Like I suggested in another thread, couldn't we, hypothetically, let Dal's and Camby's contracts run out, and then use that cap space on a free agent in 2013. I mean hell, if nothing good comes out this year and we CANT trade up to a top 5 pick, lets leave our team together, they will undoubtedly have a bad record and thus a good pick. Here is a list of unrestricted free agents in 2013, the ones worth mentioning. There are a lot of great players who are restricted. PG Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers – $17.8 million – Unrestricted Devin Harris, Utah Jazz – $8.5 million – Unrestricted SG Kevin Martin, Houston Rockets – $12.4 million – Unrestricted - LOL Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs – $14.1 million – Unrestricted Stephen Jackson, San Antonio Spurs – $10.1 million – Unrestricted Corey Brewer, Denver Nuggets – $2.7 million – Unrestricted Ronnie Brewer, Chicago Bulls – $4.4 million – Unrestricted SF Josh Smith, Atlanta Hawks – $13.2 million – Unrestricted Dorrell Wright, Golden State Warriors – $4.1 million – Unrestricted PF David West, Indiana Pacers – $10.0 million – Unrestricted DeJuan Blair, San Antonio Spurs – $1.1 million – Unrestricted Paul Millsap, Utah Jazz – $8.6 million – Unrestricted Al Jefferson, Utah Jazz – $15.0 million – Unrestricted C Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic – $19.5 million – Unrestricted Andrew Bynum, L.A. Lakers – $16.1 million – Unrestricted Nikola Pekovic, Minnesota Timberwolves – $4.8 million – Unrestricted* Tiago Splitter, San Antonio Spurs – $3.9 million – Unrestricted*
I don't think any A-tier free agents want to sign here- a team that has missed the playoffs the last few years and has no high draft picks or blue chip prospects.
Josh Smith would seem to be an obvious target if he's not traded before this coming February. I dont think he's a max free agent, but he's going to command a nice chuck of change. The Rockets have only 16.43 Million on the books as of now for 2013/2014. If they resign Lee/Dragic/ and pick up the options on Patterson/Morris/Parsons/Smith + salaries of Motiejunas/14th+16th pick They will have roughly 43 Million guaranteed going into 2013/2014 which will leave them about enough room for one Max level contract, or roughly 15 to 18 million in cap space. Again, these are very rough numbers. Not Bimathug type of figures, but it gives you a rough guess what kind of flexibility they have going into 2013/14 IF they were to have the same roster. Which we all know isnt going to happen anyways. Lets see what kind of deals they shake up this week on draft night, and revist this. If the Rockets are targeting Josh Smith in 2013 I think its in their best interest to try to come up with a reasonable package this year to trade for him instead. With having such a log jam at the PF position anyways they are going to need to shed some salary to bring in someone like Smith and pursue another all-star type of player to pair him with. However, we all know that the Rockets are a team that really doesn't believe in free agency anyways as means to build a team so I wouldn't worry too much about cap space, but I would worry about cap flexibility in the contracts that are signed this summer with Lee, Dragic, and Camby hampering their plans going forward to make deals like this if these are the type of players they want to shoot for. -Also note that I did not consider Lowry's salary into consideration, and instead considered Dragics at around 10 mil a year. Which sounds about right based on rumours of what his price will be.
