Rockets have been offered a 1st round pick for Thomas Robinson (UPDATE: So much for "imminent")

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Have to wonder how many teams are playing hardball about Thomas Robinson deals knowing he's the key to a max offer for Dwight Howard?</p>&mdash; Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) <a href="https://twitter.com/mr_jasonjones/statuses/351470495373328384">June 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
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This has nothing to do with the luxury tax. Even with Dwight, they'd be about 12 million dollars away from the luxury line.

 

To me, from a basketball standpoint, Lin is the guy you HAVE to trade for flexibility alone. Beverly is not much worse, and just sooooo much cheaper. Asik has a bit of a bullseye on him as well, but I would be far less inclined to move the Mutombo to our Yao. Morey has been smiling way too much lately, he already has a deal done, and it is more than Dwight, imo. We have a PG or a PF coming our way, with Lin, Robinson, maybe even Asik as the key pieces. Rajon Rondo, Josh Smith are the guys I am looking at. Morey has a long history with the second guy listed.

 

I'm no Bima but I believe Dwight is our "13th" player, so there will be a $490k cap hold in place before Dwight joins that will factor into how much we can pay him. Also, Harden's contract is based on a % of the salary cap, and since it is going up a bit, his will too (approximately $100k). Let me update this:

NOTE: All cap space amounts are calculated to an estimated salary cap of $58.5 million.

James Harden: $13,776,130 (approximation based on new cap)

New Roster Total = $42,425,927 = $16,074,073 in cap room
- Move Thomas Robinson for a pick ($3,526,440) = $19,600,513 in cap room
- Savings from waiving and stretching Royce White ($656,320) [including roster charge] = $20,256,653 in cap room
- Factor in TRob's roster charge = $19,766,473
- Do not pick up Greg Smith's option saves us $394,113 [including roster charge] = $20,160,586

So now we have to just hope Dwight is okay w/ ~$20.2M or else we will have to cut Bev too to get him his actual max. So our roster, right before offering Dwight $20.2M, will look like this:

James Harden: $13,776,130 (approximation based on new cap)
Omer Asik: $8,374,646
Jeremy Lin: $8,374,646
Terrence Jones: $1,551,840
Donatas Motiejunas: $1,422,720
Chandler Parsons: $926,500
Patrick Beverley: $788,872
Tyler Honeycutt: $100,000 (waived)
Royce White: $573,160 (waived and stretched)
Roster charge: $490,180
Roster charge: $490,180
Roster charge: $490,180
Roster charge: $490,180
Roster charge: $490,180

 

Moving T-Rob may be harder than we thought...

LOCK IF THIS HAS BEEN DISCUSSED ALREADY.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Interesting twist to Rockets' Howard pursuit: Teams know Houston needs to move Thomas Robinson's contract. How hard will they bargain?</p>&mdash; Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/KBergCBS/statuses/351400734778077184">June 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Teams typically would demand a pick or try to dump long-term money in a trade like Houston is seeking for Robinson. Interesting subplot.</p>&mdash; Ken Berger (@KBergCBS) <a href="https://twitter.com/KBergCBS/statuses/351401386195423232">June 30, 2013</a></blockquote>
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This could get ugly....

 

This was posted in another thread.

I don't believe it will cost us draft picks to move T-Rob. He was drafted five overall last draft, and if there was only one team that had cap space, then those tweets would make sense.

This is exactly like the Beasley - Miami/Minnesota scenario. It didn't take Miami that long to find a taker for Beasley.

 

No offense but the Rockets disposition in negotiations to trade Robinson have been noted for weeks now since the Woj article first was published.

Morey stated just days ago that he was "100% sure" that it wouldn't be an issue when questioned about getting the cap space to sign Dwight.

So there is something here that we dont know. Maybe he has other deals in place to possibly move Lin or Asik, but I would assume he has deals already in place to move Robinson(albeit probably bad ones).

All we know is Morey is extremely confident and knows something that you and I do not.... which is probably that there are already offers in place that will be executed if Dwight agrees to sign in Houston.

 

So???? The Raps just traded Bargnani to the Knicks for Camby, Novak, plus picks. Should Morey be dialing up Ujiri?

 

No it won't get ugly. Not even close.

TRob is not some garbage asset. All teams together are not collectively teaming up against the Rockets just so we do not get Dwight. I mean, seriously, not one of the other NBA teams wouldn't even trade TRob for a future second round draft pick with very restrictive protection (like the David Andersen trade)? Come on. This is just some serious joke. This is pat-a-cake for Morey. Chill out.

This is such a misleading piece of information.

 

Worse comes to worse can we can still sign Howard while going int the LT?

 

Nope. We're nowhere near the LT. We can't spend more on Dwight than what we have available under the salary cap. 58.5 million - current salary obligations.

 

No. It doesn't work like that. You need space between what your current salary situation is vs the cap. But, once you squeeze that contract in, you can renew it past that cap at the maturity of its life (under normal conditions, this is how it works).

 

Bring back Lowry!

 

So how many millions does T-Rob's contract knock off Dwights Max?

 

Well, even after TROB gets moved without any salary coming back I am sure there is still a minor move to be made. Either way, trading TRob will NOT be a problem. I promise you that. Dwight WILL be offered the max from us. Morey has no emotional attachments too strong to these players to get in the way of winning/signing a player of Dwight's caliber. Not even Chandler Parsons. Chandler won't be moved though. He is already a championship piece (not primary or secondary piece!) on a no-name contract.

 

Lin and T-Rob for Lowry? I'd do that in a heartbeat! We'd be able to get Dwight. They'd get the marketing they want. Too bad Ujiri wouldn't do it.

 

Yes please!!

 

I'm not so sure. Lin is pretty close talent wise to lowrey and he would be crazy marketable in toronto which has one the biggest chinese populations in NA. Trob has lots of upside. His rebounding rate is near the top ten in the league.

 

I think the trade was to clear space for Dwight. Kind of like trading Doc for a 1st rounder was really to please CP3 (in that case, hell yeah you trade a late 1st rounder to keep Cp3 AND get Doc).

 

Lowry is a better shooter, rebounder, distributor, and defender than Lin. T-Rob has upside but we have to get rid of him to get Dwight. If we traded those two for Lowry we'd still have room to get Dwight.