I predict that if the Rocks get three (or four) first round picks, they will trade all but two. At pick #13, the Rocks will select Rodney White, a combo forward. At pick #22, the Rocks will take Terrence Morris. Ousmane Cisse is another possiblity. Webber will most likely resign and stay with the Kings, with a sign and trade with the Knicks a possibility. The Rocks will resign Dream to the league minimum and a . The Rocks will resign Mooch to the league minimum and a . Shandon will opt out of his contract seeing the Rocks will still be rely on their guards to rebound and run the fast break. If Shandon leaves the Rocks will need to sign a FA 2. MoMoney will head to the greenest pastures, which may mean he likely leaves town. Bullard will retire to the broadcast booth. The roster will look like: 1: Francis, Mooch 2: Cat, FA or Shandon 3: Walt, Morris, Langhi 4: KT, White, Los 5: Dream, Cato, Collier That is 13 players so one of the players will have to go one IR. The Rocks will win 48 games and make the playoffs. ------------------
MoMoney's agent wants the max. Whoever comes in second in the Webber sweepstakes will likely sign MoMoney to the max (or that general vacinity). IMO MoMoney is not worth the max. His lack of rebounding ability realy hurt the Rocks last year. One would hope that only the players with the complete package will get the max. ------------------
If a team gives Mo Taylor the max, they are morons... I mean I love the guy, and he has a good game, but any power forward who averages 5-6 boards a game is not worth the max... anywhere. ------------------ President of the Anal Retentive School for Jerks Hey, I wanted to be president of something, and I swear everyone took every other presidential position already.
Draft Gilbert Arenas, Richard Jefferson, and Alvin Jones Resign Bullard, Dream, Moochie, and Mo Sign Marc Jackson Dream/Jackson/Jones/Collier Mo/Thomas/Collier/Bullard Jefferson/Bullard Mobley/Arenas Francis/Moochie ------------------
I like G.A. and Jefferson. But Antonio Davis would be the perfect fit if we don't land C-Webb. ------------------ President of the Steve Francis, Jamal Crawford,Larry Hughes, and Charles Woodson fan club.
Antonio Davis will likely end up in Orlando. Of course, we have more $$$, but he has a home there, so that's where he should go. I think Mo will re-sign. You don't send away players who love it here. We just need to surround him with rebounders at the 5 and 3. ------------------
Predictions: 1) we dont get webber 2) we resign Mo, Moochie 3) anderson opts out and goes somewhere else (unfortunately) 4) Dream opts to take a more lucrative deal elsewhere (unfortunately) After that, my crystal ball gets fuzzy..... 5) Draft??? (still a mystery what we will get) 6) sign two veteran big men from someplace else (but who??) ------------------ "I didn't like jr. high when I was there. Why would I want to watch it on tv?" P. Mesku's opinion about "Survivor"
Sorry, when I posted my offseason predictions in a new thread, I blindly missed this one. Here is a copy in the correct place. --------------------------------------- I have just completed my update of the Rockets payroll and salary cap, and as such decided to do some speculating on what will happen in the off-season. Here is a run through of the scenarios as I see them. Background - At the end of this season, the Rockets total Payroll stands at near on $50 million. - They have 5 free agents this summer – Bullard, Colson, Norris, Taylor and Olajuwon. - They (probably) have 2 first rounds draft picks(#12 and #22) and 1 second round draft pick (#43) - They have a traded player exception. Webber The absolute minimum payroll the Rockets could attain, by renouncing all free agents, all exceptions and either renouncing or trading all draft picks is around $32 million. With the salary cap estimated to be around $43 million for 2001/2002, this would give the Rockets about $11 million to pursue free agents. Would this be enough to pursue Chris Webber? I don’t think so. As an 8 year veteran, Webber will demand the maximum of around $12 Million. Even if we can squeeze him in under the cap, that would leave us only 9 players under contract and no exceptions to sign any one else. All other players would have to be free agents signed to the minimum. Hello Pig Miller. Of course this all assumes that the Rockets stick with the current contracted players and no-one is traded. If we traded Walt Williams or Kelvin Cato the picture will change, but you have to assume that we would get equal value back for them. I personally think that Webber will not sign as a free agent anywhere, but will rather do a sign and trade with Sacramento to a club of Webber’s choosing. So a sign and trade is a realistic option for Houston to get Webber, especially if we are somewhat under the cap, and Sacramento does not have to take any baggage in the deal. He would not come cheap though – Houston would have to offer something decent in order for Sac to be interested. My thoughts on what will happen Webber will not sign here. Contrary to what everyone in the media seems to think, I don’t think the rockets need to make major improvements this off-season to be competitive in the west. Sacramento will be lost without Webber, and I truly believe Phoenix and Minnesota are on the steady decline. With a tweaked line up next year, the Rockets could finish as high as 6th in the west. Compete for the championship – maybe not, but every year is another opportunity to improve. Hakeem will be renounced regardless of whether we intend to keep him. As an un-renounced free agent, he counts $24 million towards the cap, and precludes any free agent activity. Matt Bullard, Colson and Taylor will also be renounced which will put the rockets at