Looking ahead (Beware: Wall of text)

[pumpfakeforprez]

great post X. I found out some interesting news via Jonathon Feigen's twitter. He said both Dragic and Thabeet will be active tonight, though hasheem will likely not play. The reason from Adelman being: he said "Thabeet didn't play for Memphis, why should he play for us?" this backs up your reason about Thabeet not being resigned. Doubtful unless he proves himself. IMO, this guy is 9' taller than our starting Center. He should be getting some garbage minutes at least.

[Guy986]

Two years is a long time in the NBA. Too early to tell whether we'll extend Thabeet or not.

[Aaron Brooks]

I think the Rockets need to abolish their no-extensions stance, it seems like a lot of our players love playing here and we could use that as leverage to negotiate a reasonable contract extension, if they want more then you can just match offers in the offseason. Also gives players reassurance. But instead we had to trade AB & Shane because we're afraid some team might offer them outrageous contracts this summer, and also had to match some big offers to retain some of our guys.

[x-]

Two years is a long time in the NBA. Too early to tell whether we'll extend Thabeet or not.

Morey has to decide by THIS YEAR's October 31 whether or not to pick up Thabeet's option for the 2012/2013 season.
In Terrence Williams case I don't put too much stock into Adelman not playing him, knowing that Morey likes Williams and Adelman is likely to leave after the season anyway. But with Adelman not playing Thabeet and Thabeet having looked as poorly as he has, you'd basically commit $6.5mil to a player you have no idea what he's capable of and thereby take away $6.5 capspace to sign a marquee free agent in 2012.

[inquisitive]

X ,

Which site did you go to get that info?

[TMACFORMVP]

I believe at least the salaries came from shamsports.

Nice read x-, it'll be interesting to see what happens moving forward. We've got some nice pieces, and it's no secret that we're looking to consolidate. I wouldn't be surprised to see us try hard to move up in the draft.

[Kal El]

all i know is that in 2010, a lot of teams struck gold who played the 2010 free agency. for years new york was the laughing stock of the league playing for the 2010 free agency and the lebron sweepstakes. they ended up with amare and later on carmelo. miami hit the big 3. hell even new jersey eventually was able to get derron williams. chicago got boozer and is now on of the top teams in the league...

in 2012 off season, rockets has a chance to have a good amount of room (unless morey uses it up) plus a $13 expirer in martin. i do think that morey will opt to build the team around the younger guys. as you said x scola is in the 30's and martin will be there soon our 2 leading scorers that will be expendable. in 2012 i can see the rockets being big players in the 2012 free agency. hopefully we strike gold. in the mean time, the 2011/2012 season goal is to reach the playoffs.

[x-]

X ,

Which site did you go to get that info?

The salary list is from Shamsports.com and edited with good ol' MSPaint.

I've read parts of the actual CBA, but it's written in legalese, so unless you're bored and looking for new vocabulary, you might wanna stick with Larry Coon's CBA FAQ.

Regarding Thabeet's team option let me quote from the Larry Coon's FAQ (#42):

Teams have until the October 31 preceding the player's second season to exercise their option for the player's third season. Likewise, they have until the October 31 preceding the player's third season to exercise their option for the player's fourth season. If the team invokes both options (keeping the player for all four seasons) then the player becomes a restricted free agents following his fourth season (see question number 37 for more information on restricted free agency). If the team declines either option, then the player enters free agency as an unrestricted free agent.

I can't find the quote I'm looking for regarding Dragic's team option, but I'm 100% sure what I wrote is accurate.

For information on draft picks I use RealGM.
Regarding the Jimmer rumor, there isn't much substance to it, but it's very rare for GM's to talk bad about players of any kind so when I read this (starting at Jimmer mania) I'm inclined to believe that Morey really like the guy. Besides, Fredette seems like a typical Morey guy anyway.
For a list of free agents I go to ESPN.

Morey usually joins SR 610 every Thursday at 8:00am CT. If you don't live in Houston or are unable to tune in for other reason, you can go to SR610's podcast page.

[inquisitive]

Thanks. Did you know that Larry Coon has his chats on ESPN during the weekdays like around 1PM EST? I've chatted or asked him a couple of questions a few times....the guy knows every legal stuff about the NBA...really knowledgeable.

[moofs]

I think the Rockets need to abolish their no-extensions stance, it seems like a lot of our players love playing here and we could use that as leverage to negotiate a reasonable contract extension, if they want more then you can just match offers in the offseason. Also gives players reassurance. But instead we had to trade AB & Shane because we're afraid some team might offer them outrageous contracts this summer, and also had to match some big offers to retain some of our guys.

You would say that, neh?

The idea behind it is that when you sign a player to an extension, you're competing against yourself for pricing. i.e. if you want to pay Player X 2.5 million, and the Grizzlies would offer a player 3m, but you think the Grizzlies might offer 4.5, or the player's agent can convince you of such, then you have to offer better than 4.5 to retain the player's services. You have now paid player X 1.5 million more than market value by not waiting to see what offer is actually going to be on the table.

With Shane, to extend him, we'd likely have had to offer a contract bigger than what he's currently getting - making the contract based on past performance rather than expected future performance. Consider it a retainer fee. Neither the team, the team's finances, nor the teams future strategy currently seem to be aligned in a direction that doing so would make sense.

With AB, scoring is generally overvalued, and while this season may have helped bring his contract expectations back to Earth, he took it personally that it did so, and was, in effect, a jilted girlfriend. If we're in a rebuilding mode, why would we want to rebuild around a piece that's already shown both limited overall production as well as potentially lingering bad feelings?

To OP, very nice post. Good to know what's available.

