The Rockets' Approach This Offseason Might Not Involve Using Cap Space

And that is a bad thing how? Are we here to read the flaming, ill considered, illogical, moronic and just plane looney opinions? If you answer yes I can respect your opinion.

 

Yes. They got rid of Chuck Hayes' cap hold under Morey this past offseason when Chuck signed with SAC. Remember that guy? They also got rid of Ron Artest's cap hold when Ron left for the Lakers. Whenever a FA signs with another team (or retires) they "get rid of his cap hold."

 

I know the heat had a lot of it last summer. I know indy had a lot of it this summer. I know portland has a lot and 2 lotto picks. I know what opening up cap space and having cap space is. Hayes had a cap hold until he was signed,rght? You have the hold unless you renounce a guy right. They never renounced the rights to hayes did they?

 

Leeb, as usual, you are spot on.

And no, the Rockets have not made a habit out of renouncing rights.

DD

 

When you say teams have "a lot" of cap space, it is pretty much ALWAYS only after you do not count the cap holds of their own free agents.

For example, Indiana has $36 million or so in committed salary. Assuming a $58 million cap, they would have "a lot of" cap space (around $22 million) only if you do not count the cap holds of their free agents, including Hibbert, George Hill, Amundson and Barbosa. If you count their cap holds, they would actually have no cap space at all. Just like the Rockets, Indiana has to get rid of the cap holds by renouncing the players or by letting them go before they actually have "a lot of cap room" (or, in fact, any cap room).

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/pacers.jsp

This applies to pretty much every team, to say that a team has "cap room" it's almost always only after you already subtracted the cap holds. The Rockets are no different: they only have $40 million in guaranteed contracts at this point. So if you do the math the same way as you do with Indiana (i.e. not count the cap holds), they, too, will have "a ton of cap room." Meanwhile, if you count the cap holds of their own FAs, neither of them would have cap room.

So, to say that teams like Indiana "has a lot of cap space" while the Rockets need to do things to "open up cap space" is simply a mis-statement of the facts.

 

Agreed. Dalembert's situation reminds me of this:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pets_or_Meat:_The_Return_to_Flint


There are really several ways you can play the Dalembert card:

There are teams who can use a center (starting or backup) for whom Dalembert would be a useful guy to have. Unlike a FA, you don't have to outbid other teams for him and don't have to commit multiple years to him. Teams without cap room will also have a hard time finding a decent C at the MLE, particularly if they are in tax territory (a $3 million player from last year's FA class? Aaron Gray).

You can also sell him as a salary relief tool, to the extent that the Rockets are willing to take back salary for whatever consideration the other team is willing to give. For example, would the Pistons trade the 9th pick for Dalembert in order to dump Charlie V's salary? Would Rockets take such a trade?

Finally, as you said, the Rockets can pay another team cash or a 2nd round pick to get the $1.5 million off their payroll, should the $1.5 million be that important to their summer plans.


who surely can use a full-sized

 

In terms of indy, I said last summer when they were knowingly looking for a vet 4 and letting ford and dunleavy go. with the rockets, they're always in wait and see mode. I do agree about Dally being a great trade tool because of his salary structure. This is very similar how Dallas used dampier and howards salary. While i understand to non renouncing of players, there is a point to get them off your books if you're moving on and opening that space up.

 

I don't think the Rockets have been unwilling to let their guys go in order to preserve cap space flexibility. The front office very much have their eyes on the cap situation when they made moves and they've not been reluctant to let players go when their contracts expire or are about to expire. For example, Chuck Hayes was let go after last year pretty much for the very purpose of preserving cap space (both for last season and for this upcoming offseason). Before then, the Rockets wasn't going to have cap room even if they let the expiring free agents leave (due to Yao's expring contract), but they still let about-to-expire guys McGrady, Battier and Brooks go by trade (better to get something in return when letting them go wouldn't have created extra cap room).

In any case, last season was the first time when they could have had cap room-- and they first delayed, then gave up, bringing back Chuck Hayes to position themselves to sign someone Marc Gasol or Nene to a large ($13mil+ a year) contract. The signings didn't work out, but not for the team undervaluing cap room. The issue was Nene chose to sign with Denver and Memphis used their "restricted FA" leaverage to match (and exceed) Houston's offer. In fact, the Rockets also bargained hard with Dalembert and only signed him to a short contract (after negotiating until the season started) for the very purpose of keeping cap room options open for the 2012 season.

So, for the upcoming free agency period, if the Rockets really has a worthy free agent agreeing to sign for $10 million, $13 million, or more in starting salary or a trade for a star that requires this much cap room to complete, their past history certainly do not indicate that they'll let Courtney Lee get in the way of such a deal.

