How much to offer Rocket FA's

Hakeem 1 year plus 1 year player option 7+7
Mo Taylor 6 year, 36 million
Moochie 4 year, 8-10 million
Bull 1 year plus 1 year team option, 1+1

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Rockets' offseason tasks in order of priority:

• Get rid of Cato under any circumstances - ideally in a trade (with draft picks from us to them) that brings us Raef LaFrentz (dreaming).
• Re-Sign Hakeem.
• Re-Sign Mo Taylor.
• Re-Sign Moochie and AirBullard.
• Pick up the Langhi option for another year.
• Sign-and-trade Shandon Anderson for Bo Outlaw.

 

Just to put this is perspective:

your Taylor 6yr/ $38m is starting at less that $5m if we assume maximum 12.5% raises. I think he is taking closer to a $6m start. Starting Taylor at $6m for 6yrs produces $47m if given maximum raises.

your Moochie pay is at about $2.8 base year w/maximum raises.

 

and Det's pay for Taylor is miserable.

That is the Middle Class Exception at maximum 12.5% raises. Taylor is NOT signing for the MCE base year of $4.5m

 

Is it really worth paying Bull to sit on the bench next year? Is he going to get playing time with Griffin, T-Mo, Langhi and maybe Anderson?

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How much does Cat make? I think Taylor shouldn't make more than that.

 

Cat got paid the maximum pay for an Early Bird which is defined as the official "League Average Salary," which last year was $3.9m base year. He also got the max raises.

So, to give Mo' the official "League Average Salary" for this year, you would give him the Middle Class Exception, which is defined as league ave pay. That is calculated at $4.5m base year for this year.

$4.5m with max raises is $35.4m total compensation.

Uh, if he were willing sign that, he already would have, because the timing of dream's negotiations then are irrelevant to Mo signing.

 

Crispee, so you think he is more valuable than Cat? You think he should make more money?

Thanks.

 

I guess, technically, we could be waiting to sign Mo' to less than the MCE. That would require us to get under the cap, thus the timing of Dream could still come into play if Det's shwred negotiating powers get Mo to take less than $4.5m

 

Giving Mo more than Cat is not a measure of value, it is simply showing how great Cat was to this team. He took the max that we could pay him last year under the rules of the CBA. People forget that. Mobley is the man for taking average salary, and still gets called selfish and having an attitude by fans. go figure.

Mo is in a different situation. We will have cap room to pay him market for an above average PF (at his age). Paying Mo above average salary is somewhere between $5-6m according to the league's accountants. This isn't even a market price argument. This is fact. Ave pay is calculated at $4.5m base this year. Mo' is better than an average 24-yr old PF, imo.

 

You wouldn't believe it, but negotiating is one of the very few things I am not so bad at...

Concerning Mo, I have heard the argument that bigger players get bigger money...even if their contribution might not be bigger...but I really think he should not make more than Cat.

Of course, in Dream's case, it is a little bit different... there are more good players who are 6'8-6'10 than good centers...

 

Hopefully not, because we will hopefully sign Hakeem for about $ 6-7 million...

So if Mobley was so great for the team because he loves it here, then why can't Mo do the same...he also says Houston is the place he wants to be...

 

Det, you do have to consider base salaries are relative from year-to-year growth in average pay, right?

if $4.5m is this yr's ave pay, then you could argue that is the same as Cat's contract. Further, Cat is underpaid, because he had no other choice except to sign only a 1yr and ask for more this summer. He chose security of a 6yr contract at the maximum we could legally pay him. We gave him the max pay and max length and max raises we could.

Also, I am not making the argument about bigger players make more money. I am simply saying the Mo is better than average for a 24-yr old PF.

If $4.5m is defined as average pay by the league for ALL contracts and all positions, and if $9m is defined as maximum pay for Mo, the $5-6m is slightly above average pay.

Slightly above ave pay for an above ave 24-yr old is about right...no?

 

also by your logic of paying relative to Mobley, do you think Steve is over twice as important as Mobley? Do you think Steve desever over twice as much per year as Mobley?

The point is, we offered Mobley the absolute maximum contract we could, which made him underpaid. When the time comes, we will offer Steve the maximum contract we can (250% over Mobley), which would make him seriously overpaid compared to Mobley...but that does not mean he would be overpaid?

 

Yes it is.

I am not familiar with the details of salary cap rules. When I say 6 year, 36 million, that is approximately what I heard Cat was going to get. Is it not possible to do this like 5.3, 5.6, 5.9, 6.2, 6.5, 6.8 = 36.3? That would be in the range you are mentioning and it sounds fair to me.

 

Obviously, whenever you compare two players' contracts, chances are that one will be overpaid in relation to the other. I just think that Mo is not more important to the team than Cat, so he should not make much more. Steve clearly is a max player, so I guess if that means he makes twice as much as Mobley, then so be it.

But I am aware that there is no such thing as "justice" when it comes to comparing different contracts, and that's fine...

 

cat is getting 6yr $31m and some change.

btw: your 300K raises for Mo's contract would be a 5.66% raise each year. Note that this is simple interest, not compounding. That would make his raises less that inflation (which is a compound interest number).

I think the CBA screwed players with simple interest raises. Thus, I think ANYONE who doesn't get a 12.5% raise is getting screwed. Unless of course you are overpaying them upfront with a larger base salary than they are worth. Like say for instance someone wants the league Max for status reasons, but you don't think he is worth it. You might say, OK we will give you that status symbol as being known in the media as a max player, but no raises then.

If you think Mo is worth $5.3m base salary, I feel you are stealing from the man by paying him raises that are less than inflation over time.

 

5.66 % is not less than the US inflation rate, at least not at this time.

http://www.gpec.org/InfoCenter/Topics/Economy/USInflation.html

 

We are talking about the difference between simple interest and compounded interest. Your Mo raise is simple interest. That inflation table is compound interest.

For instance, if you gave Mo a $5.3m base salary and adjusted it to inflation following the CPI table you provide (using 3.6% interest as a 20-yr average from '81-00), here is his pay:

<pre><font face="courier">
1st yr 5.3m
2nd yr 5.5
3rd yr 5.7
4th yr 5.9
5th yr 6.1
6th yr 6.33</pre></font>

So I was wrong to assume inflation would overtake 5.66% simple interest in less than 10yrs, but it eventually does.

Now, let's look at the increase in my season tickets. The Rockets have been increasing prices by about 5% a year (until finally stopping this year). Here is Mo's salary at 5% increases compounded annually.

<pre><font face="courier">
1st yr 5.3m
2nd yr 5.565
3rd yr 5.843
4th yr 6.135
5th yr 6.442
6th yr 6.763</pre></font>

Which is about par for the course, less a few 100K.

Now, if we use the increase in salary cap numbers which is tied to the increase in owner revenue, we have about 15% growth per year (20% last year).

Here are Mo raises if the owners simply match their increased revenue due to the players and promotion.

<pre><font face="courier">
1st yr 5.3m
2nd yr 6.095
3rd yr 7.009
4th yr 8.061
5th yr 9.27
6th yr 10.66</pre></font>

The players are getting screwed by simple interest raises. I generally get at least a 10% raise every year. That is better than 12.5% simple interest. Any player who doesn't get the max raise is being screwed.