Can we keep Beverley and Smith next season?

I'd like to see Smith back as well, I do wonder though if Jones hadn't gotten injured if we still pick him up.

 

Fifty-five games and a deep (hopefully) playoff run would be enough to prove himself. No reason to worry about it now...

 

Josh smith will get more than the mle......

 

lol if we can retain Bev for $6m/yr we should forget about going after Dragic. So people really expect for Dragic, Harden, Smith, and Howard to share touches without problems? Bev is a perfect fit here and I'd happily take him over Dragic if it means paying 8-10 million less per season.

 

Detroit will pay him, what?, $25 million over the next two seasons?

So.....sure, some other team can offer more than the MLE; but he's probably gonna mesh real well with Harden (as well as being buddies with Dwight).

Morey will find a way to keep him.

 

Not entirely true. Given Beverley's (relatively) small cap hold, it is at least possible to open up cap room to re-sign Smith, with the Rockets then exceeding the cap to re-sign Beverley. However, this would likely involve renouncing rights to Corey Brewer and waiving Kostas Papanikolaou, along with maybe moving that NOP pick. That option certainly isn't as desirable as getting Smith to take the MLE (or, better yet, the roughly $2.5 million they could pay him via Non-Bird rights), but it's at least a very real possibility.

Pursuant to the Stretch provision under the 2011 CBA, Detroit gets to stretch out its payments to Smith of those final two years over FIVE years. So, instead of getting paid $13.5 million over each of the next two years, he'll get $5.4 million over each of the next five years.

From a cash flow perspective, Smith may be incentivized to seek out as much annual salary as reasonably possible from a new team.

 

If we acquire Dragic via trade, would it be possible capwise to re-sign Smith then re-sign Dragic with his bird rights?

 

Not with cap room. Dragic's cap hold would eat up too much room.

 

Could Smith be signed and traded back to the rockets? Something like Sixers sign Smith for $8M and trade him to Houston for Papa+Jones+Capela+picks

 

At what point could we gain his bird rights?

 

This is ideal if you can still retain Brewer as well and I assume Shved is gone too.

As others have mentioned with Smith at his age and reputation and still getting some money from Detroit the full MLE is probably a good bet to sign him.

 

If I can read Morey, Pat Bev walks away happy with a ton of cash from a team more than willing to overpay. Not us.