I dont think he will use it nor can I say I dont blame him. Now, if the team was hot and heavy in the upper tier of the playoff hunt or under the lt, i could see him using it. It doesnt make sense to spend on a lotto team already over the lux tax.
Obviously, there are no free agents available right now who are worth more than the minimum. And, we didn't need an exception to sign those available. So, we won't be using it on an FA. If we use it, it will be in a trade. For competitive reasons, Morey won't say anything about potential trades. And, since our counter-party in such a trade is probably not in a hurry, the trade won't happen until the expiration date of the exception. So, bump this thread on 1/31. The exception will be used that day or not at all.
That's a good point, but the only player it would be of value to get is Harrington, as J.R. Smith makes more than that exception. We could use the lesser Carl Landry exception to take Balkman back in a salary dump. And it would be very painful to take the remaining $28 million on Harrington's deal after this year, strictly for a Melo rental. If Melo did an extend and trade, then I'd be on board with taking Harrington; otherwise, pass. Same goes for 32 year old Chris Anderson with his bad back, bad knee and 3 1/2 years left on his deal. Bottom line, don't look for a Melo to Houston in any deal in the next six days, let alone an extend and trade. Denver is just too slow and plodding on the Melo situation, I bet it will come down to the deadline, if a deal even gets done then.
The five dots didn't mean anything. I was just going to post the quote, but it said I had to have five characters in my message.
i think other gms are afraid of morey because he has so many assets to use. It makes the gms of other teams really think about what they are getting into when dealing with the wizard! He always has something in his pockets next to his Kevin Martin statistics.
I beg to differ. I would think that GM's would be very willing to deal with the Rockets given their past history of keeping everything very under wraps and there is nothing secretive about the players they are willing to or not willing to trade. Plus they are a team that doesn't really have bad contracts that they insist on being in the deal. Look at what the Nuggets did in the latest Melo dealings with New Jersey. They did everything the opposite of what the Rockets would have done. They went public, tried to give players the other team didnt really want, and constantly flip flopped with their trade requests.
I'm guessing that between now and Monday (when it expires), we're going to see one or two small trades to bring in a shot blocking big. It'll be a nice appetizer to the 5-star dinner DM has planned for us on 2/24/2011.
I have a question about the injury exception - does it free up the roster spot occupied by Yao or if it is used do they have to clear a roster spot somehow be that cutting someone or a multi player trade ? Ive found no clear answer to this anywhere. Either way , I cant see them just allowing it to expire which is 4 days away (Jan 31). I almost expect some kind of move between now and then to make use of it.
That was my assumption .... I could see Morey allowing it to expire under those circumstances all things considered. Not much sense in pushing a lottery bound team deeper into luxury tax territory unless its going to make them considerably better. We only have 4 days to wait for the answer.
This. The fact is, unless another team is desperate to rid itself of a talented player WITHOUT the benefit of the extra 3 1/2 weeks before the trade deadline during which to shop for the best offer, the Rockets are going to have a hard time finding a player on which it would be worth using the Yao DPE. Especially in the "post-Pau Gasol trade NBA" (if you recall, one of the biggest criticisms of Michael Heisley and Chris Wallace for Memphis was that they pulled the trigger on that deal a good three weeks before the trade deadline), teams are hesitant to make important "salary dump" trades of talented players right now. I hope that Morey can prove me wrong (once again), but at this point, my money's on that DPE simply expiring after Monday. And, honestly, I can't say that I'd blame him or Les if it happened that way.
Add me to the list of those that think nothing will happen with the DPE. There's simply nobody out there. Well, nobody out there that makes us better enough to swallow the remainder of their poor contracts.
Yep. Takes two to tango. Also, Morey's proven that while he is always open to making deals, he isn't in the habit of making a trade for the sake of getting into the news. If no one is selling anything valuable in exchange for the DPE before it's expiration, it's best to let it expire than to use it in a bad trade. Besides, the DPE is a salary eating device and the Rockets already have plenty of these (including an even larger traded player exception, some smaller TPEs, Yao's insured contract, and other expiring contracts). While it's probably useful in structuring some sort of salary eating deals, I can't really think of one scenario where the Rockets wouldn't be able to eat all the salary that they reasonably would be willing to eat without the DPE simply by structuring the deal a little differently. The 25% salary difference allowed in any mega dollar deal can in essence be used as a similar "exception" to take on money.
