Again though, why is lebron committing to them before the draft? During the season they flat out asked him to commit so they could use the 8th pick and he wouldn’t. That’s the point you are missing. The draft is coming up and there’s no reason to believe lebron will promise them anything.
We aren't talking about the 8th pick. We are talking about Kawhi (an MVP Candidate/Top 5 level player, DPOY). Lebron won't stay for an 8th pick, but he will opt-in for Kawhi, (if Houston fails to get a trade done). You might be the only person who would block that trade, other than possibly Pops.
Well, the reality is that PG is obviously going to LA and NOBODY knows what Lebron will do until he has already done it. Let’s be logical here. Also, don’t expect to go to a rockets forum and not see people being rockets centric, that’s the point of this site. If lakers fans are sitting there saying “we are signing Lebron, we are signing PG, we are trading for Kawhi, we are trading for lillard” then dammit I’m gonna say we are getting Lebron. Manage your expectations here bruh
No, the Rockets can’t get under the capcuz they have too many cap holds. We are operating over the cap and we need to trade for Lebron otherwise we will have to gut our team and he wont come.
Nope, we will be operating over the cap next season. The only money we have to spend is the tax payer MLE which is about $5 M per year and small vet minimum deals. After we re-sign CP3 and Capela to max or near max deals, Ryan Anderson will only be leaving to make outgoing salaries match for an incoming player via trade, ala LeBron. If not, at that point we may be better served just holding on to him for one more year because next offseason his contract actually becomes a major asset as an expiring $20+ M trade chip.
Great so they trade for kawhi and lebron leaves anyway and then kawhi leaves after the season. Great plan. Like I said, Cavs won’t trade be 8th pick without a commitment from lebron
Imo I think they are either trying to get a high pick to trade for kawhi or making plans in case they get word from LeBron's camp that he ain't going there.
http://www.espn.com/espnradio/play?id=23828390 Woj: Best guess today on where LeBron's going? I don't want to guess. This is the most complicated decision he's had. Maybe in the end he knew all along. I know LA makes a lot of sense to people from a perspective bigger than just basketball. Planting his flag out in Hollywood. There's not an obvious "If I sign and go here, we are set up to win championships or catch Golden State." Golden State has complicated everyone's thought process whether it's LeBron, Paul George, Houston or Oklahoma City. The financial commitment it's taking to compete with that Golden State roster, the luxury tax Houston will pay and Oklahoma City will pay if Paul George stays & Carmelo opts in. It's remarkable how much the Warriors have changed the league. The way they play but also as a business model. Golden State has some tough questions in terms of salary & how much luxury tax they want to pay, how deep into the tax they want to go, can they pay everyone? They have tough decisions starting next year. First Warrior to leave if you had to guess? It'll depend on who's willing to take a discount. Steph Curry took the full max. Klay Thompson & Draymond Green will have to take less if they want to stay. Klay seems open to it. Not saying Draymond isn't but you can't pay everyone. If they want max contracts, it'll be harder to keep it together. Durant has taken less on these one-year deals. We're still a year out from them having to make decisions. When I'm listening to his comments, I said "If he's coming back to Cleveland, It's a simple conversation." He's never squashed it. No question it's wide open. Last summer they could have acquired Paul George. George wanted to know if LeBron commits, I might be willing to commit. When he wasn't willing to commit, ...they could have had Paul George and kept Kyrie. When he wasn't ready to do it then, Cleveland was worried. They don't want to get left again where they don't get anything for him or they load up on bad contracts to convince him to stay. They did take on more money in the Lakers trade but got younger players. They have the 8th pick. I think they'll make that independent of LeBron. They won't get direction from LeBron. He's not going to give them direction. They'll pick the player that makes sense without him. They have to assume he's leaving. He could have settled this. He hasn't. It's obvious he's looking. They'll have to sweat it out.
We're not gonna trade up in the draft. And even if we do it is not going to be anything significantly higher (from 25 to lets say 21,22). What we will do though, if we don't manage to get anything aside from George, is take expiring contracts in return for next year draft picks or simply sign a quality veteran/role player/center on a one-year deal like we did with Lopez or KCP. Its Ball, George, Ingram, Randle, X - as next season starting five.
Pops not wanting to trade Kawhi to the Lakers is about the fact that the Lakers, at present, do not have what Pops wants. He doesn't want the hassle of the Ball circus and Ingram dining isn't going tusk be good enough. And the LaKers do not have a tho draft pick in this draft. Now if somehow the Lakers acquire a top pick in this draft and Doncic is on the board when that pick comes up...then Pops will trade Kawhi to the Lakers. Pops will trade Kawhi to whatever team will get him Doncic. The East/West thing makes no difference. He's simply looking for the right deal.
Not even Wojnarowski knows about LeBron's decision making. That definitely supports the idea that all the media coverage surrounding LeBron and the Lakers is speculative fluff. I don't doubt the strong possibility of LeBron ending up in LA, but if Woj can't even guess where LeBron goes, then Houston is certainly not out of this race.
Granted, NBA contracts are different ( and way more complicated) than other pro leagues. There has to be some way, some strategy that could redo, re structure, existing contracts and reproportion cap space to allow 3-4 willing superstars to play together. I cant imagine that if there was a way, Mr Morey ( or Mr's BimaThug, Aelliott, Cyberex, heypartner, even a return of popeye, somebody??) wouldn't have figured it out by now. Venting about the obvious for sure, but keeping up with this whole contract / cap thing greatly exceeded the time I had available to understand it a long time ago. Cudos to all of you that have kept up over the years and do understand, plus take the time to sort out and post ideas for the rest of us that don't.
