Source: Chance Dwight comes to Houston growing

Draft night is a great opportunity to move out salaries. Don't forget that.


While signing Dwight outright using cap space is the easiest and most likely possibility here, it is still not out of the realm of possibility that we could trade for him (or Pau) using contracts and stay above the cap so we could then add a full MLE contract in free agency also. There are players with totally unguaranteed deals for next season (DeShawn Stevenson) or else deals with very small guarantees (Rip Hamilton) or unguaranteed deals that do not become guaranteed until the second week of July after the moratorium (Steimsma) that could be acquired to provide us with empty contracts to hand the Lakers along with TRob and possibly Royce White to get Dwight in a sign and trade.

The reason I bring up this minor point is the importance of having an extra $5.1 million of empty contract to add to a guy like Asik and one or two of our young PFs for trade flexibility. So, in my humble opinion, if there is any way to obtain our second superstar through trade instead of using cap space we should pursue it.

 

Thanks Bima for clearing that up.

Also another difficulty would be the team running below the league minimum of players required to be on your roster at a given time. I know the league has been flexible with this before in the past, but given that in this scenario the Rockets would only have but 2 or 3 players on their roster before signing Howard, and Paul, I can imagine this would be an issue with the league office.

Anyways, if anyone can show how the Rockets would trade Lin, Asik, T-Robinson, White, D-Mo, Jones, etc. and take back almost zero salary in return other than Howard and CP3, Id be curious to see what you come up with in the random trade thread.

 

Nothing new, I remember I made a joke about Yao Ming playing "F, Mary, Kill" where he married Nia Long, and I believe Sina reported on that too lol

 

I'm starting to wonder if getting our hopes up is bad? Because Morey will not do anything predictable. Don't be shocked when these stars want more than they are worth and we don't bite.

 

His agent thinks the Rockets can't build a contender? If Dwight signed here, we would already be a contender. Asik will inevitably be moved for help at the 4 spot or in the backcourt. And Harden and Parsons will only get better. The only real question mark that'll remain is Lin. And it's not like dude's a scrub. He sure as hell is better than Steve Blake and an injured, 40 year-old Steve Nash.

 

One cannot rationalize irrationability and that is the giant part of the Dwight, or any significant FA's, signing process equation.

Hollywood is sexier than Asia.

Hollywood either defines global or largely comprises it.

Whatever Fegan's reasons if DHoHo hired him and retains him still then Fegan is a large part of Dwight's final equation.

 

For cap purposes, a "roster charge" is imposed for each spot below 12 on a team's roster in an amount equal to the rookie minimum salary. This summer, that amount will be $490,180. So, to the extent that one is trying to figure out how to create cap room to add free agents, be sure to add $490,180 times however many open roster spots below 12 there are prior to the signing.

Yeah, I remember when sina.com reported on my "Myth of 2010 Free Agency" thread and called ClutchFans "the BimaThug website". :grin:

 

Its important when you hear negative talk about Houston in the media (most likely BSPN) to understand whats going on behind closed doors. There is motive here, and as its been noted before, Fegan has major incentive to keeping Dwight in LA (more guaranteed money for him), and his sponsors like Adiddas also have incentive to him staying in LA.

So dont take it as a knock on Houston. Especially if you start hearing stuff like that from agent mouthpieces like Broussard, & co. Because you will DEFINITELY hear it in the coming weeks.

 

Pretty simple really.

Once Dwight is signed and nobody else can get him, you can peddle the Lin/Asik package to a team like Atlanta. They'd take them using their cap space most likely. For all you Lin haters, I promise you, he has trade value.

In my opinion, if Morey approached Boston with a rebuild package of Asik/Lin/TRob for Rondo/CLee, I would bet Boston would jump on that deal. Then you simply turn around and peddle the Rondo/CLee package to Utah, ATL, or whoever else for nothing but future draft picks.

However once you obtained Rondo and the Clips saw what you were going to do, they would probably be happy to S&T Paul for a package of Rondo/CLee. While they wouldn't trade Paul to Boston for Rondo/CLee, once they seen they were going to lose him outright, they would be asking for a S&T to salvage something of value for him.

We only have one bad contract. That is Royce White. And really, it's not that bad. Basically an expiring contract that can be thrown into a trade with a couple million dollars to offset his salary and give some team a free player to try out for next season (Hello Sacramento and Charlotte).

Asik and Lin are good contracts. If we sign Dwight, there are going to be teams (ATL, Utah, Dallas just to name a couple) who would be interested in absorbing Asik and Lin into their cap space.

 

By the way, I am by no means advocating moving out Lin and Asik if we sign Dwight. I'm simply saying our cap flexibility is unreal because Morey has got all good contracts on his books with the small exception of Royce White, who I am sure, can be given away at the right moment.

 

Cyberx got to wonder if Howard is just being emotional right now and in the end when all the dust settles and his agent shows him how much endorsement money he stands to lose he has a chaange of heart. Afterall he does have a history of that.

