No more 5 year deals for sign and trades. The CBA ended that. No more incentive to do sign and trades unless you want to send back salary.
That's why I mentioned them chosing any two of Motiejunas, Jones, White or Robinson. Now I don't know if we would have to match salaries exactly or if there is some leeway there. If we had to get closer to what we would sign Smith for couldn't we send Garcia there way and if he isin't in their plans then they can just cut him since his salary is not guaranteed?
Doesn't matter, he still can't get a fifth year. He can only get a 5th year if he signs a bird contract with the incumbent team. He can't get 5 yrs in a S&T. And he can't get 5 yrs if the the Rockets clear salary room to sign him outright. Free agents can only sign up to 4 yrs with any team that does not hold his bird rights. And Bird Rights contract benefits such as a 5th year can't be used in S&T. So even if you get rid of Dmo, TJones, Royce, TRob and everyone else to create salary space, you're still not allowed to give him a 5 yr contract in a direct signing with the Rockets. And Atlanta is not allowed to give him a 5 yr contract in a S&T to the Rockets. Atlanta is only allowed to give him a 5 yr contract if he stays on the Hawks. If he wants a 5 yr contract, he has to stay with the Hawks, which I'm not sure he wants to do. No amount of free cap space on the Rockets will give him 5 yrs. The rules are different from previous CBA's. Previously it was 5 yr max for non-Bird free agents, 6 yr max for Bird free agents, and you had a S&T loophole to get to another team and retain your bird benefits of extra year and raises. Now it's 4yr max for non-Bird free agents, 5 yr max for Bird free agents, and they eliminated the S&T loophole for bird benefits.
Now we're just arguing (or discussing rather) two sides of the same coin. Sure, if it is $61M my plan works out decently well; if it is $58M then it is a lot tougher. And yes, I mentioned it in the post (or maybe another one after that) that Harden's salary would go up some as well, so most likely we would have to move TJones for some $490k players or attach White on Asik's contract (like a bad contract) for that first round pick. By himself, White is pretty hard to move, but w/ Asik, it isn't that difficult as Asik has such high value. I'm not saying CP3 + D12 is the likely scenario. It is just what I hope for, and unlike some, I think it is absolutely viable WITHOUT "gutting" or "scrapping" the team. Does it take a few moves? Sure. Does it make some assumptions? Yes, but I don't think they are that ridiculous. It isn't like I am saying the cap jumps $10M or something lol. It has gone up $3M or more in 1 yr 8 times out of the last two decades. With nba revenue reportedly at a high (or a lot higher than previous seasons), I just don't think it is a that farfetched of an assumption. If the cap stays at $58M, then yes, CP3 + D12 will be very difficult to pull off. Not that it wouldn't be otherwise, but it'd take even more moves, or them each agreeing to take a ~$1.5-2M paycut (which is not unheard of lol). IF the cap goes to $61M though, we can have: Harden - $15.2 Dwight - $20.5 CP3 - $18.6 Bev - $0.8 Parsons - $0.9 White - $1.7 DMo - $1.4 ------------ Total: $59.1M That leaves 4 spots at the minimum $490k to get us to 11 players at ~$61M. MLE to get our 12th player. This is with us keeping White. If we could have moved him w/ Asik, as I have mentioned, then we'd get to keep TJones. That is a starting 5 of: CP3/Harden/Parsons/DMo/Dwight.......bench: Bev/vet wing MLE/TJones/$490k x 4. Great 8 man rotation, work in 1 more player w/ Morey's magic at getting good Euro or 2nd round finds (we have PHX's pick after all). I think that is a contending team.
I like both at their respective amounts, i.e., Smith not over $14M, Millsap not over $11M. The bonus with Millsap is, if we get Dwight, it would be very easy to move Asik and maybe just 1 more player (TJones? or White like a bad contract w/ Asik?) and have an additional first round pick, plus the cap room to sign Millsap to an ~$11M offer sheet. This is if the cap stays at $58M btw. It going up helps out a lot here.
