No. We have to have an exception to match an offer sheet for more than the minimum. The only available execption is the MLE.
I think Smith will stay for the MLE, or less. He is getting paid over 5 million by the Pistons every year for the next 5. So, hopefully he won't try to "double dip" and go for a 10-12 million/year contract when he will be making an extra 5. I think he is comfortable here with his role and playing with Howard. Plus, I don't see any contender, except us, having cap or a position to sign him since most teams have a good PF, so if winning is important to him, Houston should be number 1. I'm a little worried about Brewer. I can see some contender offer him the MLE or some random team offering more (6-8 million/year) which is something we can't offer if we want to keep Smith. But, as with Smith, he seems to love it here in Houston. He obviously loves/respects McHale and is relishing in his role as the spark off the bench. Hopefully he takes a discount to play here because I love his energy. But in the likelihood we lose Brewer, we have KJ. I don't think KJ will get the big offers people are saying he was going to get. Simply because he won't get any playing time. So unless there is a team out there that wants to spite the Rockets/Morey (Hi, Mark Cuban!), I don't see anyone offering a poison pill contract to a rookie who, a part from his time with the 76ers, played so little. Would teams really offer 8 million/year to a rookie? If they do, then they can have him. I think getting KJ allows us to one day trade Ariza. A lot of people want to compare KJ with Gerald Green but I think of him as a young Ariza. Both were very athletic, long, defensive minded without too much of a jumpshot. I think KJ is more athletic than Ariza ever was and has the ability to become offensive player. Wouldn't be surprised if we start looking for trade for Ariza in a season or two.
This is a question for Bima to answer, but if Brewer is willing to play along (unlike Chandler Parsons last year), can't he just hold out until we have re-signed Josh Smith and then re-sign with us at a fair market deal, with the Bird rights provision allowing us to exceed the cap in order to do so? And then McDaniels is a completely separate issue. I expect that we will bury the guy on our bench in the hopes of minimizing his FA value this offseason. Then, when he signs his contract we'll be able to even venture into the lux tax in order to match it since he's an RFA.
Kj mcdaniels is an expiring contract or an insurance in case brewer decides to go else where. Smith is a keeper. His play as of late warrants him a spot on the Rockets. If Dwight gets healthy, teams in the West will be scared to play us. We were on a back to back and held down toronto. That's awesome. Mc daniels hasn't shown a reason why we should care if he stays. Just like Hamilton he hasn't done much but a bunch of highlights. Smart skilled Basketball players is what we need.
If we trade Ariza, the Morey only sees players as assets argument will be justified for players thinking about coming here in the future
Sure, if Brewer is willing to wait until we sign Smith we can sign him and go over the cap. I believe we could even match whatever McDaniels is offered to go farther still over the cap. But what about cap flexibility? What about that third star? Those are the questions you have to ask. Are you guys really willing to commit to this team going forward with no room to add a third star via free agency? I suppose we could still possibly package whoever we draft with KJ and Papanikolau or something of the sort if one becomes available via trade, but otherwise this is our team going forward.
No. I explained this above. The Rockets have to use cap space or an exception. No Bird Rights , no escaping the cap.
Seems to be a lot of misinformation in this thread. We will have Early Bird rights to Brewer, so we will be able to sign him for up to 175% of his salary this year (min 2 year contract) at any time. Unless we make moves to create cap space, the only exception we will have left to sign Smith and KJ with is the MLE (Unless either signs for the minimum salary). However, it is important to note that if we create cap space, we will lose the MLE, and it will likely mean that we have renounced our rights to Brewer, which would then mean we would have to fit Brewer, Smith, and KJ all into the cap space we created. It appears the most likely option is to use whatever is needed from the MLE to sign KJ and then hope that Smith will sign for whatever is left. In my opinion, if Smith wanted to be here long term and we wanted him here long term, we should have just signed him for 2 years with the BAE, as the BAE cannot be used in consecutive years.
This is not possible. It is likely that Brewer's cap hold will be larger than what he will re-sign for. This means that we would have to renounce our rights to Brewer in order to sign Smith, which means we would not be able to go over the cap to sign Brewer as we'd have renounced his early bird rights. Also, as is the case with Smith, we own no bird rights for KJ as he has only been in the league for one year, meaning we could no go over the cap to resign him either.
Right it's a Bi-Annual Exception and it was used this year on smith so we don't get to use it again until after next year.
This. We know what we have in Smith and Brewer by now. We know nothing about KJ. Morey must find a way to retain Brewer, and Smith to a lesser extent (Jones and D-MO are ready to man that position as Jones gets healthier).
