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What Would It Take For The Rockets To Sign Kevin Durant & Al Horford?

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by crash5179, Jun 6, 2016.

  1. crash5179

    crash5179 Contributing Member

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    Is it even possible to do it salary wise considering both will likely want a max contract? Assuming Dwight Howard opts out and Donatas Motiejunas is the one of their own free agents they want to keep then their roster will look like this entering into Free Agency:

    SG - James Harden - $16,784,031.00
    SG/SF - Corey Brewer - $7,600,000.00
    SG/SF - Trevor Ariza - $7,806,971.00
    PG - Patrick Beverley - $6,000,000.00
    SG/SF - K.J. McDaniels - $3,333,333.00
    C/PF - Donatas Motiejunas - $5,720,000.00 (Cap Hold / Restricted Free Agent)
    SF/PF - Sam Dekker - $1,720,560.00
    C/PF - Clint Capela - $1,296,240.00
    PF - Montrezl Harrell - $1,000,000.00
    PF - Michael Beasley - $1,403,611.00
    SG - Andrew Goudelock - $1,015,696.00

    That’s 11 players worth a total salary of $53,680,442.00. That number includes the cap number for Donatas Motiejunas cap hold.

    Teams must have a total number of 12 players on their roster or be charged an “Incomplete Roster Charge”. An incomplete roster charge is the minimum rookie salary times the difference of the actual number of players on the roster and 12. In the Rockets case that would by 1 x $540,3471.00

    If the Rockets don’t make any more roster moves heading into free agency their total salary cap figure is $54,223,913.00. If the NBA sets the salary cap at 92,000,000.00 that leaves the Rockets the 37,776,087.00 worth of cap space to sign free agents.

    For purposes of figuring out max salary, both Kevin Durant and Al Horford are “Tier 2 Free Agents”. That means that their max salary starting in the summer of 2016 will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,300,000.00 dollars. If both players get the max that is a combined figure of 50,600.000.00 dollars needed to sign both players.

    Based on the Rockets current cap space and what it would take to sign both Al Horford and Kevin Durant, the Rockets are about $12,823,913.00 short of available cap space needed to sign both players. So how do they get that needed cap space back?

    Assuming the Rockets are able to sign Kevin Durant the most obvious way to gain additional space is to trade one or both or Corey Brewer and Trevor Ariza. In todays new NBA Salary Cap landscape, Trevor Ariza’a salary looks like a bargain. I would think several teams might be willing to take on his salary and send back nothing but a draft pick late 1st or 2nd round draft pick. Although Corey Brwer was beyond awful last season he might not be impossible to trade for cap space. The Rockets might even be able to bring back a serviceable back up point guard and still have enough left over cap space to sign both Durant and Horford.

    Another option would be to renounce Donatas Motiejunas and only trade one of Brewer or Ariza for cap space. Losing their salaries could create enough space to sign both Horford and Durant and still have about $1,000,000.00 left to spare. Although my preference would be to keep Donatas Motiejunas there is a lot of value in keeping Ariza to back up both Kevin Durant and James Harden.

    I personally don’t think the Rockets will land either Horford or Durant. I think Durant stays in OKC and I just don’t think Horford will have a lot of interest in coming to Houston. Having said that, I think both players would fit very well in the MDA system.
     
    3 people like this.
  2. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Contributing Member

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    A wing and a prayer.
     
  3. J Sizzle

    J Sizzle Member

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    A ******* miracle
     
  4. J Sizzle

    J Sizzle Member

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    ^^^

    Very good thread, though, crash. Jokes aside. Very informed.
     
  5. larsv8

    larsv8 Contributing Member

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    Renounce Dmo and use the stretch provision on Corey Brewer and that is 10+ million.
     
  6. crash5179

    crash5179 Contributing Member

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    That makes you about 2 million short and then you have to add two more incomplete roster chargers for about 1.1 million. So you would still need to find away to off-load more salary.
     
  7. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    For a new owner and upper management to be installed.

    DD
     
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  8. houstontexans

    houstontexans Member

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    Still can't believe Rockets paid $7 million to Corey Brewer...damn

    He is scrub and sucks

    He basically does nothing to Rockets but often appear on Shaq a Fool

    Way to go

    Well, an unfair society we live in...$7 million to scrub? damn...
     
  9. wadero

    wadero Member

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    A loaddddddddd of cash
     
  10. justtxyank

    justtxyank Contributing Member

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    The financial part isn't a worry at all. It's getting them to want to come here that matters.

    Using a combination of trade, renounce and cuts you could easily you DMo, Ariza, Brewer and KJ in some combination to clear the space you needed.
     
  11. RV6

    RV6 Contributing Member

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    Yeah the hard part is getting them to sign...if you can get those two, F everyone else not named Harden and maybe Capela.

    With the rise in the cap...7 mill is more like 4-5 in past years...reasonable. People are judging amounts based on contracts in the past..
     
  12. Zoplicone

    Zoplicone Member

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    I agree with being able to trade Ariza, though I don't think every team would do it. I honestly think the Rockets know they are stuck with Brewer. They will most definitely renounce Dmo if they could land two max contracts. If they landed Horford and Durant Morey is more than happy to roll with Bev/Harden/Durant/Horford/Capela and fill the rest with minimum salaries.
     
  13. kwakmeister

    kwakmeister Contributing Member

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    And I believe we have avoided the luxury tax this year by cutting Lawson which means theoretically, because we have Howard's bird rights, we could sign Howard back after he opts out. Fact check it and let me know but I think that's correct.

