don't understand the fuss over him.

 

Literally speaking, yes the Rockets would have 10 spots to fill, but theoretically, only about 2 or 3 of those 10 players would have to be any good. The rest of the roster spots could be filled with scrubs that would be replacing the current scrubs on the Rockets bench (Weatherspoon, Moochie, Padgett, Baker, Ward, Braggs, Bowen).

From the Rockets perspective, a 3 year deal would be better, but for Swift, it's pretty risky. I think he'd rather get his raise after one year than wait 3. A lot can happen in 3 years. Ideally, the Rockets would just sign Swift to the full MLE for 5 years. But, if the only way to get Swift was to sign him to a 1 year deal with a guarantee of a raise next summer, I think it would be worth it. The front court would pretty much be set with Yao, Swift, Howard, and Mcgrady.

Last I read, the cap is expected to be 50 million. So if Swift were to re-sign at a starting salary of $7m + annual raises, that should leave about $4m in cap room left. $1m will probably be used for the Rockets 2006 draft pick and the $3 mil remaining for a shooting guard. Not much, but the Rockets have been able to get starters with $3m before (Jim Jackson, Bob Sura). Then use the vet min to re-sign Wesley or Barry.

9 man rotation:
Yao/Swift
Swift/Howard
Mcgrady/2006 draft pick
FA signing/Head/Wesley or Barry
Sura/Head

Or if Luther Head is the real deal, we could start him and either move Sura to the bench or unload his salary (shouldn't be difficult) to get more cap space.

 

They can unload Howard's salary if Swift is the real thing and get a much cheaper backup PF.

 

New Jack -
Do you have any idea how absolutely improbable your scenario to create cap space is?

Let's restate what has happened.

1) Mike James must opt out of his 2006-07 contract.
2) The Rockets can not sign any players this summer including Deke and JB to more than a single season contract. (Personally, I think Mutombo would be offended with a 1 year offer since he's stated he wants to play 2 more seasons).
3) The Rockets must decline every SnT opportunity this summer because SnT's must be for a minimum of 3 years. (The expiring contracts we have effectively become worthless).
4) The Rockets can not make any deals at the trade deadline for players who have 2006-07 contracts. (No one is going swap expiring contracts just to make a trade).
5) The Rockets can not sign any LTax waived players because they will surely wanted more than 1 season. And they'll get it....elsewhere.
6) The salary cap for 2006-07 must go to an all-time high of $50m.

7) Stromile Swift and his agent must agree to an obviously wink-wink deal that (after what happened to the TWolves) no one is going to put into writing.

So now after all of that, we've got 6 players (TMac, Yao, Howard, Sura, Head & 2006 pick) under contract with $12m in FA $ (your number, not mine). We sign Swift for $7m and we're going to spend an average of $625k for the remaining 8 roster spots. The Rockets will be big favorites among NBDL players because (if you're lucky), that's all you can get. You can write-off JB, Wesley, or anyone else because the minimum allowable for even a 4 year NBA player is over 800k.

If these are the set of (improbable) conditions which must exist for the Rockets to have cap space in 2006-07, I'll just keep to my original position. We don't have any.

 

Actually I believe it is up to the average salary (MLE level) OR 1.75 times the previous years salary in the last CBA.

We could do an MLE for two years
05-06: 4.9 mil
06-07: 5.4 mil

Than resign him starting at almost 9.5 mil in 07-08 for up to 6 years with 10% raises--if we wanted to and the new CBA is similar.

 

Yep...and it sounds a helluva lot better than cap space and NBDL players.

 

Absolutely, and next year's free agent group, especially PFs, is crappy anyway. The good ones will be tremendously overpaid (with teams the the Bobcats and their max contracts in play), way more risk than anything we can put together with Swift.

We need to get our PF this year, the market is actually pretty good for players of Swift, SAR, Walker and Marshall's caliber. Expiring contracts and/or MLEs will be the way to tweek the roster (particularly guards) as long as Tmac and Yao are on the team. That is perfectly fine. If we nail down our medium term to long term PF spot down this offseason we are in great shape.

 

Arent you the guy who started the we can get Vince Carter thread today?

 

Isn't there an exception that will allow you to sign any vet for the minimum, regardless of your cap?

 

What is the contract situation with Tmac now?
Aren't we allowed to talk about Yao's extension this summer? I remember SF got the extension in the summer after his 3rd year here.

 

Mike James opting out is pretty much a foregone conclusion. He's said publicly already that he's opting out to get more money. Why else would the Rockets get a player that is so similar to him in the draft?

If we add Swift, how many more additons to the team are we going to need?

Basically, we would have the same roster that won 51 games last season. Add Swift and Head. Subtract Mutombo. That should improve us next year.

If the Rockets can come up with a Sign and Trade opportunity that would net us a better player that is a better fit than Swift, I wouldn't be opposed to passing on Swift. Although I don't know how valuable our expiring contracts will be considering next year's free agent crop doesn't look that great.

If we've already used our MLE to sign Swift, there's probably a good chance we wouldn't have enough money to sign any of the waived players anyway. And again, how many more additions does this team need. With the addition of Swift and Head, that's like 9 rotation players already on the team. I don't see Van Gundy playing a rotation greater than 9.

Every story that I've read seems to be indicating a cap somewhere in between 48 to 50 million, so I don't think a $50 mil cap is out of the question. Obviously, the Rockets would need to have a better idea of what the cap expectations are before making a risky move like this.

This is probably the biggest question mark, but I think the Rockets have 3 things going for them. (1) The Rockets have a great reputation for keeping their promises (2) Swift wants to play here badly (3) Swift has been known to take risks during free agency before. Last summer, he probably could have signed a long term deal for big money. But instead, he took the 1-year qualifying offer from Memphis so he could be an unrestricted free agent this summer. A very risky move.

If the Rockets can shore up the top 8 players in their rotation, I couldn't care less about how bad or how cheap the bottom 5 or 6 players on our roster are. We're talking about players that are only going to play garbage minutes. Take a look at the rosters around the league. How many teams have 10th men that are any better than NBDL players.

But hey, if Desert Scar's method for getting Swift works, I'm all for that. I just don't think the method I suggested would have had nearly the negative effect on the Rockets as you do.

 

New Jack, I really don't know if it will work, but there is a chance (see your response to #7 as the Rockets are known for following through).

My main point is now is the time to strike for a PF for the next two years minimum (DM) and maybe more (Swift, Walker, SAR). Swift is plan 1, Walker is plan 2, and DM is plan 3 (I don't know why SAR was not in our plans as a primary target, but it appears he is at best a secondary target).

Even if we could get cap space for next year by sacrificing next years team (no important additions this offseason and being very frustrating for Yao and Tmac with again substandard support) there is no one as reasonable to get as the four guys above who are in play. In other words the overwhelming likelihood is the MLE, expiring contracts, lucky mid draft picks, and the draw of a winning/elite organization is how we are going to add role players for as long as Yao and Tmac are Rockets.