With Tmac's career as a Rocket apparently over,what should the Rockets do this summer? I think it will be a mistake to let Artest go, but I am not privy to all that is going on behind the scenes, so keeping him may not be a realistic option. Assuming they don't keep Luther Head or Deke, there will be about $11-12M available. I will not include any injury exception money at this point because we don't know if that will be granted. The Rockets need a backup center and a 2/3. I know that teams will be lining up to get McGrady at the deadline next year, but the Rockets really need to fill these holes this summer. Will anybody be willing to take on his contract over the summer knowing he will be out at least most of the year? Who would be a candidate to do this? Can they fill these positions via free agency in the offseason with the available money and who might they target? Just curious what realistic options the Rockets might have going forward.
I think that the most realistic option is to sign again Ron Ron for more money apparently which will likely mean to go over luxury tax. Luther Head will probably be gone and Wafer should be re-signed so I think there's going to be a lot of cap "clearing".
I think after or during the draft things will be come clearer. Their maybe teams who want to go into full out rebuilding mode and dont care that Mcgrady may see little or no time this year. If morey is able to work out some kind of 3 team deal where we unload tmacs contract and some of our over seas prospects for a impact player and a decent pick I could see a deal like that being done.
Don't we have Artest's Bird Rights? That means we can sign him and go over the cap without taking a luxury tax hit. Wafer will get Luther Head's money.
If they decide to resign Artest, then maybe go after a starting PG (unless Brooks proves to be one). Bibby would be interesting, but then I'm pretty sure him and Artest had a rift in Sac. Also, dont know if he'd settle for a mid level, but no one should pay more than that for him anyways, should they ?
i dont think we will have any money available this summer. tmacs career is over but his contract runs until the summer of 2010. that contract should be traded this summer. we need to bring in a starting SG - 3rd scorer, and a full sized backup center.
I'm torn, personally. If I didn't think our window was closing as it is, I'd say just sit on McGrady's contract until the 2010 offseason and try to make a good signing or two with the freed up cap space when it finally comes off the books. But since I don't think Yao is going to go anywhere but downhill from here (not necessarily immediately, but it won't be more than a few more years), I feel we've got to trade McGrady as soon as we can this summer to a rebuilding team in salary-dump mode. I don't really care about equal value at this point, as we don't need a superstar type player. Just someone who will mesh with the offense and play something resembling defense.
We should start the Ron Artest fund. Ron Artest needs to stay in Houston, with only dollars a day from Tracy McGrady's contract we can keep Ron in Houston, where he belongs. Please, help all you can. Honestly, I think Ron deserves something in the ballpark of 10-12, but if we give him that it basically puts a strain on this team next season, well, unless we trade Mac in the summer. Realistically, it's all moot if we can make playoff noise. I think if we get a taste of the second round, heck, maybe even past it and Ron will stay. But that's just me....
If the Rockets trade McGrady this offseason then they are dumb. Im sorry but they would be. They went this long with him and now when his contract his expiring they would decide to trade him. Why?? Why give another team his large contract when the rockets could just keep it for themselves and have his money come off the salary where they can get anyone they want. McGrady's and Yao's contract.
Easy, because we're over the cap. Realistically even with the contract wipe we're still like a mil or two over the cap. Plus, we could possibly trade for a good player that we normally couldn't sign as easily. I'm not saying the number one option is trading him, but why turn it down if the offer is right? Plus, why do we have to wait one season for a good team? Why not cut the fat early? The issue this season was that the Rox basically let it ride with McGrady rather than resolving his issues early on, then they tried to ship him out at the last second, you can't do that. I'm not saying trade, I'm not saying keep him, I'm saying weight it out. He is dead weight, but who knows, maybe he can come back with avengance. Think about how when Orlando fans boo him, he plays out of his mind. What if we did that to him 41 games of the season? Woah.
Haha, the probability of that happening is lower than us getting KB24 for McGrady. I don't see Bosh being traded, I know ESPN vows that it will happen, but like many clutchfans have said ESPN rarely reports a story after it happens, they'd rather make news than report it.
If we held on to Tmac's contract, I don't think we'd have enough cap space to make a splash in free agency in 2010 anyway. We have our own FA's to re-sign by that time and they won't come cheaply. Letting Artest walk for nothing this offseason would be a huge loss. And you can bet that some teams will come running for Scola in 2010. So I agree with you, we should trade Tmac's expiring and try to extend our competitive window. I don't know how much his expiring could land us, but it would likely be a flawed and expensive product.
Agreed completely, players stay for two reasons: Money and Success. If a team is successful it's easier (but not assured) they will retain their players. McGrady hurts both of those categories and therefor hurts player retention...
I think the Rox will have to resign Artest going into next season (barring any Artest Blow up before then). They will let Luther walk. They will build around Artest and Yao. Keep McGrady's contract for a trading chip but trade him away closer to the deadline. Morey will buy a 2nd round draft pick (non-guaranteed contract) and hope for a gem.
We have close to $29 million expirings for the summer of 2010. If Head's option were picked up this summer (not likely!), that'd be another $2.8 million. Scola's expires, but I'm assuming we'll resign him. Don't know for how much, but he'll be due a nice raise. We could pass on Hayes' option and get another $2.3 million (unlikely!). What we do this off-season with Artest and Wafer, I don't know. I think Ron will go with the most money, so we may not get him. Wafer will sign a cheap contract. We'll have quite a bit to play with, maybe a heck of a lot, IMO.
