IIRC Morey declined to exercise his cheap option in order to let him go to RFA a year early in order to get Dwight. Then he signed an offer sheet with Dallas and Rockets did not match.
In retrospect, setting aside all the well-earned hatred he received from Houston fans due to his comments and decisions... it is good we didn't match on Parsons... but only due to injury. He probably would have been worth the money if he'd stayed healthy.
Don't know if there was any way to make the cap situation work, but it might have been nice to have both of them and have Parsons instead of Corey Brewer for a couple of years there.
I think you've overcomplicated your thinking and are getting confused / or not familiar with how these cap space scenarios work. It's not that complicated. Our core 6 young players (including Jalen and Sengun's cap holds) + Dillon Brooks = $100M in 2025/26. Cap is estimated to be $159M. With 4 minimum roster charges that's $55M in realistic cap space to pursue a max FA. It's that simple. No need to consider all the scenarios with Tate, Landale, Jeff Green, KPJ, and FVV's cap holds. If we are signing a star FA in the summer of 2025, and those guys are still on the team, we would just not pick up their options / non guarantees and then we'd renounce their cap holds to get to whatever cap space number between $0 and $55M we want to get to. Or if the star isn't coming (which we'd know before their guarantee dates / options, since real free agency happens in May and June), then we could keep them if we want and bring everyone back using bird rights. It's the same situation the Lakers were in this summer. They had ~$30M of realistic cap space, but instead they chose to go the "bring everyone back" route and just stay over the cap and use the NTMLE.
