[Chron] Rockets look to overhaul roster during offseason

Since the other parts of your question were already answered, I'll respond to this portion.

The reason teams like the Knicks or the Mavericks can be so far above the salary cap is because they have devised trades to take on more salary by trading expiring contracts for big money players, then re-signing their own free agents to big deals (because they have their Bird Rights and are free to do so).

So even if Les Alexander was willing to spend well over the cap, he can't just disregard the MLE rule and offer a free agent from another team a max deal. That's against league rules. They would have to try to work out trades to accumulate assets, like the Mavericks did for YEARS!

Hope that helps.

 

id rather trade howard over swift.. swift just had a ****ty year, and wasnt able to do what he was brought in to do because yao and tmac werent around to draw the attention away leaving stro to do his work

yeah i admit hes a bit clumsy with the ball and doesnt rebound enough but with a healthy team i think stro will be able to fit in nicely.

 

one season for swift is enough, to be honest with u, we should trade both of them and get ratliff or some center who can defend.

 

You know that's not gonna happen. I think management is gonna keep both of them one more season and to see how well Swift does with T-Mac & Yao.

 

I don't. I think it's obvous that Swift is gone and we are probably stuck with Howard.

 

If we somehow got their picks, we would end up drafting losers like bryce drew and mirsad tuckan or whatever his name was

 

I don't think I could take another season hearing "Huge Disappointment" any time Stro's name is mentioned during a game. He will be actively shopped this off-season but he won't return much alone, we will probably have to package him with a pick to get anything decent back for him.

 

It's Bowen's option whether or not he's under contract next year? That's insane!

Let's start a petition asking him to get the hell out of town. I'll bet www.RyanGoin.com is available.

 

Its probably not realistic that we would be able to trade Swift for someone like Rashard Lewis or Cory Magette but Mo-T is definitely trade bait because of his expiring contract, would anybody take him back for Stro and the Knicks 21st or 28th 1st round pick this year. Maybe we could turn that pick into a decent player, we would only have Mo-Ts salary for a year and would get out of the 5 year obligation to Stro.

 

I thought about trading Swift for Mo-T's expiring contract but I feel he may have some value on a fast breaking team. He could fit on NO/OK, They could take his contract and he could come off the bench. Chris Paul and Speedy Claxton can get the ball down to him and we might be able to get a guy like J.R.Smith. I would probably do this if we can get Shelden Williams with the 8th pick.

 

5 year obligation? Swift only signed for 3 years IIRC, at the MLE, he could be nice tradebait for a team looking to run.

Teams that could use Swift: Nets (don't really have anything I want), Hornets-Claxton or PJ would do.

 

we trade swift - i hope - if we dont i go apeturds.

 

Trade Juwan for anything...cash, future considerations (which is really a fancy way of saying he'll be traded for nothing), or for Sue Bird...he's the biggest cancer on this team...I'd take Stro or Chuck Hayes anyday over J-Ho...Plus Stro plays much better with Yao...I will refuse to go to any Rockets' games if J-Ho is still a member of this team come next season and yes I do live in NY, but I still went to MSG and paid for those expensive ass tickets to see the Rockets play during their one and only visit of the season

 

According to http://www.dfw.net/~patricia/contracts its 5 years.

Stromile Swift ........ 8/2/05 5 $30 million '10

I believe Stro does have a player option after year 3 though.

 

According to this Chron article it's a 4 year deal:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/rox/3293756

It didn't mention an option, but I've heard the 4th year is a player option, so 3 years and the 4th at his option.

Someone should probably ask Feigen about that.

 

it did. thanks, jmwilliamson.

so, if we only have the MLE to sign ppl, are we able to also add ppl via minimum contracts? minimum contracts also apply, right? so if we were over the cap, only had our MLE, and had 3 1st round picks [meaning guaranteed money], how would those 3 rookie contracts be allowed? does that mean we can sign undrafted rookies, too? would they fall under a 'rookie contract,' a 'minimum contract,' or a FA contract (cutting into the MLE)?

Thanks, again.

 

sorry for the extra post - i forgot to ask something: what are the cutoffs for the salary cap this past year [i don't think they've released the salary cup cutoff for next year].

isn't there a soft cap, and then a separate threshhold that, if you cross, you have to actually pay $-for-$?

i'm trying to calculate how much we actually have to work with, including for rookies and FAs/re-signings..

 

here are the 2005-06 numbers (06-07 will probably be a little higher):

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=nbacbaratified&prov=st&type=lgns

salary cap: $49.5 million
luxury tax threshold: $61.7 million

 

It is a soft cap, meaning there are exceptions that allows teams to sign players even if they are over the cap. Off the top of my head...

1) MLE, mid level exception (equal to the league average salary) each year
2) LLE, Lower lever, $1 mil adjusted to $1.6? for inflation, every other year
3) re-sign your own players (may need bird rights)
4) draft choices
5) any body at a minimum contract, set by the league based on years of service
6) a trade that meets the 'equal' requirements, used to be 10%+$100k, now wider.
I'm sure ther are others.

And yes, a first round draft pick has to be given a 3 year guaranteed contract at a rate set by the league. Second round has no guarantees. That is why eary second rounders are sometimes considered more desireable than late first rounders.

 

I jus cant take 1 more season with juwan howard starting