Why would Harrell sign 1 year though when he will likely be in the D-League all year? You have to get playing time to earn another contract.
I believe so but didn't Williams make $4mil in his last contract? My point is teams are more willing this year to spend a bit more since the cap ramification of those transactions changes significantly after this year. Because of that, I don't think the type of player you normally see available at the MLE will be available. I mean I hear rumors of guys like Kevin Seraphin getting the full MLE this summer(which is truly stunning).
It really wouldn't help the Clippers much to acquire and then just waive Haywood. Crawford is on a bargain contract for one more year, and the Clippers (thanks to DeAndre leaving them for nothing) aren't currently slated to be heavy taxpayers. If they get Haywood, it would almost definitely be to flip him for salary.
They won 53 games in one of the worst conferences I've ever seen. If you wanna isolate one portion of the season or just look at when everyone was healthy, that's your choice. I look at the entire body of work and in the regular season, they were not that dominant. They were much better in the playoffs, but again, I attribute that in part to the horrible conference they play in. The reason I'd favor them to win it all this season(provided they stay healthy) is because they'll likely have another cakewalk to the Finals since the East didn't really improve much.
Thanks Bima! I would think that to be the logical path, just pointing out that it is possible for them tk get Haywood, waive him, operate under the cap to (for example) offer JSmoove big millions (8 or more depending on cap)
Maybe then the strategy for Morey should be to let the available money around the league get used up while he keeps his powder dry waiting for some bargains.
There is absolutely no chance that happens unless they can agree to an even more aggressive Trevor Ariza declining salary scale and all other options are wiped out. Even then it is unlikely they wouldn't use at least a portion of it to try to lock in Harrell.
Took them awhile to gel count. Once they built up their chemistry, they were beating both the West and East. During that 33-3 stretch they beat some really good West teams. Plus they can't help that the East is watered down big timer.
It would not be possible. The most they would have in that scenario (when including the Paul Pierce signing) is about $4.2M to offer one player and the rest would have to be allocated to minimum salaries/roster holds. If Pierce would agree to take another ~$500k cut to the room exception, they could have as much as $7.5M. But realistically (the realistic scenario does not include Pierce taking another $500k cut), that strategy would only give them about $2.1M more than they have available with the rest of their MLE.
Trade Dwight for Ibaka + picks or Blake and re-tool. This team can't hang with the Spurs/Thunder/Cavs/Warriors, and they aren't going away until Dwight is well past his prime.
I'm not blaming them for the East. I blame the rest of the sh-tty ass front offices in the Conference for that. But I thought they were gonna be a lot better than 53-29 given the competition. I know it takes a while to gel, but it took them longer than I expected. And Love never really looked like he fit in there. It wouldn't surprise me if they just coasted during the regular season next year and then turned it on come playoff time. They showed they don't need homecourt advantage by winning twice in Chicago and twice in Atlanta(not to mention once at Oakland and nearly a second time).
Random Thoughts about the Rockets off-season Both of our starting caliber power forwards are going into the last year of the rookie contracts and will get paid at season's end by us our someone else. Our star player is asking for back court help and non has come... We have signed Pat Bev, Brewer. Drafted Dekker and Harrell. Have K. McDaniels negotiations happening. Josh Smith and Terry are waiting, too. Can one trade solve all our needs and wants plus make the other team say yes? The Suns have the pieces we need / want: BLEDSOE / Markieff Morris → solid player, better contract (will turn into gold after the cap increase) BUT he seems to be an outlaw → driving down is VALUE. We will have to give a lot to get players of this caliber back: Bledsoe & Kieff Morris ...FOR... Ariza, Jones, K Pap, Prigs, and Dorsey PLUS 2017 1st round pick (top 3 protected) Rockets Bledsoe / Harden / (K McD or Brewer or Dekker ) / ( Kieff or Dmo ) / Howard PLUS an above average bench – Bev, Capela and the others that didn't start Suns Knight / Ariza / Tucker / Jones / T. Chandler thanks for reading