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Stuff to Do with Cap Room if You Can't Land a Superstar

Discussion in 'Houston Rockets: Game Action & Roster Moves' started by Carl Herrera, Feb 2, 2012.

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  1. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Contributing Member

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    Continuing a discussion from Bima's latest salary update and Clutche's article on going after Deron Williams: What happens is the rather likely event that the Rockets strike out on Howard and Williams, the two premier FAs? What good is the cap room that the team maneuvered for?

    Here are a few examples of what you can do:

    1. What you obviously can, but REALLY should not do.... is this:
    Feel compelled to use the cap room just because you got it. Detroit is now committed to spending big money on a terrible team for the next few years. NJ had to amnesty a guy they signed just a year ago.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]


    2. The Default Move-- "Eat Salary for Pay": This is something that OKC did a couple times after getting well under the cap upon the departure of Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis. They took on Matt Harpring's salary from the tax-paying Utah Jazz and got Eric Maynor for their troubles. They also took on the salary of Kurt Thomas from a cost-cutting PHX team in exchange for picks, one of which was used to draft Serge Ibaka. The Rockets did something similar to this by getting Jordan Hill and pick considerations from the Knicks for taking on Jared Jeffries' salary (NY wanted to dump him for cap room).

    Not a terribly exciting thing, but helps to sustain your talent base and give you draft picks, which are always nice to have in trades.

    3. The "Zach Randolph": If you can out-chased everyone for a hot superstar to voluntarily come to your city and doesn't have what it takes to draft or trade for such a player, you may want to consider the dumpster diving a bit. Memphis picked up Zach Randolph for practically nothing (using a combination of cap room and non-guaranteed contract, I think) when his value was WAY down after playing for losing team after losing team.

    Is there someone currently in that situation? My first thought is Amare Stoudemire: If the Knicks keep losing, I wonder if they want out of his contract and want to open up potential cap room to sign a FA next season (NY being a desirable location for superstars, or so we are told). Maybe Al Jefferson, whom I thought of last year, if the Jazz gets worse.

    http://articles.latimes.com/2009/jul/02/sports/sp-clippers-randolph2
     
    #1 Carl Herrera, Feb 2, 2012
  2. LCII

    LCII Contributing Member

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    Al Jeff is pimpin in Utah right now...Amare...do not want..

    i think option 2 is the best option
     
    #2 LCII, Feb 2, 2012
  3. Pringles

    Pringles Member

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    Option 2 + overpaying players for a short term contract. Example - see Carl Landry's contract.

    I wouldn't mind ridiculously overpaying for players like Courtney Lee for a year, just so we can have cap room again the next free agency.
     
    #3 Pringles, Feb 2, 2012
  4. DaDakota

    DaDakota If you want to know, just ask!

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    Just do one year deals ala Dalembert.....
     
    #4 DaDakota, Feb 2, 2012
  5. snowconeman22

    snowconeman22 Member

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    Isnt Harden a RFA ?? Offer him as much as you can at least OKC will pay to keep him and probably wont be able to keep Ibaka when his time comes
     
    #5 snowconeman22, Feb 2, 2012
  6. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Contributing Member

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    I think option 2 is the more frequently available one-- you'll always have team that either want to avoid the tax, cut costs, or creat cap room, and they'll at least be willing to give you a late 1st or early 2nd round pick for your troubles. Just kind of depends on how many such teams there are vs. how many teams have cap room.

    It's not likely to yeild something huge, but helps you maintain your talent level as guys inevitably age.

    Option 3 is more of a "taking advantage of infrequent opportunities" deal. There won't always be a Zach Randolph available (part of the reason why MEM was willing to take a chance on him was that his contract only had 2 years left on it, so they weren't risking screwing themselves for, say, 5 years if Zach didn't perform).
     
    #6 Carl Herrera, Feb 2, 2012
  7. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Contributing Member

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    I think a more useful option is the Nick Collison contract: OKC had cap-room so they extended Collison's deal by (a) modifying his current salary (last year) to something like $13 million, and (b) have him agree to get paid about $2 million a year for the remaining years of the contract. Now, they have Collison fairly compensated in terms of an overall package, but he's eating up minimum space on their cap now and is probably a better trade asset because of the small salary.
     
    #7 Carl Herrera, Feb 2, 2012
  8. jopatmc

    jopatmc Contributing Member

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    4. Threaten to use it it to offer a max contract to Eric Gordon and force New Orleans to match it or lose him to force New Orleans to work a favorable trade for us.

    5. Use it to sign a player to a hefty front-end loaded contract that allows for a progressively lower salary in later years ala Mr. Sam Presti. (if that is still allowed in the new CBA....enter Bima, stage left.)
     
