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

Yes. SnT of Capela into cap-space means the other team doesn't have to send any salary back.

That said: It is illegal to do prior to July 1st.

Paul didn't opt-in until West told him a trade was in place. If you believe similarly that Lebron won't opt-in without a trade in place, then keep in mind that a SnT for Capela is illegal prior to July 1st. Free agents like Capela cannot sign with, nor even talk to, teams prior to July 1st.

Everyone actually knows this, and knows you can't do SnTs prior to free agency season, but somewhere along the lines of racking our brains for Lebron deals we (me included), started thinking of adding Capela.

I think we should all just forget about Capela in a Lebron deal.

 

The old rules for SnT were getting abused. You know how when free agents sign outright with another team, it is always reported that he left money on the table by not staying, as the incumbent team can pay more. SnTs allowed the player to get the same contract as if he had stayed. And they allowed any team (even contenders well over the cap) to work out deals for the free agent.

New rules were designed to stop these loopholes:

1. The new team cannot pay the player the same as the incumbent team. The amount (length of contract and max raises) he can get in SnT is the same as if he signed outright with another team.
2. Luxury tax teams over the Apron cannot receive a player via SnTs.
3. Further, the receiving team if below the Apron after the SnT is hard-capped for rest of the year, and cannot exceed the Apron for any reason.

 

I don't think that I ever said that EG had to be traded into cap space.

If you go look at the hypothetical trade idea thread that I posted, I had Gordon going directly to CLE. I also stated that they could easily flip him for a pick if they wanted.

As far as Capela's BYC designation, it only applies to our side of a trade. It doesn't matter who the trade partner is. Of course, if you did trade him into cap space then the deal would be guarenteed to be legal (regardless of BYC ) because you are are always allowed to take back less salary in a deal.

Any trade has to work for each individual team involved. For example, if we were to do a sign and trade for Capela.

From our perspective, Capela counts $12.5M outgoing (assuming that his new salary starts at $25M). That means that we can take back at most 125% of that + 100K.

From the other teams perspective, they are receiving $25M in incoming (Capela's full salary). So they ether have to be sending out an amount within 25% - $100K of that or they have to be able to cover the remaining amount with cap space.

That's where BYC can get sticky. You send me a $25M player so I have to be sending out around $18.75 in salary. Let's say that I do just that and the deal works on my end. From your (the Rockets) end, your'e only sending out $12.5M so the most that you can receive is $15.7M. So the deal doesn't work from the Rockets perspective because they can't receive $18.75M when sending out only $12.5M.

There's ways around that by including additional players and making the overall salaries included larger so that the amount that you are off in the deal is now covered by the 25% difference that you are allowed.

Does that make sense?

 

Short answer is that they somehow have to get rid of Deng's salary and they would likely need to include every roster player in a deal to either clear space or match salary for Lillard or Leonard. Leonard makes $7M less, so there's a little more wiggle room there.

To get Lillard's $27M salary, you would literally have to end up with only Lebron, PG13 and Lillard on your roster. No free agent rights, likely lots of picks owed and no exceptions.


People say the Rockets won't be able to dump Anderson but I'm sure LAL can dump Deng.

People say that Lebron would never come here if we had to gut the team to get him but I'm sure that he'd go to LAL to play with Leonard, PG13, Lillard and a bunch of league minimum guys.

Ball, Ingram and Kuzma combined don't earn enough to trade for Lillard so for a deal to work, you need Deng's salary included. Somehow Portland is going to give you a 1st team all-NBA guy for 3 1st or 2nd year players AND they are going to eat Deng's deal. Sounds plausible. Why bother to get market value for Lillard when you can take on the ghost of Luol Deng and acquire a sharpshooter like Ball?

Or maybe Kawhi really wants to turn down a supermax deal and the Spurs are just dying to trade him for a couple of young guys and also take on Deng's contract. That's exactly what the Spurs want to do.

Or the other possibility is that Leonard takes the supermax from SA and Portland hangs on to their best player.

It's a toss up.

 

Great breakdown AE

@cyberx this makes Lakers pursuit of Lillard seem extremely unlikely.

