Does this take us back to the TJo situation (which Lowe has 'suggested' might make Jones and his ilk difficult to deal) and getting out from those $s while signing Harrell (and presumably a vet min contract [CB?])?
August 10th at 11:00pm CST by Chuck Myron Rockets GM Daryl Morey has proven one of the canniest executives in the NBA over the years, but for now, he seems to have painted himself in a corner. The Rockets have yet to sign No. 32 overall pick Montrezl Harrell, and they haven’t re-signed Jason Terry, either, despite reports from last month that they were close to a deal. They renounced their Bird rights to Terry to accommodate the Ty Lawson trade, leaving them with only a $2,274,206 chunk of the mid-level exception to exceed the minimum salary for either, based on numbers from Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders. Yet using that exception for either would trigger a hard cap of $88.74MM, since they’ve already used nearly the entire $3.376MM amount that teams above the tax apron are limited to paying via the mid-level on K.J. McDaniels. High second-round picks almost always command more than the minimum, as our list of draft pick signings from this year shows. Using the minimum salary exception for Harrell would also limit the Rockets to just two years in a contract for him, while three-year arrangements tend to be much more team-friendly for numerous cap-related reasons. Similarly, Terry likely proved capable of commanding more than the minimum, and he’s reportedly received an offer from the Pelicans, who have the $2.139MM biannual exception at their disposal. So, our question today: What should the Rockets do with Harrell and Terry? Should they offer Harrell only the minimum and risk him taking the required one-year, minimum-salary offer that would allow him to hit free agency next year, as McDaniels did with the Sixers last year? Should they spend on Harrell and risk losing Terry to the Pelicans? Should they sign neither for more than the minimum and keep from triggering the hard cap in case they find an appealing trade later in the season? Being mindful of our commenting policy, let us know in the comments section what you think the Rockets should do. We look forward to what you have to say!
What I'm curious about is why hasn't there been ANYTHING in the media about Harrell? No agent demanding a trade or complaining that the Rockets are lowballing. Radio silence. Just a theory, but it's possible that they've already agreed on a 3-4 year deal but the Rockets don't want to sign him until they see who gets cut/agrees to a buyout from other teams.
If it's me, I'm signing Harrell using the exception and moving on from Terry unless he'll take the minimum. The hard cap is lame but I think we have plenty of depth to address anything that might come up during the season.
I doubt it honestly. The hold up IMO would seem to be Terry first wanting the full amount remaining of the MLE and/or a guaranteed 2nd year, and the Rockets only offering the vet min. I mean the guy and his agent would have a point. He went from valuable starter in the WCF to a vet min player overnight? Not to mention his off the charts off the court leadership that paid dividends last year to keeping that team headstrong. Terry obviously earned himself a payday but the Rockets just don't have the need or resources now to stretch themselves thin. The hold up with Harrell would seem to be his agent wanting above the minimum as well knowing that the Rockets still have the remaining portion of the MLE as well, and the Rockets only offering the minimum. .................. So my guess is that Terry needs to figure out first if he's going to accept a vet min contract, or take another offer with the Pelicans or whomever. Second, then Harrell will go one of several different ways. Either the Rockets cave, and accept the hard cap implications (seems unlikely), he accepts the rookie min for 2 years (probably would linger until training camp with this situation), or he goes the KJ McDaniels/Landry route and bets on himself on a one year deal. ......... My wild guess is that Terry accepts the BAE with the Pelicans, and the Rockets gamble on only securing a two year rookie min contract with Harrell. That would leave the Rockets with the ability to continue to add minimum salary players, and be virtually unrestricted with mid-season trades. I think you'd then see them push pretty hard to land Ridnour as a Terry replacement & 3rd string option at PG. Seems like the best alternative right now, and we know that Morey wants to stock up on D-league camp invites as well that I'm sure have been waiting to sign. Yeah putting Harrell on a two year deal is risky, but we don't really even know if he's an NBA player yet. In the situation the Rockets are in, I think its much more risky to hard cap yourself then it is to be concerned with free agency two years down the road with a 2nd round unproven rookie. We shall see, but it seems like the Terry situation is what everyone is waiting for first which probably relies more of the Pelicans bumping up his offer from the vet min to the full BAE.
Minimum salary contracts cannot contain bonuses of any kind. So, ppl bringing up these ideas about using incentives can probably just be pointed to that.
