The Rockets paid $2.5M to acquire this guy (the highest price for a 2nd Rounder.) Now, I am not saying that was a waste of money, as it is not like you can get a lot for that anyway, but now that Lowry is proving game in and game out he is a star in this league, where does that put Llull? Dragic is the backup. Where will Llull fit in?
We will probably lose Dragic to free agency if we go after a big fish. So there is probably a chance we will need a backup next year. I don't know his contract situation though.
I can't see us just letting him walk. Goran probably goes out before the deadline in a big deal......Tough call, as he will be in this League for a long time....and has upside.
It's too early to start talking about where he'll fit. We don't even know if he'll make it in this league yet, or if he'll at least be better than Dragic. Rockets have time to figure that out... Having 3 pgs that can play won't be a bad problem to have.
I think he will be here next season too. Dragon will get stupid offers, just look at the teams like the Lakers that need a point guard desperately. They will offer him a $20 million deal easily.
I agree.... we've already dealt Dragic once and I gotta think he'll be part of some deal we swing at the deadline....then we'll either take back a scrub pg with an expiring contract or use Flynn to finish out the year at backup - then DM will look at Lull as a possibility for next season... imo
I can easily see Dragic going out in a deadlinen deal to a team that desperately needs a PG. Similar to Rafer or Brooks situation. He's too good to accept a backup position playing for 2mil. And the Rockets want cap next year. I don't know the exact wording of the CBA. But it's conceivable that the Rockets can sign or trade for someone to fill the cap, then use part of the MLE to sign Llul. This is something we can't do with Dragic, since he has a cap hold with the team which takes up capspace. At the very worst, even if we have no need for Llul, we can probably trade his rights for a 2nd round pick to another team.
His contract with Real Madrid run until the 2013/14 season. As for the Buyout this summer???.... Here's where it gets tricky- We might be looking at Scola 2.0 here. The buyout to get him over shouldn't be incredibly expensive in comparison to what Scola's buyout would have been when the Spurs held his draft rights. However, keep in mind the salary the Rockets are going to give a 2nd round rookie(Llull) vs what he's getting paid in Spain(educated guessing somewhere in between 2mm and 4mm in American dollars) + his starting role with that team might make it hard for both sides to justify spending an extra 4mm on a buyout when you could pick up a backup PG next season for next to nothing. You could also draft another PG this summer, or resign Dragic if he's willing to take the amount that they Rockets would give him in a 2 year deal to be Lowry's backup. Trade Value- The Rockets could just shoot for 2014 to negotiate terms on bringing him over, but more than likely my guess is that Sergio Lull gets traded after this next season to a team that will look for him to be a key piece for the future. Oddly enough, Id guess that the Spurs seem like a team that would value Llull highly enough to bring him over with the notion that he would play a major role with the team, and might give up a something like a 1st round pick to get him. Yes, Llull does have the trade value of a 1st round pick, top 5 protected. If you think Rubio was good (In Europe), Llull was actually a more productive guard this past season on the court although Llull is not a true PG. Either way its a win/win scenario. More than likely the situations are- 1. He gets traded in the next two years for good value in return 2. He gets bought out of Spain this summer for a high price tag, and plays a major role for the Rockets off the bench. 3. He gets brought over after the 2014 season. 4. They combine him in a trade for salary purposes with no inclination of coming overseas from the other team.
Right now, Sergio Llull counts $0 against the Rockets' cap (because he is a second round pick). However, in order to sign him to anything above the league minimum (which a player of Llull's stature is unlikely to accept), the Rockets will either need cap room or a salary cap exception (likely a portion of the MLE) available to sign him. meh, unfortunately for the Rockets, they cannot use cap space and THEN sign Llull using a cap exception, since all such cap exceptions would need to be renounced in order to use the cap room in the first place. My sense is actually that Llull DOESN'T come over next year. I think his contract in Spain makes a buyout a bit difficult. Or at least more difficult than the Rockets are willing to accept. More likely, Llull will either be trade bait (a la ACB-league star Marc Gasol being a key piece in the Lakers' trade package for Pau back in 2008) or will join the Rockets in the 2013-14 season, once the team has (hopefully) used its cap space to acquire one or more star players and is able to avail itself of the MLE.
If the Rockets have the MLE then they can use their bird rights on Dragic and use the MLE on someone else. They can only have either cap space or the MLE but not both.
In this podcast with Morey it sounds like Lowry could also be trade fodder. Start from the 20:50 mark: http://jonahkeri.com/2011/03/10/podcast-30/ I think they would rather pair Kobe with a guy like Hinrich who's been a popular rumored trade target.
