Nene returning to Houston (Iko)

K_chile22 · Post #1 » by **K_chile22** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 12:30 am

It's a bit dead so I figured I'd make a thread for this tiny scrap of news

?s=19
Don't know the details yet. Assuming minimum but he did opt out of $3.4M.
Pretty surprised. Thought he was retiring and they did sign Tyson Chandler

Post #2 » by **pacers33granger** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 12:36 am

Yeah this one is a bit weird after the Chandler signing. Both are likely to miss chunks of time, but that still makes 3 guys taking up roster spots who can't play anything but center.

K_chile22 · Post #3 » by **K_chile22** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 12:46 am

pacers33granger wrote:Yeah this one is a bit weird after the Chandler signing. Both are likely to miss chunks of time, but that still makes 3 guys taking up roster spots who can't play anything but center.

4 including Hartenstein. I suppose it is possible this is some salary cap circumventing. He opts out on case rockets are hard capped and need the savings, rockets give him a minimum to recoup most of that while only costing the rockets the vet min amount, then cut him after camp to retire

Post #4 » by **pacers33granger** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 12:49 am

K_chile22 wrote:4 including Hartenstein.

Yeah I thought so, but wasn't sure if he could play some PF or not.

K_chile22 wrote:I suppose it is possible this is some salary cap circumventing. He opts out on case rockets are hard capped and need the savings, rockets give him a minimum to recoup most of that while only costing the rockets the vet min amount, then cut him after camp to retire

Would be a pretty generous move on his part. I'm assuming he opted out with the promise that he'd at least get the minimum later on, but could get more if they needed him in a sign and trade (but then again, you guys also have Shump still for that). I do faintly recall him saying somewhere he wanted to still play? I could be thinking of someone else though.

ThatBoyNick · Post #5 » by **ThatBoyNick** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 2:54 am

pacers33granger wrote:Yeah this one is a bit weird after the Chandler signing. Both are likely to miss chunks of time, but that still makes 3 guys taking up roster spots who can't play anything but center.

Seems okay to me. Rockets have plenty of roster spots to do so, the backup center position was one of our weak spots (I don't have confidence in Hartenstein). Now between Nene and Chandler, we can hopefully rely on at least one of them being healthy and ready to play every night.

Westbrook / Rivers
Harden / Gordon / McLemore
House / Green
Tucker / Clark
Capela / Chandler / Nene / Hartenstein

So even with Nene, we'd still have only 13 players with some form of guaranteed salary... and McLemore only has 50k guaranteed, he could easily be waived if we wanted to open up 3 additional spots.

Bennett and Fraizer are 100% non-guaranteed. Clemons, Ponds, McDowell-White are only on exhibition-10 deals, two will likely be signed to 2-way deals, with the odd man out likely being offered a deal by the G-League team (Vipers).

I'd look for the Rockets to re-sign Shumpert with one of our remaining two spots, and just leave the 15th spot open for a buyout, or perhaps just keep Bennett around.

Monky15 · Post #6 » by **Monky15** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 3:52 am

This reminded me of a thought I had the other day where they should let teams use 1 roster spot on 2 veterans but the 2 guys can't be on the court at the same time so teams don't have to shuffle vets through the IR list and ask for extra roster spots during injuries, waiving and re-singing etc.

That way there would be 1 roster spot for Nene, Chandler but they can't play at the same time. Maybe even make it so they can't play in the same game.

letsgorockets · Post #7 » by **letsgorockets** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 3:19 pm

It's not a terrible idea, he can split time with Chandler doing backup duty. Saves some wear and tear on both, but I'm hoping Hartenstein develops into the full time backup by seasons end. If not, might be time to cut bait on him.

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Post #8 » by **MoneyTalks41890** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 3:52 pm

I wonder if they sign him to a ballooned contract to make a move later in the year. He could sign a 1 year deal instead of the SnT 3 years last two gtd.

Sounds like a min deal would keep Houston under the tax, but I don't get the sense that they are done making moves anyway. Rockets fans? Avoiding the tax at this time important?

letsgorockets · Post #9 » by **letsgorockets** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 4:28 pm

MoneyTalks41890 wrote:I wonder if they sign him to a ballooned contract to make a move later in the year. He could sign a 1 year deal instead of the SnT 3 years last two gtd.

Sounds like a min deal would keep Houston under the tax, but I don't get the sense that they are done making moves anyway. Rockets fans? Avoiding the tax at this time important?

I say resign him, and Shumpert, to one year deals around 5-7 million as trade pieces to use later this season. As for the tax, I don't give a damn how much it costs some guy I don't know as I'm just a fan who wants to see his team win a title. I'm sure if you asked him he'd lie and say the tax doesn't matter, then instruct Morey to stay strictly under the tax even if it's to the detriment of the team.

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K_chile22 · Post #10 » by **K_chile22** » Wed Sep 4, 2019 10:36 pm

MoneyTalks41890 wrote:I wonder if they sign him to a ballooned contract to make a move later in the year. He could sign a 1 year deal instead of the SnT 3 years last two gtd.

Sounds like a min deal would keep Houston under the tax, but I don't get the sense that they are done making moves anyway. Rockets fans? Avoiding the tax at this time important?

As it looks right now they'll be in danger of going over depending on Clint's bonuses no matter what. They don't have any salary to shed. filling out with minimums + Clint's bonuses put them over. It's doubtful he hits them all tho

K_chile22 · Post #11 » by **K_chile22** » Wed Sep 11, 2019 7:29 pm

Very interesting. Looks like Nene will be a human TPE that can return about $12.5M but only count for $2.5 in actual money at the seasons end.

Read on Twitter

?s=19

Savvy move. If a trade doesn't come along they can keep Nene around for the minimum, or waive him past the guarantee deadline without worrying about it becoming $10M guaranteed

Edit: Thinking about it more, this is genius. Nene counts as a $10M salary all season no matter what, but at the end of the season, as long as he doesn't hit the incentives, he ends up being just $2.5M. So a team could trade for him as a $10M salary, not make him report so he doesn't hit anything, and he ends up actually being only a $2.5M salary coming out of the owners pocket (even less because most will have been paid by the rockets by the time Nene is trade eligible) and towards that teams final Tax/Cap calculation at the end of the season