[Morey] Robert Covington and BJ Young now members of the Rockets

Bima = nice call.

Mini-mid (is that what it's now called?) on Gibson or Brand, I suspect. I'm rooting for Brand.

 

Brand in; Smith gone for a couple of 2s? Works for me.

 

Training camp bodies, Young could make the Vipers but training camp rosters are usually around 20 players, roster is no where near set. More to come...

 

No, the roster is not full yet. Morey can sign 5 more guys. The maximum roster size is 20 for training camp. After training camp, you trim the roster down to 15 for the start of the season.

 

Yes, these are probably Exhibit 9 "make good" summer contracts. That means the contract doesn't count if they're waived and clear waivers before the 1st day of the regular season, after pre-season has ended.

If they don't make the team, the contract comes off the books and they don't get paid. All they get is lodging, transportation costs, medical insurance, and a token per Diem wage.

 

According to Feigen's column, Covington's deal is FULLY guaranteed in Year 1, and Young has a partial guarantee. By definition, neither is a summer "make good" contract. Maybe Young gets cut and they eat the guaranteed money, but I assume that Covington was signed to be on the final 15-man roster.

 

Thanks for the info. Good to have the clarification.

 

Guaranteed money certainly gives Covington a leg up on a roster spot, but pretty sure that eating $490K isn't a big deal if they found someone even a little bit better out there.

This isn't like the Jonny Flynn/Jeremy Lin situation where Flynn's larger expiring contract gave the Rockets trade options that wouldn't be available had they cut him and kept Lin.

Also, the Rockets neither have significant cap room nor are they close to the tax threshold, so $490K in dead money really doesn't hurt their flexibility significantly.

 

BJ Young looks really good; hops, athleticism, speed, pretty shot also. Morey does it again

 

Good points, and a reminder that there is very little trade fodder available if:
Lin and Asik are, in fact, not available and if there is a need to take salary back.

Thus, I do believe it makes sense to use the exception for a security piece (Gibson? Brand?) and possible trade options in February.

 

Arian Foster was an undrafted guy

 

That's true Carl.

But why would we give guaranteed money to any player we weren't going to keep or trade??

 

Could be that we had to beat another team's offer.

 

Maybe another team offered Covington some guaranteed money and Houston wants to beat that offer?

I'm sure the team sees something in Covington, but it's likely at a "This guy might turn into a useful rotation guy, either this year or next" so it's worth $490K to find out level than at the "He is our next starting PF" level.

 

He probably has both pierced, was the fad in the 90's

 

I can see that on Covington. He looked good enough to me in SL to give a contract to.

However BJ Young....guaranteed money for the last roster spot???

 

Looks like both to me... though I don't see how this is an issue either way.

 

BJ Young is a nice prospect. Could be a steal for Rockets.

 

They must feel very strongly about him to give him that guaranteed money at this stage.

I will say this....watching him in Orlando....he has a certain combination of change of direction and explosion out of that change of direction at the rim that was way better than the competition there. I am curious about him. I am surprised though that we've tied up guaranteed money in 15 guys. I was thinking with all the perimeter guys we would go after one more 7-footer with that 15th spot.

 

This does cause me to question whether or not a trade is imminent involving some of our guaranteed deals---perhaps a 2 for 1 or 3 for 2 or 3 for 1 type deal. I know we are hearing this stuff about the H's wanting to play with Lin. But I don't believe that means he's staying. Detroit is after Rondo (don't know if they'll be able to get him). And apparently Milwaukee is not going to get Teague and it doesn't appear they want to bring Jennings back.

I'm still wondering if there's a Lin/(Jones or Motie) deal on the table or possibly even an Asik/Lin/(Jones or Motie) deal on the table for an established superstar (Melo??)?

It just seems way too early to be giving guaranteed money out for the end of the bench.