Of course YOU would, you're the resident financials guy! In looking over the teams that are paying the luxury tax, none of them appear to be bottom-dwellers. Philadelphia comes closest, but they're still under the luxury tax. I could see a big cost-saving move like if a team were paying luxury tax and going no where, but there doesn't seem to be too many of them out there. What's more likely is teams will want to dump longer term contracts on the Rockets, in exchange for their draft picks/prospects. This happens much more frequently than the scenario you laid out. Also, teams will have a hard time selling their fans on the idea of, "No, I didn't really clear much cap room for next year.. but the owner saved a lot of money this year by giving up one of our better players for savings!" I'd hate to be in the marketing department that's asked to spin that in a positive light. I sincerely doubt.. strongly doubt.. that Charlotte would pass on a 1st round pick because they would be required to pay a cheap rookie scale contract for a few years. Having a good young player on a cheap contract is one of the best assets a franchise can have -- there is no way that Charlotte would prefer to NOT take back a 1st rounder, no matter how high or low it is. Aaron Brooks was found in the 20s; as was Courtney Lee. There's value all throughout the draft, you just have to find it. And it doesn't even have to be a contender trading for Wallace. There are plenty of teams in the league who would love to have a player of that caliber on their team, whether they're contending or not. For instance, say that the Rockets never got back on track and Kevin Martin was dropping 23 a night on a 10-30 team. Would fans be happy if Morey traded Kevin Martin for an expiring contract? Much less, traded him AND a 1st rounder for an expiring contract? No way. We would expect value back for him -- a young guy on a cheap contract with potential (Carl Landry?). It's the same thing for Wallace, they are comparable players in that regard.
Players acquired via trade by an over-the-cap team (like the Rockets) cannot be traded in combination with any other players for two months after being acquired. Since the trade deadline is February 24, 2011, and since it is after December 24, 2010, the Rockets CANNOT use newly acquired expiring contracts to combine with the expiring contracts of Jeffries or Battier to take back a huge salary from another team. Now, if Morey can craft a deal as two SEPARATE trades, that is a different story. But Jeffries and Battier would still need to be enough salary to work out the "main" part of the trade.
I'm talking about simultaneous deals on Feb 24, which is when 99% of the trading action will take place.
I agree with everything you are saying, but my point remains the same. Yao's contract is WORTH expiring contracts plus one or more picks/prospects. Of course, by "prospects", it doesn't have to mean DeMarcus Cousins or Evan Turner. It could be something as simple as a nice young player taken in the late first/early second round in one of the past two drafts. More likely, though, the Rockets would just take picks instead of those types of prospects. And teams give up first rounders all the time in salary dumps. Hell, in 2003, the Rockets gave up a first rounder to Utah just to dump Glen Rice's contract. (Note: That trade generated a large trade exception for Houston that was instrumental in acquiring Tracy McGrady almost a year later. And who said Carrol Dawson's front office had no grasp of the salary cap rules?!) For a unique financial windfall opportunity like Yao's contract represents, teams might be willing to give up assets. The reason you don't see this very often is because guys like Yao making over $17 million with a huge insurance payout on his contract aren't traded very often. If I recall correctly, Portland held such an asset a couple of years ago with Raef LaFrentz's expiring contract but got cold feet about trading him for fear that any contracts they took on would ruin their cap situation. But that didn't stop half the league from tying of the Blazers' phone lines asking what it would take to get LaFrentz's contract.
The Glen Rice deal was done to get the Rockets under the luxury tax. I think we both agree on most points, more or less. Most salary dumps + 1st rounders, (all of them that I can remember), involved one team getting under the luxury tax. The key to all of this is what you said -- Yao is a unique situation due to the insurance money. It's hard to say what his contract, by itself, is worth because really there's no precedent for it. Perhaps Morey can set the precedent at the trading deadline -- I'll be very interested in seeing what teams offer for a half-season in savings.
We MIGHT be able to, using Yao's contract as one piece of the package. My point was that Yao's contract was worth AT LEAST expiring contracts and a pick. It was in response to LTF's assertion that it was not worth even that much.
Haven't checked to see if Utah has a first rounder, but there's a team right there over the luxury tax, who would, in all likelihood, gladly give up their first rounder to get a team to take Okur off their hands to get them under the luxury tax.
I'm not so sure, though I don't know how much (if any) money the Utah owner is losing. They are in the third seed of the Western Conference and just got Okur back healthy. They also owe their 2011 1st rounder to Minnesota, so that would seemingly kill the Okur salary dump.
IF melo would agree to an extension and the hornets agreed :grin: http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=23enodw
Hypothetical situation: Say New Jersey LOSES the Melo sweepstakes to say ...Dallas, who rents Melo in an effort to push them over the top. New Jersey knows that Dallas wont resign him so they can try to sign him in the offseason. Is it possible we see New Jersey get desperate and trade Favors to the Rockets for Yao's expiring contract ...in an effort to clear room to sign Melo in the offseason. Wait ...havent I seen that scenario somewhere?!? (Last year, McGrady trade/NYK's chase for LeBron) Hey, it could happen. Just sayin...
Nope, the Nets will be well below the cap next season. http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9162
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Confucius say he who thinks by the inch and talks by the yard deserves to be kicked by the foot. STFU GTFO!
Well Morey must believe the only way we'll aquire a superstar is through a trade and i would have to disagree with him. I think you must draft one is the best option. What they are asking for Yao contract is a prospect/pick/expiring contract. I think that is fair, but i don't see any team out there that is willing to stall their rebuilding efforts in this type of deal. I think for this deal to materialize they'd have to take on salary.
Memphis seems a possibility. Thabeet could be the prospect. Randolph is expiring. The draft pick could be sweetener for saving Memphis some money. Anyway, same story as last year. The Rockets won't trade until they can collect some money off Yao's insurance, UNLESS part of the deal for the team receiving Yao's salary is that they start cashing in on that insurance now and, sure, you can have our draft pick now, no problem. Another consideration is that whatever team receiving Yao won't want to announce to their fanbase until the last minute that they're calling the season a bust. Not that teams like Memphis and Minnesota have a huge fanbase, but they have to sell hope in the form of snake oil (or is that snake oil in the form of hope?), and taking on a contract designed to help them balance the books does not help fill seats in the arena.
Coincidence i live just outside of Memphis. That would be fair imo. They are looking to plug the middle i can see something like this actually happening.
