Random Houston Rockets Trade Ideas - 2012-13

Earl is a nice role player but let's not overvalue him. Who would you rather have Earl @ 8+ mil or Parsons?

 

Again, any trades that would take away our cap flexibility to make a run at a 2nd franchise type of player to pair with James Harden in the coming off-season or next won't happen.

Les Alexander and Daryl Morey didn't work their butts off and made huge sacrifices for us to be in this position we are in right now just to waste it on a 2nd tier or an aging player.

For those who haven't watched Bima's appearance on Rocketscast live yet, you fellas should.

 

If cap flexibilty is the key, KG's 1 yr contract gives the best of both worlds.

 

KG's contract is 3 years.

 

3 years including this season, but last year isn't guaranteed.

 

John Henson

Don't know if it has recently been discussed but Henson could be the answer for us for a long time.

I would give up Donatus and Jones or Morris to get him. Milwaukee seems pretty set with bigs so maybe they unload one or we can facilitate them getting something else they need

He is going to be a star!

 

Morey has stated that he does not offer player options unless the player is a superstar. That was the reason he refused to sign Dragic. Player options greatly decrease the trade value of those contracts and inhibit future trade options and flexibility.

And, as stated previously, you can't offer backloaded poison pill contracts to Earl Clark because he is not under the Gilbert Arenas restrictions.

And while he may be a nice player, Morey has proven that he can pull roleplayers from the scrap heap like PatBev, Greg Smith, Anderson, etc. Or, if your scouting of minimum salary guys fails, just wait for the free agent rush to end and then pick from the left-overs for cheap like Houston did with Carlos Delfino. Why would you pay $8M for a roleplayer who doesn't provide anything special that can't be replicated at a cheaper price?

Cap management is important. You don't want to tie yourself to $8M for a mediocre roleplayer for 3 (potentially 4) years, considering that you will be facing a serious salary crunch when many of the young guys currently on the roster will be up for raises during that time span (most notable Parsons).

 

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=abf947j

Emeka Okafor and their 2014 1st round pick
...for...
Omer Asik, Cole Aldrich, Pat Patterson

Houston takes on the aging Okafor (12.5M for 2 years) giving up some flex room. The don't really lose much on defence but Okafor can play some offense, too. PLUS a pick that should be better than average in a better than average draft. All the while un-clogging the power forward "log jam".

Washington gets 2 producive bigs on a good contacts in Omer(8M /3yr) and Patterson(rookie contract) who are playing well and would fit with Nene. And an expiring in Aldrich that has some hope left. Plus drop Okafor(12.5M for 2 years) off the books.

 

There is talk of a Chicago-Toronto trade wherein Carlos Boozer's doozy of a contract gets sent to Toronto for the terrible Bargnani and his awful but less awful ($5 mil less this season than Boozer) contract.

If Chicago could replace Boozer's 2012-13 salary with Bargnani's 2012-13 salary, then voila, the Bulls avoid the 2012-13 luxury tax penalty, which we should all realize is something that is looming, and something that they'd like to avoid.

Toronto would have to include another contract in the deal, in order to make the salaries work. However, Chicago would presumably want to divert this second player to a team with cap space--a team such as the Rockets!--in exchange for virtually nothing (e.g., "cash considerations").

This trade works:

Carlos Boozer to Toronto

Andrea Bargnani and "cash considerations" (from Houston) to Chicago

Jonas Valanciunas (20 years old, #5 overall pick in the 2011 draft) or Terrence Ross (22 years old, #8 overall pick in the 2012 draft) to Houston

The Rockets would first have to waive a player, presumably Cole Aldrich, which obviously they would happily do.

Houston may be persuaded into trading a future second round pick to Chicago or Toronto, which is no great loss, particularly since Daryl Morey is finding second round-caliber talent outside of the draft on a pretty regular basis.