 

Moooory, get 'er done...

 

I saw this on Twitter this morning too.

Here's the immediate questions that come to mind.

- Why are 12 yr olds playing on an 8 ft hoop.

- Why would you have a 6'10" 12 year old play against his own age group? Playing up against older competition would be much more beneficial.

 

Would they even have enough salary at that point to match for Lillard though? They are already renouncing players to get to 2 max slots. It would be very close correct? And AE stayed they would basically have a 3 player roster at that point.

 

Because the way an average human being works is.. The rules say he has to play with his own age group therefor he has to. Reasoning isn't the masses strong suit.

 

Here is how the Rockets gonna play it. Cp3 says "I am old, I want super max". Rockets say ok. Team will be Ryno + James + CP3 + Tucker and then the rest of the team will be players from G league rotating on 10 day contracts.

Load em up on 2 ways. Don't win chip. Cp3 never wanted to win a championship. Durant did though but people hate on him.

 

If your league doesn't allow your kid to play up in age, then you need to find your kid a new league.

A 6'10" kid playing against kids a foot and a half shorter than him doesn't do anyone in the league any good.

There's too many good youth programs now days. Playing up in age for higher end players is common. Even the YMCA allows it.

 

This kid is probably 2 feet taller than most of them if not more. I agree with you though. I don't know why he is playing in same age group as them. It is probably not good for the kid, the kids playing against him, and I am sure it makes the parents of the other team rage so hard seeing their kids having to go up against that.

 

Yes thank you, and sorry it was heypartner that mentioned EG into cap space comment. My bad.

 

Posted this elsewhere (Just gonna copy and paste) but honestly just curious if it abides by all the league rules:

WAIT! CAN THIS BE ATTEMPTED? (I'm not the best with the cap stuff and there is absolutely no way this happens but technically is it possible?)

Paul George and Lebron James both tell their respective teams that they either opt-in and get traded to Houston or they will sign with LA and leave the team with nothing. The Cleveland and OKC front offices won't like it but will hear Morey out.

Morey offers Eric Gordon and Nene for PG13
We sign and trade Ariza for the highest first round pick possible (It won't be that high but still first round).
We trade PJ Tucker for the highest 1st rd pick possible (Again, won't be that high but still first round)
We offer Ryan Anderson + 2 first round picks from the Ariza/Tucker trades as well as any picks we can offer for Lebron.
We max out Chris Paul to show PG13 and LBJ that we would max them out next year. We match any Capela offer sheet.

Again, not that I believe anyone would consider this but is it all workable?

If so, does OKC let a team like us have Paul George just so they can get an Eric Gordon rather than nothing.
Can we sign and trade Ariza for Utah or Philly's first round pick? Can we do the same for Tucker? I would think those teams would welcome having either veteran. Ariza wouldn't be easy because he dictates what contract he signs.
And then do Cleveland help Lebron out and eat Ryno's contract for 3 low first round picks?

Lastly, does Tillman pay the biggest luxury tax ever for the next 6 years for the greatest starting line up ever?

Someone please confirm the math works.

EDIT: @BimaThug I quickly was reminded that the Trevor Ariza part can't happen because of having to wait until July 1st. But isn't the rest all possible just the way Chris Paul did it the year before?

Basically:
EG and Nene for PG13
PJ Tucker for Philly's first (or another team with cap space and pick)
Ryno + Philly pick + our future first rounders + Zhou Qi + Isaiah Hartenstein + Alesandro Gentile (I'm reaching farther than I thought possible) for Lebron

FINAL EDIT: The Lebron and PJ Tucker trades would have to be combined in a 3 team trade to make the numbers work. Hooray!

 

I don't offer trades. I just respond to them. I was responding to BigMaloe's scenario of EG into cap space.

 

Any way we can get kawhi?

 

JR Smith may be included in a trade for Lebron, either coming here or going to another team.

And keep in mind we may see an anamoly here. That being Lebron opting in....then getting traded AFTER the July moratorium. If ever the conditions were ripe for this kind of deal it's with a LeBron trade to the Rockets between now and next September/October.