Rockets are projected to be at $123 million not including cap holds (Shumpert/GGreen/Rivers/Faried) Salary cap projected to go up to $109 million. Just CP3 ($38.5 M).....Harden ($38 M).......Rockets could give Butler (around $32.5 M—1st yr) if everyone else is dumped. Rockets would be at $109 million on 3 players. Rockets could be a smidgit below the soft cap if Morey can maneuver right. If Redick commits to follow Butler......Rockets could offer JJ Redick the Standard MLE ($9.708 M) https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2019/02/early-mid-level-bi-annual-projections-for-201920.html Player (18/19).............mins.........pts.......rebs........asts.........FG%...........3P%............FT%.......... Eric Gordon.................31.7........16.7.......2.2.........1.9..........41%.............36%...........78%........... Redick..........................31.3........18.1.......2.4.........2.7..........44%.............40%............89%.......... Eric Gordon is nice but JJ Redick offers a little more imo.
team was constructed and schemed to beat a KD warriors team. They play entirely different. When they have KD we keep them and force them into KD iso's and take away those 3 point attempts over the course of a game. We win the math, and dont let draymond distribute because there arent enough balls to go around. Without KD they jack 3s left and right and are better 3 point shooters than us.
if you somehow dumped everyone. Practically impossible, and easier said than done without taking salary back then youd have 3 players at 109 million. If you signed reddick as player 4 with a full mle you are now at 120 million and stuck at the tax apron of i think 134. Cant go over it no matter what since you used the full mle. So how are you going to get 11 more players to fill out a roster for 14 million dollars and not even have emegency in season funds? Explain to me how thats a good strategy. Id rather just keep the team we have.
You dont have a 9M MLE unless you want to be hardcapped. We have a 4.5 MLE without being hardcapped. Going to be impossible to improve if we Keep everyone and use the MLE
https://en.hispanosnba.com/salaries/houston-rockets These are approximate wages per news articles.....so not precise but give you a baseline on salaries. CP3 $38.5 Harden $38 Capela $16.5 Gordon $14 Tucker $8.4 ___________ ...........$115.4 on 5 guys. Nene needs to retire in any scenario to add talent $3.8 (player option) Non guaranteed contracts that you have to pay out partial payments depending on timeline deadlines. Hartenstein $1.4 Clark $1.4 Frazier $1.4 House RFA (Qualifying offer) $2.002 M. Rockets have non bird rights on House. So we can only use remaining MLE to match an offer for House this summer. What is the point of trading Capela or Gordon or Tucker individually? So we can free up money to sign House? Don’t think so. So in theory the Rockets can sign vet min contracts for players @ the $132 M mark. I’m saying CP3/Harden/Butler/JJ Redick draw more free agents to sign lesser contracts than CP3/Harden/Capela/Tucker/Eric Gordon. Better free agents will more than likely pass on minimal contracts with the same core minus GG/Austin Rivers/Shumpert/Faried/House. If they couldn’t beat the Warriors this year.... they won’t with the same core minus those role players. Best scenario would be trading CP3.......you would definitely be able to add Butler plus talent to Harden/Tucker/ others (basically the same team). But I expect Rivers/Shumpert/House to take better offers. Faried had a beef with D’Antoni.....but if he is gone? Maybe Faried would re-sign. If D’Antoni is gone, the Rockets can run the same offense (with facilitator/ roll man w/kick outs) while Thibs could run the defense and manage substitutions. Butler/Harden/CP3.....with a Tolliver/JaVale MeGee/JaMychal Green.....possibly bringing back GGreen stand a better chance of beating the rest. Depends on if the Rockets can find a Battier/Ray Allen type to take minimal contracts in an effort to win a ring that last time.
The situation seems grimmer than I thought. Clutch mentioned that trading CP for cap space, would save the team around 22M, which would be too little to attract Butler.
Maybe they never had a shot at him in the first place ? He's supposedly closing in on a deal with Philly …. I don't think he cared at all about coming here and damn sure wasn't going to give up millions to do it by opting into the last year of his current contract. And lets cut to the chase - They cant even talk to Butler until the moratorium is lifted.
Its the expectations. Morey has given us a great team … and we expect championships from that. When you don't meet expectations , there's a letdown and everyone trying to come up with ways to improve and meet those expectations. The expectation of beating the Warriors probably isn't realistic …. until KD went down.
Tax version of the MLE is $5.7m if I'm not mistaken. But yeah you are correct , they wont have the non tax version and keep Harden , CP3 , Capela , Tucker and EG. Just not enough money between their salaries and the apron. Someone needs to go back and check that "new math" ….
