Would it be better just to let Tmac's contract expire?

I'm sure some where within the hundreds of threads and thousands of posts this answer is available but could someone please explain to me why we only have an estimated $8-$10 million in cap space next year when we have McGrady's $23 million a year coming off the books? Why don't we have the full $23 million in cap space available?

 

"Expiring contracts and a young asset"...


DM will NOT take anything bad back... He is trying to get a cheap young asset, that is all... The rest of the players in the deal would also expire in such a deal...

 

To sign a big name free agent you have to be under the salary cap by enough to cover the players salary.

The NBA salary cap is a "soft cap" which means teams can exceed the cap for various reasons (resigning your own free agents, exceptions, etc...).

Currently the Rockets, like most NBA teams, are over the cap.

For argument's sake let's say that we're $15M over the cap. Now we let McGrady's $23M contract expire. That takes us down to approximately $8M under the cap. So we would have $8M to sign a free agent.

Make sense?

 

People are staying at home and catching games on TV, instead of buying tickets that they can't afford. As long as there is high unemployment, I don't see ticket sales keeping up with last season.

NBA revenues are dropping. They have dropped 7.4% this year. This could lower the cap from the current $57.7 mil to $53.4 mil. If NBA revenues continue to drop, we could be looking at only $4-5 mil in cap space.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/12/10/sportsline/main5962442.shtml

The Rockets would be better off using the MLE, since they could offer more money.

 

doesn't that still make us an attractive trading partner
some special rules about the salaries not having to match exactly
type thing

Rocket River

 

IMHO all we really need is an efficient scoring wing who can hit 3's with some degree of consistency. That's it. Someone like Wafer with his head on straight would be ideal. Someone like Bosh or Cp3 would be awesome and I would gut the team to get those guys, but if they aren't available I'd rather sign someone like Manu Ginobili, Matt Barnes, J-Rich than trading for a near max contract+junk.

With Yao Ming coming back to shore up the D, a player who can alleviate our scoring droughts is all we really need.

 

The point of his post is talking about why letting Tmac's contract expire would not net us 23 million capspace. If we let Tmac's contract expire we won't be doing any trades.

And salaries never have to match exactly, otherwise no trades would happen. You can be off by around 100k-200K IIRC.

 

Makes sense. Thanks.

 

I say we let it expire.

If we are over the cap with McGrady's contract, then we will just wind up spending more money, either the bad contracts will weigh on our cap space buying out trash players that comes along with the trade. Which will make it harder to bring back Scola and/or Landry, in the off season. Really, no team has a star player, that we'd be better taking, on their roster they aren't planning on keeping for their playoff run.

The only teams might be the Timberwolves and Nets, and the only person we'd probably gunning for on those teams are Al Jefferson (more injury prone then Yao, however) and Devin Harris (not going to happen unless John Wall was gift wrapped to the New Jersey team).

 

yea it would be best.... but the rockets will find a way to eff it up just wait till we trade him for table scraps!!!!

 

I don't get why it's assumed that the Rockets will try to re-sign Scola; Landry needs to be re-signed after next season. I like Scola a lot, but he's what, four years older than Landry? The Rockets aren't going to spend over $10 million on two players who play the same position. And actually, it's probably more like $13+ million.

Lowry, on the other hand, is an issue. I think he really needs to be retained. I just have to hope that the Rockets and him can come to an agreement quickly.

As for Chuck Hayes, you can't get better value for $2 million. There's no way they renounce him.

 

If we renounce Chuck Hayes, it's not a good idea.

David Andersen would be the starter, when Yao is injured.

 

put if you under the cap . . .that 15% rule is not even an issue . . i thought

Rocket River

 

Nice points, but I think the Rockets will make every attempt to re-sign Scola this summer (assuming he isn't included in any major T-Mac trade this February). Remember, he will be a RESTRICTED free agent, meaning that the Rockets will have substantial leverage in contract negotiations. Teams will not exactly be lining up to tie up their cap space in a 30-year-old restricted free agent, especially after Morey (inevitably) announces to the league that he will match any offer for Scola. Given Les Alexander's past willingness to spend and the Rockets' China business connections, few teams will view that announcement as a bluff. My guess is that Scola re-signs for four years at a little below his "hypothetical" market value. Perhaps a little above the MLE (league average salary).

Agreed on Lowry, though. As someone who has repeatedly commented on the myth of the Rockets cap room availability, I was a little disappointed when the deadline passed for 2006 first rounders to sign extensions without Lowry being locked up. With the season that Lowry's having now, I think that will end up costing the Rockets in the long run.

But Morey wants his cap flexibility. I will defer to him.

(Oh, yeah. Agreed on Hayes as well. But that further reduces the Rockets' cap space by $2.3M. Unlike for Scola and Lowry (who can be renounced at any time this summer), the Rockets MUST make a decision on Hayes before July 1, before Morey will have a truly good feel for the free agent landscape.)

 

Salary Cap Experts - honest question here

I'm not sure why we would want to trade T-Mac if he's expiring this year? If no one is willing to give us more than pennies on the dollar for T-Mac's contract than why shouldn't we just wait and let it expire and use it on the FA's?

Maybe this is a naive question, but I don't understand why that wouldn't be more beneficial to the team long term than getting an albatross contract that might cripple us in the future?

Please advise.

 

You don't need any advice. You're right on the money.

While letting T-Mac's contract expire won't net you $23M in cap room (since the team is already so far over the salary cap), it does give the team enough flexibility to either (a) use up to about $8-11M in cap room (depending on where the salary cap is set) on outside free agents or (b) re-sign Scola and Lowry and use the MLE and LLE on outside free agents.

That flexibility is more important to Les Alexander and Daryl Morey than people realize and is why the Samuel Dalemberts and Elton Brands of the world will not be coming over in any trades.

(For a Chris Paul, however, perhaps Les and Morey would be okay taking on the Peja Stojakovics and Darius Songailas of the world.)

 

You've probably written about this before, but are you saying that if Morey allows McGrady's contract to expire, he can either sign an $8-11M player or sign Scola/Lowry, but not both? Can't he do both if the team is willing to go over the salary cap?

BTW I've really enjoyed your recent posts. Thanks for all the good info.