the salary cap, with all exceptions available. This doesn’t help us much, since if we intend to keep keep Mo, we need cap space. The only real alternatives are to renounce Shandon Anderson, which ,may or may not be an option depending on whether he opts out of his contract. If he opts out, the Rockets will renounce him – if not, he counts $2.8MM towards the cap. Next alternative is to trade away both our first round draft picks for a high future pick, which would free up another $2.3 mil in cap space and coupled with a renounced Shandon Anderson the payroll is now at $35.5 million. Here is where it gets interesting - I think that is enough to get Mo Taylor. We sign him to $7mil per year contract, and the Payroll is back up to around $43mil. Offer Hakeem the mid level exception ($4.1Million)– that is the highest we have available, since as he was renounced, we cannot use any bird exceptions on him. Add to that the fact that he would probably start here, and I truly believe that will be enough. Very few teams will be in a position to offer him more, and if they are, there is nothing we can do about it. I think it highly unlikely that Hakeem would go to LA or Miami and play second fiddle to Shaq or Zo. After signing Hakeem, we still have the $1 mil exception, which could be offered to Bullard. If he takes it, sweet, if not, bye bye. It would be a shame to lose him, but Mo is more important. I think Moochie could be squeezed in after that using an early bird contract, although I’m not sure whether he has earned those rights since his first year with the Rockets was a partial year. Otherwise he is getting the $1mil exception (if unused by Bullard), the minimum, or he going elsewhere. All the cap numbers are plus or minus $1.5Million, and there is the traded player exception of $1.2Million that should be factored in somewhere. I also believe that if the rockets really wanted to, they could keep Shandon. It would probably mean offering Mo a little less, but it is possible. On such scenario would be a) Shandon does not opt out, and waits for full bird rights net year b) Rockets renounce trade exception(or let it expire) c) Sign Mo to $6.3mil in first year. ------------------ ..as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him. Current Rocket's Salary & Contract Info
Responses to other threads Lil Francis 1. Picking up Weber and Jackson via free agency is virtually impossible. Unless a sign and trade is invloved, it will not happen. Even getting just Weber is a stretcch. 2. In your list of players who won't be back, I seriously doubt if we could unload Cato, Williams and Rogers - CD would be GM of the decade if he could do that. Besides, in trading those guys, we would most probably have to take equal salary back, so it does not free up any cap room. 3. Picking up two draft picks in addition to all those free agents is impossible. In order to sign anybody via free agency, we would most likely have to to trade those picks for future picks. 4. Simply saying we can trade for Cato for Croshere because we have cap room is incorrect. Read my post above to work out how difficult it is just to free up $7m in cap room. Toast 5. I like all your points. One exception - Vince Carter will be a restricted Free Agent next year and hence Toronto will have the ability to match any contract. NikeStrad Excellent - I agree except I don;t think it will be that easy to get down to $26Mil. Even if we renouce all free agents, you still have to count unused exceptions and draft unless you renouce them. NBA Salary Cap FAQ #13 The combined amount of any mid-level, $1 million, disabled player (see question number 16) or traded player exceptions (see question number 64) available to the team, if the team is under the salary cap. (Teams may renounce these exceptions, in which case they no longer count against team salary.) ------------------ ..as a man danced so the drums were beaten for him. Current Rocket's Salary & Contract Info
If C.D. can pull off a trade that involves our 3picks for a top 5 pick then that would help us even more in signing 2 big Free Agents. ------------------ President of the Steve Francis, Jamal Crawford,Larry Hughes, and Charles Woodson fan club.
I sure hope you are wrong about our starting lineup for next year ------------------ President of the Steve Francis, Jamal Crawford,Larry Hughes, and Charles Woodson fan club.
If we don't land Webber, we'll keep Mo. His first-year salary will cost the team just over 5 million, I'd guess. Maybe Michael Bradley will be available at #13. How good is he? (Villanova center; did I get his name right?) I still say trade Cato and later pick for Croshere (has big-game experience and won't need to learn the ropes like another rook) but I won't count on it. ------------------
Mo signs for 8 Olajuwon for 3-5 million Moochie for 1.5 SA gets the boot if he opts out Rogers boot Rockets draft Richardson and Morris Vancouver obligation is settled. No major trades. Drew trade exception expires. Exception used on vet Ola Cato Mo KT Collier Bull Vet Morris Richardson Langhi Walt Cat Richardson Francis Moochie All five starters can shoot well for their position. Three shotblockers can be brought onto the court at the same time. Mo's rebounding is made up at 1,2, and 3. 50 win season, followed by offseason with 6 million in cap space. ------------------
Davo, You sure about those numbers? The salaries I have seen all along have had us with about 16 million in cap room, and RealGM backs that up. http://www.realgm.com/src_getplayersalaries.php?team1=Houston ------------------ President of the Mo Taylor, Jason Collier, and draft Richard Jefferson fan club! Draftsource.net-- the premier source for draft info. Profiles, rankings, mock drafts, and more! ClutchTown.com
