Our MLE 2007

They would part for him, but not for the package you suggested. His durability issues are not so serious that his value drops to that of a spot-up shooter and a late first-round pick. Sean May is not as good as Okafor and is stuck at the 4 position, while Okafur is their only serviceable center.

And yes, Okaur is a free agent next year. But the bobcats don't necessarily have to shell out big bucks for him. The wizards got Caron Butler via SnT for Kwame freakin' Brown. That guy's an all-star! If needed, the bobcats could trade Okafur for a lot more than we could offer. And even if we could afford him, there are several other teams that could offer more.

 

How many times in this thread do I have to say this: THE ROCKETS DO NOT NEED TO CUT INTO THE MLE FOR ANY OF THOSE PLAYERS. They have the full Bird rights to Deke and Jake, and they have the Early Bird rights to Chuck Hayes.

The only reason(s) the Rockets wouldn't use the MLE would be (a) they want to avoid paying the luxury tax or (b) they can't find any player(s) worth the MLE.

 

After reviewing the possibilities, I cannot really find anyone better than Steve Francis as a possible mle guy.

Any better players would command more than that.

 

We can't sign Stackhouse because............he has a unibrow!

 

I sure hope we don't spent 8 mil for Hayes, Deke and Jake. There is no way we sign two back-up centers and pay them 2 mil year each. Unless one of Deke or Jake come in at near the vet min we will just go with 1--the only reason we even needed Jake was because Yao was injured, otherwise Deke and Howard had the back-up covered. Hayes I would think would be in the 1.5-3 mil range and we can sign him via early bird rights, I don't see other teams going after him with most of their MLEs, he is too much of a speciality player. So I don't see us spending more than 6mil on the guys above, maybe only 4 or 5.

Also, I don't know Francis market, certainly he won't get more than a full MLE. Maybe he will get a MLE, but maybe not even that.

 

After we cut Sura and Bonzi walks, we should have about $8 million in room under the luxury tax threshold (which will not be crossed) to spend on our backup center, our draft pick, our MLE exception player, and two minimum wage players?

 

You're probably right about my suggested deal not being enough, on second thought. Although, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Charlotte tried to move him this offseason for the reasons I mentioned.

 

I haven't read the thread, past the first post -- nor will I pretend to.
If someone has already posted this...I hate you. My theory is, Vince Carter will opt out of his contract and sign with the Rockets for the MLE. You heard it here first...wouldn't that be awesome?

 

we won't get any picks lower than 20, so the guys we drafted would be paid around 1M, similar to Luther. The thing I don't get is, let's say if the cap is 67 mil, and we have 65 mil, and we use our MLE to sign someone, do we have to pay the luxury tax? or because it is an exception, we don't have to?

 

OK, I'll admit, that'll be alot better than getting SF for the MLE, but it just doesn't seem likely. AirCanada should command more than an MLE, unless he really wants to get a ring. If that's the case, he might not necessarily be looking at just us. I would be happy with either since they'd both be steals IMHO.

 

why settle for scalabrine, west, and green?? lets just demand al jefferson and paul pierce...

 

because it's not far-fetched. scalabrine is considered a bad contract, west has been out of favor for most of the season and green is still a project. durant will most likely be good to play first night up knocking out both west and green from any playing position as well as changing green's untouchable status to expendable.

 

rockets most likely will want some kind of safety-net, ie be under the Lux Tax by c.$2M, in case a trade/s needs to be worked during the season.

I just don't see either Jake or Deke getting less than $2.5M. They'll get offers from other teams otherwise. I agree that only one will be kept.

 

While the MLE and other salary cap exceptions allow a team to go over the salary cap, they do not apply to the luxury tax. The luxury tax is based on the total salary level of the team, including exceptions like the MLE.

Hooroo, there is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY the Celtics trade Gerald Green unless an All-Star caliber player is coming back to them. Also, Delonte West is a starter for them. If the Rockets could pull off a deal just for West, I'd be ecstatic. He'd be a great fit on this team.

 

West would be an awesome addition to us...we package our pick for him...but I want us to also look for a quicker PF and a quick SG in the mold of Larry Hughes, Rip Hamilton or Barbosa...

 

Very good point, but there are two caveats to that:
1. His production has taken a dive this season.
2. There are only so many teams that can give him more than MLE money, and those teams will be busy going after the likes of Carter & Rashard.

Sure, if the Bobcats give him a huge offer we can't do anything, but say he wants to play for a winning team...?

I'll definitely second that...