[Amick]Houston Rockets spent 1m on Darren Hilliard from Detroit

[Green_teamer]

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[Slava]

Morey is the ultimate wheeler dealer.

[HartfordWhalers]

Excellent, that was the missing piece.

[daoneandonly]

How many of these guys do u see the Clippers keeping? I'd say Quarterman may at least get a shot

[Euphonetiks]

Aren't they all unguaranteed deals? If Morey is roaming aaround to accumulate unguaranteed deals it is because the Clips don't want a lot of extra salary.

[the_process]

Impressive that Morey on short notice just rounded up 4 non guaranteed contracts to buy. Best in the business.

[The Graduate]

Impressive that Morey on short notice just rounded up 4 non guaranteed contracts to buy. Best in the business.

Morey's is certainly a great gm, but let's not get crazy here. Paying a bunch of teams for players they were likely cutting anyway isn't exactly that impressive.

[School_Kid]

Can someone explain to me why the Rockets are buying these guys?

[the_process]

Can someone explain to me why the Rockets are buying these guys?

He needs them to match salary in CP3 trade so it can get done now. By getting done now, he goes into the new league year over the cap, which means he gets the full 8.4 MLE instead of the 4.2 cap room exception which would happen if they use their current room to complete the CP3 trade.

[the_process]

Impressive that Morey on short notice just rounded up 4 non guaranteed contracts to buy. Best in the business.

Morey's is certainly a great gm, but let's not get crazy here. Paying a bunch of teams for players they were likely cutting anyway isn't exactly that impressive.

You do know HOU isn't keeping any of these guys they bought today, right?

[loserX]

Can someone explain to me why the Rockets are buying these guys?

Quick(ish) recap:

The Rockets want to trade for Chris Paul. Their proposed package is Beverley, LouWill, Dekker, I believe Harrell, and a pick.

There is an ~$8M or so salary gap between Paul and the Houston package. ("Over the cap/under the luxury tax" teams can add more salary in a trade, but it must be within 150% of the outgoing salary. This Houston package is not quite big enough to make this work.)

Houston therefore has two choices:

1) they will have capspace in 2017-18. They could simply choose to operate "under the cap" and use their capspace to absorb the salary difference. This move and resulting roster holds would put Houston very close to the cap, so they would only have the "room MLE" to add free agents (a small exception available to teams that are very close to, but under, the cap).

2) They could try to add salary to the package so that it *is* within 150% of Paul's salary. This would enable them to operate "over the cap", which gives them the full ~$8M MLE to add free agents (a much larger exception available to teams fully over the cap but under the tax).

They opted for choice #2. But they didn't want to add any more of their own players, so they acquire these tiny unguaranteed deals until they stack up to that magic 150% mark.

[the_process]

Also don't forget that by acquiring these guys with cap space, they are all eligible to be immediately aggregated and re-traded.

[The Graduate]

Impressive that Morey on short notice just rounded up 4 non guaranteed contracts to buy. Best in the business.

Morey's is certainly a great gm, but let's not get crazy here. Paying a bunch of teams for players they were likely cutting anyway isn't exactly that impressive.

You do know HOU isn't keeping any of these guys they bought today, right?

Yes, I do. I understand the move, it makes sense, but it hardly qualifies as a genius swindle. If you want to call Morey the "best in the business," there is certainly a case to be made, but I don't think giving other teams' money for guys they were going to cut is really all that ingenious or special.

[the_process]

Morey's is certainly a great gm, but let's not get crazy here. Paying a bunch of teams for players they were likely cutting anyway isn't exactly that impressive.

You do know HOU isn't keeping any of these guys they bought today, right?

Yes, I do. I understand the move, it makes sense, but it hardly qualifies as a genius swindle. If you want to call Morey the "best in the business," there is certainly a case to be made, but I don't think giving other teams' money for guys they were going to cut is really all that ingenious or special.

No one said genius swindle or fleecing or anything like that. Basically this is just another example of Morey being really, really good at his job (and I wish I could be as confident in BC).

[Laimbeer]

I knew we wouldn't stand pat this offseason.

[tmorgan]

Poor Darrun. This could easily be his second-to-last NBA transaction... the last being unceremoniously cut by the Clippers.

Savvy dude, got some offensive skills, but came into the NBA too old to be called "developmental" and just not enough of an athlete to stick. Might be time to investigate some European options, Mr. Hilliard. He kinda has an old school Euro game anyway.

[TurboTitan]

with our luck he'll turn out to be Khris Middelton 2.0

[HartfordWhalers]

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Apparently Hillard is worth 5.7 Liggins, or 10 Quarterman's, or 13.3 Kelly's. Also, he has been cut.