Because the Cavs traded for Lonzo Ball after choosing to extend Sam Merrill, Ty Jerome is expected to leave Cleveland. I also posted this in the Cam thread.
He would be a perfect fit, but of course he would be a perfect fit for a ton of teams. Get it done Stone.
How much would Ty Jerome get in the free agent? Will our 14 mil be enough to get him? Do we have the full MLE?
my understanding is that with Landale gone and the stay ready crew resigned on vet minimums, we’ll have about $10 mil of the MLE we can use and still avoid the tax. But the resident cap experts are better to confirm.
I read he would be looking for a teams mid level around 13-14 mil. The article I read said there wasn’t much money in FA this year and he would seek a teams full MLE
Not every game requires a 10 man rotation. He could play situationally or depending on gameflow or matchups. I am very curious to see how Amen at the 2 works out. I really pray he increases his range with either a 3 or consistent 15-18 ft shot. The 2 spot overall both starting and bench is this team’s biggest question mark.
Not a cap expert Back of the napkin (asking chatgpt with prompts on durant, FVV, stay ready crew, and filling out roster with vet mins), it looks closer to $9M to stay under tax, but can use full NT-MLE if Rockets are willing to pay taxes. Nontaxpayer-MLE is misnamed as teams can use full amount as long as they stay under 1st apron and pay taxes on amount above tax threshold and 1st apron.
From chatgpt Updated 15-Man Payroll Breakdown Player Cap Hit ($M) Kevin Durant 54.70 Alperen Şengün 33.94 Fred VanVleet 24.04 Steven Adams 14.13 Jabari Smith Jr. 12.35 Reed Sheppard 10.60 Amen Thompson 9.69 Tari Eason 5.68 Cameron Whitmore 3.54 Aaron Holiday (7‑yr vet min) 3.14 Jeff Green (17‑yr vet min) 3.90 Jae’Sean Tate (5‑yr vet min) 2.90 Vet-min replacement (Landale slot) 2.10 Vet-min roster filler #1 2.10 Vet-min roster filler #2 2.10 Total Payroll ~179.11 Cap Space Relative to First Apron First Apron threshold: $195.9M Payroll: $179.11M Available space under apron: $16.79M ✅ NT‑MLE Usage Capacity NT‑MLE available: $14.1M Since $16.79M > $14.1M, Houston can fully utilize the entire NT‑MLE without exceeding the first apron. Summary Taxable payroll: around $179.1M Still under first apron → Not hard-capped Can sign the full $14.1M NT‑MLE while remaining ~$2.7M below the apron.
PS. I would not use chatgpt for this type of stuff, or other stuff in general that changes quickly, if you don't have ablity to spot significant errors. It took me a couple of tries to get chatgpt to put together roster right with vet minimums that look right without looking them up. Even then, I probably should have had chatgpt put in Nate instead of a placeholder veteran minimum. Also on using NT-MLE, any portion over TP-MLE hard caps Rockets at 1st apron. If Rockets are willing to hard cap themselves, they should just go all-out and use full NT-MLE in my opinion. Either maintain max flexibility or get the best player you can, I don't like losing a lot of flexibility, but settling on a player.
I think it is beyond far-fetched, but what gets us to $16M? Landale ($8M) Cam ($3.2M) Holiday ($4.9M) or has that ship sailed
Couple of things here, firstly Fred is making 25 million because his contract is flat. 2nd the vet mins are not correct Guys over 2 years of experience still only count as the 2 years of experience price (2.3 million). So Jeff/Tate/Holiday. Dante, who we have tendered as a FA, if signed to a min deal would be slightly cheaper with 1 year experience (2 mill flat). The roster minimums would be auto priced at zero years experience until we sign otherwise I believe, which is 1.3 million for a player with zero experience (rookie). And we only need 14 players (above is counting for 15 players - without considering the MLE player would be one of them) 3rd it’s very likely Houston tries to avoid the luxury tax this season in order to delay the repeater tax that we might dip into once Amen/Tari/Bari/Reed are signed to real contracts down the road. This means our cap isn’t the 2nd apron 196 million but luxury tax threshold of 188 million. With all of this in mind the numbers should bare out to be a bit different. From my rough math our cap space for a MLE would be roughly 9.3 million starting salary. Nearly 5 million less than the full MLE. If we trade Cam for a pick and zero returning salary, that number could increase (if we sign a rookie minimum) by 2.3 million to 11.6 million starting salary. If we signed a 2+ year vet it would only increase by 1.3 million to be 10.6 million. Still about 2.5 million, or 3.5 under the full MLE starting salary. For all these reasons, expect guys like Grimes, Beasley, NAW, DFS, Jerome to be out of our price range. Guys like Trent Jr, Bruce Brown, would be a bit more realistic. But you never know, every year some guys surprise us by signing for less. Also means if we were to skip FA and trade for a player with Cam/Landale instead, that the player would need to make under 11.6 mill, potentially under 10.6 mill
