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The Houston Rockets waived forward Ryan Anderson on Monday. He only appeared in two games and did not play after Nov. 3.
Anderson was only guaranteed $500,000 after making the team’s opening night roster. The Rockets could have kept Anderson for four more days before his salary would’ve exceeded his guarantee, but they decided to part ways with him now.
The Rockets are now carrying 14 players on the roster. If they finish the season with the exact same roster, they would be $178,984 above the luxury tax for a tax payment of $268,476.
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The Rockets can get below the tax by trading some of their minimum-salaried players by the deadline and then signing new players on pro-rated deals. This was a practice they engaged in last season in order to completely avoid the luxury tax.
Nene, who was signed in order to be used as trade fodder, is widely expected to be traded once trade-eligible on January 15, 2020.
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One factor that can complicate the Rockets pursuit of avoiding the luxury tax is if Clint Capela earns some or all of his incentives. He has three incentives that can boost his salary by up to $2 million. Right now, he is on a rebounding tear and is on pace to have at least a 30 percent defensive rebounding percentage (currently at 33 percent per Basketball-Reference), which would give him an extra $500,000. He also must play at least 2,000 minutes to meet the criteria.
No next move is imminent, but the Rockets are counting down toward when they will need the roster spot for Chris Clemons, who is on a two-way contract for now. https://t.co/Cqhk9EImBH
— Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) November 18, 2019
Two-way player Chris Clemons, who is in the rotation after playing in eight of the team’s last nine games, is a candidate for the 15th roster spot. The Rockets could run out his two-way clock and then convert him onto the regular roster with a prorated minimum salary.
The Rockets could trade both Nene and Gerald Green and have about $4 million in space below the tax. That should be plenty to work with for converting Clemons onto the regular-season roster, filling minimum roster requirements with 10-day contracts, and ultimately signing free agents to rest-of-season contracts while leaving some room for Capela’s potential incentives.
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