 

In that event, they would also have to renounce the rights to Frederick Weis, which might be a deal breaker:

http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/rockets.jsp

 

It might also not involve insight, knowledge, vision, perceptivity, or common sense. My view of the Rocket's current "brain trust" has hit bottom. I have no confidence in their decision-making ability. I can't fathom why so many on this board are so enamored with Morey. What has he done? The absence of results is screaming at us. This franchise needs some fresh new ideas and approaches in the worst way. See you in November, maybe.

 

Man Bima I love your cap insight. The NBA is so much different than the NFL's cap. I do cap work for 2 websites, my own 49ers website, and a Fantasy type website, and I keep track of all players salaries. I know the cap in the NFL inside and out, but when it comes to the NBA, I know very little. Major props to you.

Question, would anyone take on Kevin Martin's salary for 2012-2013 season? And if so what kind of compensation would we receive?

And how likely is it Scola gets dealt? I watch every game, I sub to NBA LP on DirecTV every year(Being in NY sucks), and I am a huge Scola and Lowry fan, but wonder if the Front Office feels we can get a premiere player for them.

I hope we are able to keep Lee and Camby, and if Lowry is dealt then Dragic, who I was impressed with all season, he came in and played great.

 

Well if you are the kind of person that views things without context then I could see your view.

 

You can argue his lack of direction the past two years, but how short is your memory?

Year 1: Hired Rick Adelman and built a 55-win team(most since Hakeem's heydays) despite Yao's injury part way through.

Year 2: Had our best player injured/quit on the team, and still made the 2nd round for the first time in over a decade and pushed the eventual champion to 7 games with the other star injured in the series.

I'll give you that Morey f**ked himself because he tried to put talent around Yao and T-Mac, allowing the Rockets to have .500 talent despite losing our two star players. If Morey hadn't done trades like VSpan for Scola or Rafer for Lowry, we'd probably be talking about how awesome it is to be building around Greg Monroe and Jimmer right now, and looking at another pick in the 5-10 range for next year. And fans here would be preaching patience similar to the Stevie/Cat days.

Morey should've realized that when you have 2 star players, it's best to put crap around them so you don't get screwed if they get injured.

 

Unlike yourself, solid has over 15 years of context (read results) by which he is judging the Rockets' organization. And if by context you mean excuses for failure, save 'em. If the Rockets spent as much time on producing concrete results as they did on PR spin and excuses, they'd be a playoff team.

 

Only two guys currently on the team were around during the TMac/Yao days. Time to put that excuse to rest.

You think Portland is still crying about Roy and Oden's injuries? Roy just retired and they've already moved on.

Dallas won a championship just last year. You think they cared about short term results and a miniscule chance at repeating? No, they've already let key pieces go with the mindset of rebuilding, with stars not role players.

Meanwhile, we're in a worse position than we were two years ago. Some of our best players aren't even under contract (Dragic, Lee, and Camby) so we can't even consider them assets yet. Dragic and Camby are unrestricted, so if they walk away and leave us with nothing what will you say about Morey's plans then?

 

For the future, of course.

But are we talking about Morey's past failures or hypothetical future failure? Or are you saying that Scola, Lowry, Brooks, and Landry were not important in keeping us at the .500 mark in the past couple of years?

We saw in 2006 what kind of supporting cast we had when Yao and T-Mac both missed significant time. That's the kind of team you tank with. By upgrading that type of supporting cast, Morey achieved short termed success when Yao and T-Mac were relatively healthy, but achieved long term mediocrity when both went down.

 

I'm talking about both: the failure of short term goals and his failure to position our team for improvement going foward. Morey doesn't want to tank and I'm fine with that, but by trying to walk the line between fighting for the playoffs and rebuilding he's accomplished neither.

You want to make the playoffs? Then you don't:

1) Fire a HOF coach in Adelman for an unproven coach in what could be a shortened season, especially when you've hampered him with a roster without size for two straight years.

2) Trade a 1st round pick and rotation guys for Terrence Williams and Thabeet rather than immediate help. Williams already had coaching issues and Thabeet was a known bust. There is no way in hell Adelman was going to play those guys in the middle of a playoff push. Portland traded two low first round picks for Gerald Wallace that year and we trade for Terrence freaking Williams?

3) Keep the 09'ers just because they're expirings that can be used in a trade for a star. Sure, they were eventually used for a good player in Camby, but that move came at the deadline, forcing us to play Patterson at center for long stretches in the first half of the season. Speaking of smallball:

4) Have only one guy that can play center at any time. Don't play hardball with Chicago over the Asik/Lee traded when we're getting killed inside. Don't let Hayes walk for nothing when you know Dalembert is only good for 24mpg. Amnesty Thabeet if you have to, but if you want to make the playoffs you need to re-sign productive bigs. We've only had one center at a time (if you consider Hayes one) for the past three years. Meanwhile, Philly gets Hawes for nothing.

We could have made the playoffs in each of the past three years. But that requires a commitment on Morey's part and he's never committed to a particular direction. He's waiting for the next big thing to fall into his lap.