[ClutchFans] Houston Rockets Salary Cap Update: 2012-13 Training Camp Edition

They're paying him $5 mill. It is being accounted at $8 mill. If they trade him in his last season, the team that trades for him will pay that last year's baloon salary but they will only be charged $8.3 million against the cap.

 

If lin or asik is traded before his final year to lets say portland, than portlands owner has to fork over 14.8mill in cash to either player... th cap hit on his teams salary will still only be 8.3 mill... if the rockets dont trade either player les alexander has the same dillema... he has to pay 14.8 mill but only has a cap hit of 8.3 mill... 5/5/15 is the amount of money both asik and lin are making by the year no matter who the player is playing for... the cap hit will be 8/8/8 no matter who he plays for...

I hope this helps out...

 

I don't believe salary reflection equals salary paid. I think that is just saying for trade, tax and cap purposes, that is what his salary counts as. His paycheck however is what is in the contract...5/5/15. The contract he signed did not change...it's just how the nba counts it.

 

I remember it's at least confirmed on his twitter, but I can't find the link now. Maybe BIMA can confirm this. I'll post it if I find the link.

 

"Yeah, probably one of the most confusing contracts that's ever been written.I was under the impression that 8.3 per is what is hitting his checking account, and counting against the salary cap for the Rockets, but it only would have been 5, 5, 15 if the Knicks would have matched. I would like to get official confirmation on that if you could page Larry Coon, or find that article I would appreciate it."


For Houston Lin/Asik are getting paid 5/5/15 but the cap hit is 8.3/8.3/8.3

For the Knicks/Bulls Lin/Asik would be getting paid 5/5/15 & the cap hit would have also been 5/5/15

 

Where you able to locate the source of this by any chance?

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="de"><p>Whatever it was for the trading team. RT @<a href="https://twitter.com/fcknsshole">fcknsshole</a>: what happens if Lin is traded after 2 years? What's his cap hit in that third year?</p>&mdash; Larry Coon (@LarryCoon) <a href="https://twitter.com/LarryCoon/status/224328598222413824" data-datetime="2012-07-15T02:24:40+00:00">Juli 15, 2012</a></blockquote>

 

LOL I don't have a source. I just remember reading it everywhere during free agency. The source is myself & Bima as of now.

 

Thanks for the clarification Bima.

 

Perhaps this is a "random trade idea," but I've been thinking about the best use of that $7.8M cap room that the Rockets have and it seems that the Atlanta Hawks may be a good trade partner, with Devin Harris as the target for acquisition, for the following reasons:

1. Harris' on-court role for the Hawks seems too small considering how much he's paid: Harris makes $8.5M this year, and has played only 22 and 23 minutes in each of the first two games and scoring 7 and 9 points. The Hawks also have several guys capable of taking care of these minutes in Lou Williams, DeShawn Stevenson and Anthony Morrow.

2. Harris was acquired as a part of the Marvin Williams salary dump (Williams has 2 more years under contract to Harris' 1 year), so it's not clear that Atlanta even really wants him for non-contractual reasons.

3. The Hawks are kind of poor and looking at the future more than this season: If people complain that the Toyota Center isn't loud enough, they'll probably think Hawks' arena has noise cancelling features. Forbes has them listed as having the 3rd worst (i.e. 28th best) franchise value in the NBA and losing $14.7M last season (http://www.forbes.com/teams/atlanta-hawks/). They dumped Joe Johnsons' and Marvin Williams' salary last season to clear 2013 cap space and so it would seem reasonable that they may be willing to give up a 20MPG guy making $8M.

Anyhow, Harris' salary can be acquired by sending out any player making more than $570K or so-- meaning anyone other than Machado. Seems to make sense: Get Harris to help for the rest of the season at little cost, and then either use him as S&T bait in the offseason (like Morey did with Lee and Camby) or let him go and enjoy the cap room.

Also, who knows, he might even be a keeper at a reasonable salary.

 

To ch or bima, as it stands now,what kind of money will the rockets have at the end of the season?

