Feigen: ROX wont spend $, cuz they have it - will go after Nene, not 2nd tier players

hmmm, Nene is the poster child for a tier 2 player.

 

It shows how far our expectations have fallen that we're excited over the possibility of acquiring Nene.

God help us.

 

Threads like this get me depressed about the Rockets. It's clear based on the status quo, and even the discussions that are being had between sides in the CBA, that David Stern and the NBA couldn't give two no ***** Sherlocks and four flying f**ks about competitive balance.

Everything they're doing is to minimize the ability of good GM's to exploit the poor decision-making abilities of bad GM's. Who in hell from the owners' side even proposed this amnesty clause garbage? They don't have that in any other sport, and it certainly wouldn't save the owners any money, to write off one salary cap restriction simply to be able to go after another player that would fill that cap space. It definitely doesn't add to parity because only the rich owners would make use of such an option, and the rich franchises tend to have more bad contracts as a function of being more loose in giving them out in the first place.

Personally I can see where the future is taking the Rockets, and even with smart administration that answer is: mediocrity until David Stern stops being the commissioner. So keep the lockout going, add fuel to the fire, anything to give us more chaos and open up even the tiniest sliver of hope that things in the NBA the way they've been done cannot persist, that some kind of change will be inevitable and that David Stern's demise will be a part of it.

 

Well, my math is different, please let me know what you have:
Kevin Martin 12,019,840
Luis Scola 8,591,793
Kyle Lowry 5,750,000
Marcus Morris 1,959,960
Donteas Montejounas 1,402,540
Hasheem Thabeet 5,127,720
Jonny Flynn 3,414,720
Jordan Hill 2,855,760
Terrence Williams 2,369,040
Goran Dragic 2,108,000
Patrick Patterson 1,959,960
Courtney Lee 2,225,092
Chase Budinger 884,293

I see about 50.5 million in guaranteed money. You wrote in your article 2.8 million, I just don't see that number. Yes, I am excluding Blakely, Ming, Cousins and Hayes. If there is an amnesty clause, Thabeet could be cut dropping us to 45 million. With last years 58 million number that opens up about 13 million in cap room.

From here, you could wine and dine Gasol and see if he even wants to be here. If so, we have multiple guys in the 2 million dollar range who could be given away or even traded for a pick + TPE to free up that money, without violating the minimum roster rule.

I personally don't think letting Hayes, Blakey and Cousins walk, and giving away Hill or Dragic is too much of a price to pay for Gasol.

You of all people should know how cap savy Morey is, and this is definately something he could pull off with relative ease if Gasol is interested and Memphis is hesistant to match.

Perhaps you havent been paying attention, but this is a league where the market value for bigs is at a premium. Noah (10m), Beidrins (9m), Bynum (15m), Bogut (12m), OKafor (12.5m), Camby (9.2m). Gasol is better than just about all of those guys, except maybe Bogut. I don't find 15 million dollars all that unreasonable for a healthy, 26 year old, top 5 center.

Mediocrity? I don't think so. A core of Lowry, Martin, Scola, Gasol with tons of other tradable assets and role players is rock solid. A follow up move to nab a guy like Iguodala, who is said to be on the block would assure this team is fighting for home court for the forseaable future.

How does: Lowry / Martin / Iguodala / Patterson / Gasol look to you?
Because that looks pretty damn good to me.

LA, SA, DN, Phoe, and Dal are all on thier way down. OKC is the only team which is set of the next few years.

So no, I am not deranged, I just happen to see different scenarios than you do. While I love the idea of Howard on this roster, I would take this scenario 10 times out of 10 rather than just having a "chance" in free agency next year.

 

Nene is a good player. He would help us. We can't always land the big fish. But with Nene we are a playoff team imo. Nene>>>Chuck Hayes or Brad freakin Miller.

 

How about hoopster extraordinaire, or perhaps ordinaire; likely in between.
Or do you just prefer profane silliness?

 

First off, get defensive much?

Second, your bolded statement above reflects the key incorrect assumption you are making. Even if the owners completely caved and gave the union the 52.5% of BRI they are demanding, the new salary cap is going to still be much lower than $58M. Figure somewhere between $50-53M, best case scenario. Hence, the owners pushing for salary cap relief via amnesty cuts.

Even if the cap is as high as $53M, and the Rockets amnesty cut Thabeet, there is virtually no way Memphis doesn't match the absolute most that the Rockets could offer.

You're one of the good ones, larsv8. Don't take my prior post personally, man.

 

Bima,

I don't think the league has to move the soft cap level much below $58 mil in order to (or anything significant) to the soft cap level to in response to a change in player BRI share from 57 to 52 or 50%.

There are a couple of reasons:

1. Within a reasonable range, you can basically get to any final BRI share with any soft cap level by playing around with escrow amounts and exceptions. Obviously you won't want to set to soft cap level at, say, $15 million or $200 million, but a $58 mil soft cap should still work with a 52/48 or 50/50 split as far as the spirit of the syatem goes...

