When Alexander said he would go over the luxury tax to get the right player (actually I believe it was Morey saying Les would do it), it meant getting a player that would definitely put us over the top. I honestly don't think this team is in a position to be put over the top right now. To me, what they are looking to do is prepare for the transition for the post-TMac/post-Yao years while still fielding a team that can compete against the big boys in this league. From year to year, they want to be in contention more than want to put all their marbles into one bag like CD somewhat did when dumping all that salary into a few players that tied us up financially at times. I still think Les will go for the homerun ball if he thinks we're close, but I think in the back of their minds they don't believe this team is good enough to win if Yao goes down and TMac is sidelined, at half-strength, or not on the team. It would end up being a no-superstar team (sorry Ron) and those teams usually don't win rings.
My first reaction was sort of like this too: Morey would rather not reveal who he wants with the other team's pick he is trying to trade for, other teams play along, say the deal is close and ask who he wants to pick, Morey has to reveal who he wants to choose, rival team then chooses not to do the deal and picks up intel on who the rockets are after instead. But now that I read thecabbage's interpretation of it, his makes sense too. That would be disturbing if he got played like that and we're stuck with 3 2nd rounders we didn't even want.
I heard him speak too and that is exactly what he meant. They put offers on the table to Memphis and later to Minny and the teams decided to ignore the offers and draft the players themselves. It is kind of a backstabbing tactic but it kind of left us with egg on our face. So all of this speculation is exactly that. It doesn't mean 1 or both of the sg/sf we drafted will not be used to acquire Rubio but that is not what Morey eluded too in anyway in that conversation. Personally I think the Rockets are pretty doubtful Wafer will be around and are not positive Artest can be signed and at a minimal don't see Tmac ready for the opening so these are exactly what the doctor ordered. PG- Brooks/Lowry SG - Berry/White/Taylor SF - Battier/Budinger PF - Scola/Landry/Cook C - Yao/Dorsey/Hayes Taylor could actually become the starter on that squad and Budinger could get some quality back up minutes behind Battier. Of course if we sign Artest, and if Tmac comes back sooner than later are roster looks like this... PG- Brooks/Lowry SG - Tmac/White/Taylor/Berry SF - Artest/Battier/Budinger PF - Scola/Landry/Cook C - Yao/Dorsey/Hayes Now that is an unbalanced roster but Cook and Berry or expirings that might lure in a backup big man
AggieDentist has it right. In the actual video of the press conference, Morey says "they decided to go and pick their players". All I gather from the statement is that we had a deal on the table for the #5 (or 6?) and they didn't like it, so instead they drafted whatever players they wanted. I don't think that the Timberwolves drafted with a particular future trade in mind.
The man tried to move up but no one would budge so he did the next best thing and rolled the dice on some 2nd Rounders. It's typical Morey but that's not necessarily a bad thing. We're in a situation where we have: -a massive expiring contract that we can't seem to trade because it's tied to a player whose production on the court is up in the air -two tradeable assets that won't net us anything or anyone that could be a real difference maker because they're contracts are small and no one's going to trade away stars or semi-stars for two former 2nd Rounders -other tradeable assets that could be moved but shouldn't be moved because there's too much of a good thing going with those guys -no draft picks in the foreseeable future (none in 2010 right?) It's not an enviable situation to be in since we're a playoff team but don't have enough bargaining chips to get us over that hump. We had cashed out on the Artest deal last year and the unfortunate part is that it didn't pay off as well as we had hoped due to the annual injury bug. It's just a wait-and-see approach. No need to moan and gripe but you guys might want to think about getting a refund for your customized Ricky Rubio or Amare Stoudemire jerseys
Just on spending the $6million to get the picks (is that how much it was - I only heard $2.5 for the Taylor pick, and nothing re: the other 2) What does it matter that the money was spent on those picks? They're still picks that cost the team NOTHING asset-wise. It may have taken $6million out of Les' pocket - but it has NOT stopped the Rockets from using their salary cap exceptions etc in any way, shape or form. And the $6million is basically free money anyway - here's why: There were 9 teams exceeding lux tax level - being pinged a combined $93million. That money then gets distributed amongst the other 21 teams (or about $4.5million each. McGrady's insurance means that we basically didn't have to pay half of his $21million dollar salary last season. SO - from our budgeted payroll of last season we made back about $15million. Giving Morey discretion to spend $6million of that in the draft still leaves the team $9million dollars better off than they had planned to be last season anyway. Buying picks means that you get an asset for nothing in salary cap terms. We now have some trading stock to play with - and Morey + the team tend to scout pretty well - I doubt he would buy 3 second round picks unless he thought they were worth a flyer. Might be that all 3 are crud players - but again, it was of no real cost to the team. I honestly cannot believe some people! We whinge about how great Portland is at draft time because they buy picks left right and center. When we do the same (but are smart enough not to buy guaranteed contracts in a BAD draft) everyone is whinging? Help me...
