The Rockets will DEFINITELY never get that pick, especially since they traded it away in the Flynn trade on draft night. (If it's any consolation, Morey did manage to get Minnesota's 2012 second rounder.) As others have mentioned, the only reason to amnesty cut Thabeet would be if the Rockets had a guy like Nene ready to sign and they needed the extra cap room to get it done. I think Morey and Les are otherwise committed (enough) to give Thabeet one full season to see what he's got and won't readily cut him purely for Les to save $5M. Also, Thabeet is a sizeable expiring contract that could come in handy in trades leading up to the February(?) trade deadline.
The Battier trade was an epic failure. It hurt even more when Battier was the reason why the Grizzlies made the playoffs and we didn't. I can't stand Thabeet and his lack of drive or work ethic.
I love Shane, but he didn't play all that well in Memphis. If we kept him, the Grizzlies still would have gotten into the playoffs over us. We weren't going to re-sign Battier anyway, so we got something for him instead of just letting him expire. I wish we got more than than Thabeet and a crappy pick, but there probably just weren't any better offers.
The reason why your plan won't pass muster with the owners is that it would result in more player salaries. On a straight amnesty cut, many teams will still be over the cap and will not be "allowed" to spend that cap relief on more salary. I do think there ought to be some incentive for NOT seeking amnesty. One thought would be to award the teams that don't use it with an extra first round pick, after the lottery (i.e., picks 15-22), with non-playoff teams getting to pick in DESCENDING order, followed by playoff teams in descending order. For instance, had this rule been in place last year, and none of Minnesota, Phoenix, Houston, Indiana and the Lakers use amnesty, the draft order would be as follows: 15. Houston 16. Phoenix 17. Minnesota 18. Lakers 19. Indiana Just a thought.
They're were rumors of a Battier for Jermaine O'Neal trade. I would have much rather taken that deal. At least O'Neal was a serviceable center.
Unless you are with the Rockets, you don't have enough info to say that. CD said he was working hard, I put more belief in what he says than someone on the web who is clueless to said "Work ethic" DD
TRUTH. Thanks. I have a hard time keeping track of the draft picks sometimes. Yeah, I know we wouldn't cut him unless we had a shot at a better center like Nene, but I'm just still bitter about losing Battier and Ish. Also, if you couldn't tell, im probably one of Thabeet's biggest non supporters, but I still think it's worth a shot to see what he's got now that he's on the team. It'd just make me angry if we cut Thabeet to sign someone knowing we could've had Battier for the remainder of the season (which may or may not have made a difference in us making playoffs and whether or not he re-signed in Houston) and still have the cap room for Nene or whoever without ever acquiring Thabeet and his contract.
Actually this is an excellent thought. Shame it won't occur. BTW - I have spoken of this (expected) amnesty for months so I also believe the owners have had their plans for this in order for ... ever, so they presumably are comfortable with whatever details they have put into the program.
The Grantland article is speculating on Memphis using their amnesty by trading for an albatross contract and cutting that. Would it be fair to think that if they never traded Thabeet, he would be their amnesty cut instead? In this hypothetical, we let Battier expire and have all the cap space that is currently being fantasized to result from an amnesty cut. We would still have Ish, and we wouldn't have acquired and then cut Carroll. We would have to give Minn some other crappy future pick for Flynn. And, Thabeet would be a double-dipping free agent we could pick up on the cheap if we thought he might turn into a decent center. Did Morey screw this one up in hindsight? Can we amnesty Thabeet and then sign him again ourselves at a lower rate?
Depends on the new cap. If Memphis would be unable to trade Thabeet in the off-season and need additional cap space to re-sign Gasol, then probably, yes. But Memphis was looking to unload Thabeet at the trade deadline either way. I remember rumors about OKC being interested, but unwilling to give up anything of value. Well, again, we'll have to wait for the actual new CBA - which might take a while - but from everything I've read no proposal would allow teams re-signing guys they used their amnesty clause on.
Any amnestied player cannot be resigned by the team that cut them for the remainder of his contract. What do you guys think about trying to sign Rashard Lewis? The wizards are DEFINITELY going to amnesty him and he would solve our starting 3 problem. Does he still have game left?
I'm not so sure that WAS cuts Rashard, unless it's a "50% off" cut. The Wizards will be well below the likely salary cap, and cutting Lewis would also likely put them in a position to have to scramble to pay players just to meet the league minimum team salary. Lewis makes a ton next season ($21M+), but his 2012-13 salary is not fully guaranteed. He's guaranteed no more than $17M and could be guaranteed as little as $10M (of his $22.7M salary) if he doesn't hit any of his incentives. If Rashard misses time or otherwise has a bad season, he could turn into a Dampier-like financial asset in February or June. A team desperate to shed salary (for instance, to avoid the much more severe luxury tax) could save some serious money by trading for and then cutting Lewis. Or they could cut him. Either way.
There would be no reason for the Rockets to cut a player in the last year of his deal. Most of the players that would be cut have multiple years left at a high cost. DM has done a great job of minimizing that on the Rox, so IMO, the Amnesty would not benefit the Rox as much as other teams OTHER than freeing up some players at positions the Rockets are weak at, primarily center. DD
The one possible reason would be if he wants a lot of free cap space this offseason. Which might happen.
