[ClutchFans] Houston Rockets Salary Cap Update (Updated: 3/2/2011)

Great post.

If I had to guess, I'd say we're going to let a lot of players walk (or ship them) over the next two years.

Morey is going to clean cap space, stock up picks and other trade-ables, and go balls to the wall in the summer of 2012.

 

I was looking up "youngest teams in the league" and came across this on bleacherreport (sry if already posted)..
02/12/11
"Top 10 NBA Teams For The Future" (Rockets #8)

"Kevin Martin is the head of the Rockets, and is currently 10th in the NBA in scoring at 23.0 PPG. Martin has been in the league for seven years, but is still young.

Though Martin leads the team in scoring, Luis Scola is the Rockets MVP. He is averaging 19.2 PPG which is three points higher than last year, and five points higher than his career average.

The Rockets will need captain Aaron Brooks to play well in order to win. Brooks started the year off very hot, but has cooled down due to an ankle injury. Though he has struggled in his return, Brooks is a talented scorer and passer and could become an elite point guard.

Chuck Hayes has also played well averaging career highs in scoring 7.3 PPG and rebounding with 6.8 RPG. Solid play from Hayes will be needed as Yao Ming and Brad Miller are on their way out the door."

Brooks :/ ..Wish they would've done the write up after the trade deadline

 

So basically Morey traded away our present while worsening our position for the future. Awesome GMing there.

 

Your team has serious issues if Brooks and Battier are your "present" lmao.

He actually improved the present and did not hurt the future at all. At best, he improved the future if you get anything out of those picks or Thabeet, or if Dragic turns into a Terry-esque backup.

 

If you're into gambling and think Morey has Dragic in his long term plans, I'd say you'd almost certainly put your money on Morey not exercising Dragic's option.

 

Was a better option trading Battier to the Celtics for a first round and have more cap- flexibility next year?

 

Great recap Bima! Really enjoyed it! I think it's obvious the move that Morey made was made with the idea of trying to add more assets to any larger trade. We couldn't compete with NJ's offer for Deron Williams.

I wonder, if by the added picks, and current talent base (which hopefully will get more time to shine), if the Rockets will have put themselves in a better position to make that NJ-type trade. e.g. if Chris Paul comes on the market, will we have the appropriate asset package (and willingness to take back salary) that entices the Hornets to make the trade as the best offer.

 

Unfortunate indeed. It is the Zach Randolph syndrome. No one wanted to touch him with a ten feet pole when he was in losing situations in NY and LA. Now he is seen as a premier post man in a winning situation in MEM. All while putting up the same production the whole time.

Our injuries this year to Lowry, Brooks, and Hayes during the toughest part of the schedule has really brought down the value of all our assets. What is really unfortunate is that now that the schedule is clearing up, and we can finally try to go on a run, the trade deadline is already passed.

Our best case scenario is to win as many games as possible from here on out, make a surprise appearance in the playoffs. Give the top seed team a scare. I think if we can do that, we will rebuild all the lost value to our current players due to the stigma of a losing situation. If all goes accordingly, that should set us up nicely for some draft day maneuvering.

 

Nene wants to stay in Denver. His wife is from Denver.
Denver wants to resign Nene. We'll have to look elsewhere for a Center.

Kendrick Perkins is an option, but he'll want HUGE long term money - even though he's really a blue collar role player. I don't see him as a max money guy. If he's your best player, your team sucks.

Kaman would be a 1-year option as well. The Clippers might exchange him for Brad Miller - to get a much lower cost backup center and a prospect. He's a nice upgrade from Brad Miller, and still only 29 years old next season.

Camby might be a 1-year option as well. I'm not sure if the Blazers try to rebuild and get younger, but at Camby's age (36 this offseason), he's only a 1-year rental.

I hope there are better options out there at Center...otherwise it's Thabeet, Miller and perhaps resigning Yao. Looking at all of those options, I wish now that we'd been able to land Gortat.

 

Pics or GTFO!

Sorry, force of habit..

 

Thanks for the article BimaThug.

You lay siege to business side of the NBA and what the Rockets have on their plate to feast upon the rest of this season and next.

As I nibble on this mountain of information I will keep my supply of Rolaids handy.

Thanks.

zzpot.

 

Thanks for the breakdown, Bima. Well done.

A lot of great points in there (and discussed here). One critical point, however, that I think is being a bit overlooked is how we essentially can't just keep amassing rookie-scaled contracts.

Sure, one or two or three of them are "cheap" (relatively speaking) but with eight -- yes, eight rookie contracts -- already on the books (one of which making $5M next year alone) plus three potential rookies in the 2011 draft, we simply don't have the roster space and, yes, these numbers start do start to add up.

Between Thabeet, Hill, Budinger, Lee, Patterson, Dragic, T-Will and Carroll you have to start doing some prioritizing.

And as for the 2011 Draft, let's look to move up and/or package multiple picks + any of the the aforementioned "leftovers" that we don't want as part of bigger trades.

 

I think the Rockets probably decided (reasonably) that it is kind of silly to gut your team, even one without a superstar, for "cap room" when you don't know what the cap or the CBA is going to look like.

In the absence of a "home run" trade, it makes sense to get some value out of your expiring contracts (kind of like what they did with McGrady's expiring deal) and a chance to look at what some of the young players are capable of.

 

One thing to keep in mind re: New Jersey deals.. they had Derrick Favors. That was the trump card.. the two 1st round picks were the icing on the cake. While it's nice that we have two more non-lottery 1st rounders to use in trades, we still need that one big "trump card" to get our foot in the door. Apparently, Kevin Martin wasn't good enough.

Hopefully the Rockets are looking for ways to move up in this draft to find someone who can meet that criteria.

Also, just to say it publicly: thanks for the hard work as always Bima. It's really cool to see your knowledge of the cap being weighed against some inside sources on the situation. (re: your Sacramento-Jeffries trade idea). Shocked that the Kings would still turn down a free $1M in the final minutes of the deadline.

 

He's too old to be a trump card in such a deal. The kind of guys people ask for when they are trading away their veteran stars are generally young players on their rookie deals (Gallinari, Favors) and/or high-ish draft picks.

If you are starting over again, you generally don't ask for a good player at the same age as your lost star but just a notch below in performance, you get talent that will help you build for the future.

This is why it hurt to have all of the young guys-- Budinger, Hill and Brooks chief among them, having below par seasons. These guys, not Scola or Battier or Martin, were the kind of potential "trump cards" a team could play. As Clutch said, all these guys' trade values (and the value of the Knicks' pick) went down since the start of the season.

 

I tend to agree with you, but I don't think our general manager would have before this season started. The only way you'll see a Martin-for-superstar deal is if one lists Houston amongst his choices to re-sign with. Then you can stack up a Martin+ offer against the few other teams bidding. It's not the ideal 'reset' trade (picks; young talent), but it's a lot closer value to what you'd be giving up.

 

Thabeet and Dragic are also useless. And they take up more cap room than AB? Awesome. We would have been better off trading AB for nothing, which is actually pretty close to what Morey received.

Two first round picks? One is a super late first rounder in a terrible draft; the other won't be conveyed until 2013. Wow, what a steal... That you think these two nearly worthless picks can be turned into a star player is laughable.

These were two deals that made us worse off. Highway robbery by the Suns.