2. The $58 mil soft cap was set as 1/30th of 51% of the PROJECTED 2010/2011 BRI, with the projection done as of July 2010. My understanding is that this projection came in well under the ACTUAL 2010/2011 BRl, which ended up being $3.817 billion, 4.7% higher than the 2009/2010 BRI. I think the sides are now projecting at least 4% annual growth to BRI going forward.

In any case, I think even if the sides were to set the soft cap level at 1/30th of, say, 45 or 46% of the projected BRI for 2011/2012 (obviously, discounted for loss games but then actual salary for each player will be similarly discounted), we might end up with a number fairly close to $58 mil.

 

You may be right, but the owners will want to bake in plenty of room between the soft salary cap max and the luxury tax threshold, with the latter likely to be lowered from its current levels, especially if things like Bird rights and the MLE are being retained substantially in their former condition. I do not expect next year's salary cap max to be nearly as much as you do, I suppose.

We'll just have to see what happens with the new CBA. I just don't think many of the owners will ratify a CBA with a $58M (or prorated equivalent) salary cap max in 2011-12.

 

"The trade shocked me. After the Finals, Dwight and I were talking about things we had to do to get back and win a championship together. He joked about us being the next Shaq and Penny [Hardaway] with the Magic. … I know it's a business, and trades happen, but it's not something you forget, even when you look forward like I am."

Courtney Lee

:grin:

 

haha, love it.

 

what did you mean "not 2nd tier players"?? Nene is the best example of "2nd tier players"

 

Kind of surprised how little respect Nene gets around here. There are so few players in this league who can play the center position effectively and he is one that doesn't have a huge weakness, just an all around solid player in my opinion. I know his defense and rebounding aren't DH or even Tyson Chandler level, but its hard to sneeze at a guy who is 3rd in TS%, 5th in PER, 6th in EWA at his position. He doesn't solve all our problems, but I just don't see how he wouldn't help immensely.

I'm not saying we should break the bank or hamper ourselves in anyway if we truly feel like we are a player in the Howard sweepstakes down the road, but if we end up with Nene I will be far from disappointed and believe the Rockets would be much more than just mediocre.

 

He meant 2nd tier among free agents available this year. No Lebron, Wade or even Bosh in this free agent class. You have to be realistic about these things.

Nene, as other have mentioned, is very useful to have and about as good a player and as good a fit for this team's needs as you can get among the upcoming free agent class. Just imagine some of the Chuck Hayes/Luis Scola layup attempt being turned into dunks, a much more efficient proposition. Say one thing about Daryl Morey, say that he loves efficiency.

 

CH/larsv8, further to my point about a lower salary cap:

--The majority of owners want a lower and more punitive luxury tax

--Those same owners want to prohibit tax-paying teams from being able to use salary cap exceptions

--Those salary cap exceptions only apply to teams that are over the salary cap already (otherwise, teams wouldn't need them)

These facts all dictate that the "spread" between the salary cap max and the luxury tax threshold will not be some nominal amount. It will likely be a similar spead to the current one, if not larger. Hence, a likely lower salary cap max.

 

It's pointless to speculate what the cap might end up being. We either can or cannot make it happen. We won't know until a new deal is in place.

My point was I believe we have flexibity and options here, while you call it a pipe dream. Who knows what the cap might end up being, but with the former cap rate, we could indeed muster up the funds to make a max contract if Morey was able to effectively use amnestity and trade off some minor, but positive value pieces.

Regardless my points still stand, because if cap values go down, so does the max contract amount, and thus, so does the luxury threshold.

So back to my original question.....what can Memphis afford to do, as a small notoriously cheap franchise, with 2 players already approaching max deals, Conley making absurd money, OJ Mayo in line to make big bucks and a, quite possibly, more aggressive tax penalty?

 

I believe Feigen when he says that Memphis will match any offer on Gasol, carry all those big contracts and give it a go for a season or two. If they don't win and the financial pain gets too bad, they'll deal with it at that later time.

You may be right that the Rockets COULD conceivably extend a max offer sheet to Gasol, if many things in the new CBA fall a certain way. But I also strongly believe that (a) Memphis will still match (and will undoubtedly hate Morey for making them "overpay") and (b) that would be far too much for a guy like Gasol. I think we just disagree about Gasol being a top-5 center (I'd say he's top-10 but that Nene is better) and about what contracts other players in Gasol's tier will be getting (citing guys like Biedrins and Okafor--two examples that reinforce the owners' assertion that the new CBA needs to be far more restrictive--only underlines my point that those contracts will be fewer and farther between).

Again, larsv8, you'll always have my respect. And who knows? You may end up being right. But I just feel that most evidence points to the idea of throwing near max money at Marc Gasol being either impractical or impossible altogether.