Bima, what would you say would be the best deal the Rockets could give Nene where he is still able to be moved in a trade if a deal broke loose in the future for a superstar? We all know that the Rockets #1 concern is flexibility in contracts that can be moved easy and have high value on the trade front. Obviously that will be priority in a deal offered to Nene.
Haven't thought about this. Would this work with the salary cap if we were able to get Nene at 12-13M/yr? You have to think that whatever team were to pick up Scola would have to fork up a substantial amount of his $8 mil salary. (I know that his salary wouldn't count against our cap regardless. Still important when it comes to the amount that an owner is willing to spend.)
I personally think our odds of landing Nene are in the singe digits. Even if we went full tilt and open purse like we did for Bosh, I think he turns us down for a team closer to contention. The Knicks could even amnesty Billups and invite him to rejoin Anthony on a lethal frontcourt. It stinks to be in our situation, since you need two to tango in signings and trades. I hate saying it, but we may need to strongly consider clearing out the roster and stockpile draft picks. The optimist in me says hold out for 9 more months - we may have $25+M in cap space for the 2012 sweepstakes, even while holding on to Scola-Martin-Lowry-Patterson-Morris.
Bima already said he'll do an update some time soon, but I just took a look at the numbers as I was curious myself. Here's what I got: I double checked with ESPN & Shamsports, but there's a lot that goes into those numbers, so I might have missed something.
Some Rockets options 1. Try to sign Nene. If the price tag is too high or he wants to play for a contender, move on. 2. Do nothing in preseason, sign back Hayes, trade pieces that can hopefully get D12 to come at the trade deadline, and hope to entice major 2012 FA's with a lot of money. This is a big gamble and most likely won't work and make us mediocre for a while. 3. Sign Gray or Fesenko to a low contract to be a filler C for the season and potential back up in later years. Low risk/ low reward. 4.Go after Greg Oden. He's been injured by two very unusual collisions. Front load his contract and if he doesn't work out, let him walk away after the season by amnesty. I'm not ready to give a the bust label just yet. I think there's a lot of untapped potential. High risk/ High reward.
Not exactly sure. It sure sounds like Nene is chasing the money here. If so, I don't think the Rockets even have a shot at him. They will likely not want to go full bore (renounce Hayes, amnesty Thabeet, etc.) to offer a near-max deal for Nene and will probably instead look to bring back Hayes and/or sign a stop-gap center and make a REAL run at free agency in 2012 (assuming they can't acquire a star via trade first, which is probably Morey's first choice). My numbers (which include some of the proposed rules changes on rookie scale salaries, minimum salaries and cap holds) come out a little below yours (i.e., less cap room available), largely because the Rockets will most likely need to IMMEDIATELY sign Marcus Morris at 120% of his rookie scale salary and get him in camp. If they can time it just right and have a major free agent ready to sign on the morning of Dec. 9, then perhaps the numbers get closer to yours. Like you said, I'll have more details in my salary cap update later this week or early next week. (Really want to see how some of the B-list issues--notably, the draft age limit--shake out before publishing.)
Nene (et al) can still be SnT, just without the previous benefits. Denver, in this case, would win big by landing some pieces to a very depleted roster. I cannot be convinced it would be prudent for Rox to sign him, though. And dobro - - we do NOT know what the #1 (or 2 or 3) priority is (priorities are). We are subjectively concluding based on (not so) conventional wisdom (sic).
Good point on the camp. I was thinking they might wait a few days, but didn't think about Morris not being able to practice, which obviously is a big factor to consider. For cap holds I used the 2011/12 scale of the old CBA for #14 & #20 and 190% of his previous salary for Chuck. $58,044,000 as the salary cap figure. I also did not add in a figure for Parsons. Having just looked at the summary of the new CBA again I saw that I should have used the '10/11 rookie scale numbers instead. That would mean if the rest of my numbers are correct, and you were to use the 120% number for Morris it's $220,088 less cap space than what I had in the first place.
GeryWoelfel Gery Woelfel There are whispers teams and agents will be allowed to start talking about free agents in the next day or two.
I was just about to post this. Not that it matters, but maybe the 100% cap hold number for Morris does make more sense now, as I would suppose the Rockets will know by Dec. 9 whether or not Nene is going to sign with them.
MrMichaelLee Michael Lee NBA expected to soften lockout & allow players access to team facilities in next few days; still can't contact team officials, source says
WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski NBA executives told that they can start talking to agents, and practice facilities will open to players on Friday, source tells Y! Sports. WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski To be clearer, teams can start talking to agents on Wednesday about deals for players. No deals can be official until Dec. 9.
WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski Coaches are anxious to get players back into gyms and begin working with them. Training camps open on Dec. 9.
We will soon know if his agent is using us for another deal by their tone and talks with us or he will sign here. Morey should just let it go if he gets that vibe he is being used by te agent again. Break it off for once and concentrate on someone else if Nene is not coming here and go after the next best thing. Just like the Texans did with Namdi Asomugha when they decided to stop playing his games and sign Johnathan Joseph instead. Lets not talk a big game for Morey either. At some point delivering has to be the bottom line.
I think the rockets would win the same amount of games with Nene as they would with thabeet/fasenko combo. That's not to say Nene isn't a good player and its easy to get mesmerized by his talent,,but he is what he is. He's just a solid big who will get vastly overpaid. I would take gortat over nene right now as a presence in the paint. I doubt phoenix would give up gortat though. As stated before, let chuck roll and get what he deserves, try to dumb scola for expiring contract or combo of shorter,less expensive contracts, and play thabeet and ? At center. Give patterson and hill scola job and keep moving forward.
MarkBermanFox26 Mark Berman Rocketa make contact with reps for a group of free agents including Nene and Chuck Hayes
