Harden will be actively involved in Rockets' free agent recruiting

Under the scenario you have described Howard would have to sign for 13 million a year.

One more time this is what we could look like if we waive all non guarantees and trade everyone but a few players for no cap hits in return. (we could free up another 800K if we waive Beverley and Smith the difference in their salary and the minimal salary).

Harden $13,668,750
Beverley $915,243
Parson $964,750
Greg Smith $884,293
5 Cap holds $2,450,900
Sub Total $18,883,936

You suggest that we sign Paul for 18 million. That brings our salary commitments to $36,883,064. Leaving now $23,116,064 is cap space. (again this is with a cap assumption of 60 million)

That is 23 million left. Again look for yourself at the figures. So you have 23 million to work with. No more. So if Smith makes 10 million you would only have around 13 million to pay Dwight.

 

We're not getting 3 stars. Parsons still needs to get paid.

 

..+1..

 

So everybody's contracts have already increased? I though harden still counted as 5.8 mill right now

 

Bird rights

 

When the NBA offseason begins this summer then the cap numbers will be 2013/14 salaries. Harden new contract kicks in and he is counting 13+ million against the cap now.

 

1. If we can get 3 stars, you think Morey would let Parsons get in the way? lol you guys get too attached.
2. We have bird rights and could go over the cap to sign him.

 

Well the yeah that changes all the #s, josh would have to sign at 10, Paul and Dwight at 16. Which makes it almost impossible, we can still have a chance to sign both cp3 and Dwight though without smith.

 

It's pretty much a given that should we sign any max or close to max free agent outright that most or all of our non guaranteed/team option players will not be brought back on their current contract. This means that Garcia, Delfino, Brooks and possibly Anderson, Greg Smith won't be coming back under their current deal (e.g. cut loose, but maybe brought back on a different contract if it works out after the chips land).

So, this means that with Harden, Parsons, Asik, Lin, Beverley, Jones, D-Mo, Robinson and Royce White are still around counting towards the cap.

Hoopsworld tells us (http://www.hoopsworld.com/houston-rockets-team-salary):
Name 2013-14
Jeremy Lin $8,374,646
Omer Asik $8,374,646
James Harden $13,668,750
Thomas Robinson $3,526,440
Royce White $1,719,480
Terrence Jones $1,551,840
Donatas Motiejunas $1,422,720
Chandler Parsons $926,500
Tyler Honeycutt - X $100,000
Patrick Beverley $788,872
Total: $40,453,894

For sake of this post we will keep the salary cap the same as the 2012 season at 58.044 million. This number is likely to go up but without fully knowing what it will be it's just easier to say this is the lowest it could likely be and maneuvering should be easier than projected. So with that figure the Rockets will have $17,590,106 available with keeping the above players around (sans Honeycutt that is released but still counts 100k against the upcoming season).

$17,590,106

Let's talk about the first option I believe Morey will go for - Dwight Howard.
As mentioned in this bleacherreport article - the Rockets will go for Dwight and why shouldn't they.
(http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-greatest-threat-in-dwight-howard-sweepstakes)
One severely inaccurate part of this article is around declining Delfino, Garcia and Brooks.

As mentioned above, if the Rockets only had only $38 million committed next season that is due to having declined these players salaries already.

1) Dwight Howard
So as mentioned in the above scenario, we have just over $17.5 million. Dwight's starting max salary for next season is around the $20.5 million mark. Meaning for the Rockets to grab him with the above scenario would need to shed $3 million from the payroll. Thomas Robinson would be the obvious choice. He was a top 5 pick in 2012 and could return a first rounder in the future from a team that is under the salary cap. Is that an easy move? Emphatic Yes! The answer for that really comes from how stunned teams around the league was that Robinson was available at the trade deadline anyway, this means that he is easily trade-able. Let's say we send him to the Cavs for a 1st rounder in 2014.

So, Dwight is available to be signed outright. Now we are capped out.

2) Chris Paul
So, should we land Dwight, I believe that Chris Paul then becomes and option. Morey will probably put the idea of CP3 and Dwight playing together into both their heads to get this idea to work, but I have to put them in some sort of order so here is #2.
CP3 agrees to come, tells the Clippers that he's going to Houston, with or without a sign and trade. Both options are listed below.
1. Houston dumps Lin and Asik with Royce White (and potentially other players if needed) to a team or teams with cap space. Get picks back and now we have around $18 million to offer Chris Paul

2. Houston Trades Lin and Asik with Royce White to the Clippers for Chris Paul in a sign and trade agreement. Correct me if I'm wrong but Houston doesn't need to have the full amount going out of the CP3 contract, it just needs to be 'near' (e.g. for contracts above 19.6 million you can have incoming up to 125% of the outgoing salary plus $100,000) So Lin/Asik/White could go to Clipperland for CP3. This benefits the Clippers because now they have trade assets (Asik) and another PG (Lin) for CP3 rather than seeing him walk for nothing.

3. If you can't get CP3, use option 2 but instead of CP3 pickup Josh Smith and start Beverley as the starting PG

4. Use the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception to pickup 1 or 2 players to fill out the bench. I would recommend bringing back Garcia as the defensive player/3pt shooter off the bench. Spelling Harden or Parsons for a total of 20mins a game. Bring him back at 3min per season for 3 seasons. Use the rest of the MLE to bring in a backup C like Dalembert or Timofey Mozgov.

5. Sign the 2nd round pick from the Suns (Marcus Morris trade).

6. Fill the roster with veteran minimums that want to chase a title and minimum contracts for DLeague and international players.

CP3/Beverley
Harden/Garcia
Parsons/Garcia
Jones/D-Mo
Dwight/Dalembert

Or

Beverley/vet
Harden/Garcia
Parsons/Smith/Garcia
Smith/Jones/D-Mo
Dwight/Dalembert

Either one looks like a championship contender to me. Personally I like the first one as Jones or D-Mo are likely to develop into solid rotation players and having Beverley come off the bench bringing energy would be epic.

Downside of the above scenario(s) is that Leslie might decide that as a business decision he needs to keep Lin around as a cash cow and force Morey's hand.

I think the key to getting Dwight and CP3/Josh Smith is having Harden talking to them identifying the possibility to play together before Morey comes with the iPad. As they can see with Miami, a super team can win championships and could even start a dynasty. Lets hope Harden was a born salesman and Morey can just visit with the contracts to sign.

Peace!

 

That is one of the reasons they brought him here.

Parson is a keeeper.

Bring in either Howard or Smith .

 

Read the post that you're quoting. It was never said that Dwight would be absorbed into the cap space. The Rockets would have no cap space. The Lakers would sign and trade Dwight for Lin and Asik. Same with Josh Smith. The Rockets would only be beholden to the standard rules for trade (125% of outgoing salary).

 

amazing

 

Wrong.

Yes there is the standard rule of 125% of outgoing salaries for trades. However in a sign and trade you have the have the cap space to fit the new salary into and under your cap. You can not exceed the cap using the 125% provision for sign and trade players. IF Dwight was under contract already then this wouldn't be the case.

 

The problem is Paul, he will teach Air Bud bad habits. Bad floppy habits like these:





Harden will also be a bad influence for Air Bud:

 

^^
wow no thats a flopper.

 

A flopper, yes, but is it indeed habitual?

 

O my, that's a new low. lol

 

LOL he is soft

 

that would be sweet if harden can help steal one of the thunder's players in the future.

 

That Kevin Martin fellow hit a lot of shots against us in game 6.