He's actively shopping him because we need the cap space. Not because he doesn't have talent or value. He is a top 5 pick in this years draft easily. I do agree because he is on the rumor mill it hurts his stock. But the fact is only a handful of players would be better prospets in thisyears draft. Also I think Morey is playing it smart. He is offering up Robinson to the highest. Telling the whole NBA he is yours if you want him. Just offer make your best offer. As opposed to playing that fake cat and mouse game pretending we really want him but might consider trading him if the price is right. Instead he is saying he is going to someone. If you want a shot at him you better make an offer fast because you snooze you lose. There's no calling our bluff, no waiting games. If you want a shot at winning the prize you got make a bid. Under the circumstances that is the best way to play it. Good move Morey. Morey doesn't want a first this draft unless he can dump Royce white too. SO I expect he will be looking for a second this year and a first next.
Morey needs to clear T-Rob's $3.5m to offer Dwight the max. A first round draft pick this year will count against the cap according to the rookie scale: http://www.cbafaq.com/scale2011.htm T-Rob (3.5) + White (1.7) + $2.1m cash allowance (last year's expiring) = 11 - 30 draft pick this year. We trade for 11th pick or later because the cap hold would be $1.7 max thus still clearing $3.5 million. Frankly, I don't think teams will take White even with the cash thrown in. T-Rob will go for a future 1st rounder.
Look. Morey can trade for a pick in this year's draft and not have his salary on the roster until after signing Dwight. For instance....Philly. Let's say Philly is willing to trade their #11 pick and #42 pick this year for TRob and our first rounder next season. Here's how it works. We send TRob to Philly for their second rounder on draft night. Then we sign Dwight July 10th. Then on July 11th we trade our #14 second rounder for that first round pick they made for us on draft night and didn't sign.
I voted "The Rockets have to give up a 1st round pick for someone to take him off their hands" just to continue my trend of always picking the most ludicrous option possible. I'm surprised that CH doesn't have the "The Rockets will have to give away Jeremy Lin in order to get TRob off their hands" option. Obviously the Rockets are not going to ask for a 1st pick in this draft, as it would make the whole exercise pointless. But I can imagine a high(35-40ish) 2nd round pick plus a heavily protected 1st round later. Due to next year's draft supposedly being totally awesome, it is possible that the protection may be heavier than normal. But in term of what value that correlates to this year's draft? I would say mid-1st. Or near where the Rockets drafted Patterson.
Robinson is latest example of NBA thinking bigs can get away with weak skill and feel for the game if they are athletic enough. Not skilled enough to play 4, not big enough to play at 5.
If Portland end's up moving Alridge to the Cavaliers for the 1st pick and maybe Waiters (like rumors are suggesting), then a guy like Thomas Robinson might interest them. Giving them a strong core of Lillard/ Waiters/ Batum/ Robinson/ Noel to build around. They just have to believe Robinson is a better PF prospect then any of the guys available at the 10th pick.
@basketballholic I really respect your whole Philly idea but from a legal standpoint this is fraught with danger. Has there been precedence for this? What you are suggesting is that there be "an understanding" that Philly will draft the player we want at 11th on Draft Night (June 27th) and then two weeks later, we will trade our 2014 second round pick for this year's 11th pick that Philly selected for us. What if Philly says screw you, we'll keep our 11th pick, we never had an agreement. Houston has no legal recourse. If Houston made a legally binding agreement for the swap of picks, then the cap hold counts against Houston on Draft night (before the Howard signing). The only precedence/rule I could find was in Coon's CBA FAQ "50. Are Draft Picks included in Team Salary" http://www.cbafaq.com/scale2011.htm That basically restates common law in that "verbal agreements" apply to team salary. The Rockets would be in jeopardy of the league "voiding" the Howard signing when it finds out about this. And trust me, they will find out when we trade our 2014 second rounder for this year's 11th pick. Give up on getting Zeller this way. It happens only if White or another PF is included in the deal with Philly to offset the cap hold.
Just doesn't work that way. First of all if Philly reneged on an agreed to deal, it would hurt them for as long as Hinkie is in the front office. Secondly, Hinkie IS in the front office. He's not going to do that. Thirdly, deals are agreed to in advance all the time. It will probably happen this summer with several free agent signings and trades. Some sign and trades will be delayed until later in the summer as guys become eligible to be traded, etc. and the transaction can be completed after the 60 day rule, etc. And in the deal I described, we wouldn't be trading our 14 second rounder. We'd be trading our 14 first rounder and possibly a second rounder or two. Hope that helps.
Here's another trade possibility with Detroit and their pick. Trade TRob to Charlotte for a 14 first rounder. Send that first rounder to Detroit. Detroit also gets Eric Gordon from New Orleans. (They need a SG). New Orleans gets Rodney Stuckey (salary dump) and our 2014 first rounder. We get Detroit's #8 pick and Kim English (simply a throw in to make trade work.) This may be possible if there are no point guards that Detroit wants at 8. It would possibly require a couple more bit players leaving Detroit if executed before July 1st. But it could be executed in stages with the draft pick exchange taking place after we signed Dwight.
I'm not going to argue further about whether a verbal agreement to trade for a 1st round draft pick on draft night counts against your cap on draft night OR two weeks later when the trade is executed. I think a legal analyst or capologist will have to help us on this one. I just don't think Morey would go through that risk for an 11th pick rookie Zeller when there's even a remote possibility it could jeopardise the signing of Dwight Howard. We are right on the limit to offer Dwight the max after we trade away T-Rob's $3.5m. We don't want to be playing games with this year's first round cap holds of making an agreement before we sign Dwight and executing the trade after we sign Dwight. Zeller is not worth the losing Dwight Howard.
It wouldn't jeopardize the Dwight signing anyways. Stern may disallow the trade but he wouldn't disallow a signing that had already taken place. But there is no grounds for Stern to disallow the trade as I constructed it. Read the CBA.
The lower the 1st round pick is, the better. As far as interfering with the cap situation and Dwight. Right?
It would jeopardise the Dwight signing because if the cap hold (about $1.8m) counts against the Rocket's cap on Draft Night (June 27th) then we may not have enough cap room to sign Dwight to the max on July 10. You know, signing a free agent to more money than your cap room allows is the biggest contravention of the rules and would definitely be VOIDED.
