If he is forced to retire due to medical reasons, the Rockets may get a medical exception for Dream, a la Sean Elliot. I do not know for sure, but would not be surprised either way. Big Sexy essentially retired earlier this year for medical reasons, but he did not make it official and the Rocks did not get any medical exception for him. If Dream does retire early for a nonmedical reason, I do know that the ROcks will not get any salary cap relief. This implies that the Rocks are still obligated to paying Dream his salary next year, whenever or not he actually plays. ------------------
No Worries, actually, they don't have to pay him if he retires, though they can if they want to. He counts against the cap whether they pay him or not. ------------------
Juan is correct: Rockets get zero cap relief if Dream retires for any reason. Relief for players retiring for medical reasons take 2 years to count...effectively giving us no relief. If he goes on medical leave (like Elliot) or actually dies (like Phills), then the Rockets are eligible for a replacement player at 108% of the league average salary for the previous season. Piddly squat on the free agent market. But, forget it, none of those things will happen. Rockets only get cap relief if they buy-out the remainder of his contract, and Hakeem agrees to less pay. He would have to agree for less than 50% for he pay due to count. Come on guys: Leslie A. signed the damn contract. He should pay the man. Show me the money!! btw...Elliot did not retire...big difference. ------------------ The farther the Rockets move down the standings, the farther I move down the bleachers.
I was just wondering here... If Dream decides that it is time to retire, or his doctors recommend that he retire, will this give us money under the cap? If so, that would be huge for us, especially in terms of landing a quality free agent in the offseason. If anyone knows, please enlighten me. ------------------
