Good insight... I for one think Morey may be changing his tune on the 3rd superstar, especially the way the team is playing right now... I know Morey is a good poker player and loves to gamble, but every player knows that sometimes you have to ride the hand you have.. We will know more come the middle of december and the trade deadline.. T_Man
I dont really understand the premise of your argument. You say we have 64 million in guaranteed salary right now, which is both correct, and of course would indicate non-max space. However FOR THIS SUMMER we are slated to have 55 million in salary (including Pap, dorsey, black etc) http://hoopshype.com/salaries/houston.htm The contracts of terry, adrien, smith and Beverly expire this summer. If we choose to waive pap, we would most certainly have max space.
I would like to somehow acquire West from the Pacers at the trade deadline. Im not sure how this would fit salary cap wise though.
I'm not sure how much he has left in the tank. His salary of $12M makes it almost a necessity to give up both Terry and Papanikalou basically limiting our ability to make a move for another player since D. West isn't likely to be a piece that can be flipped later.
What happen to Big Boy Pants Greg Smith? Where is he playing now? <iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/UqMwFLsoQ9A?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
I would add one more position to upgrade: the head coach. The Rockets couldn't get the ball to Howard successfully without turning the ball over again and again. The coach just sat there watching and did not figure out a way to counter Philly's double-team or triple-team strategy on Howard. The weakness in coaching would eventually cost the Rockets many games this season.
Not sure how HoopsHype is doing their calculations, but here are the number you are free to calculate yourself if I'm wrong- 2015/16- Howard - 22,359 Harden - 15,719 Ariza - 8,200 Papanikolaou - 4,851 Jones- 2,489 Motiejunas- 2,288 Capela- 1,242 Dorsey - 1,015 Canaan - 947 Daniels- 947 Black - 845 Johnson - 845 Total: $61,750,730 +Beverley QO - $1,344,053 (125% of 2014/15 salary + 200K) =$63,094,783 + Cap holds for potential 2015 draft picks & any applicable empty roster charges. ........................................ So even with some "Cap Smoothing" if the salary cap for 2015/16 jumps from the projected 66 million to say 75 million (high estimate probably), that leaves the Rockets about 12 million to play with in free agency (Again... IF the cap goes up that high). If the Rockets waive Papanikolaou, Black, and Canaan (3 current non-guaranteed contracts), and again ASSUMING the cap goes up to 75 million, that puts the Rockets somewhere around 17 to 18 million. -However, I encourage everyone to listen to the back half of this podcast with the new NBPA players director Michelle Roberts who indicates that this "cap smoothing" topic is really just a proposal from the NBA right now and isn't necessarily a done deal- http://espn.go.com/espnradio/grantland/player?id=11797904 Obviously the cap is going up, and will eventually be up in the high 70's, and maybe even 80's. But the new TV deal doesn't kick in until the 2016 season. The "cap smoothing" thing isn't a done deal yet. Until we know for sure what that looks like, I think its a little early to start claiming the Rockets have "Max Cap Space" as early as this next Summer.
We might not be able to trade for a "3rd star", but we can and should improve the bench. Sign Gal Mekel (recently waived by the Mavs) or Will Bynum as a 2nd/3rd PG, seeing that Beverley is injury prone. I think Mekel is a better fit, since he is a pure point guard, something we lack on this team. For backup C we could try to sign Okafor/O'Neal as was suggested here before.
