It's a weird situation to me. If Canaan gets a salary of $570K to start, with a theoretical max raise of 4.5%, his 2nd year salary would be $596K. Per the minimum salary schedule, http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q16, a player with 1 year experience in 2014-2015 has a minimum salary of $816,482. (Different than Chandler Parsons contract, whose salary stayed above the schedule). Obviously, that's the minimum, but I would've thought that implies the Rockets used the minimum salary exception, and are therefore bound by its contract limits. But, we essentially did that with Smith/Ohlbrecht/Beverley, signing them using capspace at league minimums to 3+ year deals. So apparently, as long as there's cap room in year 1, you're not limited by the 2 year minimum salary exception rules, and the limits on raises don't apply. Basically, it's another example of Morey's cleverness. He took advantage of the Rockets having a little bit of cap room the past 2 years to sign all of the undrafted free agents/D-League picks to 3 year deals rather than 2. It may not seem like much, but it means an extra year of guys like Beverley or Smith at less than a million, rather than having to pony up in free agency.
Here's a table illustrating the math to which Bimathug refers: Spoiler <style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table { border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: <?php echo $tableFont ?>; font-size: 12px; } .tableizer-table td { padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc; } .tableizer-table th { background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold; } </style><table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th>Player</th><th>Salary</th></tr> <tr><td>Omer Asik</td><td>$8,374,646 </td></tr> <tr><td>Jeremy Lin</td><td>$8,374,646 </td></tr> <tr><td>James Harden</td><td>$13,701,250 </td></tr> <tr><td>Terrence Jones</td><td>$1,551,840 </td></tr> <tr><td>Donatas Motiejunas</td><td>$1,422,720 </td></tr> <tr><td>Chandler Parsons</td><td>$926,500 </td></tr> <tr><td>Greg Smith</td><td>$884,293 </td></tr> <tr><td>Patrick Beverley</td><td>$788,872 </td></tr> <tr><td>Robert Covington</td><td>$490,180 </td></tr> <tr><td>James Anderson (Waived)</td><td>$0 </td></tr> <tr><td>Tim Ohlbrecht (Waived)</td><td>$0 </td></tr> <tr><td>Tyler Honeycutt*(waived)</td><td>$100,000 </td></tr> <tr><td> </td><td> </td></tr> <tr><td>Subtotal</td><td>$36,614,947 </td></tr> <tr><td># of Spots Filled</td><td>9</td></tr> <tr><td>Roster Charges</td><td>$1,470,540 </td></tr> <tr><td>Total Salary</td><td>$38,085,487 </td></tr> <tr><td>Salary Cap</td><td>$58,679,000 </td></tr> <tr><td>Cap Space</td><td>$20,593,513 </td></tr> <tr><td>Dwight Howard Max</td><td>$20,513,178 </td></tr> <tr><td>Cap Space Minus Dwight Howard</td><td>$80,335 </td></tr> <tr><td>Minimum</td><td>$490,180 </td></tr> <tr><td>Available for Canaan</td><td>$570,515 </td></tr> </table>
what happens if draft picks dont agree to a contract? they go back to the draft the next year like mlb and nfl? seems like 3 players on amazing salaries are gone. smith, anderson, and Ohlbrecht
nice table. how do teams over the salary cap and even tax lvl able to sign their draft picks?!? stupid salary cap rules
The rookie exception lets teams sign their 1st round picks even if they're over to cap. I think the minimum salary exception will let you sign ven min and rookie min contracts even if you're over the cap. Source: http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm
The team keeps their draft rights indefinitely (well, almost indefinitely, a team really only loses the draft rights after the player retires, I think) if they don't sign with the team. For example, the Rockets still have Sergio Llull's draft rights even though he hasn't reached an agreement to play for them since being drafted in 2009. More specifically, in place of the "rookie scale salary," teams are required to offer each 2nd round pick a 1 year, rookie minimum contract in order to keep their rights. I don't believe the contract offer even has to have guaranteed moneiy-- Carl Landry signed one of those one year deals. Remember, though, after the one year deal expires, the player is a restricted free agent not only for that offseason but also for the next two offseasons-- a factor which hampers their ability to move as well as their earning potential. So, Canaan can choose to do the following: (1) Not play in the NBA, in which case the Rockets will hold on to his draft rights almost indefinitely. (2) Play for the Rockets on a 1 year minimum deal (with, I think, no guaranteed money) or (3) Negotiate a multi-year deal with the Rockets with likely a substantial guaranteed amount. Most of the prior 2nd rookies, other than the Europeans who already make decent $ overseas and have buyouts required, have elected to sign the multi-year deal. I suppose a guy can have such confidence in himself that he would elect to take $0 guaranteed money in order to bet on getting a bigger payday earlier. It is probably not a wise gamble, though, since the vast majority of 2nd round rookies don't get enough minutes and don't play well enough to become hot commodities after their rookie season (the Rockets 2nd rounders have done much better than average, but still for every Parsons and Carl Landry there is a Joey Dorsey or Jermaine Taylor). For example, here's a list of guys drafted in the 2012 draft: how many 2nd rounders among these do you think would get a big payday if they were free agents today? