Explain this to me like I'm five. As I understand it, the Rockets have not paid luxury tax in the last four years. The repeater tax escalators only kick in if the team has paid tax in three of the previous four years. Given that, why are we worrying about Tillman being in the tax or not this year, when Harden is having a 'once every fifteen NBA seasons or so' kind of performance? At least start worrying about it in Year 3 of this four year tax assessment period. Paul will have two fewer years on that boat anchor of a contract, and higher priced players like Gordon, Tucker, and Shumpert will be gone. Shouldn't we get a championship first, and then worry about dumping salary? Or do we think that Harden's just going to be able to do this sort of thing again next year? It'd be a lot more palatable to fans if there's a new championship trophy at Toyota Center to stare at when Morey starts dumping players for spare change, instead of what's happening now. I mean, do you really believe the Rockets are going to spend whatever it takes next year? I don't.
That's what I've been thinking all the time... it's amazing how shortsighted some people can be. We can manage to be competitive this year while being under the tax so that we can go over it the next 2 seasons. There's no need to make a minor move just for the sake of it. I believe in this roster!
I don't have much knowledge about the CBA, but I think if we want to retain some of our players (faried, rivers, etc..) for next year, we will have to pay more than the minimum.
trade exceptions and draft picks goes a long way. We still have plenty of contracts to send out. I imagine if you are not a team tanking with huge gaps in your salary cap, you're in the same situation as the Rockets.
cp3 will be 35 in next season's playoffs. the only real contract we have that could get us something next season is gordon, and we'd be looking a most likely just a lateral trade there. imo punting on this season for next is fool's gold
We need Roster Space for the Buy Out people while creating trade exceptions.. Rockets created a 9.1 million trade expection what we sign pj tucker too just to get under the cap.. Now we have room for a Bigger trade or sign better players on buyout than we got back from the Cleveland trade.
I think we don't have Bird rights for any of those guys, except maybe Shumpert. (I remember someone saying EDIT: we had his Bird rights). So, since we're over the cap, we're limited to giving these guys something like, IIRC, 2.8M or so. The number that was used in the "what will happen if we keep House a RFA" discussion. If guys like Faried, Rivers, etc...do as well as we like, 2.8 ain't going to be able to keep them. Moreover, since we'll be over the cap, we're going to have to pay those guys without Bird rights out of a very finite pool of tax-paying MLE money. There just isn't enough cash to pay them, plus whatever additional buyout player we might be looking at. So the question remains, over the cap, probably in the tax with Paul's and Harden's raises coming due, with no contract to move for a player besides maybe Gordon's, how are we going to show any roster flexibility in the 2019-2020 and beyond seasons?
You're still ignoring the trade exceptions and buyouts that we are set up for. This is hardly a punt for this year either. Injuries coming back and potential match contracts for House is a lot of salary to push for trades or signings.
We will be a little more than 10 mil under the cap so we can sign a good player/players in free agency and then we have the MLE on top this offseason 10 mil plus MLE = over cap
He's a got a loooonnnng way to go before he reaches Sarver status, but yeah, I was starting to think that too with the Melo dump. I mean, how hard would it have been to flip him to LA, where he wanted to go, where 'Bron wanted him (allegedly), for something like Zubac on December 15. I.e,. before Zubac decided to wake up and be a starting NBA 5? Kuzma was obviously going to be a non-starter as a trade target, but Magic wouldn't have given up Zubac at that point?
Seriously there were no big deals to be made... I’m really not sure what people were thinking we were doing?
Lakers made it clear they would only add Melo after the deadline cause they didn’t have roster spots and didn’t want to give anyone up for Melo.
We were never going to have much flexibility anyways . This was about saving money and opening up roster spots .... the roster spots part being relevant only if we sign some buyout guys . The best of which might not want to come here anyways
