I'm interested in seeing how he plays on a contender for the 1st time in his career. At worst his contract is great as a trade facilitator. At best Shevd is rejuvenated and balls out. A true win/win.
Ariza and Harden need to be better rested. Brewer I can see stepping I and getting 24 minutes a game. Alexi should allow Cannon more time to grow. Also Terry cannot be a heavy rotation player at this stage in his career. Howard DMo Ariza Harden Beverly TJones Brewer Alexi
Good thinking! Doubtful about Bosh or Anthony availability since both appear to have chosen their teams for reasons other than basketball. Any other possible targets out there other than Dragic? Always good to be prepared for the opportunity of course e
Location was something of importance for Melo and Bosh but don't be too fooled, the extra 30 million buck played the biggest part. both players knew that they could always be traded. Both players were going into the year having had success or a future possibility of success with their teams in the near future. losing big can change priorities and change them quick I'm not saying it's likely to happen but I do think it's good for the Rockets to be ready to make the move if things change quick.
If you're talking about trade flexibility, the answer depends on what we give up for Brandan Wright, but I seriously doubt it. Just a few points for your consideration here: Provided Minny (or Philly) actually claims Garcia on waivers..... Our current salaries total $73,286,986. That is precisely $3,542,014 below the luxury tax point of $76,829,000 and $7,542,014 below our hard cap of $80,829,000 that now comes into play because of the sign-and-trade of Ariza. So....we can't exceed $80,829,000 and we've got to carry twelve players. (I really don't think this is going to come into play. Odds of it hindering a transaction are basically nil.) For trade purposes that is important because at $100,000 above the luxury tax you lose the flexibility of the +$5,000,000 trade rule for outgoing salaries totaling between $9.8 million and $19.6 million, and you lose the flexibility of taking back 150% in incoming salary for salaries totaling less than $9.8 million. However, you still have the 125%(+$100k) rule if we exceed the luxury tax limit all the way up to the hard cap of $80,829,000. So there is some flexibility there. (Screech.....I forgot....Yep....Les is a scrooge......forget all this, he won't do it. I chide.) In my opinion, we still have all the flexibility we need to get an upgrade down for either Brandan Wright or Goran Dragic or both. And we still have the flexibility to get a trade done for a max salary guy too or a player like Eric Bledsoe on a near max contract. Considering Brandan Wright firstly: His salary is $5 million. This means that using the 150%(+$100k) rule we could obtain him for as little as $3,266,666 in outgoing salaries. At that minimum outgoing salary we would still be under the luxury tax so we could still use the 150%(+$100k) rule to trade for Wright. IF Boston decides to move Wright they are most likely going to be looking for the best draft pick(s) they can get combined with possibly a young player on a rookie/non-guaranteed deal or expiring salaries. So you can consider Rocket player salary combinations that equal or exceed $3,266,666 to acquire Wright. (Or what about Shved's contract by itself??? More on that in a second.) Next considering Goran Dragic: His salary is $7.5 million. IF we acquired Wright first and if Dragic became available we could possibly acquire him using the 125%(+$100k) and going into the luxury tax WITHOUT exceeding the hard cap of $80,829,000. That means we would need at least $5,920,000 of outgoing salary to acquire Dragic. As you can tell from looking at our roster after the acquisitions of Brewer and Shved we have plenty of combinations to get us there. So, in my humble opinion, if Wright and Dragic are made available in trade we have the flexibility (and obviously the assets) to acquire them provided Morey decides they are worth the negotiated asset price. Lastly, considering a merged acquisition of both Wright and Dragic together: Going back to Shved's salary. IF we were able to negotiate 2 trades involving both Wright and Dragic simultaneously (say at the deadline), we could actually mix and match the trade pieces. For instance, if trading for Dragic requires Shved going to PHX, we could actually send Shved to PHX and use his salary as the 150%(+$100k) salary to complete the acquisition of Wright, and then use the other player salaries that are sent out for Wright to cumulate the $5.92 million or more outgoing salaries we need for Dragic. So there could be some synergy by merging those two trades together. ============================================== On another note, at first glance, the Turiaf/Shved piece of these last 2 transactions made very little sense to me. It looked like we were paying a second rounder just to add an additional $1.7 million of expiring salary (difference between Shved's and Turiaf's salaries) to our books. But I was initially viewing Turiaf/Shved as simply dead weight because that is what Turiaf