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

And whats the smilarity between Ben Gordon and Nicolas Batum?

 

You should be the Rockets GM, best offseason i have heard in a while, but i would give up Scola and draft Sullinger, like the Previous poster stated

 

As far as I know, you cannot rework an already agreed upon contract in the NBA.

What you can do though (and not often done) is institute a signing bonus as part of a contract. So instead of say signing someone for say 4 years, 24 million, you can take a percentage of those 2-4 years and add them to the first year as signing bonus in the first year when you may have more cap room.

Reverse contracts are nice, but somewhat frowned upon by the NBAPA. Players can still sign them if they want, but it is very much not the norm.

 

Scola could accept a buyout of his existing contract for say $1 - and then sign a frontloaded contract, couldnt he?

 

As far as approaching the draft I'd go BPA on the board at any position.
If it means taking a PF i'd do it and try and deal Scola or amnesty him.

PG-we could use a third team..he could still be under contract and play in Rio Grande, if he is better than Dragic off the bat. Id guess we could deal Dragic for a future 1st.

SG-same

SF-Probably cut or deal Budinger and Morris and the pick battle for the starting spot. Tough to move Parsons to third team with as well as he's played so far.

PF-Scola gone. Patty and the pick battle for the starting spot and Motie plays in RVG under Rockets contract.

C-Probably just try and keep Smith in RVG and hope no one signs him before Dalembert retires.

 

I think you have to assign a $ value to all the young players with upside,potential,and production. I like what larsv8 posted in a sense with lopez. If he checks out medically long term,whatis his dollar value? What about Beasley and Mcgee? That would be my plan.I would try try to dump scola and they've already declined options on the 09 ers. I wouldn't extend dragic or lee either. What the rockets need are guys with all star potential, not role player potential.

 

We better try to trade as the draft with us probably finishing 9th and Knicks around the same + free agents like Williams & Howard out of reach are not something we can count on. Morey also said he does not like free agency, since you are likely to overpay, and I'm sure Morey will try to trade the picks either to move up or get another player.

This offseason Morey has to give us something in return for him running this organisation's image into the ground and desperately looking for a star who are not worth the money like Amare, Melo and whoever else.

 

What to do with cap room - CONTRACT


The NBA is a watered down product from what my age group is accustomed to.


We allow Rookies to come into the league after a year in college .... where as in the past those players spent 4 years honing their skills .... No wonder we have so many draft busts.


Toronto , Memphis , Charlotte and New Orleans need to go the way of the do do .... at a minimum.

 

Utah post stocton-malone used their capspace on 2 guys and kinda overpayed them,but helped them get to conf finals. Of course, it helped drafting williams and having a hof, but no one in the league saw the contract given to okur and boozer. That's was great identification by their pro personel guys.

Look at the dna of those deals.
Okur-6yr 50m
Boozer-6yr 58m

Boozer was a up a comer, but no one thought he'd get that kind of money. That's why people hated him in cleveland afterwards. Cleveland dropped the ball,utah wanted him, and cleveland couldn't do anything about it.

Okur was a solid big off the bench. His size and skill level at a young age made him a intruiging prosepct. Again, no one thought he would get the contract he got. Detroit, coming off the championship had bigger worries to deal with than okur. Not to mention, they had just drafted darko with the #2 pick.

Those 2 deals along with the drafting of williams made utah a threat in the west. Did they overpay based on their immediate production?Yes, but no one looked at those deals years later and called those guys overpaid.

That's why I would do something similar with the rockets after clearing up room. If medically cleared and is deemed sound by the doctors, I would take a shot at lopez and mcGee. Why those 2? Age,upside,and production. I like the now,offensive production of a guy like lopez and the now defensive/rebounding production of mcgee. Having both of these players on the frontline would give the rockets upside and production right now. Say what you want about lopez, but he is a skilled post 7ft er. His age suggest he still can get better and more refined. Everyone knows the nets want to make a run either this season or in the offseason at howard. The rockets can offer a contract and make nj match which they probably won't because they don't want to tie up money.

In regards to mcgee, he's in a simlar boat as lopez. He's not a knucklehead, he just has maturity issues. Not the kind that lands him in trouble off the court, moreso the kind being more serious about his profession. Even with those issues, he's still has production in the nba. He's young,long,and athletic. He has room to grow and can be a force defensively when dialed in. His upside even now is greater than any young rocket player.

I think the contracts can only be like 4 yrs or so,but someone can double check. Lopez with a deal averging 11m and mcgee with a deal avg 10m sounds about right. Now the rockets would have something to start with and stil be competitive. If they luck up and the knicks suck just enough, they can get another high end player to add to the mix. Add those 2 to martin and lowry and that's a more realistic scenerio to get out this cycle than hoping williams can bring howard I think.

 

I love the Hinrich/Collison descending style contracts (Collison's was frontloaded and descending). I have never understood why they have not become more prevalent with teams that have capspace.

 

That is exactly what I see them doing with the cash. Not really my first choice but we may not really have a choice. I'm still for "rebuilding through the draft" but I don't own this team. If Les doesn't come around and we continue to nab 14th picks and season them in DLeague, then we are only left with rebuilding through trades and FAs and I think it will take luck in both. But given that we aren't on Dwight's short list and the rest of the UFA class doesn't look all that good, I think we overpay for a RFA which will either net us the good player or we cause the other team to use up there salary cap more than they would have liked.

 

We should try to get Batum.

 

Batum's Salary Cap Hold is $6,466,095.

I'm not sure how much we can over offer, but we can potentiallty make him our starting SF.

That is near the price we spend on Dalembert, per year, but we could lock him in for much longer, and because of a still favorable contract (closer to Charlie V. than Ben Gordon)

We know that Batum's play is starter quality, so overpaying for a YOUNG starter, for 4 years, who has the versatility to guard smaller players, makes a lot of sense.

He's already a 2-way player, and on the international stage, he's got the offensive firepower to not be a waste. And he's consistant. He's seen his share of injuries this season, but it's because of the schedule, nothing MAJOR like neck-nerve damage or potentially explosive knee-cap.

Morey gets Batum, our starting 5 is a legit contender - even without an All-Star (in a regular 82-game schedule).

 

I was thinking more of the concept. Batum himself? Depends on the cash - definately not max or even close to 8 figures. But I think we will strike out in the UFA market. We'll be looking at the holes in our roster and money in the pocket with Les asking DM, "What are you doing to improve on the team this year?". That sends us into the deeper but less sure RFA pool. Once you start swimming in that pool (with a certain amount of desperation), you almost always overpay by some amount/percentage (DM won't allow himself to go too far over) to get the player to sign and have a hope of the home team not matching or making it a S-n-T deal.

 

PER Ranking of Small Forwards from

Now that I look at it, Bud isn't that far from Batum, but I think Bud has hit his ceiling, and Batum has room to grow with more minutes, so it makes sense to sign him. Look at who is in the middle of this field of SFs as well:

Deng, Gay, T-Mac, Crash Wallace...interesting...

 

I meant to highlight Budinger.

 

2 late u cant delete the post, this is not facebook

 

I'd throw a 4yr/30M offer at Batum... rather throw the $ there than Clee or Dragic - who I think will get similar offers....