To those who think that Houston can't get something for nothing: oh, yes, they can. Chicago desperately wants to avoid the luxury tax and Toronto desperately wants to get something halfway decent (and Boozer is still a good ballplayer, even if he is grossly overpaid) for the terrible, terrible Bargnani. The only way Chicago does this deal is if they can avoid the luxury tax, and th eonly way they avoid the luxury tax is if a team with cap space (again, a team like Houston) will get involved to "facilitate" the trade, as they say.

 

^
LMAO keep dreaming buddy.

 

No way toronto would ever do this deal. Us getting Jonas or Ross for just cash consideration's? hell no, those two players are regarded very highly by the raptors, no way they get rid of one of them just to get back boozer.

 

BRILLIANT!

Because to make this work Toronto wouldn't just dump one of those guys on Chicago (and thus the trade goes through). I'm sure Chicago would be thrilled to take one of those highly touted rookies as part of the deal!


All it takes for the deal to work is for Chicago to take JLIII or Haddadi from the Raptors.... If Chicago took JLIII, they could send Nate Robinson (non-guaranteed), and neither team would be paying lux tax.
I'm pretty sure the Raptors wouldn't be giving away Ross or Jonas in order to save one of those guys...

 

This exact sort of trade, with this exact logic, happens on a regular basis in the NBA, because of the logic of the collective bargaining agreement, yet the vast majority of fans seem bizarrely oblivious to this fact, and when you suggest such a trade, they inevitably respond in the above manner. And, when the Rockets get something for nothing at or just before the February trade deadline, everyone will get excited, and then immediately forget that it happened, and, in the future, I or someone else will suggest a similar trade, and the cycle begins anew, all because people don't pay attention.

Toronto would be giving up either Ross or Valanciunas in order to replace the terrible Bargnani with the good Boozer. That is why Toronto does this, that is why Toronto has to cough up something of value. If Toronto does not cough up something of value, then they are stuck with Bargnani. Further, there is a 0% chance that Chicago does this deal if they aren't able to avoid the luxury tax, since Bargnani is such a massive downgrade from Boozer. It is crucial to understand that Chicago IS NOT thinking about making this deal in order to replace Boozer, the player, with Bargnani, the player. Chicago is wanting to replace Boozer, THE CONTRACT, with Bargnani, THE CONTRACT. In order to induce Chicago to make this deal, Toronto has to give up something of value, and that's where Houston swoops in and exploits these two mismanaged teams. Daryl Morey does this all the time, he exploits mismanaged teams, he exploits inefficiencies.

Keep in mind that there is close to a 100% chance that Chicago will amnesty Bargnani at the end of the season, and that Bargnani may not even play for the Bulls this season. The Bulls were planning on using the amnesty clause on Boozer, but obviously they'd rather use it on Bargnani. Why? Because, when you use your one-time-only amnesty clause on a player, you still owe the guy all of the money on his contract, it's a guaranteed contract. And Bargnani is owed much less money in 2013-14 and 2014-15 than Boozer is owed during those two seasons. [The contracts of Boozer and Bargnani both expire at the end of the 2014-15 season.] Look at what the two players make this season and during the following two seasons:

Boozer: $15.0 mil in 2012-13, $15.3 mil in 2013-14, and $16.8 mil in 2014-15

Bargnani: $10 mil in 2012-13, $11 mil in 2013-14, and $12 mil in 2014-15

Thus, by amnestying Bargnani rather than Boozer, Chicago saves themselves $4.3 mil (the difference between the two players' 2013-14 salaries) + $4.8 mil (the difference between the two players' 2014-15 salaries) = $9.1 mil total. $9.1 mil! That is a huge amount of money! Also, Chicago avoids the 2012-13 luxury tax, so we're talking about even more savings. Chicago saves over $10 mil, then, by making this deal. Which is the only reason why they are making this deal, although they will, of course, attempt to provide basketball reasons to the fan base, and the fan base will believe them.

One of the reasons why a large majority of fans don't understand that these things happen on a fairly regular basis, and, more importantly, why fans don't understand WHY these things happen on a fairly regular basis is because when someone attempts to explain this phenomenon, this logic, the logic of the CBA to them, their eyes glaze over, they stop reading, and they move on to something that they can quickly absorb, probably something that is one or two sentences long. Call it the Twitter generation.