The silence is deafening. I don't necessarily agree with your theory though. A couple things to remember regarding Harrell/Jones/3rd point guard/end of roster for Rockets: 1. Rockets still owe Denver an undetermined amount of cash for the Lawson trade. Cash is to be determined. Why? 2. Kostas' guarantee date is not until 10/4/2015. He hasn't been released by the Nuggets yet. Why? 3. There are multiple teams with too many players for their roster. 4. Miami has to get out of the luxury tax this season. Guys, this is the way Morey sets up future deals. I'm not necessarily predicting a future deal over the next 2 months with Denver. But....it would not surprise me one bit if Morey leveraged this cash situation with Denver into another multi-team trade where Denver gets a player from another team plus more cash from Houston to cover that player's contract in order to help facilitate some other trade Morey is making. Personally, I cannot see Morey allowing himself to be hard-capped this season. This is the season where the Rockets are most likely to go significantly into the luxury tax. They'll be able to get right back out of it next season. And this is the season where Morey needs maximum in-season trade flexibility. The hard cap kills trade flexibility because the 125% +$100,000 salary matching rule is gonzo. He's gotta send out equal or more salary than what he is receiving. And in terms of trades...more teams are looking to dump salary at the deadline than there are wanting to take on additional salary. So, I personally cannot see Morey locking himself in with the hard cap. That means in my opinion it is much more likely that Morey either convinced Harrell to take the minimum....which we sure aren't seeing any evidence he's doing that...or he's looking for a trade involving Harrell and possibly somebody else. With the above things in mind you should look closely at teams with over 15 guaranteed contracts as well as teams like Denver and Philly who are significantly below the salary cap. Detroit - they have 17 guaranteed contracts now with the signing of a kid I really like, Darrun Hilliard, plus they've got Adonis Thomas on a make-good non-guaranteed multi-year deal. They're gonna have to move out a couple contracts at least. You can look at different combinations of their end-of-roster players and see what you come up with. But frankly, one of Hilliard/Dinwiddie (for our 3rd pg spot) plus helping them move Cartier Martin and/or Danny Granger out (either here or to Denver) might be the basis for a trade of Harrell's rights. In fact, Harrell might actually be a player that Denver wants and he may already be bookmarked for Denver once Morey can get other pieces lined up to do a bigger deal. Something like Denver sends Kostas' non-guaranteed contract to Detroit, Detroit sends back talent to both us and Denver, we send cash to one team and Harrell to the other. (Throw in second rounders to balance trade as needed.) Boston - another possibility here since they now have 16 guaranteed contracts. Rumor is they are looking to combine Evan Turner's expiring deal along with Jared Sullinger for a single player. Don't know if that's true or not. But obviously Sullinger, Turner, and Perry Jones are their 3 low men on their roster totem poll. A 3-way deal with Boston sending Denver a player like Turner, Denver sending Boston Kostas, Boston sending us a player and us sending cash to Denver and Harrell to Boston might be on the table. (Throw in second rounders to balance trade as needed.) You could take out Denver and substitute Philly in the above. Philly has 12 guaranteed contracts plus Covington, Thompson, and Simpson all on non-guaranteed deals but all having proven they belong on an NBA roster. Plus Philly is way below the cap. Plenty of opportunity to work out a deal with them. Miami - they are desperate to get under the luxury tax. There's still a possibility of a 3-way involving us and Denver using Kostas' non-guaranteed deal as rubble sent back to Miami to help them get below the tax. They need to dump Chris Andersen in the worst way. And Morey might have leverage on a deal with them using Kostas' and his incomplete cash owing situation with Denver. Any 2 of McRoberts/Andersen/Chalmers gone for nothing or minimum salaries gets Miami under the luxury tax.
It just depends where they have Montrezl ranked as a prospect. If they really view him as a 1st round talent, then you find a way to make it work. But if they think he's in the same ballpark as Christmas, Holmes, etc., then you consider dealing him to keep the salary cap flexibility. My guess is they view him as a 1st rounder. Several mocks had him in the 1st, and he has the look of a guy that could contribute early. What he gives you....energy, rebounding, defense and finishing around the rim....is what typically gets young guys on the floor. I wouldn't do anything different than what the Rockets have done so far. There's no hurry to fill the last spot or two on the roster. Woods and Hayes both have partial guarantees, so you've got some flexibility there. Delay the Montrezl decision as long as possible to see if any other trades or free agents materialize.
It has since come out that the Rockets included $440k in cash as part of the Lawson trade. Presumably, that amount was to cover the partial guarantee on Prigioni's contract. I do not believe there are any outstanding cash obligations.
I believe Pincus tweeted that the Rockets sent $440k in cash to Denver, presumably to cover Prigioni's guarantee.
Ok. I had been told that we had agreed to cover Dorsey's contract as well and then I read somewhere where the cash was still TBD. So that's how it got in my mind. If that tip was accurate then it will lead us to another deal with Denver at some point. Or perhaps we help Denver find a lodging spot for Dorsey without them having to pay him????
Haven't seen anything on this yet. Maybe you've got the answer. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q100 Does this mean that we could trade Harrell's rights to Philly with cash, Philly sign him and then trade him back to us for another asset, either more cash or some sort of future draft pick top 55 protected in 2020??? Or does "reacquire" mean we can sign the player later if he is waived after we trade him. It's not implicitly stated and I can't find anything in the actual CBA to explain this although I doubt it would mean we could trade Harrell's draft rights and then trade for Harrell 30 days after he signs a contract. If you know this answer, can you point me to the page number in the CBA that interprets this exception to the cannot re-acquire rule? http://www.scribd.com/doc/172760974/NBA-NBPA-CBA-2011
Bima, This was a question from Medicine N Music in another thread, thought I'd post it here. Seems I would know the answer from all the time I spend reading your posts, but, alas.
I asked him this on Twitter earlier: <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/NicksNameIsNick">@NicksNameIsNick</a> Any use of MLE *right now* triggers hard cap. Remainder of Taxpayer MLE is $186k. Rookie minimum is $525k.</p>— David Weiner (@BimaThug) <a href="https://twitter.com/BimaThug/status/636941637365575680">August 27, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
I don't see how not signing Hayes affects the ability to sign Harrell, I'm sure it does, but from first glance I don't see it. The only way I see this making sense right now is if the Rockets are planing on doing a TPE deal, or 2 for 1 trade like Bballhollic is saying.
If Rockets sign Harrell with portion of MLE greater than the tax payer MLE, they can't exceed apron. From what I recall, Rockets will be close to apron and likely prefer to have some space in case of injury instead of Chuck Hayes.
They should just sign him to a 1 year deal. If a deal comes up, trade him, if not, we can attempt to keep him next summer should we lose out on Durant..
