Weatherspoon, Wesley, Baker. We got Swift without having to play these cards. Do we move these guys for real assets this off-season? Maybe Mighty Mouse in a sign-n-trade? Do we wait until the trade deadline? Or does Les just keep them and pocket the savings? Thoughts?
Unless we give Blazers something good, they have no incentive to help us with a s&t. Expiring contracts mean little to them because they don't have to sign Damon in the first place.
Our expiring contracts only appeal to teams who are stuck with long term contracts they want to get rid of.
I wouldnt be surprised if we try to sign DS with the LLE and then call it an offseason. Some of those expiring contracts believe it or not are pretty worthless and we might just cut them. Wesley has some value though. One thing is clear, they get a heck of a lot more valuable when the trading deadline comes around. So we might not do anything with them until then if we do anything with them at all. Although getting Swift at such a reasonable deal, it gives us the ability to add more pieces without throwing our salary structure out of whack.
Our only remaining areas of improvement are a solid starting PG and a good backup swingman. I think we'll be conservative. It'll be interesting to see whether Stoudamire is serious about us, and whether we have any interest trying to get him in a S&T (so he can get paid). I love the prospect of going into this next season with all these expiring contracts. We could potentially pick up a really solid rotation player at the trade deadline.
or we take one of their bad contracts, ruben patterson or derek anderson or even Theo Ratliff. We also have Norris and Ward withe expiring contracts. Weatherspoon 6.3 million Wesley 4.95 million Ward 1.9 million Norris 4.2 million (team option following year) Baker 3.8 million thats 21.2 million or enough to swing any deal that comes our way.
Only Wesley could be moved right now. For a team to take on worthless players without even starting the season is pretty much equivalent to quitting on the season. Also, I dont think anyone would want to pay any of these guys for the entire year. The idea is to trade them near the deadline in Feb. so the owners wont have to pay the whole years salary. As was stated in another thread teams can add up to $3 million in cash to complete a deal, so if we traded Spoon near the dealdine, we could add $3 million to the deal and the team that got Spoon wouldnt even have to pay much (if anything). (i think Dallas did this when they acquired Van Horn for Henderson) I would also include James in the "expiring contract" category b/c he said he was going to opt out after this season. He also could be moved this offseason without the other team looking like idiots.
damon and DA would fill the starting PG and good backup swingman areas. sura would have to go to make room for damon. wesley and spoon make the deal work. i know that going into the season with spoon and wesleys contracts would be exciting but i would rather use them to get this deal done.
Yeah like signing Yao Ming to a long term deal.. I have a feeling Damon will sign with us.....he lives in Houston, he's 32 years old and hasn't won anything yet, he still has some game left and wants to win a title........LLE is my guess as he got payed in his last contract for something like $81 million. Weatherspoon is a JVG guy and is in a contract year so..... Ward is waived if they sign DS.... And it wouldn't surprise me if they kept Moochie or Vin around for trade fodder near the deadline and waived the other with the one time exception in the new CBA... You need to sign Mutombo and Barry to 2 year deals for the LLE as they are good quality backups and would give you great depth... That would put the roster at ... Yao / Mutombo Howard / Swift T-Mac / Barry Sura / Wesley Stoudamire / James With Head, Bowen, Weatherspoon, either Norris / Baker and possibly ?Badiane? at the end of the bench...that puts us at 14 players and gives us two huge contracts in Weatherspoon and (Norris / Baker) to trade with at mid season for a SG/SF and/or a better PG if available...
I agree completely, though if we include Mike James in a deal, it's possible we could combine him with either Spoon/Moochie/Baker/Ward for a higher salaried player in a longer term contract. We've gotta upgrade the backcourt somehow.
Maybe Ward + 2nd rounder for Mighty Mouse. We could sign him to a 3 year deal (last a team option) starting at 2.44M. Remember he is 32 in a few months.
I agree. Even if we get Mighty Mouse, we could still use a top flight SG. Wesley, Barry, Head, and Sura would all make great backups, but are they starters on a championship team?
Critics of Anderson have talked me out of my interest in him. I think I'd rather have Patterson now, even though he doesn't have a three-point shot. Plus, his deal expires a year earlier. A RealGM Portland fan expressed interest in Sura when I inquired about Stoudamire and Patterson. I could see a Sura, Spoon deal going down for Damon and Ruben or Derek.
I know a lot of people will disagree with me on this, but if Ruben Patterson is on our team I will be disgusted! Yes there are a lot of bad people in the NBA, but I will be seriously put off if we get this guy. Just another one of my very small minority opinions.
Why would any team sign Damon and do this trade? It is basically paying Ward's salary for a 2nd round pick. First, it is too expensive, and second it takes part of their MLE this year. No team is that stupid.
Actually Sura for DS strait up is not far off of being reasonable for both teams. I don't want any part of DA or RP, their attitudes, and their fat contracts. Ugly. Sura, James or Wesley strait up to Portland. Sura and James are good quality vets for the their modest contracts, Sura can help Portland's SGs. Really I want Wesley (expiring contract and servicable player) for DS. Maybe add the NY 2nd or a top 29 protected 1st in the deal for Wesley. Makes sense for Portland too. DW or Sura gives them vet SG support while they bring along Webster. They are going to lose DS for nothing otherwise, so if I am them yes I'd take Sura, James or Wesley (plus a pick). I am honestly not sure I want to trade Sura for DS strait up from the Rockets perspective (basically the same age, Sura is more versitle, but DS is the better scorer/shooter). I think it is tough call, but I probably would.
hey, how about jalen rose? we could trade james and some overly paid bench warmer for him... toronto needs a backup pg and want to rid themselves of jalen's contract... i say we trade james b/c he is going to opt out for big money that we wont pay for... so we might as well try to get something for him instead of letting him walk.
Do u guys think we should clear the cap space for next year? http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/houston.htm Assuming we can get rid of the contracts of JHoward(6.4M), Sura (3.8M) and MJames (3.7M), the only guaranteed contracts beyond next season will be: T-Mac 16.9M Yao 11.0M (est) Swift 5.5M (est) Head 1.2M (est) ------------- Total 34.6M Sura and James contracts can be easily moved for cap space but it's difficult to say the same thing about Howard's one. But if he stays healthy next season I think maybe we can move him for Kandiman's expiring contract in the mid-season. Then we can be a major player in next off-season. I hope we wont sign any more long-term contract this off season. Then we can identify the weaknesses of our current core this season and make the move next off season.
Even if Joe Johnson doesn't land in Atlanta they've a glut of sg-sf players. Their draft pick Marvin Williams and Al Harrington have ben touted as guys filling in the PF role. Juwan for Al would give them a true PF and we get a backup for Tracy & Stro but more importantly Al's big fat expiring contract. Come on CD force the Bulls to pay Kirk Hinrich the max next season.
