Jonathan_Feigen Jonathan Feigen Rockets will waive Marqus Blakely, Omar Samhan and Ibraham Jaaber today.
Of the fully unguaranteed contracts Blakely: $25,000 guaranteed after opening night Cousin: fully unguaranteed after opening night Lin: fully unguaranteed after opening night
The waiving of Marqus Blakely DOES have some impact on the Rockets' remaining pre-season plans. First off, I'm assuming that Blakely (the most likely of these three to have made the roster) was waived purely because there was no room left at the SF position after Budinger, Morris, Williams and Parsons. I had been hoping for a 3-for-1 or 4-for-1 trade to clear room, in which case I could have seen Blakely making the final cut as a 13th or 14th man. Second, Blakely was guaranteed $25,000 if he made the opening day roster. Since there was no room for him, the Rockets wanted to avoid having to pay this sum, which would count against the cap. Most importantly, though, Blakely's non-guaranteed contract would have allowed him to be included in trades for salary-matching purposes. I had been holding out hope that the Rockets could orchestrate a trade between now and December 25 where Blakely and Cousin could be included for salary-matching purposes and then possibly waived by the other team in a salary dump. Waiving Blakely indicates (albeit only slightly) that such trades are not being seriously discussed right now. Oh, well.
Does Donuts count towards our 15-man roster? Or is he for sure staying to play in Poland? Lowry/Dragic/Flynn Martin/Lee Budinger/Williams/Morris Scola/Patterson/Parsons Hill/Thabeet So, we've got three players we have left to mull over. Jeremy Lin, Marcus Cousin, and Greg Smith. Thoughts on who should stay? I definitely like Greg Smith, but kind of a toss-up between Lin and Cousin.
when do the rockets need to pick up the 2012-13 team options on players like hill/thabeet/Twill/flynn/bud, or has that deadline already passed?
All three of them have immediately become hot commodities in the Chinese Basketball Association market for replacement American Players.
Donuts does not count against our roster as long as he isn't signed. And you forgot about Jeff Adrien, who recently signed. Adrien and/or Smith for the backup 4/5 should make it. I'm personally pulling for Lin though.
I hope Greg Smith stays ... I know it was just one play offensively, but I loved how he used his body to create space for that layup. Sadly, a lot of bigs don't know how to use their bodies around the basket. I thought Blair was huge until Smith was standing next to him ... Dude is huge, physical, and athletic ... I can't believe he wasn't atleast drafted. Please don't waive him Morey, he'll make you sorry!
There's also Adrien who has a partially guaranteed deal. He's most likely making the squad ahead of these three. Especially if Patterson is still out. Morey has said he like rosterflexibility but if Thabeet is only good for 5-10mins a game. They might need to keep Smith.
