Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas new contract extension

I see your point, but Kevin Love will get $20 million or more.

Chandler Parsons got $15 million per year. Terrence Jones is younger with a higher ceiling.

The Cavs already offered Tristan Thompson more than $12 million per year and he declined. Terrence Jones is already better with potential to be much better.

Bottom line, Terrence Jones will definitely get $12-15 million per year. It may be insane currently, but I'm really high on Terrence and thinks that he'll be a bargain at $12 million w/ the new salary cap.

 

I think D-mo's upside is bigger. The guy has skill and lenght. Jones dependable on athleticism. D-mo will play at the high level for decades and might reach his peak being over 30. D-mo is still more versatile defender because he can guard 4 and 5. His rebounding isn't good now but I think that's due to being gassed as well. Getting stronger will help him both defensively and offensively. How much bigger and stronger can Jones still get? Surely not so much as D-mo. Both are good and as of now Jones can put up way more impressive numbers, but for a long run I would ho with D-mo.

 

Fair enough. I just don't value Jones' skillset that much. The Nuggets gave Kenneth Faried that kind of a deal and they already regret it. Whoever throws that kind of money at Jones would as well.

 

Great points.

 

We're not going to extend neither one this summer. Neither player has proved to be superstar material and worthy of a double digit extension and an encroachment on 2016 cap space. And neither player is going to take an extension for the low money we would need them to take to not be a burden on our 2016 cap space.

In all likelihood at least one and possibly both of them will be traded between now and next year's trade deadline with the most likely scenario being one or both of them are moved this summer.

 

Yeah but the huge cap jump is the driver. It is a 40%+ increase from now to 2016. So an $8m player right now is worth about $11.2-11.5m. Plus, the cap could jump another 18% from 2016 to 2017. If they could get either Jones or DMo to take $8m per right now I am sure they would jump at it because it would be an enormous bargain and easily tradable if need be.

 

This is where teams go wrong
Sure they both have talent, but we all know the range they are worth is 7-9 mill. The range they will demand 11 and up. Tjones hasn't even been healthy, and DMo is a big who doesn't play big. Even if the cap is raise, that doesn't mean you start throwing money everywhere. Strategize wisely.

 

You do know chandler parsons is making 15 mil right?

 

Its circumstantial. If you already have your core pieces set then yes you do pay money to the talented young players that you developed in order to keep them.

The running clock ends at February of 2016. If the Rockets have a meh team that isn't going to win titles and needs to reload around Harden in free agency the following Summer then yes, the Rockets will need to make a tough decision on trading one of them if they feel like are going to lose them. Otherwise there is reason to believe the Rockets will make a move this Summer that makes overpaying for their guys to keep this core in tact worthwhile.

However, if the Rockets are in the midst of a playoff run next year there is still merit to keeping both guys for a playoff run. The draft pick you might get for a Jones or D-Mo might not have as much value as they would have as a rental for the playoffs depending on what you get back in trade.

Morey can also still gamble in free agency with both guys and see what happens. Its going to be a stacked free agency so there is potential for both guys to sit for a week or two and take a smaller deal that is great value for the Rockets. Great value should be all that the Rockets want at the end of the day. They will have put in 4 seasons of development into these projects. Have to take advantage of the work you put into these players.

 

Then you will never keep your talent. When salaries go up in any profession you can't just stop paying people because you think that's too much. 7-9 Million is basically gonna become the new MLE.

 

Agreed. At that point it will be 4+ years of development at that point the team has invested. Why at that point you'd want to reset again is beyond me.

Of course the team would have to if the team was locked in with bad deals, and needed to reload to put a more competitive team around Harden to keep him in Houston.

That's pretty much the only reason you let talent like that walk because you are scared of paying them. The main thing you should be scared of is Harden walking in free agency or demanding a trade in a few years. If the Rockets feel like they need to not resign them in order to get more free agency $ to get a guy Harden wants then so-be-it. But I don't think we are there yet to know that its a need we must pursue until February of 2016 at the earliest.

 

Ya I don't expect he could get much for half a season of Motie in the trade market. By the time January rolls around I think he will have the team he wants for the title run, and that will probably include both TJ and Motie. Smith re-signing is far from a sure thing at this point, and I doubt Capela will be ready for playoff minutes at that point.

 

thinking more like 3 years 15 million or 4 years 18 million.

 

Smith has made his money...you should be able to get him cheap as long as it is respectable. Maybe two years 11 million or 3 years 15 million. Dude is getting old. And bball aint like football. They get all of their money, playing or not.

 

Huh? I hope that 15 and 18 million aren't totals, and I also hope the 18 million isn't an annual salary for either of the players being discussed.

 

5 million a year would put him out of our price range assuming we intend to keep McDaniels though, right?

 

Don't care for keeping Smith at a high price nor D-Mo if keeps being a pansy. Keep TJ and get another veteran off the bench if Smith demands high dollar.

 

You can't keep all of it which is why you have to pick what talent is replaceable and what talent isn't as easy to replace.

 

Both of them will get paid, there is no doubt about that. The question then becomes, which one of the two do we consider to be a core piece. I personally rate T-Jones higher than D-Mo, primarily due to how ****ty a rebounder D-Mo is and how easily he gets pushed around. Personally, I find T-Jones guard oriented skillset and aggression much more valuable than D-Mo's post game.

 

The way I see it, Jones is a lot easier to replace, he's basically another version of Kenneth Faried so I think the Rockets would regret it if they gave him a big contract. I think DMo is the guy that's a LOT harder to replace so if I was going to pay one of them, that's who I'd give the money to.

Athletic effort players are nice, but not that rare.