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_NBA_Draft Given this, it is smarter for a guy to take, say, $1M guaranteed money up front and delay his entry into free agency by a couple seasons. My guess is that Canaan will accept a 4-year deal similar to the ones signed by Parsons, Jermaine Taylor and Chase Budinger, probably starting at $570K with the first season guaranteed and the 2nd season either fully or partially guaranteed and the final 2 seasons partially- or non-guaranteed. Parsons earned more than $800K in his rookie season, but Budinger only got $450K or so as a rookie, so it's not unprecedented for a 2nd rounder to make only slightly over the minimum in one of those multi-year deals. The $ issue isn't so much what they make as a rookie, but the total guaranteed amount.
The more I look at this, the more I'm convinced that we need to hold onto Asik unless someone blows us away with a trade offer. This entire roster is built for 2015 free agency. Lin, Asik, Parsons, and Beverly all expire that year, and DMo/TJones have team options. Both Aldridge and Love will be available, and since Parsons and Beverly are on such cheap deals, we won't have to renounce their Bird rights to get close to a max offer. As Morey said, Asik as a backup is more valuable than adding an above average PF. Keeping him is both the best option for now, and the best option for 2015.
If it's me, and we need Smith's money and we can't get a trade for him then I release Smith to sign Canaan to long term deal at 888k. And then I wait and see if smith clears. If he doesn't I sign Cooley to long term deal starting at 570k. So Canaan at 888k and cooley at 570k. I don't care about Ohlbrecht Anderson and honestly I really like Smith but he is so foul prone and another bad ft shooting center. So I release all those guys if that's what it takes. Cooley plays hard and rebounds at a 15 per 40 clip in college and so far in SL shows he can rebound at this level too. Plus at least he shoots 70% from the ft line. If he can just develop a 15-17 footer he is the better option for a third center. Anyway thats what I would do. Of course if Morey could some how sucker/talk Canaan to sign a three year deal for 570k than lets go for it. But if not, do what it takes to lock him up. Sad to see Greg Smith go but he really isn't a starting PF and he wasn't much of a defender as a center. And the bttom line is losing Smith to Dwight is a very small price to pay.
But to target 2015 free agency to pick up the third star, the Rockets will have to not let Chandler go into restricted free agency next summer, and take a huge gamble on him going into unrestricted free agency in 2015. This would require the stones to believe that he will wait until after the third star is signed to agree to his deal to resign with the Rockets, counting salarywise until then as only a cap hold.
This is a gamble I'm willing to take. In 2015 Dwight will be 29, Harden 25, and Parsons 26. Presumably they will have had two strong years of playing together and getting deep in the playoffs if not winning the championship. If you are Chandler Parsons and the Rockets are promising you a to best any offer out on the open market, likely >10M per year as an additional bonus to the four stupid cheap years of service you just put in, and b an opportunity at the championship to boot, why do you NOT take that deal? The money disparity would have to be enormous to overcome that combination. This all makes sense so long as I'm understanding it correctly in that we can retain Parsons' bird rights, go out and threaten to sign Love/LMA outright with our cap space (but then most likely subdue the original team into agreeing to a SnT), and THEN after signing our third superstar go out and spend any level of money over the cap we so desire to make sure Parsons is locked up. For PG we would have many options as well. Lin is an X-factor depending on what he does this year (I'm not convinced we'll deal him just because his value is not great on the open market right now). Beverly is an option. Canaan is waay out there as a possibility but you look at the necessary qualities of a sidekick PG playing alongside a Big Three (see Miami with Chalmers, LA with Fisher/Farmar/Blake, Dallas with Kidd as our most recent examples) and Canaan has that same style. Deadeye shooter, clutch playmaker with tons of heart, enough physicality to play good defense. That's about all you need; you don't need superb court vision or elite athleticism, all-world finishing skills. That's for the teams who have no one else BUT their PG (Chicago, Cleveland, Clippers, etc etc). And finally, 2015 would be the year I believe we make our strongest push to convince Llull to come over. I have no idea how international signings work, but his experience level and our opportunity to sign him would both align during this offseason.
