[ClutchFans] Houston Rockets Salary Cap Update: 2016 Offseason Edition

Thanks for the update, awesome as always!

Sounds like we're not really in the running for a star in the 2017 offseason. Bummer

 

I hate McHale's quote at the end....Cap Flexibility wears number 13 and, unfortunately, 33.

 

Great stuff as always, appreciate you.

 

Excellent as allways!

 

What's the difference between Non-Bird Rights and no Rights at all?

 

Cool! Sounds good. Let's see if Morey can work his magic in a trade, which he has done before.

 

Non-Birds can sign for 120% of previous years salary provided not over max even if it takes a team over the salary cap.

 

with the current roster we assembled we are almost at the cap level, i am wondering if anyone can do a salary cap update of GSW to see how much they are over the limit....

 

Thanks, Bima!

 

Great update as always Bima.

So basically, we are not likely to be players in next year's free agency baring trades that create cap room. Isn't next year's free agent class supposed to be loaded? Why did we splurge on guys like Gordon and Anderson if it meant we wouldn't get a chance at guys like Westbrook, Blake, Paul, Holiday and Lowry? I mean, I realize that many will resign with their teams, but it seems like we've decided to bow out of the 2017 free agent sweepstakes; and the existing roster is not contending, so whats the deal?

 

Cap flexibility is the new cap space.

 

They are at roughly $71M before adding Durant, so they will be right at the limit.

 

This great Bima update should be permanently bumped up to the top.

So if I wanted to create $18-20 mil to sign another big piece; maybe not a Blake or a Westbrook (max guys), but instead maybe like a Paul or a Holiday. If we are roughly $10 away, with DMo and Brew off the cap, will getting to $18-20 mil in cap space be difficult?

It looks like we'd have to clear some combination of Beverly, Ariza, and KJ, in addition to Brew, in order to sign another core piece in 17' free agency.

 

When I first read the tweet concerning Harden signing an "extension" for 4/118 I knew immediately it was a renegotiation raising his salary and sucking up remaining cap room even though it was originally portrayed as an extension. My first reaction was wondering if the last season was a player option.

My next reaction was to start scanning the NBA for other possible max players who would have contacts that were renegotiable. About the same time i started scanning for renegotiable contracts your tweet concerning "a statement to the league" came across the screen. So after a little bit of research I thought about starting a thread about the possible ramifications to the Harden renegotiation but decided not to figuring you'd probably already dug it out and would post it in an update. I'm surprised you didn't address it. So here's my comments.

The first player I thought about was DeMarcus, knowing he has on an old max contract that really underpays him compared to players at his position that he is clearly better than. He is a 6-year vet. So not eligible for Harden's max salary but is eligible for a max salary starting at $22.2 million. I'm not privy to whether or not Sacramento offered him a renegotiated deal but they did blow $12 million of their cap on Arron Afflalo. And now they're acting like Rudy Gay is on sale to the highest bidder. Cousins' agent coincidentally is Dan Fegan, one of the worst money-grubbers in the agent industry. Maybe they offered DeMarcus and he declined until next year when he'll be a 7 year vet and eligible for a salary increase of around $10 million. But either way there's pressure. And the message is clear. ........if he were traded to Houston we would likely carve out cap space to renegotiate him if he wanted to.

Next player: Paul George - same 6 year vet. Eligible for a raise of around $4 million and Indy has the cap space to give it to him. I would think Bird would want to do this restructuring since it would be an incremental increase and would save indy money down the road and get an extra season or possibly two out of George. However, George could get a lot better deal by forgoing a restructure this year in favor of one next summer. Or.........he could use the ambiguity of not accepting a restructure this year to create uncertainty and start pushing Bird into a corner to trade him. George did not conceal his displeasure over Bird wanting to move him to the 4. Now Bird forced out Vogel in favor of a coach who will instill more small ball. These factors could be the beginning of a divorce. Who knows. And it could get ugly with a trade request if Bird does not offer a restructure next summer.

There are other cases worth watching such as Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward, both eligible for restructuring next summer as well as guys like John Wall, eligible for restructuring now, but on a capped out team, and going into his seventh season where they'll have a difficult time clearing cap to restructure him.

So, in my opinion, a big statement to the league and it's superstars is this is how we treat our top guy(s). How is your team treating you? I think it is very possible that another superstar could feel underpaid and underappreciated when/if their team doesn't pony up like we did for James. And we could let James know we'd restructure certain guys if they were here.

Additionally I see no way that we don't go into next summer with max cap space or the ability to create max cap space relatively easily. I think it's most likely that we shuffle Brewer and KJ away when we likely sign-and-trade DMo. And if we keep DMO I think it's a foregone conclusion that at least one of DMo/Anderson are gone by February in trade for some kind of cap room creating assets, most likely DMo.

We're either going to trade for another superstar over the next 7 months or at the very least we're going to clear the cap enough to be sitting on an immediate $25 million or so of cap space with the ability to get up to 30-35 relatively easily next summer. Morey isn't going to box this team in until we are a legit championship contender. And just because he says we are doesn't mean we are. .......unless he's already got deals up his sleave that he knows elevates us to that level. He knows we are not championship level with this current roster. So other moves are going to happen over the next 7 months, major moves.

 

Good point!

 

Or DMo, Capella et al are part of the February trade package for Cousins.

 

Bima,

My understanding is with D-MO we could renounce his qualifying offer and make him an unrestricted free agent, similar to what OKC just did with Waiters. It is also my understanding that his cap hit remains, so removing the QO wouldn't magically give us the $5 million + in cap. Instead, it would only prevent D-Mo from accepting the QO and hindering our cap situation (for any additional space Daryl may need). I think he is worth more than his QO and I just don't see that happening but in theory. To have the cap space we would have to renounce his bird rights, correct?

Could you situation where the Rockets remove the QO and Bird Rights and still execute a sign and trade of Donatas Motijuenas to another team? And would the Rockets need the cap to execute a deal if bird rights are renounced? In this hypothetical scenario could we could renounce his cap hit and use the additional space to make a move and then after executing such move we can sign and trade DMO to a team that is capped out or wants to dump salaries to us or a third team, and get some assets in return? Or does removing both the bird rights and the QO essentially erase the chance of a SnT in your opinion?

 

^............hmmmmmmmm

 

Not that getting into the intricate details of capology isn't interest... it CERTAINLY IS!

But at the end of the day, I suspect except for extremely f'd corporations, good GMs these days should have the ability to get the cap space they need.

I get that the Warriors superteam is as much about Curry, Klay and Draymond's relatively modest salaries as anything, but multiple years now they've had to offload salary to make the moves they need (signing AI, this year with KD), and have had no problems. There's no conspiracy in the league that will prevent the GM from finding landing spots to move players. Great teams/GMs/managemet find space, and also manage to stay under the luxury tax regularly.

The Rockets have moveable pieces. Bev, Ariza, Brewer - that's $21.5 million of salary. If Gordon has a good year, plays 70+ games, shoots near 40% from three, scores 13-16 points off the bench.. his salary these days is great - another $12.5 million of moveable salary.

Point being, DM can generally make as much or as little cap space as he needs if he sees moves out there to improve the team.