Expiring Contracts: Who are the possible trade targets?

It'd be easier fill this out once we get into the season and teams start faltering. There is usually at least one "surprising disappointment" a season. My best guess is that if the Warriors falter, then Murphy, Foyle, Fisher will be shopped (and maybe even Richardson), with Dunleavy, and Pietrus being used as sweeteners to take one of the truly bad contracts (i.e. Foyle, Fisher).

 

I agree, the best time to trade is right before the deadline. We can get super star players like how GS got Davis or we can trade these for our specific need, like a shooter. It would be awesome if Sacramento has a bad season and would like to move Bibby, and they take our expiring contracts. I will keep dreaming.....

 

Like everyone else, I agree that the Expiring contracts are worth more as the trading deadline nears.

Couple of things though. In reality, we only have 1 GOOD expiring contract. And that is Wesley. Baker/Spoon/Ward/Moochie are pretty much nil in value. Because of this, dont be surprised to see the Rockets actually CUT these guys (or some of them) before the season starts just to open up roster spots. Perhaps one of them will be included in a trade to balance out the salaries, but again, they are nil.
BTW, today, Ward is expiring after this season. He should be moved up to the expiring list.

Also, Mike James I believe has a PLAYER OPTION on his contract next year. It sounds like he will exercise it. So in effect Mike James might be an expiring contract. And he has even more value than David Wesley.

Like it was said above, ususally there is a surprise team that had high expectations but because of injuries or whatnot they failed to live up to those expectations and as the deadline closes they look to dump salary (See the Hornets and Baron Davis last year).

That's the kind of scenario that the Rockets should be looking out for. The Warriors have already been brought up and that is an excellant target.

You have to believe the Murphy, Foyle and Fisher are very available. And I agree Dunleavy/Pietrus are sweetener material. Clearly this is a team to watch.

Today, BTW, nice HTML table layout with your post! To answer your original question though.... Why not add Morris Peterson onto your list. Maybe Darius Miles, Sam Cassell.

 

Nice post!

I agree with Deuce, Darius Miles and Morris Peterson should be added, though they are a distant second option to Wallace and Mason, if you ask me.

I just hope that all this talk regarding Cassell, Payton and Sprewell is just a smokescreen. These guys are WAY past their prime.

And as far as Finley goes, after seeing how much Stoudamire got from Memphis, we can safely assume that he will be offered far more than the LLE. If he is cut, expect some team out there to offer their MLE to him. Not that I wanted him anyway.

These older guys are not going to put us over the top. I would rather add young players and let the team grow. With the right core, we can contend for years to come.

If we follow the Swift signing with a SNT for Gerald Wallace, we will have a young core like Phoenix has, but at a reasonable price, avoiding the problems they will surely face sooner or later with their cap and filling out their roster.

Sigining Wallace would garantee that we are a PG away from having our starters for many years to come.

 

Another RFA, like Wallace, that should be thrown out there is Mo Evans of the Kings. Clearly he isnt in their plans with Wells, Martin and Garcia at the 2 spot. Mo Evans is a nice atheltic 2/3 that might be had for a decent price.

 

Good post. My thought is the only real upgrade that might still be available in the offseason would be if somehow Finley fell to us for the LLE. Otherwise, I'm ok with re-signing Deke and Barry, cutting Spoon under amnesty, and waiting until February to look for the better players to be had for expiring contracts. With like eight guards on our team, we can make do until then.

 

My opinion is if we're going to trade expiring contracts, it's best to do it right now. With the amnesty rule in place, a lot of these teams will end up cutting players that they otherwise would have looked to trade for our expiring contracts. There are teams out there that are probably desperate to make one last ditch effort to unload a bad contract before having to release the player and eat the rest of the contract. If we wait until after the summer, a lot of the bad contracts that teams are trying to unload will already be unloaded and there won't be as many teams desperate to shed salary.

 

exactly. expiring contracts are only worth anything to teams to want to unload bad ones. with the new rule, there won't be many bad contracts left come the deadline.

