Hypothetical: Say we get Tracy McGrady via trade. He's in the last year of his rookie contract. Would the Rockets have his Bird rights? The rule as I understand it is that a person needs to stay with a team for a min. of 3 years to have Bird rights. So if a player gets traded during that 3rd year to another team, I thought his Bird rights go to that team and therefore can sign him to the max without any penalty. So in McGrady's case, if he were to come here, we should be able to sign him to the max w/o affecting the cap, re-sign Mobley and still go after a Free Agent with our cap money,say Grant or Duncan. If anyone can help in clarifying this, I'd appreciate it.
The Rockets would retain his Bird Rights, yes. But for starters it would take Mobley for starters (plus much more) to get him, and my understanding is the Rockets don't have much if any cap room this season.
It is my understanding that the Bird rights would not follow the contract. McGrady would have had to have been a Rocket for 3 years. He would then become a free agent at the end of his contract. Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think the Rockets have the fifth largest payroll in the NBA...not enough cap room to get Duncan or Hill. We would have to do some major fenagling.
I stand corrected.....thanks Clutch! ------------------ HOOP-T Hey Shaq, Acme called, and they want their bricks back!
Mobley is in his 2nd year of his first contract so we can't tender him a Bird rights contract but we can sign him to a decent one year contract and re-up him after that season. I know now we don't have much cap room but my hypothetical also took in account that we were giving up some pricy players to get him, say Williams and/or Drew. And since Massenburg is a FA, his money will no longer count against us, so if my scenario were to happen, it might be possible to still sign an upper echelon FA.
Actually being that McGrady is still under a rookie contract and making significant chump change I believe the Rox could trade a Mobley and someone like a Kenny Thomas or Drew this season. Which in turn would keep McGradys Bird rights. Then after this season the Rox could resign McGrady to whatever figure they wanted without it influencing their cap figure.
We can give Mobley "Early Bird" rights - which means we can pay him 175% of his previous salary (which is 175% of not very much) OR equal to the league average, which I'm guessing would be around $2 or $3 million. He may settle for that on the proviso that he be given a bigger contract the following year, but the Rockets may not want to, considering they WILL definitely be in a Free agent hunt the year after Hakeem retires. My opinion is that the only way we could get one of the major free agents after this year, is by the other team (read San Antonio or Detroit) signing and trading to us. As long as we "Swap" equivalent salaries in the trade, it doesn't matter if we are over the cap. We would have to part with some serious salary (and hence players), but its doable, especially considering we may have a tradeable 1st round pick.
davo, We can give Mobley "Early Bird" rights - which means we can pay him 175% of his previous salary (which is 175% of not very much) OR equal to the league average, which I'm guessing would be around $2 or $3 million. He may settle for that on the proviso that he be given a bigger contract the following year Actually, if you sign a player to an early Bird deal, it has to be for at least 2 years. That's why you don't see more early Bird contracts signed.
aelliott, Thanks, aelliott - I stand corrected. Mobley may still go for it, or they may use the Mid Level Exception, which is basically equivalent but can be signed for 1 year. [This message has been edited by davo (edited February 01, 2000).]
two questions: (1) where can one find an official document on the NBA contract and salary cap regulations? (2) can someone list ALL the contracts under the rockets' cap right now. if that is too annoying, where could i find such info? thanks!
Thanks for the info davo. btw, where did you get it? also... well, i was going to ask what the actual salary cap was, but with all the exceptions and contract details, i realize that can be a bit difficult to capture. do you (or anyone else) have a link or info on the official NBA contracting rules. sorry to ask again, i'm just interested in the nuts and bolts of things and would like to get a clearer picture on what the Rockets' future will be (run scenario's and figure out their exact situation). also, i'm in law school and taking contracts right now, so i can justify it as something beyond procrastination thanks!
Plato: Here is a good FAQ on the Collective Bargaining Agreement. They also tell you in there how you can get a copy of the the actual document, though they advise against it. http://members.home.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm Here is a good place for contract information, though it does have its shortcomings (for example, Maloney's contract with us is erased now, though necessary for cap calculations): http://www.dfw.net/~patricia/
Plato, The best salary cap info can be found at: http://www.members.home.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm There isn't an official source of salary information. A fairly accurate one is Patrica Bender's site http://www.dfw.net/~patricia/index.html. Her page only lists salaries through last year, but unless the player signed a new deal this year, you can figure a 10% to 12 raise (depending on whether the player signed with his old team or a new team for his current contract). NBATalk.com also has salary info at http://www.sportstalk.com/nba/stuff/salaries/index.shtml , but it doesn't seem to be as accuate as the Bender site. Hope this helps. [This message has been edited by aelliott (edited February 01, 2000).] [This message has been edited by aelliott (edited February 01, 2000).]
Thanks so much. Maybe after looking at this stuff for a while I can come up with something intellegent to say about the Rockets' salary info... then again, maybe not Thanks again!
I'm glad someone else provided the info plato, because I had lost the URL to the above sites - that is where I got most of my info. As far as the actual salary cap, I think it is around $35 Million this year and will be $37 - $38 next year.
Actually, we have the right of first refusal on Mobley's contract. That means that we can match any offer another team makes for Cuttino. The same thing happened this offseason with Tyrone Nesby and the Clippers matching the Spurs offer for him. That's why he's still in LA. So look for the Rockets to match the highest bidder for Mobley's services this offseason.
Here is my take on the salaries for this year and next year. Note that some of them are multi-year deals that I have averaged, and it doesn't take into account any credit for released players (Maloney et al) playing with other teams. If anyone can correct any info I would appreciate it. (I also can't remember if we signed Curley or Devan Gray for the remainder of the season) 1999 2000 Barkley $9,000,000 $0 Massenburg $900,000 2000 Rookie $2,000,000 Mobley $287,500 $2,200,000 Bullard $2,025,000 $2,025,000 Anderson $2,200,000 $2,200,000 Drew $1,282,500 $1,282,500 Rogers $2,660,000 $2,660,000 Williams $4,000,000 $4,000,000 Francis $3,531,000 $3,531,000 Thomas $1,053,250 $1,053,250 Olajuwan $14,000,000 $17,000,000 Cato $3,500,000 $5,000,000 Miller $300,000 Maloney $2,150,000 $2,150,000 Augmon $2,475,000 Shaw,B don't know McClean $2,460,000 Gray,Ed $832,400 TOTAL $52,856,650 $45,101,750
