Hi Aleron, Thanks for your response. You make some good points and my responses are not really disputing them. Basically, when it comes down to it, after we sign Dwight what can we trade to Atlanta in a S&T for Smith (given that he wants to come to Houston). - Smith rejected $15m offer from Atlanta earlier but it gives you an indication of the cap space we need to create. - Rockets also rejected a Smith for Asik/Parsons trade proposal at the deadline last season. - After the Howard signing we declined all non-guaranteed contracts (except Parsons, G.Smith, and Beverley) and was able to trade T-Rob for a pick. Given the 3 parameters above. Our only trade options... 1) Asik/Lin 16m for J.Smith 15m Not going to happen if the Asik/Parsons rejection by Houston FO was an example. Basically Asik/Lin > Smith as far as Rockets are conserned. 2) Asik/R.White 9.7m for Smith 15m Not sure if the salaries work. Probably not possible. Remember we cannot S&T if it puts us over the cap. Even if it were. Would Atlanta want Royce White? The other pieces like T-Jones and D-Mo are paid less than White so doubtful their salaries would work. So to sum up, unless J.Smith takes a huge pay cut $11m (down from a possible max $15m, currently paid 13m), it is almost impossible to S&T for him. IMHO.
You can sign and trade if it puts you over the cap, you can't sign and trade if it puts more than $4m over the luxury threshold (which is about $12m give or take above the cap, so about $16m or so over the cap), we would be about $10m short of that even after such an acquisition. And the number i see for Smith in a s&t for just Asik, would be max of a bit over $54m over 4 years (8.374m x 150% + 100k + 4.5% annual raises), state taxes in consideration, it'd cost him about 700k a year, plus gives him an extra year (no guarantee he'd get that much for another new contract either) it's not that big a pay cut.
Thanks Bima. One other question... first I just got that under the 60 mil cap scenario we could have an extra 540,000. I neglected to realize added with the 490,000 would allow us to keep a player like Ohlbrecht on the books. Which brings me to my next question. I understand that in a sign and trade the rule is 150% or 5 mil or 125%. That's how much extra you can take in a trade. Josh Smith falls in the 5million group because he currently has 13.2 mil salary. So if you trade Asik 8.37 mil + Royce 1.72 + Ohlbrect .788 mil it totals out at to 10.9 mil (roughly). Add the 5 mil + 100,000 over and it's almost exactly 16 mil we can take back in salary. AM I adding this up right Asik and some scrubs get us to 16 mil which I'm thinking is enough to get Josh Smith on board. Is that correct. If so I've been missing the boat on this and we can sign Josh Smith without losing a lot of pieces. And then use that Room exception you mentioned and sign Aldemir and our 2nd round pick to long term deals like Morey prefers to do and maybe sign Matt Barnes to the vet min what he got last year at LA. If not him another vet or 2. Let's see our roster now Howard, Aldemir, Greg Smith Josh Smith, T Jones, DMo Parsons, Rookie Harden, Matt Barnes Lin Beverly That's a pretty good squad. I would like to sign Garcia to that room exception but I also like those long term deals for rookies. Anyway that's more than a question. Thanks So our team
Wow. Thanx Aleron. I learned something new. So to extrapolate from that... Given we signed Dwight as per the discussed scenario. Our trade scenarios for J.Smith are... Asik/R.White ($9.7m) - No chance Atlanta accepts R.White. Asik/T-Jones ($9.5m) Asik/D-Mo ($9.4m) So if this trade is gonna work... Atlanta would want Asik+(T-Jones or D-Mo) with a $9.5m cap hit. and Houston gets J.Smith for 4/54 ($13.5m) and be over the cap. It can be done, but do we pull trigger on Smith? try for Love next year? or stick with Asik and T-jones/D-Mo? I think Morey will stick with Asik, D-MO, T-Jones for another year and see how they develop.