is. Looking at that transaction from Philly's point of view, they essentially lost $1.7 million in payables plus they got Turiaf's contract mostly covered by insurance. So....essentially they were paid right around $3 million to receive a second round draft pick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That made no sense to me. It's too good a deal for them. A second round pick should at least COST them a couple million in salary (that they have to pay anyways). But we handed them greater cap flexibility and a second rounder to boot. Total no brainer for them. So why would Morey PAY so much for an extra $1.7 million of dead weight salary? Well, here are some possibilities: 1. We may need the extra dead weight salary to make a deal without giving up an extra player. 2. What if Shved isn't a dead weight player? The more I look at it, I can see Shved busting into the rotation and playing behind Harden at the point. Big point, allows Canaan/Terry to play entirely off the ball. And we could rehab his trade value and make him a viable trade piece for his actual basketball skills by the deadline. 3. Follow me here.......perhaps there's a side agreement between Morey and Hinkie to dump another salary (Terry) to Philly for nothing but cash later on if needed to make a deal go through. Now I know #3 is going to be controversial and a bunch of you are going to say...illegal/circumvention/yackayackayacka. But........Morey could have gotten a lot better deal for a second rounder from Philly than giving them $3 million to take a second round pick. Philly would have taken a second round pick WITH A ZERO NET CASH OUTLAY. In fact, Philly would've probably done a deal for a second rounder even if it cost them $1 million in salary or so BECAUSE they have to spend 90% of the cap anyways. And taking on Turiaf is actually not taking on salary since it's covered by insurance. So I think all these factors point to there being more to the Turiaf/Shved piece than what is meeting the eye right now. Because Orlando and Utah are both under the cap and could take on Turiaf and send back a non-guaranteed contract for a second rounder and the Rockets not had to take on Shved. I think there was a specific reason why we took on Shved. It was because 1. Morey wants him as a player. 2. Morey wants him as a contract. 3. Morey wants additional flexibility to dump salary on Philly between now and the deadline. I think he bought that flexibility with the Turiaf/Shved trade. Why would it be helpful to dump salary on Philly later? Well considering Boston and PHX.....we could possibly acquire Dragic and Wright for draft picks and Shved/Terry (if those teams wanted to go that route). Shved to PHX, Terry to Philly, pick(s) to Boston, pick(s) to PHX. And what about other teams in the luxury tax that decide to break it down, the Nets/Knicks specifically? That's a good chunk of salary/lux tax savings we might have bought if what I think is actually the case. FLEXIBILITY????? We got a plenty.
Sorry bro, but that's ridiculous. You think you can predict whom Morey wants or can get? Or whom any GM in the league wants or could get? You should work some lottery numbers with that superpower. You'd make a mint. That you made such a bold pronouncement after being schooled on Dragic/Lin history is especially funny.
Their options are either trade him, or get nothing for him when he walks in FA. If he still had years left under team control then I'm sure they wouldn't make him available.
Even if they trade those two, Gogi could still bail and they have Bledsoe and Thomas under team control for several more years. I'm sure it's an option, but not a very good one.
Their options are either trade him, or get nothing for him if he walks in FA. If he still had years left under team control then I'm sure they wouldn't make him available. There is still no assurance I know of, do you?, that it is an actual/factual that GD will GD PHX and refuse to sign. That said, I anticipate a divorce in the desert and am rooting for enough failure there to make a return to Houston a real possibility.
He's expressed his displeasure with being on the team a few times and has made it clear that he plans on opting out of his contract in order to test the market. I mean obviously there's nothing guaranteeing that he leaves similar to how there was nothing guaranteeing that Dwight Howard would have left Orlando if he wasn't traded to the Lakers.
So this guy could be out for season?! Is his career over too? I don't even remember him getting injured...
the last i read, the front office had contacted steve nash's nerve doctors because he's not healing as they expected. it does sound like a strong chance he'll miss the rest of the season.
If Phoenix looks out of the playoff picture in February, we *may* have a shot at Dragic. We'd have a better chance if Dragic's "camp" (lol) let Phoenix know he would sign elsewhere in free agency/decline the player option. I think there is enough evidence to theorize that he has some interest in the Rockets. And we can certainly offer a better package to Phoenix than Dallas gave to Boston, if that's any comparison.
