Yes, they were. Using the full Non-Taxpayer MLE invokes the hard cap. It was used to sign Papa and Nick last year. via cbafaq.com:
i say lock him up, he looks like poor man manimal light, watch lawson make him look good. Might as well.
If Morey locks him up and he pans out we win. If he doesn't pan out he'll turn him into something better anyways so we win no matter what. If Morey ever makes a mistake he's quick to fix the situation (Ariza 1st go round, Lin, Dorsey, Kpap, Troy Daniels etc). Even when you think he loses (Parsons, Bosh) we still win.
We were hard-capped when we traded for Trevor Ariza. When a team trades for a free agent that was signed and traded they are hard-capped. So using the full MLE was a non-issue because we were already hard-capped with the Ariza trade.
Assuming Wood is camp fodder and would be cut , the only thing that would count against the cap is the guaranteed portion of his deal .... Morey could easily subtract that amount from what he can give Harrell and remain below the cap .... I believe the total he can give is 1.07m not accounting for Wood. I don't believe they hard cap themselves .... just pointing out what can occur. They were also well below the apron .... far enough that it didn't really matter as they were still able to use the BAE on Smith and had room for vet min deals. This year they are so close to it .... it matters.
Was there any definitive tape of him just destroying in the Summer League? I don't remember him being great. This or a two year deal. No hard cap. We don't even really know if the guy can really play. In a year if he turns out to be a stud we can pay him with the expanded cap. So it costs us another couple of million. We are definitely in a win now mode and we can't let the possibility that he can play tie up everything. I trust Morey can handle this small matter and would not be surprised if it happens this week now that Jet is settled.
Trade flexibility is key to a team making a serious run at the title not a rookie that has never been in a 7 game series. Sorry guys thems the facts. I like Harrell too. I am excited to see Harrell develop but he is most likely going to be a Viper the majority of the year working on a jumper. If Morey has the chance mid season to pick up a better veteran player to fill an obvious need, we have to be able to pull the strings. The window is OPEN this YEAR, and the riverboat gambler is going to go all in.
While I think Rockets go with flexibility for this season, I don't think it is as cut and dry as most seem to make it out to be. Rockets seem to already have him pegged as likely being needed to play when injuries happen and they don't seem to concerned about it. Rockets love club controlled years. The most surprising thing about Harrell's situation is that the Rockets couldn't squeeze out any room under taxpayer MLE rate for Harrell when they signed KJ. Must have really loved KJ.
Even with our seemingly stacked roster, there are simply too many possible ways the hard cap would kill us. You never know when a trade becomes necessary or too good to pass up, and you need in season flexibility. I like Harrell, if he's good, he's restricted and we likely can match using our MLE next year. We are actually sacrificing long term flexibility by putting value on this season, which is what some of you have been b**ching about.
locking up harrell gives us future flexibility (able to trade his friendly contract + don't have to worry about re-signing him next summer). so i vote for that.
He will sign indeed, what else is he going to do? Harrell will only see playing time if D-Mo and TJ are injured, because no way he plays over Hayes.
Don't hard-cap* yourself for a #25 pick. Don't hard-cap yourself for a #14 pick. I'd entertain it for a top-8 or top-10 player. But, there is also a fundamental difference between a 1st rounder and a 2nd rounder, because the structure of the rookie contract is much more defined for a 1st. It has to be a 2-year guaranteed deal with 2 team options. And the salary is determined, basically, ahead of time. So there's no choices to be made about whether you give him a short deal or a long deal, and whether or not to use the MLE. Your choice is to either sign him or trade him. * For the side conversation on hard-capping, I think finsraider's right, though he didn't explain himself well. Being hard-capped doesn't matter when you're a million miles away from the apron. We're right up against it so now it does matter. That's where you actually feel the impacts of hard-capping, and they don't sound good.
I meant to say "up against the hard cap" rather than just "hard capped". When you are technically hard capped, but you are millions of dollars away from that cap, it's one thing, this season the Rockets would be up against the hard cap if they get hard capped. Totally different situation.