Sorry, I can't edit my own posts haha, so this is an addendum to my earlier response. Even though Harden's contract is 25% of the salary cap, max contract percentages are actually based on a slightly smaller BRI calculation. Instead of a straight 25%, it is actually lower due to contract negotiations. That is why Harden's current projected max of $13.668M is LESS than 25% of the current cap ~$58M. So in my above scenario, the team would save another $1M to use on other players (keep TJones even if we keep White, for example) as Harden's new max would only be ~$14.3M or so. My mistake.
Clearly adding Smith and Howard this offseason would be a huge win. It gives you the freedom to move Asik to fill out the roster. I think the way the rest of the league is set up, having a dominant front court like that, especially one that can be dominant defensively, sets you up well. It attacks Miami and OKC where they're weakest. And of course, you're not exactly chopped liver on the perimeter, with Lin/Harden/Parsons I think you still ultimately need more of a dead-eye shooter out there to spread the court. Lin and Parsons can be decent, though. Lin Harden Parsons Howard Smith Would be amazing and capable of going very very deep. It's the defensive potential that really really gets you excited. Parsons, Howard, Smith are great, long, athletic defenders who should be able to control the paint like few teams in the league - perhaps better than any team. Name a 3/4/5 defensive lineup better than that? It would allow Harden and Lin to excel defensively the way they do - by gambling. And if you retain Beverly, with him on the floor that is one heck of a defensive lineup. Would I prefer Kevin Love or Aldridge to Smith? Probably. But when you really focus in on defense, and start looking at the playoffs for what they are - condensed game, much more half court sets, rebounding and defense become much more important - and realize what Smith provides there that the other two guys don't, the gap closes. Moreover, Smith could be available, whereas the other two might not. Smith does concern me with his shot selection. And with Dwight on the block, and Harden/Lin driving, you can certainly see Smith floating out to the perimeter too much offensively. But I guess he's not completely inept 3 point shooter, and he found a spot where he knew he needed to be and was comfortable - ie the corner three - maybe he could become a little more proficient at it and get back to the 33% three point shooting he had a few years back.
I assume you mean to play Howard at the 5 and Smith at the 4 (with some time at the 3) rather than at the 5 haha. That being said, I don't think getting Smith AND Howard would let us keep our bench at all...or Lin. Howard would eat up all our waivable players/total cap space, assuming we even move TRob. Smith would have to then agree to like $11M only in order to be a part of this team. I can see Smith agreeing to less than the max (he's said he wanted max but will negotiate down as well), esp. to play with Howard, but not to make $2M less than he already does...in his prime... Moving Asik would only clear $8.3M. That leaves a lot of salary before we hit whatever JSmoove would command on the market (or agree to in order to come to HTown). This is assuming we keep Lin, per your starting lineup suggestion. I just don't see how we could get there (remember, TRob already gone). If Smith wants $14M, that'd be almost $6M we'd have to find from our bench! We would only have White, DMo, TJones, Bev and maybe GSmith to choose from by that point (after waiving rest for Howard). Combined they meet the amount necessary haha, but then we would not even have the room to sign $490k minimums to fill out our 12 man roster! Even if the cap went up to $3M, we'd still be REALLY short of the money required to get to 12. Moving Lin would be necessary to get Howard + Smoove.
No, Morey would try and work a sign and trade and won't be beholden to any restrictions having to do with cap space. Trading Asik + White for Smith in a S&T will allow the Rockets to absorb ~15 million in salary.
? I must not follow because I don't see how that works. Why would he not be beholden to the salary cap or trading restrictions? Asik + White = $10M. We would not be able to suddenly take on $15M to absorb Smith because that would be well over the 125% of a trade, and we would definitely go over the cap in signing Smith (as again, Asik + White only clears $10M off our books). I'm sorry, I'm just a bit confused here.
JJ hickson is younger and cheaper...he's definitely not better but plays with a ton of intensity and is easily signable, may be a better fit for our team especially because of his youth.
We need to get as Athletic and tough as possible versus getting more diverse. Pickup Smith and Howard.
he's great in transition, really seems to be a perfect fit for the rockets. he can also be a pick and roll ball-handler, they always run this play in crunch time.... it's awesome. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IuHnW9xgVQg" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
