Does buying out a contract count towards the upcoming years salary cap? If the Rockets could buyout Hasheem&Brad's contracts and maybe deal Scola for a higher pick they could offer Gasol more money than the Grizz could afford to match.
Well buyouts are usually for a fraction of the entire contract, so the majority of the money would still count toward the cap. If the rockets really were that desperate to have a shot at gasol, scola by himself would be more than enough to convince a team to absorb miller/thabeets salries. Though IMO gasol is worth no more than 10 milion a year.
I think your dreaming. Center is the hardest position in the NBA to fill with quality and Memphis has one of the best... they will match whatever is offered to Marc. This is not the same team or the same situation that Memphis has dealt with in the past. The Rockets have little to no chance at getting Marc Gasol.
The full amount of the buyout (plus any salary earned prior to the buyout) count against the team's salary cap. For instance, the Rockets saved some money buying out Jared Jeffries's contract, but not enough to get below the luxury tax threshold, since Jared 's buyout wasn't small enough. Exactly. I don't understand why more people don't get this. Moreover, the Rockets all but assured that Gasol will stay in Memphis when they took Thabeet's 2011-12 salary off their hands. Of course, I'm pretty sure that Morey knew he couldn't realistically get Gasol before making that trade, anyway.
Memphis is already capped out and they are a small market that doesn't draw half as well as their college team does..there's been plenty of talk of relocating. I really doubt they could match anything beyond 10 mil/per...unless they move Rudy Gay's max contract and get a huge TPE in return.
Everyone thinks they are a cheap team because of the Gasol trade but historically they have spent serious dough to put together a decent team. This paid a lot of money for player such as Brian Cardinal, Battier, and Gasol. They will keep Gasol at whatever price. If it doesn't work out, they would have no problems unloading him.