    #8 jopatmc, Feb 2, 2012
  9. dobro1229

    dobro1229 Contributing Member

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    Another option, with the new CBA I think you are going to see alot of Carl Landry type of one year deals thrown around the league.

    The Rockets, if they miss out on D12/DWill or cant trade for a high caliber player, offering some Dalembert/Landry type contracts happen.

    Maybe even give Garnett/Allen a well paid one year try with Lowry/Martin/Scola/Dally & whoever else. Go all in in on a one year with a couple of old guys against the world type of seasons to blend in with the young guys. If it doesn't work out, oh well you sold some more tickets and you can just waive the Garnett type of player at some point to play Montiejunas.

    Who knows, but I do know that middle to large multi-year contracts to mediocre players will not happen with Morey at the helm. If they strike out on D12/DWill and they have cap space with an open roster spot, Give it to an aging star. Why not??

    -

    This is halfway joking of course. I know the Rockets wont have the capspace and should make a much better deal then this one. But it is an option worth discussing.
     
    #9 dobro1229, Feb 2, 2012
  10. Mr. Clutch

    Mr. Clutch Contributing Member

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    Well Morey tried to sign Marc Gasol to a max deal.

    So I guess he was going with option 1.
     
    #10 Mr. Clutch, Feb 2, 2012
  11. Pringles

    Pringles Member

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    Completely forgot about Nick Collison's deal.

    I could actually see us giving that type of deal to players like Goran Dragic and Courtney Lee. (Chuck Hayes could have been a good player to do that, IMO)

    If we needed to keep any 09 lottery busts, I'd rather just offer them a one year (overpaid) contract.

    In a way, aren't we stuck in option one right now? With the contracts of Scola and Martin, we barely have room to sign one max player.
     
    #11 Pringles, Feb 2, 2012
  12. Another Brother

    Another Brother Contributing Member

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    lower ticket prices
     
    #12 Another Brother, Feb 2, 2012
    3 people like this.
  13. ashishduh

    ashishduh Contributing Member

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    He's well worth a max contract.
     
    #13 ashishduh, Feb 2, 2012
  14. larsv8

    larsv8 Contributing Member

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    Amnesty Scola

    Brook Lopez
    Gerald Wallace
     
    #14 larsv8, Feb 2, 2012
  15. jacoby

    jacoby Member

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    1 year hefty deals. I have no problem giving Courtney Lee 6 or 7 million dollars a year for a year if we are 20 million under the cap and are waiting til next off season to make our big move.
     
    #15 jacoby, Feb 2, 2012
  16. kjayp

    kjayp Contributing Member

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    I was wondering about something like Hinrich's 'reverse contract' that gets progressively smaller and then saw this post... I'm suprised there's no required structure... If there's nobody worth getting as FA, let's rework some contracts... The idea of amnestying Scola has been mentioned, maybe we give him a reworked contract like Collison and save our amnesty (BTW is there an expiration on that?).... give Sam a fat payday followed by cheap years thereafter as a backup...
     
    #16 kjayp, Feb 2, 2012
  17. Scolalist

    Scolalist Member

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    Four moves I would make this offseason

    1. Trade Kevin Martin for a lottery pick
    2. Re-sign Dragic and Lee
    3. Give Eric Gordon a 14 mil offer, doubt NO matches
    4. Sign Omer Asik

    Lowry/Dragic
    Gordon/Lee
    Morris/Parsons/Budinger
    Scola/Patterson/Motiejunas (under contract in Rio Grande)
    Dalembert/Asik/Greg Smith (under contract in Rio Grande)

    +Knicks lottery pick,Pick from KMart trade, maybe a Rockets lottery pick

    Very deep draft, I'd like this team alot
     
    #17 Scolalist, Feb 2, 2012
  18. bluffkin

    bluffkin Member

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    Some nice ideas except I don't want scola on this team if we could get Jared Sullinger or Thomas Robinson with one of the picks I would be pleased.
     
    #18 bluffkin, Feb 2, 2012
  19. RoxTurk

    RoxTurk Member

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    Sign Nicolas Batum. Portland will go after G-Wall and let Batum go to a team where he can start. This dude can flat out play and he is still 23.


    Lowry-Batum core would be great for future. Add a quality center and some veteran players than you'll be the Grizzlies 2.0 or even better.
     
    #19 RoxTurk, Feb 2, 2012
  20. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Contributing Member

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    Batum feels like a Ben Gordon signing.
     
    #20 Carl Herrera, Feb 2, 2012
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