The Rockets still have one roster spot open--they don't need to cut anybody to sign Deke. The reason they chose not to sign him so far was not because of roster spot. If they cut somebody now they still need to pay his full salary till the end of the season so financially it does not help the Rockets.
I cannot believe someone would cut Francis and Head. It is pure stupidity and a little bit hatred. Rockets fans suck.
If a contract is guaranteed then yes. Or if the contract is a player option and the player exercises the option then yes (this is the case for Steve I believe). Or if the contract is a team option and the team exercises the option then yes. So then when can a 4 year not count for full value? When it has team or player options that are not picked up by the team or player. Now it's neither party are under that contract or the financial obligations. Also I think you can have a buyout (capoligists can tell me if I'm wrong on this one) and then only the buyout amount would count, but most of the time a player will not take that much less to walk away - see Marbury. NY would love to cut Marbury and save money but the sad fact is they won't save a dime. And Marbury won't take any buyout for less than his full contract value so Marbury will finish a Knick.
Cutting anyone would be pointless, unless their contract wasn't fully guaranteed. We need to get rid of about $2.5 million in salary through a trade.