    So trade off Brewer using Trevor Ariza as the true trade bait. He does have positive value.

    At this point is Josh Smith in 'Still gettem them checks' mode? I dont know what his value is. Maybe we could sign him on the cheap. Now Mike Dantoni I don't believe digs deep into his roster, so if its the same as last year he probably wont get playing time just like Houston/Clippers.

    Obviously people are tying Jeremy Lin to the Rockets because of MDA. If you could renounce DMO, then sign Lin for a 4 year team option 4th year for 5-8 mill you do it. Then wouldn't we be able to pay DMO again?

    At any rate the 2017 cap is projected to be $111 mill. If you could get Howard to take a cheaper contract to play with stars you might be able to avoid a second year of luxury tax with small moves here and there. Do I expect that? No. But wow wouldn't that be smart for Howard to do? To play with a great squad. Also how would the media take it? Howard takes a pay cut and plays with former coach who he absolutely hated, right? Would gain respeck.

    Lin/Beverley/Goudelock
    Harden/KJ
    Durant/Beasley/Dekker
    Horford/DMo/Montrezl
    Howard/Capela/Smith

    This isn't necessarily the way I would go about it though, just a dream scenario. I mean if you could do that, what an awesome team. Howard as the 5th option? Ideal.

    Im actually on the flip side of this, trying to get many good players on long but low contracts with Team Options so if they dont perform well enough they are trade bait.

    Lin(4yr 8 mill T/O)
    Harden/Seth Curry(4yr 8 mill T/O)
    Barnes(4yr Max)
    Dudley(4yr 8 mill T/O)
    Whiteside(4yr Max)

    Lots of wiggle room if we cant catch any stars when star chasing.

    -Edit-
    For clarification, Whiteside and Barnes will have lower maxes than Conley, Durant or Horford.
     
  14. CCorn

    CCorn Member

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    The largest Peak contracts ever.
     
  15. ThatBoyNick

    ThatBoyNick Member

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    There is a couple of different ways to clear the cap, but I can guarantee you OP if there is any GM in the league who will be prepared to clear cap to sign Durant and a second max player this off season, it will be Morey.

    My favorite idea/scenario is

    Dump Brewer using Dekker and picks. Either trade Dekker with Brewer as compensation for taking his contract, or trade him seperately for picks and use those in a package, along with our own picks to dump Brewer

    Howard opts out renounce his rights, if he doesn't possibly keep him instead of Horford, if Durant or Morey think Horford over Howard is absolutely necessary then just dump him on a team with enough cap with no compensation but maybe a mediocre pick or so in return.

    Renounce the rights Dmo, Jones, Terry, Smith

    Waive Goudlocks team option, pick up Beasley's

    Sign Durant to max, sign Horford to max

    Beverley
    Harden / KJ
    Durant / Ariza
    Beasley / Harrell
    Horford / Capela

    Durant - 25.9
    Horford - 25.9
    Harden - 16.8
    Ariza - 7.8
    Beverley - 6
    KJ - 3.3
    Beasley - 1.4
    Capela - 1.3
    Harrell - 1.05
    roster cap holds - 2

    Total salary = 91.45 mill in salary

    When it comes to keeping DMo, there are a couple of alternate options for the scenario I posted above

    If Howard opts in, and we keep Howard instead of signing Horford, we can keep Dmo if we dump KJ's contract

    If we sign Whiteside to his max instead of getting Howard or Horford, we could keep Dmo and even Dekker if we dump KJ

    If Howard re-signs to a new deal starting at 20 mill per, we could keep KJ and Dmo

    If Horford takes a 2 million dollar pay cut on his starting year, we could keep Dmo.

    Opening up the space will be easy, the impossible part will be getting Durant to choose Houston.
     
  16. ISOBall

    ISOBall Member

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    Harden & Beyonce will do the recruiting
     
  17. PrawnJ

    PrawnJ Member

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    can the rockets sign one outright, then do a sign and trade for the other?
     
  18. aelliott

    aelliott Contributing Member

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    A few points:

    - We saved very little by cutting Lawson. Our savings was 50% of his salary with the Pacers which was league minimum.

    - If Howard opts out then his salary is still counting against our cap figure until he resigns elsewhere or we renounce him. If we don't renounce him then we no longer have money to sign a second star. If we renounce him then we lose his Bird Rights.

    -If you are going to try and sign Durant and Horford then you'll likely need to renounce DMo to try and create enough cap space. Since that cap space is needed to sign Horford, you wouldn't be able to use it to sign Lin. Also, once you renounce Dmo then you lose his Bird Rights and you likely can't resign him.

    -Regardless of what Howard does, I seriously doubt that he'll be on the team next season. If he were to not opt out (he won't ) then Houston would trade him and try and take back as few assets as possible. That would be to free up the cap space to sign Horford and to also create a trade exception.

    -Realistically, Durant and Horford would take some major salary dumping. Durant, Horford and Howard is pretty much impossible.
     
  19. kwakmeister

    kwakmeister Contributing Member

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    Thanks for the info, I didn't know renouncing meant losing Bird rights. Makes sense, I just thought abusing bird rights was how Brooklyn was able to go crazy back with Deron/Joe/Pierce and Garnett.
     
  20. Eric00009

    Eric00009 Member

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    No way horford is worth a max deal only worth about 12miles per no way he is worth more than that he a good player but not a great player so we should be able to sign them both
     

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