 

You forgot they traded these guys for Kwame Brown.

http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=98944

 

I just realized that we have *EIGHT* players on our team whose value come primarily or exclusively from being overpaid. Ouch.

Of course, these eight players (and their bad contracts) will be gone in a maximum of two years. So even if the Rockets don't do ANYTHING with these contracts, they're going to be in VERY good shape very soon. And since the building blocks that CD has assembled (Yao, TMac and Swift) are young and signed long-term, there's no immediate hurry to panic.

Long-term, the Rockets are in fantastic shape. Short-term, they have a very good chance at advancing in the playoffs. Guys, a new golden age of Rockets basketball may be dawning.

 

I just don't think Mason or Wallace gives us what we need for the kind of money that they made or are going to make.

Mason makes $7 mill. He's a below average shooter and he's not a good defender. The only thing he has is the ability to slash and dunk on offense. He as a skill set we already have and don't need. And he makes too much money. We need a guy that can shoot above average and defend 2's. Mason defends 3, and not very good, and he can't shoot. Besides, did I say, he makes $7 million. Now, he could be a viable option if he could defend the SG position, or if he could shoot lights out, but at $7 mill, with his skill set, we've got to pass.

Now Wallace. Another tremendous athlete that can dunk and defend. Fits our needs a little better but he is a horrid shooter. And we would be paying him what??? I don't think he really works. Sure, he'd be good on the team, but would he be significantly than the combination of Wesley and Barry. And what would we have to give Charlotte to get this deal done? Is Wallace going to come here for LLE????


We need to cross our fingers that Memphis does a S&T with us for Swift and somebody like Posey. Then again, we'll probably have to give Swift so much more money that it defeats the purpose. And we have to lose Sura for that deal to make luxury tax sense for us. If we just trade expirings for players with longer term deals, then basically Les is saying, he's going to pay the luxury tax starting in 2006-07.

If we are going to stay under luxury tax after next season, especially with Yao's extension coming, we are limited to how much of our expirings we can really use. We are committed right at the salary cap or over the cap for the 2006-07 season with Yao's max and Swift's contract on top of TMac, Sura, Howard, and Bowen. That means if we sign a player to the MLE next season, and add bit players around these at league minimums or whatever, we are still at the lux tax threshhold and that's if we let all our expirings walk. That's why a S&T deal almost has to include Howard or Sura because they are dollars that are already allocated for the 2006-07 season anyways........unless Uncle Les is gonna pay the tax. Is he willing?

 

That's a huge point that we can't forget about.

So if we do trade our expiring contracts then we need to take back contracts that expire no later than 06/07 or risk getting into luxury tax problems ourselves long term.

For example, D. Miles is signed thru 2010 thus we shouldn't go after him.

D. Mason on the other hand is signed thru 07. Thus we would only being taking on his 06/07 salary of $8,036,667.

Another interesting player is Jalen Rose with a contract thru 06/07 paying $16,901,500 his last year.

 

Another thought.

Doug Christie - a player without a home.
His 35 and on the last year of his contract for 05/06 $8,200,000.
I expect he is still a defensive stopper.

 

I guess I disagree with you slightly. Miles contract long term would probably push us over the luxury tax a little bit. I think Les is willing to go over the luxury tax just a wee little bit.........in exchange for championships. To me, Miles' contract and his style of play fit what we are doing, especially if we do a S&T with Portland and send them back either Sura or Howard. I think we actually have about half of our expiring dollars which we could use to bring back longer term contracts with. And we could decide to make a major move and just forego using the MLE next offseason too.

 

Good point, didn't think of that. That is why I think although Rockets will keep looking, they will most likely stay put this season unless some really fantastic deal comes along. Rockets are trying to build a dynasty or something close to that, so I think they will be very patient. Judging from another thread about Spanu's recent interview, I bet Rockets is aiming to win it all in 2006-2007 season because that is when Rockets expect to have a complete roster.