Where did they go? We certainly have our first rounder next season As far as I can tell we owe Minny our 2nd round pick next season (for Green?) In 2011 we can swap 2nd rounder with the Clippers and we received the Grizzlies 2nd rounder (conditionally)
You are correct, except that the Rockets traded BACK that Grizzlies second rounder (which turned out to be #36 this year, which the Griz used to take Sam Young) when they got Memphis to take Steve Francis's contract off their hands. The only other pick owed by the Rockets is the future second rounder trade for Chase Budinger. Btw, does anyone know EXACTLY what pick that will be? The Rockets still own all of their future first round picks.
Good informative post. I have no problem with us getting three 2nd round picks.They could turn out to be good.None of them are guaranteed anyway.Stocking up on talent never hurts even if they are relatively low picks.
Oh wow, so that's how the luxury tax is distributed? And we DID get insurance money for T-Mac last season? Interesting info, never knew about that before.
This is exactly why I can't understand people who think Morey did this amazing job getting the 3 picks. Since we didn't give up any players or future picks, they act like Morey used his GM skills, and not Les' wallet, to literally manufacture the picks out of thin air.
Oops - I just checked the luxury tax rules and I was slightly out. The teams under the luxury tax level receive 1/30th of the amount collected. The teams above lux tax level have their amount collected by the league. So it would mean we received something like $3million instead. And the league would have got $27million ( ) http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q16
That argument cuts both ways though. Morey did the scouting job and found the players who he wanted to take a flyer on in the second round - THEN had to find the people to dance with on the night who would give up the pick for cash. It's probably a little bit harder than calling up and saying "$2mill?" It's certainly not the most impressive GM skill EVER - but what is impressive is seeing a guy who knows what he is after even late on draft night and who is willing to make a move to get it done.
There's a major difference between paying 6 million on 2nd round draft picks and paying 6 million in Lux tax. First of all you pay a dollar to dollar penalty for the tax, so that's automatically 12 million straight up. Then you miss out on the "money pot" teams under the cap receive. You're not just taking a hit and missing out on the moolah, you're also giving rival teams funds to screw you over. Basically, you could be talking about 6 vs 18 million difference here. I think Morey drafted these guys because they were best value for their picks, and I think Morey took two as insurance against Wafer's departure. I can't comment on the spanish dude, but I really like the two wings we took. Taylor looks like he could be a Maxiell type of selection (undersized but with a long wingspan, extremely cheap scoring machine) and could be the SG verson of Landry. Budinger was projected to go as high as late lottery and never seemed lower than 1st round, so I think he was the "shot in the dark" kind of pick this year (just like AB was our pick last year). It's not like we're the freakin' timberwolves here. Spurs needed to get better because their team was starting to suck, and Cavs needed to make a move because LBJ was threatening to leave. We on the other hand took the Lakers to 7 games without Tmac and Yao Ming. We'll have Yao and probably Tmac back next year, AB and Landry matured even more and the players can use the extra time to get used to Adelman's system. We're fine even if we stood pat, getting these guys are just gravy.
More significantly - you're actually NOT generating a new asset. The only way for the Rockets to increase the current payroll is to: (i) give our free agents big contracts (ii) Use the MLE (LLE we used last year right?) (iii) bring back more salary in trades. All those avenues are still completely open to us but we also generated 3 extra assets in Taylor, Llull and Budinger. What if Llull has an enormous season next year in Europe? Suddenly he's an enormous asset. And with insurace paying most of McGrady's way while he's injured, we can still safely persue any of the above 3 options (with insurance offsetting the tax hit) - but we have more assets to make it happen.
the picks make perfect sense to me. one is a gamble on a point guard who will sit overseas. and the other two are *scorers* who might be able to help since TMac won't be back at the start of the season, and Wafer and Ron aren't sure things for next season either. its a little scoring insurance. and if either of these two ends up getting decent minutes next season and does well (ala wafer did this season) he gets to be the 'next big thing' and then has trade value if we decide not to keep him. cheers!
I thought the Rockets can't sign a player for $6 mil, because they are over the cap. They can only resign their own players to max contracts, if they have bird rights.
The one thing the Rockets absolutely needed coming out of this offseason is a backup center. I guess Joey Dorsey is expected to be it because nothing happening in the draft that even touched the position.
