[BimaThug] Houston Rockets Salary Cap Update: 2018 Offseason Pre-Draft Edition

The plan is to keep Capela but if he gets offers way too high, my opinion is he gets traded along with Rhyno and our consolation prize is Gordon.

 

? We cant sign and trade capela. Hard cap at the tax apron if we do. NOT AN OPTION

 

Wow, this is new to me. That means the only option that Houston has is to match any offer that he gets. That's a bad situation to be in.

 

Just don't sleep on Kawhi. He's essentially a free agent who has already agreed tio a low opt-in.

Yes, I'm sure Morey would like to acquire 2 guys.....while keeping PJ. Because the Warriors still have tricks up their sleeves. They're most likely going to make a run at Paul George. And they might be able to get him without losing Klay. Hence, Morey could be looking for two guys. Or at the very least Morey could be feigning interest to get George into the summer where it would cost the Warriors a lot more than iggy and other assets for George.

Warriors starting 5 next year could be:
Steph
Klay
George
Draymond
KD

You say, no way? Better think again.

That's why it gets tricky. And that's why you may see something very unique this off-season. We may actually see a deal agreed upon before the moratorium.....to be executed after the moratorium....with Lebron opting in on the last year of his deal before July to avoid the contract stagger of him and Paul's deals, so that they're both playing on one-year desks and can re-up at the max.

You say no way to that too? And I agree it would be highly unusual. But what is the high-stakes game of NBA basketball today....where championships are essentially won in August before the season starts....Or at least the non-championship teams are determined and eliminated during the summer so that when the season begins there only one to three, maybe four teams with any chance at the trophy?

It woild be highly unusual because LeBron would have to commit to playing that final season and then trust that Gilbert and co. writing move him after the moratorium like they agreed to. No, that's not how this is normally done. But think about the stakes here. What would happen to the Cavs franchise if Gilbert went back on his word? Would they ever recover under Gilbert? No, they didn't. And their season would be a total disaster. And they're future shot with LeBron walking after next season.

So I think this could possibly happen. Here's how.

1. LeBron announces he's walking.

2. Cavs give in and negotiate a trade for him with him opting in. This is the first challenge. Because the Cavs have to see that they will be better of trading him than letting him walk.

3. We'd have to help the Cavs se that executing the deal after the July moratorium gets them a better set-up post LeBron than executing the deal now. Because of the flexibility of using Capel in a sign-and-trade. IOW, we offer them a better post moratorium than before. This gives more opportunity to shop Gordon and perhaps find a different landing spot for Anderson (OKC, PHX) with Cleveland getting back an additional asset.

So why not just do a standard sign-and-trade post July 1? Because a standard sign-and-trade gives us a hard cap. And then you have Paul in a bad situation, either having to take a cut 4-5 year deal to fit inside the hard cap. Or he has to take a one-year deal and hippie that we re-up him next season when Harden and Lebron are already locked up? Neither of those options are fair to Paul. But him and Lebron playing on one-year deals together, both under their max salaries is fair. It gives them leverage to make a championship run together and then both re-up longer term if they so choose to.

And that's how we could possibly arrive at a huge post moratorium deal that involves both Lebron and George. Because if George wants to come here and he tells okc to either trade him here or he's walking and they agreed to a deal involving both him and Melo for Gordon and Anderson then you have the makings of a three way deal post moratorium with Anthony going to Cleveland and agreeing to a significant buyout.

A big key guys trading Anderson is either bring him up into multiple players that can then be moved more easily while giving the team he is traded to long term cap relief (Phx) and/or finding a player that he could be traded for that witted accept a buyout to get in the right situation (Melo). Memo would likely accept a buyout of that final year of his deal if sent to Cleveland. He might be willing to give up half or more of his final season money to be able to take the MLE and move on to a contender. I think such a move would be highly likely for him if he saw the Warriors getting even better and us going after James and/or George or possibly even somebody else. Melo has made his money. Anderson is making his. For Anderson to accept a buyout he works have to be assured he would be made whole. That's a tall order for him presently.

 

After reading 9,456 pages on how LeBron is impossible, or it would take putting a man on Mars to make it happen, this was refreshing to read from Bimathug:

·
10h
“As I’ve said for months, the simplest iteration of a LeBron opt-in-and-trade to HOU would be: HOU gets: LeBron CLE gets: Gordon (& creates $22M TPE) 3rd Team gets: Anderson, picks Several factors could change. But this is a possibility that works under the cap, post-7/1.”


So it does not take a man on Mars nor is it impossible. It just takes attaching 4 first round picks and a good player to Anderson. Small price to pay to roll out Capela, LBJ, Beard, CP3, and whoever wants to play on the best team for 2019,

 

Thanks for the correction. I was understanding it was being a team using one to bring in the player. So would this avenue help the team in any way?

 

I had it backwards. You were right. Its possible. I just dont know why we would want to do it

 

Is there a chance that we keep this same roster except for Ryan Anderson?

 

Do you think morey would value a next year expiring anderson for roster flexibility next year or do you really think he will dump him at all costs this offseason to save money if tge dream of james or george pass us by.

 

Bima, correct me if I'm wrong, but is it conceivable that a deal for LeBron gets done sending out Gordon, Anderson, and a punch of picks? I think if you find a taker for Anderson and get Gordon out for a pick, then you could send all of those picks to Cleveland, right? Is there a scenario where thats all the Rockets send out?

Sure we'd have no 1st rounders for some time, but might be worth the price. We could send out 2021 or 2022 picks and those could hold some great value potentially.

 

I'm hoping that the line up next season looks something like this...

CP3/(vet pg who can protect the lead. Chalmers?)
Harden/Green
LBJ/Ariza (cheap 1+1po)
Tucker/Luc (vet min like this year)
Capela/Nene

Basically, lose Gordon and replace Anderson with LeBron.

 

This is what I'm thinking. The salaries work if you pair them with a bunch of picks. I think giving up picks is going to be our pathway going forward.

 

Good. I thinks we had a capable team last season and pretty much an improved Capela next season will only get better. We don't need LBJ or Goege. What we need is to trade for Scott Foster, Tony bros and Adam Silver. We can't let it happen again

 

@BimaThug
If the Rockets find another team to take on Anderson and the Rockets send Gordon to Cleveland, what's the most amount of money Cleveland can take on without having to pay a massive luxury tax bill? Not sure if my question makes sense. Thanks for all your info!

Edit: Just saw in your article that if LeBron walks, they still are paying luxury tax.

 

Thought that was a great article detailing LeBron options. Worth a read.

 

They're discussing an extension supermax now. Kawhi isn't going anywhere.

 

There nothing to "discuss" regarding a supermax extension. They offered it weeks ago.

 

First of all I want to say HI to all Rockets fans! I'm new here, sorry for spelling and grammar mistakes, I'm form Krakow, Poland.
Here is what I think... if CP3 stays we don't need any additional players that like to play with ball (we have Harden and Paul already), we need catch and shoot player. Harden and Paul have many assists to players who take 3 pointers. So the ideal player would be Clay Thompson. He doesnt need to have ball in his hands, this is role for Harden and Paul, they dribble and pass the ball outside of the arch and there is Clay, he will have a lot of space there and his shooting % should be high.