Whatever happens, we need to solidify our core now rather than wait for some garbage time situation come Feb. trade deadline. Except for Artest, that **** has not worked in our favor in the Morey era. Just trust the team you assembled and let them operate distraction free in what's a very long season and post-season.
We do have an Asik trade exception, but it is only $5.4M because we acquired Gee in the trade. [Asik's cap hit ($8.4M - salary sent out) minus Gee's cap hit (~$3M nonguaranteed)] = $5.4M total TPE
the rockets are going nowhere. we're all used to it. a lot of us have been in this futile exercise of hoping to get back to a championship team since the 90s. nothing has changed. star players come and go. finding the right mix that makes for a championship team is a very difficult task. even two star players isn't enough without the right coach, right management, and right players around them. it's very hard to get all that right. or, everyone would have a winner. in the end, it's still just a business and a game. one team wins it all and all the rest are on the outside looking in.
I don't think we have an Asik trade exception at all actually because we turned that into a 3 team trade to acquire Trevor Ariza. We have the Lin trade exception of around $8 million, but I am 90% sure we don't get a trade exception for Asik when we got Ariza as well.
It's funny to me, first Casspi, then Gee. Two guys that played together at one point, each trying their hardest to let the other win the starting job. They both suck.
Who is WAY BETTER than last year? The Heat? Spurs? whose got 2 major injuries already? Pacers? who may lose Lance? How much the Thunders and Clippers had done to make you believe they are WAY better? Oh, do you mean the Mavs? You are not kidding yourself right?
No, I misspoke earlier. Sorry. This. I corrected myself on Twitter later last night, but apparently people had already run with my earlier tweet.
We can combine Gee and the Lin trade execption to sign and trade someone for about 11.5 million . Maybe that is enough for Stephenson . We might also have to include a pick although a trade expect ion would be created in any trade where we use the Lin execption. Gee's contract is nice because it's 3 million non guaranteed so the team doesn't have to take back any salary if they don't want to .
Why will we be weaker? 4/5 starters return and Ariza is arguably a better fit next to Harden. TJones and DMo are a year more mature. Harden/Howard have another year of chemistry. If we add a serviceable backup center before October, how are we weaker? So many fans blinded by our alternate future that you forget THIS team was playing very well last season. The Eastern conference got better (or more parity) but the West is largely the same.
Pretty good analysis OP! Thanks! Mozgov would be a decent backup C. I'm a fan of trying to get Okafor. Yes, he is coming off a major neck injury and no one has seen him play in awhile. It would definitely be taking a gamble for him... But I wonder, since he is from Houston and is coming off that injury, if he would sign with the Rockets at the minimum? If so, he's worth taking. If he can get back to even close of the great defense he had before, it would be worth it!
Howard, Harden, T. jones, Beverly Ariza = cheaper Parsons Daniels =better shooter than Cassp Johnson or Canaan will become better backup than Lin Capela = better finishing Asik on offense with same defense WIth D- Mo, Garcia,Hamilton 9 returning from 54 win team. 2 better defensive players and 1 better 6th man. Even if we don't add another pf (Beasley) we still have a 54-60 win team!
Here is an updated look at our Cap Situation as of now, to the best of my knowledge. Gee and Hopson are non-guaranteed deals for now. The minimum contract signing of Dorsey/Adrien/Daniels do not affect our exceptions. We still have full MLE, BAE, and Lin's TPE ($8,370,000). I'm assuming we sign Capela to rookie scale contract and we sign Johnson to minimum deal as well; also, I gave Daniels minimum+20% (heard that somewhere) but I am not sure if he got that or not, but won't affect cap situation at all ($816,482 is the 100% value). Here its is, enjoy: Spoiler Player 21,436,271Dwight Howard----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------14,728,844James Harden-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8,600,000Trevor Ariza-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3,250,000Alonzo Gee--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,618,680Terrence Jones----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,483,920Donatas Motiejunas-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------1,450,878Scotty Hopson-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------991,000Clint Capela-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------979,778Troy Daniels-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------948,163Joey Dorsey-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------981,084Jeff Adrien---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------915,243Patrick Beverley--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------816,482Isaiah Canaan-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------816,482Robert Covington-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------507,336Nick Johnson------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------59,524,161Net Salaries-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------56,759,000Salary Cap Floor--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------63,065,000Salary Cap--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------76,829,000Luxury Tax Level--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3,540,839Salary Cap Space-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------8,241,717Salary Cap Space w/out TOs/Pos/NGs--------------------------------------------------------------17,304,839Amount Over(-)/Under(+) Tax Level----------------------------------------------------------------21,304,839Amount Over(-)/Under(+) Apron-------------------------------------------------------------------- NTP MLE 5,305,000 BAE 2,077,000
THIS. Can we use Lin's trade exception plus Gee to S&T for Stephenson? What would it take to get Indiana to bite on this?
We cannot combine the TPE with contracts to get a player with a salary greater than the TPE ($8,370,000 in this case). For example, if player A is worth $10,000,000, we cannot combine our TPE w/ salary of player B of $2,000,000 (total $10,370,000 outgoing) to acquire player A. We can only use it on players that have salaries equal or less than the TPE amount. We can add picks/euros though.
I think what we're doing right now is building salary so that we have assets to send out in a trade. At these prices, Capela/Papanikolau/Dorsey/Adrien are all positive assets which amount to roughly $5m. If you look at the team's salary situation, we did not even have enough contracts to attach our future picks to for us to make a trade. Say we use out TPE to acquire an asset which would be of interest to Minnesota, and that Kevin Love is still with the Wolves after December 15. These signings will allow us to offer Minny Capela/Papanikolau/Dorsey/Adrien/TPE$8.2mplayer + NOLA pick + a future Rockets pick(s) for Kevin Love. Clearly if Love is available at the deadline, then the Wolves are not getting Wiggins or Klay. We have an attractive package of picks to offer + cheap and decent young players + expiring contracts for fillers. Same applies to other available players like Millsap, Rondo, etc. The key is turning the TPE into a player that can be traded (after 2 month restriction) because a lot of the people we're targeting make more than our TPE and the TPE can't be combined with other players or other TPE's. What I don't know yet is whether players and TPE's can be sent out to different teams in a 3-team trade in order to receive one player. That would make our lives a lot easier.
