considering the cap/tax line dropping next year we should only expect minimum salary FAs. Also consider that every player (even centers) are expected to be able to defend the perimeter and spread the floor on offense. After checking every free agent from every team I think resigning our own players would be the best case scenario, considering fit and salary.
DeMar has a player option for 27M. I think he will opt in and see if they can trade him during offseason
I wouldn't be surprised if somehow Demar would end up on the Rockets next season whether through free agency or sign & trade. He wants a ring.
You dont think other teams will be able to offer him more than that 27mm? This is his last chance to get a big pay day. Plus he will be the only big free agent of the offseason.
I would like to see Rivers, Green and Carroll back next season but idk if that will happen. There won’t be a lot of money out on the open market for guys like them so there might be a chance they all come back. Rivers has a player option for next season but I feel think he is worth a lot more than that in a normal free agency. Luckily for the Rockets, it won’t be a normal offseason so he might decide to pick up the option and wait until 2021 for a decent contract. It will be interesting to see how much PT Carroll gets in Orlando and what he does with it. IMO he needs to earn his spot on next seasons team while the team is in the bubble. Green is the most likely to be back next season. He has a great relationship with WB/Harden, fits the teams system and is extremely versatile so he fits the current team perfectly. The only concern with Green is consistency. He will look great in a couple of games and then be a complete non-factor for a couple of games. We’ve already seen this in his time as a Rocket so I highly doubt he will ever earn starter minutes but he is a great weapon to have off of the bench for 15-20 minutes per night. Westbrook/River (PO) Harden/Gordon/McLemore (TO) House/Nwaba RoCo PJ Those are the 9 players who are currently under contract for next season. If Rivers, Carroll and Green are back then the Rockets will only have 4 spots to left to fill. If Luc plays well in Orlando then he could be back next season as well. However, I feel like the Rockets did not sign Luc during the season bc there are concerns that they cannot count on him for even half of a season. He is going to have to stay 100% healthy and contribute for him to earn a spot next season. We also have to keep Gerald in mind as well. Hopefully Gerald is recovering and can earn a spot next season. He is one of my favorite Rockets and I don’t care how bad his defense is, I want him back on the squad. So, with the return of the current 3 players, Gerald, and Luc we are up to 13. That leaves 2 more spots for development or depth. If all of those players return, then it is a very deep veteran heavy team so I think that they will look for younger players to develop. But, if Rivers leaves in free agency, Carroll doesn’t like the amount of PT he gets, Luc gets injured and Green officially retires, then the Rockets will have 6 spots to fill.
A S&T deal would hard cap the Rockets and that is impossible. They would take up the entire cap with Harden, WB, Demar and RoCo. S&T is not possible for the Rockets. The only way the Rockets land Demar is if he hits UFA and does not get any offers so he decides to take the MLE from the Rockets. You also need to consider Demar’s lack of a 3 pt shot. Demar playing with WB would put 2 non-shooters on the floor which is not a recipe for success in the Rockets system. I know Harden and Demar are close but I think a starting 5 with WB, Harden and Demar is very unlikely.
Not many teams have that much room and the ones that do are bad teams. Pretty sure he wants to play with a contender.
I completely agree with you, but I was just saying that I wouldn't be surprised if that were to happen. Because Demar is close with James and Russ being a LA guy. He would have to be the 1st option off the bench here. But like you said this most likely won't happen.
I was mainly trying to make the point that this offseason could go many ways and the Rockets could have very few or many open roster spots. I thought Clemons was non-guaranteed and I feel like they could safely make him a 2 way contract if they wanted to so I wasn’t counting him.
There are connections there but it is financially impossible under the CBA. The team receiving the S&T player is automatically hard capped. If the Rockets have Russ at 40m, Harden at 40m, Demar at 30 and RoCo at 11m then they are already right up against the cap and wouldn’t be able to sign anyone else. Plus, the Rockets would have to trade pretty much their entire roster for salary matching. It would take something like Gordon, PJ and House to match Demar’s salary.
outside of our starting 5 I think mclemore, nwaba, house make up our 8 man rotation next year. 2 things about filling out the roster with vet mins: I would not assume rivers is a lock. his role was do be a defender and extra ball handler. this season his defense and facilitation have been subpar. and since he doesn't give us anything really as a shooter, I could see the rockets looking elsewhere on the vet min PG market. problem is he's the only FA PG in 2020 that would take a vet min and has the ability to switch onto forwards. however if he's not actually a plus at that, maybe they go in another direction like a mudiay or Augustine for extra shooting and passing. as far as far as bigs, green and carroll are as good as we could hope for the minimum. perfect fits. not many FA vet min bigs have that skillset this summer. could they get more? maybe not if the cap is dropping off a cliff.
I would take a chance on Andre Roberson if he makes it through this season without any significant injuries and hits 30% of his 3's. If he miraculously mostly stays healthy, he could be an excellent backup PF type of player. A younger Thabo essentially. Allegedly has worked on his 3 (has had plenty of time). Has been out 3 years I think. Wingspan could be better (6'9) but he can play defense, I don't think that's a skill he'll lose. Will just have to switch to bigger players if he's lost quickness (which he almost certainly has).
I think its safe to say that most players with large player options will opt into those this coming season because so few teams will have much of any cap space to pay players more than MLE's and vet minimums.
I think the more the cap drops , the more it helps the Rockets in FA .... The few big names that are available will soak up the majority of cap space early on leaving nothing but MLE's and Vet min's for quality players. That means every team is offering the same kinda money and its all about chances to win and the city when the money is the same.
possibly. its also not a super deep FA class. I think we see a lot of guys who are worth more than MLE resign with their current teams on 1 year deals (or longer) rather than late MLE elsewhere. there still will be plenty of teams who can afford the MLE. most MLE level guys will find one. some may have to decide between playing for a winner for the minimum or taking the MLE on a bad team, and I think they choose the money. the "spill over" won't be MLE guys signing for the minimum. it will be LLE guys like house, or rivers signing for the minimum. still a good deal but at that level of player, they don't move the needle for us unless they are a perfect fit. so which FAs at that level are the best fits? rivers, green, carroll. if the cap stayed where it was supposed to we woud've have the MLE to spend next offseason, and a lot of other teams would've had more money too. carroll and green could've made more than the minimum. rivers had a down year so maybe he's a vet min guy now. however, given the state of the projected cap, retaining Carrol and green are the steals we can hope for.
This is the reason Rockets were interested in signing Tyler Johnson. https://www.netsdaily.com/2020/7/25...ke-a-million-dollars-maybe-even-fifty-million He was available for a while but Morey took too long clear room to sign him. They could have signed him before the bubble was announced. Could of had him as a cheap EGo and Rivers replacement.
But what if he take a paycut through free agency just to get a ring. He won't but I'm just saying he can. Its been done before.
The only way it works is if he accepts the MLE when he is an UFA. That is not going to happen. He will look for one more big contract before he goes ring chasing.