 

Actually, I think you may be right, I think the deal may work if Lucas replaces Ross/Valanciunas. And, if that's the case, then yes, you are correct, Chicago avoids the tax, and Toronto is not forced to include either Ross or Valanciunas. Good job catching this!

 

Hmm... after taking a look at Toronto's 2013-14 payroll situation, they would need to dump several million dollars worth of 2013-14 payroll in order to position themselves to avoid the 2013-14 luxury tax. As well as the 2012-13 luxury tax, for that matter. So I do think that Toronto would be willing to ship Terrence Ross to Houston here, although I do think that they will ask the Rockets to take back the unwanted contract of Linas Kleiza (scheduled to make $4.6 mil in 2013-14, and then his contract expires). In other words, yes, Houston can have Terrence Ross, a highly regarded 22-year-old who was the #8 overall pick less than eight months ago, so long as Houston bails Toronto out on Kleiza's contract and, consequently, luxury tax bills during this season and next season.

So here would be my revised trade:

Andrea Bargnani to Chicago

Carlos Boozer and James Anderson to Toronto

Terrence Ross and Linas Kleiza to Houston

Again, Houston would first have to waive Cole Aldrich.

This trade would eat up just under $7 mil of Houston's 2013-14 cap space. So is Terrence Ross worth losing $7 mil in 2013-14 cap space? Maybe, maybe not. Tough call. Also, Houston may have better opportunities presented to them between now and the February trade deadline. Realize that Houston has around $7 mil in unused cap space, so lots of teams will be contacting Houston over the next couple of weeks so as to "facilitate" a trade that would otherwise not make sense to the parties involved.

Ross is arguably expendable at this point, as Toronto will be paying nearly $30 mil/year to two wing players (Rudy Gay and DeMar DeRozan).

Toronto ownership likely signs off on such a trade, as management will likely convince ownership that a Gay-Boozer-DeRozan-Kyle Lowry-Valanciunas-Amir Johnson core can make the playoffs in 2012-13 and 2013-14. If this team fails to make the playoffs this season, I'd say there is a very high percentage chance that Bryan Colangelo gets his ass fired.

 

LOL. Toronto made Ross untouchable in the Rudy Gay trade. Now they're just going to give him away. Get real dude. You're trying to hype Boozer into some sort of superstar. They're not going to be giving away Jonas or Ross. Let it go.

 

Trust me, I am not promoting Carlos Boozer as a superstar. But compared to Andrea Bargnani, he's Karl Malone. Bargnani is terrible, and a sunk cost. If you can turn Bargnani into Boozer, and all you have to give up is the unproven Terrence Ross, who isn't going to start for the Raptors anytime soon, and especially if moving Ross (with Kleiza) means you can avoid the luxury tax, then I think Toronto has to think about it.

Toronto is most definitely going to balk at making this Bargnani-Boozer deal if it means that they will be paying the luxury tax. Which means that they are for sure going to be figuring out ways to dodge the tax. Dumping Kleiza with Ross accomplishes that goal.

 

I'm not even sure Anderson can be traded yet. Regardless of that, I think it would take more than that to get Ross here. Likely would have to throw Delfino in as well as Greg Smith and the NYK 2nd rd picks.

I'd then try and go after Vince Carter and a future 2nd rd pick by trading Marcus Morris to replace what Delfino brought off the bench.

 

Boring proposal, but I think it helps us going forward... it also opens up playing opportunity, both this season and next.

Rockets/ Celtics / Cavaliers trade proposal:

Rockets get: 2013 NBA 1st rd pick (top 10 protection) and Fab Melo

Celtics get: Toney Douglas, Marcus Morris and Cole Aldrich

Cavaliers get: Jason Terry and 2014 2nd rd pick from N.Y. Knicks (via Houston)

 

Rogower....please stop...

You clearly have absolutely zero clue how trades in the NBA work....