Edit I think it might be kinda neat if players were offered contracts through an ebay-like system, replete with auto-bid (maximum amount).

[x-]

Yeah, I knew about the Larry Coon chat sessions. Never really looked into it, but the guy sure knows his stuff. Thanks.

AB brings up a good point regarding extensions.

While I don't necessarily agree that Morey handled the Brooks and Battier contract situations wrong, should Morey indeed plan to move Martin and keep Lee, it would seem like a smart move to extend Lee this summer.
Not only would an extension elimimate Lee's 2012 caphold, which would eat $6,675,279 into the Rockets capspace, but you'd be able to move Martin, when his value is still high.
By 2012 Martin will be in the last year of his contract, which significantly lowers his value and Martin being two years older sure won't raise his trade value either. You also wouldn't run the risk of Martin getting injured again and would have the opportunity to open up playing time for the young guys early on.
Depending on the return in a Martin trade, you also would be able to shed future salary, freeing up even more capspace for 2012.
That said, and I probably should have brought that up ealier, Dwight Howard and Chris Paul in all likelihood won't come here to play to play with Patterson, Budinger and Lee. So it's probably moving either Scola OR Martin, not both.

EDIT: Also, what moofs said minus the feelings stuff. ( )

[Optimism Prime]

I think the Rockets need to abolish their no-extensions stance, it seems like a lot of our players love playing here and we could use that as leverage to negotiate a reasonable contract extension, if they want more then you can just match offers in the offseason. Also gives players reassurance. But instead we had to trade AB & Shane because we're afraid some team might offer them outrageous contracts this summer, and also had to match some big offers to retain some of our guys.

You would say that, neh?

The idea behind it is that when you sign a player to an extension, you're competing against yourself for pricing. i.e. if you want to pay Player X 2.5 million, and the Grizzlies would offer a player 3m, but you think the Grizzlies might offer 4.5, or the player's agent can convince you of such, then you have to offer better than 4.5 to retain the player's services. You have now paid player X 1.5 million more than market value by not waiting to see what offer is actually going to be on the table.

With Shane, to extend him, we'd likely have had to offer a contract bigger than what he's currently getting - making the contract based on past performance rather than expected future performance. Consider it a retainer fee. Neither the team, the team's finances, nor the teams future strategy currently seem to be aligned in a direction that doing so would make sense.

With AB, scoring is generally overvalued, and while this season may have helped bring his contract expectations back to Earth, he took it personally that it did so, and was, in effect, a jilted girlfriend. If we're in a rebuilding mode, why would we want to rebuild around a piece that's already shown both limited overall production as well as potentially lingering bad feelings?

To OP, very nice post. Good to know what's available.

Edit I think it might be kinda neat if players were offered contracts through an ebay-like system, replete with auto-bid (maximum amount).

Every agent would leave a comment for Billy King. "Five stars; would do business with again. Product worth 2 million/year sold for 18 million over 3 years."

The fans, however, might have a different opinion.

[moofs]

EDIT: Also, what moofs said minus the feelings stuff. ( )

Yeah, maybe I'm in a mood or something. I'll go get a shot for it.

[x-]

Another thing that's pure speculation on my part I wanted to add, but somehow forgot:

About three weeks ago I was reading this piece by Jason Friedman, regarding the Rockets' international 'prospects'.
Regarding Brad Newley, Director of Global Scouting and International Affairs Arturas Karnisovas said: "I’ve followed him all this year".
So I was asking myself why in the world would he follow a guy, who has no shot of ever making it to the NBA? Turns out Newley plays on the same team as Jonas Valanciunas, who from what I'm reading is said to be the center with the most potential/biggest upside in this years draft.
Most likely it's the Rockets just doing their due diligence on the guy, but who knows, maybe they've already targeted him as one of the guys they like and would draft, depending on their draft position.

[Kal El]

^ well looking at random mock drafts, he's all over the board right now. iv seen him as high as 6 and as low as 18. we won't get a good feel for his draft position until weeks or days before the draft. he's a solid 6'11 7'0 and is only 18 years old.

[fugop]

I didn't see much about Patterson in this thread; how does he figure in your future plans? asks an intrigued Wizards fan.

[x-]

Patterson was sixth on the Rockets draft board in last years draft. Morey actually tried to trade up for quite some time, targeting Patterson, so when he fell to us at #14 the organization was stoked.

He's still a work in progress, but both the team, as well as most of us fans like him very much.

As you may have read there's a good chance of Scola not being in the Rockets longterm plans and I believe should we trade Scola, we'd either look to package him for a superstar (,which almost certainly is not going to happen) or trade him for draft picks and expirings and therewith make Patterson the PF of our future.

I don't really see a market for Scola out there as of right now, but I hope it's going to happen rather sooner than later. Patterson is awesome.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d6LaJzg1F8[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4zBTmHzy8I[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFn0q-GUZ5c[/youtube]

[MaxRider]

patterson is not good at defensive rebound
he's also having problem guarding his man
can't create his own offense

[fugop]

Aside from his versatility and professionalism, Patterson has a nice rapport with Wall, alone enough reason for interest.

I'd consider a deal around McGee for him, but in reality it will probable come down to where we end up in the lottery and whether Sullinger is available. We've got a few mediocre to decent prospects at PF already, in Booker and Seraphin, and would probably wait until late summer.

It pains me to have to root for Wall, as I went to Louisville; I have no such reservations about T. Williams, who I hope flourishes with you guys. He's a preternaturally gifted athlete, just undisciplined. Houston is a much better environment for him than Jersey, and I'm optimistic, if not confident, that he'll succeed.