You guys are missing the point. First morey can trade for smith with Howard ... It's been covered here already not that complicated ... They can take 5 mil over outgoing salary In Snt Second morey planned for this ... Every contract had to fall into a certain criteria for him to take it on. Finally it's not about finding the best player to pair with smith it's about wooing Howard to come here saying we will sign your best friend + no st tax , young team, Chinese marketing , and if course the bearded one
1) There is no incentive for Smith, no extra money or extra years. The incentive is simple - - if Howard and Smith, of their choosing, elect to sign together/start a super-team together. That is big time incentive as proven by The Heatles. 2) Atlanta has the most cap space of any team, why would they want to help us get Smith. Do they really need or want Asik ... It's not that easy, they have to want them a lot for this trade to happen. Horford is a 4, playing at the 5. IMO Ferry would take Asik for Smith. Good deal for Atlanta, I believe. A player who makes another better, improves the roster, saves $$$ from Smith. 3) Atlanta may want to resign Smith (although Smith may not want to resign). Pair him with another star like CP3 or whoever they get. WDJW? What does Josh want? Or Ferry, for that matter. If CP3 decided to throw in with The Hawks then all other bets are off. (My bet is that CP3 stays in LaLaLand and Griffin gets swapped for Love FWIW.) 4) Assuming Dwight goes to Houston, a Lakers S&T with Gasol / Smith is much more attractive for Atlanta. Gasol is an expiring contract and fills the PF position Smith would vacate. I think this has less possibility than the Rox signing Hoiberg to max out the White asset. I think.
We dont have to give the Lakers anything, easily have space to sign him directly if he desires to come here. I certainly doubt the Rockets would send both Lin and Asik for him if they did decide to give the Lakers anything, which they dont need to do since he is a FA this summer. Again, why should anyone help the Lakers? Ah, this explains it...you dont realize the new CBA keeps that from happening. The Only Way Dwight Howard Gets The 5 Year Contract Is If He Stays In LA. and also the new CBA prevents a team that will be over the apron(4M over the tax line) from receiving a SnTed player...I havent checked the numbers, but I was under the impression the Nets are over the apron.
May be D12 insists JSmith to join us? If so, it could be a bit difficult to do a S&T with Atlanta than to LA if the cap limit does not increase to beyond $60M. Atlanta wants Asik but may not want Lin since they have Jeff Teague while LA may want both rather than letting D12 walk. LA may also include Steve Blake for TJones/DMo to help their tax a little bit (I did not check if the figures match, may be off 1M or so).
Correct, and using your original spreadsheet, if we don't waive Anderson then we have enough to send out the $11.5 million in salaries to take back Josh on a max deal sign and trade at $16.5 million: James Harden - $14.13 million (adjusted to $60 mil) Jeremy Lin - $8.37 million Omer Asik - $8.37 million- Royce White - $1.72 million Terrence Jones - $1.55 million Donatas Motiejunas - $1.42 million Chandler Parsons - $926,250 Greg Smith - $884,293, non-guaranteed , Beverley - $788,872, non-guaranteed Anderson - $916,099, non-guaranteed Req’d minimum player - $490,000 [Honeycutt] = $100,000 Total = $39.67 Mil subtracted from 60 mil = 20.33 mil Dwight Max Salary = $20.32 mil Remaining salary cap = $10,000 Then trade Asik ($8.37 M) + White ($1.72 M) + Smith ($.884 M) + Anderson ($.916 M), a total of $11.89, for Josh at a max salary of $16.5 million. Then sign Garcia for the room exception, and here is your lineup: Howard, Aldemir Josh Smith, T Jones, DMo Parsons, Garcia Harden, 2nd Round pick Lin, Beverly Finally, if the cap goes up to about $60.3 million, then don't cut Ohlbrecht, and use him in the sign and trade package instead of Greg Smith. Also, maybe Brooks will resign for the minimum after he is cut? p.s. I'm hoping that the salaries of Anderson and Ohlbrecht don't become fully guaranteed until after July, so that we can keep them on the books if needed for a sign and trade in July.
I love Asik but if we could make this happen I wouldn't be upset: Lin Harden Parsons Jsmoove Dwight That lineup will be a forced to be reckoned with. Dwight would play hard on a young, contending team with his best friend. I imagine Smoove would focus in too. I still think Harden leads the team b/c he's the youngest and the most prolific scoring wise. That's great interior defense, great pick and roll offense and you still have your shooters (Lin's 3 pt shot will improve).