Just did the math , its $23.9m of cap space created by moving CP3 for no returning salary (After the start of the new league year) but you still have cap holds and incomplete roster charges. The actual space is as follows below. 123.575. in salary - 38.506 Cp3 85.069 Salary after dumping Cp3 109m Cap 23.931m cap space Not including cap holds- Shumpert (16m) , GG (1.6m) , Rivers(1.6m) , Faried (1.6m) , House (1.89m) & Two incomplete roster holds (1.794m). 8.484m (cap holds not including Shumpert) $15.447m in practical cap space (assuming you renounce Shumpert)
Depends on what CP3 is traded for? which team? Some teams will be well below the cap, but will want to send back a bad contract or two. I’ve heard or read that Morey would have to get creative in an offer to Butler. Almost like a poison pill back loaded deal. This makes sense to me, sense I don’t think Tilman is afraid of going into the luxury tax this summer and beyond. Avoid the repeater tax as long as possible. It’s misleading to give the impression that the Rockets roster is set and complete and everyone is under contract. On the contrary, the free agents are more than likely to seek greener pastures. Rivers is going to want the standard MLE ($9M)......Shumpert probably isn’t wanted back unless D’Antoni is still pulling the strings. House will get a Taxpayer MLE ($5M). So I’m not sure House will be back for Houston unless the clear salary.......but Butler covers that position in spades. Redick would give you Gordon like numbers and role. If Butler hinted he wants to go to Houston if a max deal could be worked out, I think I would see much of the same moves made to this point. Option1 a) is deal CP3.......try to keep most the main 4 (Tucker/Harden/Capela/Gordon). Pieces in trade remaining. Option 1 b) deal CP3.........trade one of Gordon/Capela to easily fit Butler. Option 2) Keep Harden/CP3.....trade/cut everyone to bring in Butler. Re-build the team. Have to replace GG/Rivers/ Shumpert/House/Faried anyway. Option 3) Trade Gordon/Capela/Tucker/others for AD or other star in two or three team deal. Build the team after. I don’t think it’s so glum. Every team is trying to get three stars to win the championship. Morey has always tried to get three stars. If unable to trade CP3, I think Morey M.O. is still bring in a star and move CP3 to the third scoring option. Rockets could still win in this scenario. Same format of Harden/Butler/CP3 attacking with outside shooting helping with outside support. Just my humble opinion.
First let me say I don't have beat the knowledge displayed by many here but using math I would say goodbye to CP3, Capela and Shumpert...IMO but Shump is an easy replacement. Give me a 6" 10" mummy who can catch a balL on an alley pop ( PNR) and not write checks he can't cash (keep mouth shut). Sentimentally, I like CP3 but not for anywhere near 38.5. Know it's not as simple as looking at total salary but I feel we could get better return elsewhere than we have with these 3 for money expended.
I’d like to give Hartenstein some serious time during the season with the team after the summer and let him show us what he can do. Don’t have a problem with your other thoughts, though, especially Green and Shumpert.
We really just gotta get longer while still being able to play small ball. McGee arizas...obre, guys like that do that
I think retaining most of the roster has a small chance of happening. The way I see that happening is Gordon back to strengthen the bench and we load up on 3&D-ish players. Clark and Hartenstein get a chance and I think they will be good bench players reducing the load on Tucker and Capela. I don't see them extending Gordon more than 2 years (i.e. the length of Paul's contract). I think Nene retires (or sadly gets dumped in trade) unlocking the full MLE. We re-sign Shumpert to 12m/2yrs, Rivers to $8m/2yrs with 2nd year being a player option, which leaves $5.1m of our MLE to pursue wing depth. I think a likely scenario is Reggie Bullock for the remainder of the MLE ($10m over 2 years) and Wilson Chandler for the minimum. Capela/Hartenstein Tucker/Chandler/Clark Bullock/House/Shumpert Harden/Gordon Paul/Rivers That's an improved team and I can see them finishing with 60 wins. But if nothing changes, nothing will change. We have added 0 new dimensions to our offense and the most obvious one is another shot creator OR an interior passer who can change the fundamental dynamic of this team. We are not helping Harden here. This team still can't win more than half its games without Harden, because the offense is disproportionately dependent on him. Also I'm sure Morey understands the East is likely to contain 3 teams that this roster would not be favored against. Raptors, Bucks and one of the Sixers/Celtics/Knicks/Nets will be every bit as good as the Warriors. The Warriors obsession is over, beating them doesn't mean you're going to win it all. That's why I think if we end up in that scenario, we will at least trade Capela. I don't think you need a C like Capela who is worth $15m+ anymore and I think the Rockets realize this. You can do with a revolving door of C's with different skills sets, guys like Dedmon/O'Quinn/Henson can all give us 20-25 solid minutes to any team that has an otherwise contender-level roster. It's pretty sad because Capela is a home grown product and has improved a bit every year, but the final thing we need from him (3pt shooting) is likely to take longer than we have to wait. Clark is also at risk imo because he is a good young player on an ultra team friendly contract with the leash in the GM's hands. He would be a nice throw in with Capela. Further, looking at the FA list for this summer, we would easily be able to fill his backup 4 spot with someone who can contribute right away at the minimum or partial MLE. Trading Capela, Clark and our picks for a legit wing just makes too much sense and it is objectively an excellent package for anyone but a contender. If it's the only thing we can do, we will do it. C's, G's and and backups are plentiful on the FA list. A highly impactful wing or a high post passer will not be available even for the full MLE. We are not stuck because reading around the league about Capela's value tells me EVERYONE values Capela higher than Clutchfans.
