Corner Three DeMar DeRozan may not be headed south after all. Cole Burston/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press You ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at sportsnyt@gmail.com. (Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, to enhance the chances your question is chosen.) Q: What is the maximum contract that Clint Capela can be offered by another team and how likely is it that the Rockets match? — Jameson Clay STEIN: Too much has been happening in free agency for this to have received a lot of attention outside of Houston. But Capela tweeted a sad-face emoji on Sunday night, which would suggest that the early stages of his negotiations aren't going great. Yet that's the way it often unfolds in the world of restricted free agency. Especially in an off-season like the one we're witnessing, in which teams are being very judicious in their spending. You typically have to overpay in restricted free agency to persuade the incumbent team not to match. In this climate, though, no one is overpaying anyone. The most that an external suitor can present to Capela, according to the indefatigable @AlbertNahmad, is a four-year offer sheet worth $110 million. The Rockets are the only team that can offer a five-year deal, which at its maximum would be valued at $148 million. Houston, however, is facing serious luxury-tax concerns because of the huge contracts possessed by James Harden and now Chris Paul. The Rockets understandably haven’t made a can’t-refuse offer to Capela yet because of those tax worries, but there is also no indication thus far that a team out there is on the brink of luring him out of Houston. The Mavericks and the Lakers, two teams widely expected to explore their Capela options, went in different directions. The Hawks can still create up to $24 million in salary-cap space. The Bulls can get to the same ballpark. Yet neither of those teams are expected to bid for Capela. Nor would they probably interest him. It’s early, though. Restricted free agency cases rarely get resolved as quickly as Aaron Gordon’s was in Orlando ($84 million over four years). It’s probably too soon for such loaded, panic-inducing emojis. But if Capela, even with more time, can’t find a team that gives him an offer sheet that forces Houston’s hand, he does still have one last option: He can threaten to accept Houston’s $4.7 million qualifying offer for next season, which would make him an unrestricted free agent in July 2019 in a much more favorable marketplace. The Rockets naturally want to avoid that outcome, so it’s way too soon to declare any kind of stalemate. Q: Who is more likely to be traded: Kyle Lowry or DeMar DeRozan? — Mike Davies (Cambridge, Ontario) STEIN: I reported before the recent N.B.A. draft that the Raptors' roster featured no untouchables, amid a growing buzz that Toronto was trying to trade its way into the top 10. Now? After LeBron James announced that he's leaving the Eastern Conference after eight straight trips to the N.B.A. finals? I'm inclined to believe that both of Toronto's cornerstone guards will start the season right where we last saw them. If you support the notion that Toronto's reputation for underperforming in the playoffs was simply a LeBron problem — as some do in one of our favorite cities on the N.B.A. map — it makes sense that management would want to give new coach Nick Nurse as much of last season's 59-win team to work with. The East, as you've surely heard louder than ever in recent days, is not to be confused with the West. Boston and Philadelphia are undoubtedly powers on the rise, but Toronto is surely curious to see how much its chances of winning the conference have improved thanks to James's decision to relocate to Los Angeles. The Raptors, after all, were enjoying the most successful season in franchise history until LeBron's Cleveland Cavaliers broomed them out of the second round in four straight games. A case can certainly be made that the Raptors should give this mix one more chance to try to conquer a LeBron-less East. Q: You recently did a piece on salaries going up in the G League, but who pays them — the league itself or the individual teams? — A.P. Brantley STEIN: Every player in the N.B.A.’s official development league who holds a G League contract is paid by the G League itself, which is owned and operated by the N.B.A. As our story in April explained, those contracts will be hiked to $35,000 for a five-month season in 2018-19, with players also receiving free housing, insurance and other benefits. But players who spend time in the G League on two-way deals and on assignment from their N.B.A. teams earn the salaries stipulated in their N.B.A. contracts. None of the G League’s 27 teams pay player salaries.