Just to be clear, the Rockets will have enough to sign Dwight to the max if they waive Anderson and Ohlbrect. Actually they will have about 90k spare. I'm pretty sure they are going to keep G.Smith because he is more valued than the other two and they don't have enough time to work a trade before Dwight signs (trust me, they want Dwight's name on the dotted line in the next couple of days). Everybody is worrying about Canaan too much. He is the 34th pick and most likely to spend the entire season in the D-League. Ask T-Jones about that and he was the number 17th pick. Morey usually thries to give rookies 3 - 4 year contracts at a higher rate with little guaranteed money for cap flexibility. We don't have the money to offer Canaan 800k + like Parsons but maybe around 600k with 2 years guaranteed and a team option for the 3rd will suffice. We can re-sign Ohlbrect and Anderson to minimum contracts if they clear waivers.
they restart from scratch, doing him a favor being that they won't be competitive anytime soon during the rest of his contract.
If we keep Asik, Smith will never see the floor unless he develop into a PF (not going to happen). I like Anderson and would prefer to keep him or resign him and we need a backup 2 badly.
If the Rockets traded for their 3rd star they can hold onto Parsons. I think the key to this is trading Lin now, then try to collect assets to package with Asik in 2014 or 2015.
Just peeking ahead a bit: Coon is projecting 14/15 cap at around $62.5 million. If it does hit $62.5 mil or more, we could very easily create over $20 million of cap space while retaining Harden/Dwight/Parsons/(one of Canaan/Beverley). This means we would have to be in a position to move out Asik/Lin/Jones/DMo/(one of Canaan/Beverley). All of those guys have positive trade values. IOW, they could easily be moved out for no salary because of their value or potential. The only guy that is a question mark is Lin. Not because Lin is not valuable but because he plays at a position where there is a ton of good players and most teams do not need a starting point guard. Once again....what this means.....Morey will likely trade Lin at the first opportunity that yields us either...a good value player that can then be liquidated if necessary....or an expiring contract that we can renounce to create space or sign-and-trade during the off season or flip at the trade deadline along with Asik, etc. for another superstar. I'm pretty sure this is the play. Morey is looking for trades that put us in the position to have assets to trade for another superstar or to trade away and sign a superstar outright after this year.
Lin and Asik or assets already. It will be hard to turn them in to better assets right now. One thing is for certain, Morey is unpredictable. Another thing is for certain, Morey holds on to his assets patiently never releasing them till it is absolutely necessary. Finally I have never heard Morey come out and deny a rumor and not mean it. He denies that at this time Lin and Asik are on the block. Of course everyone is on the block even harden. Lebron for Harden happens in a sec if Miami wants. But Morey has assessed the market and at this time those guys are not on the table for what is out there. Now if by trade deadline Portland offers LMA for Asik and our first than that is a different story.
This is why I keep thinking a Lin and Asik for Granger deal could be his next play. The window is only three years before Howard can opt out. By trading for Granger you take a gamble that he is your big third for this season and if not then you release or sign and trade him and go after Lebron, Melo, Dirk, Bosh, as your big third after this season. By moving Lin and Asik a year before they expire you gain that cap flexibility a year early. You'd have to think at least one of the top 2014 free agents would be enticed to join Howard, Harden, and Parsons.
Mmmmmmmmm, not Lin and Asik for Granger. But Lin/Tjones/GSmith for Granger would make a lot of sense. If we're going to work our way up to getting a Bosh/Melo/Love/Aldridge type player..we're gonna have to be able to give Asik plus another very good player plus a prospect or two plus draft picks. So in my opinion, you can't burn up Asik for a guy like Granger or Deng or Ilyasova or Ryan Anderson. Those are guys we need to try to acquire with just Lin, Jones, and picks. Then you've got Asik/DMo/(good player) to combine for a superstar.