How strongly do you feel his intentions to leave are? Could this just be a way to leak this story out and put more pressure on L.A. to get what he wants? I mean if there really is a lot of endorsement money left on the table how does he walk away from it? When people were talking about only losing 8 mil and that is with 1 less year I got excited because suddenly I believed Houst was a viable option but if there is a lot of endorsement to be lost by coming here then I got to wonder if he really will come. Can you elaborate on this? Thanks

 

Is there any difference between that and the usual cap hold that teams have set for incoming rookies?

Im assuming this rule would mean that in this ultra-hypothetical scenario, sign and trade would really be the only way of getting it done.

 

To sign both Dwight and CP3 outright would require clearing almost everybody off the books besides Harden, Parsons, and Beverley. It could be done. But it wouldn't be necessary. You sign one guy and then the talks begin. You let the Clippers know they can work a S&T with you or you are going to clear out the roster and sign him outright and leave them with nothing. If it came to that, they'd gladly work on a S&T deal.

But for all practical purposes, you could turn all the other guys into nothing but cap space and future first and second round picks and outright sign both Dwight and Paul while retaining Harden and Parsons.

 

I have no problem with the off-the-court reasons for Dwight's agent and sports writers wanting him to stay in L.A. It's a bigger market which means higher ratings and richer endorsements(and obviously that 5th guaranteed year). But that'll at minimum require the Lakers to put a quality team out there on the floor and right now they're in a far worse position than the Rockets to do that. We have a young, healthy, up-and-coming roster. Hell, if we land Dwight, we'll actually have the "dilemma" of figuring out what to do with Omer Asik who established himself as one of the premier defensive big men in the league last season.

The Lakers? They have a lousy bench, a bunch of starters literally on their last legs, and a superstar who will be lucky to suit up by the All-Star Break in 2014 and may never return to form.

 

I agree. Just warning those that get bent out of shape when Houston gets any negative flack even from the likes of someone as outrageous as Charles Barkley. Just warning people, legit or not, if Dwight is really thinking about leaving, your going to hear alot of flack coming down.

 

I really don't see CP3 coming here either but if it takes putting both Howard and CP3 together with Harden to get either of those guys to sign, I think Morey will do it.

On the other hand, I think adding a power forward along the lines of Kevin Love (or even Millsap/JSmoove) to play alongside Howard/Harden/Lin/Parsons is a much greater step forward than simply replacing Lin with Chris Paul and having Harden/Paul/Howard/Parsons as your core.

I'd rather have:

Lin
Harden
Parsons
Howard
and Asik or one of Millsap/JSmith/KLove obtained through trade using Asik and one or two of the young 4s.

than to have:
Paul
Harden
Parsons
Howard
DMO/TJones with no ability to make a trade to bring in a substantial upgrade at the 4 spot.

 

No worries. This too will pass. Remember Lebron's decision. I still hate that but most of the league has forgotten. Winning shuts everyone up.

 

I get this as a business decision but I hate the idea of gutting the team for CP3 and Howard. We are just so close right now. The 4 remaining teams in the west playoffs are not that much better than us and if we just get better in the offseason we pass up at least 2 of those teams. Howard puts us over the top without adding any other piece. I would try the twin tower thing and if it doesn't work trade Asik for a stretch 4. But to gut the team is like starting all over. Yes it's a quicker rise to the top and if all works out we are playing for a title soon. But it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I hated the way Miami did it and I hate the idea of doing the same thing here. Good business decision but don't like it.

 

The "roster charge" is separate from cap holds for free agents and first round draft picks. I should have clarified before that, if you are keeping a player's cap hold on your books for purposes of determining your cap room, then each cap hold counts as a roster spot for purposes of determining if you have 12 roster spots taken up. If your total players plus cap holds equals 12 or more, then no roster charges will apply.

The cap hold for recently drafted (but unsigned) first round picks is equal to the rookie scale salary for a player selected at that particular pick. Those amounts are already known and can be found here: http://www.cbafaq.com/scale2011.htm

Second round picks do NOT count against the cap and therefore have no cap holds. Of course, if you have fewer than 12 players plus cap holds on the roster, roster charges will still apply.

Bottom line: To the extent that the Rockets have 12 roster spots taken up by players and cap holds, then (assuming no trades) their 34th pick in this year's draft and Furkan Aldemir will each count $0 against the cap until they are actually signed. If there are fewer than 12 players plus cap holds on the roster, then a roster charge ($490,180) will be added for each roster spot below 12, even if the Rockets eventually plan to sign the 34th pick and/or Aldemir to a starting salary in excess of $490,180.

 

So Bima let's say the cap is 60 mil and we drop everyone we can but Beverly Greg Smith and Parsons. If we trade Trob would we have enough money to sign Howard and a late first round pick that we might pickup by trading Trob? Thanks.