The Rockets have a reputation of taking care of their players financially. They took care of Shandon, Taylor, Dream (his last contract with us), Barkley, etc. with wink wink deals (Dream wasn't a wink wink deal). Since the Rockets don't have any cap space & only have the mid-level exception (about $5 mill), why not offer him that with a wink wink deal. In other words, if he'll sign with us for the mid-level, we'll give him the max deal when his next contract comes up. If he opt's out of his contract with Seattle, there is nothing that can force him to resign with Seattle. He becomes an unrestricted free agent. This wouldn't be another Golden State fiasco. In order to keep the league office from thinking we're circumventing the CBA, we could make it a 6 year contract, with a player option after the 3rd year. He could then opt out &, because we'd have his full Bird Rights, we could resign him to the max. This way, we would get our SF, Rashard would get to come home & get his max contract in 3 years, & we wouldn't have to give up anything for him. Of course, all of this would depend on what Rashard really wants.
Doesn't Seattle have the right to match? That makes mid-level deals unlikely to secure him ultimately.
No, Hottoddie, on this one IMO it depends on what the Rockets really want. After watching Lewis Tuesday night, I for one was unimpressed. I'd rather have KT playing SF or drafting a SF or perhaps adding Odom as long as it doesn't cost us a shot at Ming. I don't think Lewis is the answer.
It's funny, Hottoddie, because I was wondering the same thing. Depends if Rashard really wants that gi-normous contract, or if he's just blowing smoke, knowing Seattle won't pay it. Someone will offer him a contract starting at about $5.7 or $6 mil. The Wiz, Da Bulls, even, I think, the Pistons, have the $$$. QUESTION: Does Seattle have the right to match? Rashard signed two two-year contracts with the Sonics; can Seattle match, or is Rashard home-free (no pun intended, I still think him coming "home" is a long shot).
So your basing your opinion on him on yesterday's game? That was arguably one of his worst games of recent history. Though he did grab 10 or 11 boards.
Sea cannot match. The only time they could match was/is when Rashard is a RESTRICTED FA like he was a few years ago. Take our instance with Mobley for example. We could match up to 4.5 mill/year. If someone offered more (Tor) then we couldn't really match, but fortunately Mobley took less to stay with us. Tor offered like 5+mill/year. Rashard could take the minimum with us if he wanted, and Sea couldn't do anything about it. Wouldn't we be able to have Bird rights with Rashard after 1 year (if he takes the MCE)? Did Mo have any Bird Rights when we signed him? Or were we just that far under the cap, that we didn't need Bird Rights?
I think Mo had Early Bird rights when we signed him. But I'm certainly no CBA expert. I stopped paying attention after we signed Mo and traded for Rice. We won't have to worry much about cap issues for a while. All we need to know is that we OVER it.
He should be unrestricted. he's in his 4th year now, right? Here' the CBA FAQ: "The current CBA provides restricted free agency on a very limited basis. It is allowed following the fourth year of rookie "scale" contracts for first-round draft picks (see question number 35). It is also allowed for all veteran free agents who entered the NBA in 98-99 or later, who have been in the league three or fewer seasons. All other free agency is limited to unrestricted free agency." However, I think there are a couple of things wrong with this plan. 1. Most importantly: Lewis already signed a wink-wink deal when he signed the 3-year contract with Seattle. He could have gone to a higher bidder then (since Seattle had no cap space to offer), but he signed below market-value with Seattle with the understanding that they'd give him the big money when he got his Bird Rights. In short, it's time now for him to cash in. Why would he want to do the whole process again? 2. I don't think you can have an opt-out in the middle of a contract. It has to be for the last year of the contract. The FAQ:
They won't have the right to match the deal & retain him, if he opts out. He'll be an unrestricted free agent. It'll be entirely up to him where he signs. A case in point is San Antonio & Duncan. If they could match any offer that Duncan gets, once he opts out of his contract, then it would make no sense for Orlando & others to be clearing cap space to make a run at him. By the way, San Antonio currently has a little over $14 million in signed contracts when Duncan would be opting out of his contract. So, they'll definitely have the money to offer him the max contract, but he still has the option of walking away. The only advantage the player's current team has, is that they can give him a contract with 12.5% annual raises for 7 years, as opposed to 10% annual raises for 6 years from any other team that signs him outright. That means, for a $12 million annual contract, the difference of 2.5% in annual raises would cost the player $300,000 a year in raises & a total of $2.1 million over the length of a 7 year contract. That's a lot of money to leave on the table, but when you're making over $12 million a year, is it really that significant? I guess it all depends on whether or not the player wants to squeeze every penny out, that they can, or if they truely want to play for another team, without gutting the team with a sign & trade.
When Mo signed with us outright, he lost his Bird Rights & had to start over. If I remember correctly, he signed a one year deal for a $2.25 million exception that we had. We then resigned him the next year, as a free agent, when Dream was renounced & we dropped under the cap by a significant amount.
