Rice shipped to Jazz; shooter Jackson signs

After a relatively quiet offseason, the Rockets started training camp Tuesday with the attention-grabbing clap of a pair of major roster moves.

The Rockets sent veteran forward Glen Rice and two draft picks -- next season's first-round pick and a pick acquired from Chicago -- to Utah to pick up center John Amaechi and a chunk of spending money. They then immediately used the extra cash to sign free-agent shooter-for-hire Jim Jackson to a three-year contract worth, according to sources familiar with the deal, $7.3 million.

Rockets general manager Carroll Dawson said the deals were made to free the Rockets from the luxury tax hit they expected without hurting themselves and even potentially strengthening the roster at small forward.

"It's just so much easier to live under the cap," Dawson said. "If you can't do that, you try to live under the luxury tax (because of) the restrictions. This enabled us to get under the luxury tax and enabled us to get Jim Jackson."

The Rockets sent Rice, in the final season of a contract that uses $9.6 million of cap space, to Utah along with the draft choice next season for Amaechi and a second-round pick. The trade moved them from $59.5 million in guaranteed contracts to $53 million, $2 million less than the figure expected to trigger the luxury tax.

Having moved from that threat, they were free to sign Jackson, who had long been considered the top free agent still on the market.

The trade with the Jazz also gave the Rockets a $7 million trade exception, the difference between Rice's and Amaechi's contracts, potentially allowing them to trade for a player that makes as much as $7 million more than a player dealt in any trade in the next 12 months.

Though such a deal would return the Rockets to a luxury tax hit, the trade exception is considered valuable for future trades and is especially useful when acquired after the summer free-agency period because it could potentially be used in a sign-and-trade free-agent deal next summer.

"It loosens us up so if something else comes up, we're able to look at it," Dawson said. "A lot of people were in our situation as far as the luxury tax goes. Right now, we're out of it, so that's a big relief. We're one of the people that can do some things if the right thing comes up."

The Jazz are expected to approach Rice about a buyout of his contract. Rice would not discuss the deal or his plans.

"We're going to sit down with him and his agent and go from there," Jazz vice president Kevin O'Connor said.

Via Houston Chronicle

Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz, Sacramento Kings

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets

---

Rockets' catch phrase for new season: No excuses

The words crept into conversations with consistency the Rockets rarely showed on the court.

"No excuses."

Rockets players hit upon the sentiment regularly, knowing that the reasons for their failures or frustrations the past four seasons have followed them like tag-along little brothers.

Though they might have been valid at times, the excuses have proved unsatisfying and irrelevant. And as the Rockets move to this week's start of training camp -- players with three or fewer years of experience report today, and the rest of the team checks in Thursday -- they consistently come back to the same general theme.

"No excuses."

"We're beyond that," guard Moochie Norris said. "That should have happened my first two years. Last season, we should have made it (to the playoffs). We had the team. We should have done it. It was bad enough not going the year before when guys were injured and everything. But to come back and go like that, to be right there at the door, was kind of tough. So we have no excuses."

Via Houston Chronicle

Houston Rockets

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets

---

Coach assesses hand Rockets have dealt

For at least four seasons, most of the Rockets have been in Houston without Jeff Van Gundy. But when they get together this week for the start of his first training camp, Van Gundy will have studied every detail available on all things Rockets.

With only a hint of prompting, Van Gundy can cite everything from the Rockets' records in close games the past few seasons to their medical histories. For slightly more esoteric data -- the success or failure of alley-oops, for example -- he must grab one of the many reports within reach and flip through a few pages, a process that can take five, sometimes 10 seconds.

It turns out that when Van Gundy said he would study tape of every play of every Rockets game last season, that was merely a part of his postseason routine and a warmup for advanced studies to come.

After three months of studying the team, Van Gundy sat down to talk basketball.

Via Houston Chronicle

Houston Rockets

Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets

---