He needs to hire a PR firm to maximize his upcoming contract. The perception is that he's some sort of thug or doesn't work hard. He's just quiet. And humble. But the media loves to burn down people's houses.
Yeah us. There will be no better player available for MLE than Josh Smith this coming off season. We must retain him if that is all it will cost us.
I like him. He has played great. He really hasn't air balled any more threes that Brewer. I love both of them. We need Howard back bad. We don't have enough Bigs.
Why would we want him to maximize his upcoming contract? I want to retain him and I bet the Rockets do too. At the vet minimum
Zero chance he takes the vet min. I could see a discount for us given the money he gets from Detroit, though.
Probably thread worthy to start a discussion about who you'd rather have back with the MLE this summer. Josh or Brewer. The Rockets only have one exception this Summer unlike this year. That's assuming both guys are excepting that money. Josh might come at a higher price.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Josh Smith said Clippers were in consideration before he landed with Rockets</p>— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/570628907050737664">February 25, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
That's a very good question. I would say that Brewer fills more of a need on the wing and he's an elite transition player, but I think Josh brings playmaking and post defense that we really lack. Both bring a lot to the table, but I think I would lean rather keeping Josh. There aren't many bench players who can match up with him. He can match up with those power forwards that always give us trouble. I hope we somehow can keep both, though, as unlikely as it is.
Well, we have Brewer's early bird rights so I don't think the Rockets have to dip into MLE money for him. BUT.....with Josh Smith and KJ McDaniels we will. So I think the question is, can the Rockets keep both those guys? Will Josh take less (knowing he is getting paid via Detroit) to stay in Houston in a comfortable environment and system? You watch that video, and he seems real comfortable and at ease. That might mean a lot to him at this stage of his career.
I think alot of these answers will come when we truly see who is available in free agency so we can see if the Rockets are truly going after another big fish or if they are backing out of this year to keep the group in tact. The KJ McDaniels contract is another situation where I think we should page Bima to see if he can give us a whole rundown of scenarios like he did with the Parsons contract. That's what I think was so crazy about the trade is on the surface it looks like a rookie prospect that the Rockets are only renting.... doesn't really make sense given the fact he's 3rd on the depth chart right? But there has to be reasoning and some loophole Morey is looking to take advantage of, or it could be a bi-product of what they are planning to do with Ariza's contract this Summer. The Brewer signing (and immediately verbally agreeing to waive his PO) was suspect from the get-go. If it smells like a fish, and swims like one its probably a fish. My guess is the Rockets make their moves first, and then let Brewer sit on the back burner with a handshake agreement to resign him afterwards. I think the league loves guys like Brewer but I really don't see him going for anything beyond the full MLE if even that. So maybe there is a way to keep all these guys through some shrew cap gymnastics. I think its about time to hit the spotlight and send out the BimaSignal.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Josh Smith said Clippers were in consideration before he landed with Rockets</p>— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanWoikeSports/status/570628907050737664">February 25, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Excited by his 3 point shooting improvement. Must show improvement in reducing turnovers by not jumping in the air for no reason to pass the basketball.
It's going to be really hard to keep Josh Smith if we are re-signing KJ McDaniels. Someone is going to offer Smith $8 million a year. The difference is substantial enough that I can't see him walking away from that.
If I understand correctly, any extra $ (above minimum wage) that Josh makes over the next 2 seasons is going to be subject to a 50% offset-- i.e., the Pistons get to pay him 50 cents less for every $1 above league minimum he makes on a new deal. So, I wonder if a team can offer Josh a "wink wink" deal where he takes few $ up front, in exchange for the promise for a bigger pay day in the season after the offset provision is no longer in effect. For (a simplistic) example, lets say a Josh gets offered $8M per year for 3 years. The nominal amount of the salary is $24M, but he would really only see $17M or so (before tax) because of the offset. Can the Rockets get him to take, say, $1M per year for the next 2 seasons to enable them to sign some FAs that they want while promising him $16M in year 3 (the 2017-18 season) when they will have hopefully chased down some other FA and the cap will also have risen so much that it doesn't matter much what they pay Josh? The math is probably a bit more complicated than this, but the point is maybe Josh would be willing to take a discount to stay with the team if we keep him happy.
He's getting 5.4 million through 2019. Here's a breakdown of what it looks like if we offer $1 million and another team offers $8. Here we are at $3 million Unless my math is wrong... Also assuming the stretch provision works this way in terms of actual payouts. I believe it does based on reading the CBAfaq earlier this year, but I could be wrong.
Josh Smith's market value very well might be 8M/per. But it remains to be seen what teams that have cap space would be willing to pay that salary. And at that salary, would said team expect a more expanded role which in turn might make Josh's efficiency dive. The role that Josh is playing right now for the Rockets with limited minutes as a backup really makes his play very efficient. And from watching that video, Josh seemed to stress that at this stage of his career he didn't want to be involved in a rebuilding project. That being on a contender was something that really appealed to him. So we'll see if a "contender" with a defined role and cap space makes it self available. If not, I think the Rockets have a decent chance to keep him.
I took a look at the cbafaq.com info, but could not find anything that says definitively how set-off works with the stretch provision. DET decided to stretch out the cap hit and payment to Josh Smith over 5 years, but the contract that they signed really last for 2 more. I don't see anything that says, one way or another, whether Josh's salary for the next 5 years or just the next 2 years is subject to set-off. Tweeted BimaThug to ask this just now.
I started a new thread to talk about Josh Smith's contract. I believe after reading the CBAfaq again that the first year was paid on normal schedule but the remaining years are actually paid out of the stretch timeframe and that is how the offset would be applied as well.