 

-Since D. Cook, Douglas, and Cole Aldrich are most likely not in the Rockets plans long term, I would expect that Morey is probably already looking to dump them at the trade deadline.

You combine their 7.6 mil in salary with the 7.5 cap space the Rockets already have, and you have the ability to take back roughly 15Mil in salary without grazing the salary cap.

Now, how the Rockets use that cap space is beyond me, but depending on where the Rockets are in the standings come February, I could see a Marcus Camby type of trade happening where they bring in someone on an expiring contract to help them out come playoff time.

Might be an Al Jefferson type, who knows, but I fully anticipant a trade to be made that will make this team better down the stretch using these expirings and that cap space even if that player isn't necessarily in the Rockets long term plans as well.

However, the better quality the player, the more the Rockets will have to give in the way of draft picks. So I guess at what point during a trade like this do they say, no and walk from the table?


-Carl, the Devin Harris trade scenario makes sense as well, and they might be a team that could give the Rockets back their trade pick rights from the Terrence Williams trade in return for taking a few mil off their books this season.

 

I was actually thinking about ways to open up minutes for our rookies, and find your idea interesting in that perspective.

If we trade Delfino, Douglas, Aldrich for Harris, we'd be able to:
1)Stengthen our backup PG position - our weakest link - to reduce minutes/injury risks to Harden&Lin;
2)Remain flexibility in cap;
3)Open up playing time for DMO/TJ/White at backup 3,4,5 positions;
4)Find and stash prospects like Greg/Machado and develop them with friendly contracts(we open up 2 more spots on roster).

 

Getting that 1st round pick obligation taken care of would be priority #1 to me if I was Morey.

-Also the Rockets would have to take back one player from their end on a minimum contract most likely. Mike Scott would see to be the most likely candidate. Morey does love those 6'8" PF's.

 

If you can take back 1st rounder and Mike Scott(a good player) and Harris, then it's another good option to use the cap space. Afterwards You'll need to waive some players or trade Aldrich/Douglas/Delfino in 2 for1/3 for 1 tye of trades.

 

1. There is very little point to dumping these guys AT THE TRADE DEADLINE. After the trade deadline, there can be no more in-season trades (whenever the Rockets play their last game) and these guys' cap figures can come off the books as soon as July 1st. Having extra cap room between the end of the Rockets season and July 1st only marginally increases your flexibility on draft night (most trades that would require the extra cap room on draft night can be structured so that it technically goes through in July).

Also, Delfino's non-guaranteed contract would be an interesting chip to have after the end of the Rockets season.

I can see Morey trying to deal one or more of these guys well before the deadline if he thinks having extra cap room (vs. extra expiring contracts) at the trade deadline helps the Rockets ability to make trade.

2. I don't think Aldrich falls in the same category as Douglas and Cook. Much younger and an actual prospect (competent backup C can be valuable). He's not untouchable by any means given the availability of other options, but he's not a certain one-and-done.

3. As for Devin Harris, I think the whole point of ATL trading him would be to save $. I doubt they want any money back, even expiring contracts. I also doube they give back a 1st round pick to dump the money since his deal is expiring anyway.

 

I meant looking to move them, not waive them. Sorry for the confusion there.

-I agree getting the 1st rounder obligation pick back is a bit of a stretch for just cap savings, but if there is a way to get it back, that pick could be very useful in a superstar trade that might or might not be available next Summer if for some reason the Rockets make the playoffs and would be losing the pick otherwise. Even if that means possibly giving up Patrick Patterson. I guess Morey would have to weigh what he thinks is more valuable in trade... a late first rounder, or Patrick Patterson... tough call.

 

I'm not opposed to the concept of brining in a guy like Harris, but I'm not sure we'll see too many Camby-type trades anymore with all these tax restrictions coming up next year. Not only does the repeater tax start to kick in, but teams more than $4M above the tax level won't be able to do S&ts anymore. Most teams most likely will try to avoid the tax at all cost and those who don't care (e.g. Prokorov) will be restricted from executing sign&trades.