TO WISH UPON A STAR
Morey is determined to come away from scramble of free agency with a third member for the team’s galaxy
Whether Daryl Morey was endeavoring to change the subject or give himself a high bar to clear, he did not lower expectations heading into free agency.
The Rockets are well over the salary cap, leaving them only the midlevel exception of roughly $5.7 million to offer. But Morey said the goal is to one way or another come away with a third star. Failing that, he said, he hoped to spend the midlevel money on a significant addition that would likely be coming down to the Rockets’ price.
Sharing the hope to land a third star could have been a way to spread the word the Rockets consider Chris Paul to be a second star. Morey strongly denied Paul asked to be traded and similarly refuted a notion the Rockets were looking to clear his enlarged salary from the books.
But the Rockets plan to begin free-agent shopping trying to pull off a coup similar to landing Paul two years earlier, this time with an expected pursuit of 76ers forward Jimmy Butler and in free agency, rather than in an opt-in trade as Paul engineered.
Butler, 29, could opt in to the final season of his contract, worth $19.84 million, to facilitate a trade to a team he would choose as a free agent. But the expectation is Butler will become a free agent and attract a larger contract.
The Sixers will be determined to keep him and will have Bird rights to offer the kind of contract that would be difficult for the Rockets to match. But Butler, like Paul in 2017, could want to play with James Harden. He and Harden are close, and Butler is expected to at least consider the franchise the Tomball native considers his hometown team.
Failing at the third-star plan, Morey has said he would want to use his midlevel exception to land a starting-caliber player, rather than spread it around to multiple players to fill out his diminished bench.
With that in mind, he would have to go into a free agency with a much larger pool of options, hoping someone who would likely expect more than midlevel will sign for what the Rockets have to offer.
Some of the developments leading to July could help with that, with so much of free agency about reacting to the chain reaction.
Harrison Barnes opting out of a contract to have been worth $25.1 million next season would not seem to impact the Rockets, unless he was giving up $25.1 million in the hopes of earning $5.7 million.
But every free agent who joins the class of 2019 at a higher price, with Khris Middleton as expected also joining the crowd of expensive free-agent wings, increases the chance that someone expecting more opts to play for the midlevel exception the Rockets and other contenders have to offer.
There is a long list of players who could fit that scenario, even if most will likely be priced out of the Rockets’ midlevel range.