That is interesting. If Biedrins can get his head straightened out, I believe the team as currently constructed(plus him) only needs one more max contract type player to legitimately contend, not two. Assuming of course Lowry and Patterson continue on their current path of development. And Morris turns into half the player I think he will.
Good point. A good number of teams can have cap space, including the Knicks, actually, if they are careful about not adding salary for more than 1 year. Donnie Walsh, for example, already talked about managing the 2012 cap: http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/knicks_cap_conscious_nZWBS0DYZd6DORbq7ObprL In the end, just like the 2010 free agency, having cap room guarantees you nothing unless the star chooses to go your way. Remember, teams like Chicago, NJ, and NY each had cap room for 2 max players, and play in (or near) big cities, and these teams managed to only bring in Stoudemire (and his injury risk) and Boozer among them. It is wise to be conscious of the cap situation, but not wise to obsess over it and make deals solely for cap purpose.
CH, given that both sides are far apart on the basic concepts for the next cap system, and considering that the fundamental issue from which all cap issues will be based--the division and calculation of Basketball-Related Income (BRI)--I think you may be a little premature with talk of how much cap room the Rockets can expect to have. There are simply WAYYY too many variables that can change between now and when the new CBA is agreed upon.
True about the uncertainty. However, at least the Knicks are thinking about 2012 cap room somewhat in their transactions. Maybe Morey has a sense as to where things may go from listening to discussions among owners. http://www.nypost.com/p/sports/knicks/knicks_cap_conscious_nZWBS0DYZd6DORbq7ObprL Morey has repeatedly de-emphasized free agency as the way to build a team-- though this doesn't mean he doesn't think about cap room at all. My guess is that if he can trade for a talent right now, he'd do it without worrying too much about having cap room for Dwight, CP, etc. since he never worried much about having cap room for Chris Bosh. The main thing really is to build a team that a FA wants to come to, the rest of the details (i.e. sign&trade, cap clearing, etc.) can be taken care of later.
Agree completely that Morey still needs to worry about cap room. My point is that you can't really talk about it being "okay" to take on a contract like Biedrins's without having any idea just HOW BADLY it will screw up the Rockets' cap situation. Also, the reason cap room wasn't an issue when going after Bosh was that it was not a POSSIBILITY for the Rockets (given they still had Yao's contract on the books). Now, the Rockets are in a position to gain some cap flexibility to either pursue free agents outright or to make "uneven" trades (or sign-and-trades, to the extent they are still allowed under the new CBA) and won't have to worry about salary matching (up to the point of their cap space). Big difference in situation.
Morey may have to re-think his philosophy about free agency: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6530352 Trading for Biedrins without getting a valuable asset in return doesn't make much sense. Trading for Biedrins without knowing the details of the new CBA is just dumb, period.
If the rockets traded say scola for kaman, they could host howard and paul/williams together. They could show the development of patterson and the steady play of matin. You show those guys that and talk about those 2 adding to the mix,now we're talking about something. I don't think howard would come by himself, but with the ability to get williams or paul, now he's listening. Don't make it seem like guys don't want to come here. Houston is a great,multicultural city with great weather. What the high end guys won't do is come here with an ok chance to win, they want a great chance to win.
The poster was suggesting trading Lowry+ for CP3 midseason which would create an additional 6mil+ in cap space in the summer of 2012. This, of course, is all conjecture w/ the CBA up in the air (though the salary cap limit doesn't seem to be in the debate much), but perhaps that would be enough to resign CP3 in this fantasy scenario and sign Howard to the max. Assuming a three team trade that looks something like... Scola to San Antonio CP3 & Ariza to Houston Lowry, Splitter/Leonard, Morris, TWill, Thabeet, picks to New Orleans ...we could end up with: CP3/Dragic Martin/Lee Ariza/Budinger Patterson/Hayes Howard/Hayes I believe that's roughly 62 million in salary. And if not, I suppose Ariza could conceivably be taken out of the CP3 trade. Too bad none of this will happen.
The GM of the Clippers, Neil Olshey, recently said this: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/23/sports/la-sp-clippers-20110624 Seems like some front offices at least have some sort of clue as to what the CBA shoudl look like next year and are acting accordingly (or at least making bets based on what they think could happen based on their (I think) informed guesses). We don't know for sure, but one would expect the result of a negotiation to comeout wherewhere between where the two sides are offering-- as such, the cap should be no tighter than the "$62 mil flex cap" the owners currently offer. As such, I think Morey is pretty reasonable in trying to make a $9 mil acquisition based on such a projection.
Looking at their payroll, Olshey's words sound more like he's thinking on the current cap of 58... - If Morey goes for Biedrins, it is knowing in advance that he may offer a max contract for next summer -counting with AB's contract- regardless of the situation or rigidity of the new CBA. That is, contemplating the worst case scenario. A $62 millions cap would be much better than expected. In fact, if there really exist such an offer, would it be too bold to think that there's still time for an agreement? I mean, I'm surprised about how much the owners have changed their proposal, we were talking about a <$50 mil. cap a weeks ago... Surprised. Do you think this could work?
