Dumping Anderson and Gordon and taking back Melo doesn't get us under the cap, nor does it provide us with a tradeable asset, and it makes us a worse team. What exactly is the positive for us in this trade. We can just stretch Anderson and trade Gordon for actual helpful players if we want to go that route.
I would rather give up 2 1st round picks than use Ego to dump Ryno and add Melo to this roster...that would be a horrible decision there’s a reason why Morey didn’t want to add Ego, Ariza, or Clint in a trade for Melo this past summer, and that’s before we had all this overwhelming evidence that he provided this season to show that he is officially washed...u want to make the team worse and give up 1 of our best available assets in a trade all for Melo... if there’s a trade going down for a star this summer, best believe that it would include Ego in some form or fashion
Luxury Tax threshold is maybe ~$115M next year. Without Capela and Paul, we're at $80M. Assuming Tillman's not going to go too crazy over that, it's leaves $40MM - $45MM for CP3 and Capela and letting Trevor go. If CP3 and Capela both get their max $30MM and $25MM, then we'd need to shed an additional $10 to 15MM regardless before even talking about Trevor's new contract. Stretching according to the rules would be mean $40MM over 5 years, would which would help (assuming we let Ariza walk as well, or he signs for <$4MM). I will concede this a a reasonable alternative depending on Tillman's willingness to pay. What's really gonna hurt our cap situation is the $7MM raise Harden gets the following year (2019-20 season) as most people don't think the cap is going up unless NBA gets the 1% gambling fee they've asked for. At that point we might even be spending first round picks to dump just ok contracts to have some flexibility (think Jeremy Lin). Paul and Capela will also get their scheduled raises. Plus we will keep the first round pick in this case (and have to pay the guaranteed). Owners talks about paying the tax until they actually have to, and a little pain next season goes a long way to ensure financial viability long term. EG stock is the highest possible after that game, to me it's just the right time to capitalize. Or you can just post in a forum that you're on. That's fair, I value 2 future first (especially the 2021 first since there's so much unknown there) more than EG at this point in his career.
