In all honesty I think the team who gets disrespected the most is Atlanta, I mean i know they have their history and are known for a weak fanbase, but they have decent (not amazing, but decent) assets, a working core that could be 1 move away from top 2 in the east, and they never get mentioned by anybody ever.
Basically, using the Stretch provision allows a team to "stretch" a player's salary (and, if they so elect, that player's cap hit) in equal fractional shares across twice the number of years remaining on a player's contract, plus 1. For instance, if a player has two years left on his deal, the team can stretch his total salary/cap hit across FIVE years. The deadline to utilize the Stretch provision on players is August 31. If a player is not waived by that date, the team cannot take advantage of the beneficial payment/cap treatment. THAT is why the Terry trade was agreed to in principle when it was. Even though the trade cannot be consummated until September 15 (when Gee can be combined with other outgoing salaries), the Kings needed to pull the trigger (in principle) before August 31 in order to make sure they weren't stuck with Terry's full cap hit in a year where they are straddling the luxury tax line.
Suppose we still had Lin on this roster at 1 year left @ 8.3m due for 2014-2015. We could stretch his contract into a 3 year deal (1 x 2 +1) and aggregate that 8.3m over three years or 2.76m
I like that idea. "leveraging up" as it were. So who has an $8.7 million expiring (or slightly less) on a team that needs to save a little in cap? Marcus Thornton - Boston Brandon Bass - Boston Tayshaun Prince - Memphis That's pretty much it. Don't see Boston giving us an asset to take on Thornton or Bass, so it would probably have to be Memphis. Don't see Memphis wanting Terry since they already have Carter, and it would only save Memphis about $2 million. As a whole, I find all of this unlikely. Someone suggested that we could do the same thing we did with Terry and combine our remaining NG'eeds into a larger contract. I think this is more likely, but still not probable.
I think you should discuss this with Coon. The Asik trade was made with cap space, not the 150% rule. Coon told me last December that a team could not use the 150% rule to step up basis and then immediately flip the acquired player again using the 150% rule in immediate back-to-back trades. (I was proposing trades to him at that time stacking up 150% rule trades to acquire enough expiring and non-guaranteed salaries to take both Amare and Melo in and get the Knicks out of the luxury tax. He made it clear the league office would reject the step-up stacking.) I asked him for a time frame on when a player that had been acquired using the 150% rule could be leveraged out in a trade using the 150% rule and he wouldn't give me a definitive answer. Later in a subsequent conversation with him he suggested 60 days (to match trade rules for combining players in a new trade). There is nothing about it in his document and I pointed that out to him but he was very adamant that a team could not stack or string 150% trades together by trading out players that had just been acquired using the 150% rule. However it makes sense that some kind of time frame would have to apply. Otherwise you are basically CIRCUMVENTING the trade rules, specifically the 150% and +$5 million rules. Edit: This might also help explain why it hasn't been decided whether to include Hopson, Powell, or possibly both. Sacramento would obviously prefer just Powell with Gee but they've agreed to take both if necessary. Gee, Powell, and Hopson is enough salary to not have to use the 150% rule which would allow Morey to use the 150% rule to flip Terry back out immediately or within a few days without having the league office reject the trade. I would almost bet there other contingencies here that aren't revealed such as an agreement to send out cash from Sacramento in lieu of not having to take in Hopson. This leaves the door open to turn the trade into a multi-team trade. And you know Morey is all over having all those options. .... even though I "speculate way too much and over-analyze".
In what world does an article coming out that says the Rockets would have interest in X all star level player validate anyone on anything? If Stein came out and said the Rockets had a deal lined up for Bledsoe or Dragic that had a timeline that ended on August 31st or whenever the deadline was they imposed on themselves, than maybe we can talk about validation.
http://www.celticshub.com/2014/09/03/exploring-rajon-rondo-trade-possibilities/ A podcast on the Celtics POV. Skip to the second one, first one doesn't have much info. Rockets suggested as #1 landing spot.
That's how it sounds to me. Also, Simmons isn't very familiar with which teams owns which draft picks. He was just looking at the players under contract that the teams might be willing to part with. For example, when Simmons mentioned the Knicks, he talked about the inclusion of draft picks and had to be reminded by Zach Lowe that the Knicks can't trade any draft picks earlier than their 2018 pick. He most likely wasn't thinking about the Pelicans pick. Anyhow, the bottom line to me with Rondo as well as Dragic is that, as discussed on the podcast, these guys will become free agents next season. This fact combined with the large number of teams with cap space next season will tend to limit the trade market for each of these guys.
I would love Rondo as well but but my bet is still on Bledsoe. Based on Yahoo Report. Houston Rockets - 2014-15 Salary: $53.5 million - Roster - Contract value returning: no less than $9.75 million - Verdict: SLIM CHANCE. We know Houston is interested - pairing Bledsoe with Howard and Harden has the potential for a new, more tamed Big 3. But they would likely have to send/the Suns would likely have to accept Trevor Ariza in conjunction with whatever youth/picks they want, and I just don't see that happening without a third party facilitator. ________ What I see happening is this. The Suns want a young PF Prospect. So we send out to the Suns PF Papanikolaou (4.5 mil)and the newly acquired Jason Terry (5.8 mill expiring contract) and the New Orlean's pick for Bledsoe. Not sure when it happens, before the season or at the trade deadline. Based on CBA rules though I think it's best for the Suns if this happens before the season. Refering articles http://sports.yahoo.com/news/phoenix-suns-dilemma-where-could-180002626.html http://sports.yahoo.com/news/eric-bledsoe-ultimately-control-over-152921902.html
