I don't understand your post either. Right now we are carrying the maximum # of players allowed (15). If we cut a player, the will save luxery tax implications but it ALSO allow us to pick up another player who is willing to come here for cheap (eg...a player cut from another team such as Finley or any other player willing to accept a min contract). I don't think I've ever heard ANYBODY call Les cheap recently. Right now we are >$5 mil over the luxery tax threshold. That means Les has spent a crap load of money.
My preference is to waive Spoon with the amnesty clause (create roster spot for Baxter) and waive Ward outright (create roster spot for another). I think this makes it more likely we will add another FA with the LLE as well as Baxter for the vet min (preferrably a 2 year deal with team option on year 2). Spoon is better than Baker, but the 2.5 mil is significant, and either player would be buried behind Swift, Howard and Baxter. Giving Baxter a chance to be a solid but inexpensive long term back-up is more important than keeping Spoon around. We would still have Baker and Mooch as useless expiring contract players (could take on a player for over 10 mil a year with them alone). Plus Wesley, James, Bowen, Barry or Head can be combined with one of them if just the right special player was available before the trade deadline. Losing Spoon doesn't really hurt our 2-1 trade combinations much, Wesley's contract isn't that far off his alone.
cut 'em all. I would like to play iron ma basketball this year. Everybody plays both ways. Those who play offense have to play defense too.
I don't see Ward going anywhere. JVG likes to have three PGs on the roster, and as bad as he is, Ward's still better than Moochie. Plus, he'd be a good guy to serve as something of a mentor to Head, just in terms of showing him what it means to be a professional on the NBA Level. Frankly, I'd be pretty shocked if anyone was cut. I'm willing to bet that barring a trade, this is the team we'll be going into the regular season with.
I'll agree that Baker should be the amnesty cut. That would at least clear up a spot to bring in Baxter for emergency duty, while nearly getting us out of luxury tax land. After that we need to do what we can with Spoon, and throw in Moochie and Ward if we can...if not, just cut the both of them. We do not need them taking up roster space, even if we still have to pay them. It would be nice to package Spoon and Wesley for an upgrade at SG, but I just don't see anything out there. We shouldn't use the amnesty cut on Spoon though...out of all the dead weight on our bench he has the most value, and he's the most serviceable out of Baker, Ward, and Moochie.
$67 million was higher than I thought than I thought the payroll was. Spoon is my prediction. I could honestly see them cutting Howard, but I'm betting they'll hold out hope they could trade him away. It'll be Spoon over Baker, because we have so many expiring contracts, we can toss out $7 million's worth and still make a trade.
It looks like Spoon would have to be the guy we loose becasue the lux tax exception is only good for one player, and neither Moochie, Baker, or Ward make enough to get us under the cap. Am I correct? I figure that Baker and Moochie will definately be kept for trade dealine fotter since they only have value as expiring contracts. Ward could be waived outright for the roster spot. Loosing Spoon and Ward gives us some flexibility. It helps us financially by giving us a bit more cap room to sign another free agent, and it also opens up spots for FA's, or guys like Glover and Baxter to make the roster. I thought Spoon's expiring contract would have value at the trade deadline, but it appears that loosing him to save us the lux tax is the way to go.
with cities like orlando, sacramento, salt lake and san antonio in the league, i'd hardly call the nation's 4th most populous city a "small market" by NBA terms. it's a corporate game and Houston has a huge corporate base.
There is either 48 minutes or an hour and 48 minutes left and I haven't seen a single name dropped off of a team. Finley? Houston? Weatherspoon? Who will be dropped?
If we waive a player that is of no use to us, I believe we then can hire a new player, cheap or not, that will help us acheive our goal of a championship. If Finley, for instance, goes to work for Miami for $5 mil because we wouldn't come up with more than $2 mil then you have to investigate the situation. Finley is still a $5 mil player so why wouldn't we pay him, if it mean't getting closer to contention. I did. I watched him last year pick up cheap scraps and try to play with them. If you believe Damon Stoudemire was a needed player then we lost him because someone else would pay more money. Can you spend ridiculous amounts of money with no good return? Quite obviously. With two max stars you are not likely to be able to put together a contending team without going over the cap and into luxury tax territory. The only way is to grow your own and that takes time and a coach that will play youngsters. The Rockets have neither. So, how do plan to put together a contending team in the next three years with everyone but our stars in their mid-thirties.
Why do you keep saying the deadline is noon? Isn't it midnight? Where did you get the info from that it is supposed to be noon?
Why we wouldn't pay him? Because we are over the cap and have already spent the MLE on Swift, that's why.
I just think Spoon, Mooch, and Ward are like good teammates..and expiring contracts? I don't think we should cut Howard..unless he cannot play anymore. I want Finley though!!!
This post is just so bizarre.... How do you suggest we get players for more money when we're already over the cap and spent the MLE on Swift? Are you suggesting that we trade our expiring contracts to Dallas for the $51 million left on Fin's contract?
too bad Houston is not a "small market" - its the 4th largest city and I believe the 9th largest meadia market
IIRC, Houston's media market places it firmly as a mid-market team, as opposed to "major market" as Houston's population would indicate. A lot of smaller city's have larger media markets. Most notably, places like Boston and New Jersey.
Well, then you believe wrong. Not to be disrespectful, but you clearly have a poor understanding of NBA rules. You cannot just hire a new player "cheap or not" as you say. If we are over the cap, the rules don't allow you to sign ANY player unless you have a salary exemption or you sign them for the minimum (which means we get scraps). Since we already used our MLE ($5 mil) on Swift, we can't offer that money to Finley, under the rules. If Miami offers Finley their full MLE, which they havn't used yet, then we have no recourse to match that offer...based on the rules. It doesn't matter how cheap or not cheap Les is. All we have to offer is the LLE which is 1.8 mil. League Rules. Since we are not only over the salary cap but also over the luxery cap, the Rockets have very few options to pick up new players. Les's "cheapness" has nothing to do with it. Put it in perspective, I THINK only 3 teams were over the luxery cap previously; Dallas, Portland and New York (I might be wrong). So Houston is now lumped in with them. It's hard to call Les cheap when he's only the 4th team in the league to surpass the luxery cap. As explained, league rules prohibit the Rockets from making such an offer regardless if Les was willing to do so or not. By every account I've EVER heard about last season, the Rockets pulled off brilliant moves to get those "scraps." Personally, I'm happy with the roster. The Lakers did it without paying luxery tax. We already have a contending team. Championships are won by the stars. For the most part, whoever has the best "star" playing at a high level (and gets some good breaks along the way) wins the championship. The only obvious exception to that in recent memory was the Pistons. Other than that, one could easily argue the last 20 championships have been won because of star power. Luckily, the Rockets have two players to fit that bill...with a little more maturity (which I hope they picked up against the Mavs ) If Hakeem can win a championship with that 94 team, then there is no reason why this cast can't do it. Have faith, man. I BELIEVE
