Again, any trade for Melo, Love, or Rondo, most likely, we lose Parsons, Lin, Asik and possibly one of Jones or Motiejunas.. Acquiring Melo: PG - Beverley SG - Harden SF - Anthony PF - Jones or Motiejunas C - Howard Acquiring Love: PG - Beverley SG - Harden SF - ? PF - Love C - Howard Acquiring Rondo: PG - Rondo SG - Harden SF - ? PF - Jones or Motiejunas C - Howard
Gawd for the millionth time we would not lose Parsons!!!! He makes less than a million bucks and would not need to be included to make the salaries work! Either sign and trade or just dump Asik and Lin and maybe one or more of Casspi, Cisco, and DMo. And anyone who doesn't want Melo is just an idiot. You recall LMA carving us up with mid range shots? Well imagine a superior player who shoots 40% from 3! You guys obsessed with Kevin Love sorry he's not likely available and will run off to LA first chance he gets. Not to mention Melo is a better shooter and only slightly worse rebounder. No Morey please don't add an elite stretch 4/ best shooting forward in the NBA at the expense of a luxury discontented backup center and backup point guard. And keep Parsons and Jones too?! Damn that Morey! What a stupid move.....
For salary purposes and the possibility of ancillary players added to a trade, I'd much prefer Love. Love is going to make $15.7 million next season. And if we move out Asik in a trade for either Love or Melo then we are woefully lacking defensively behind Dwight. We will still need a third primary big man behind our first 2 bigs. Asik/Lin/DMo/Jones/Casspi/Powell is a lot of salary that can be used to get a second premier defensive big behind Dwight. I'm looking at Larry Sanders and Milwaukee right now. Wondering if they want to give up that albatross contract that he signed less than a year ago now and he just pissed away last season. Milwaukee may be the perfect dumping ground for Lin. Something like Lin to Milwaukee, Asik/Jones/DMo/picks to Minnesota - with Love and Sanders coming to town. Now....the above is just an example. I'm not for sure I'd actually want Sanders because he's another lunkhead. But if he actually came to play...you've got your 48 minutes of paint defense hell for your opponent. And the point is...with Melo set to make $20+ million on a new deal it becomes more difficult to synergize a trade of him with a trade of other players that we are going to need once we purge Asik and Lin.
If you were a star free agent looking for the best possible chance to win now, why would you leave the Eastern Conference?
Melo is a free agent no trade needed. There are several teams who would take Lin or Asik for nothing. Sixers, raptors if they lose Lowry, bucks, jazz, Charlotte etc. The only way Parsons gets traded is for Love.
Because the East sucks. All the talent is in the West. You either join up with that talent or get crushed by it. Who would Melo join up with in the East? Chicago with cap albatross and injury prone rose? Maybe the Heat if you let Bosh go. Pacers are capped out. Wizards? C'mon.....
Rondo was able to play with Pierce and Garnett. So there is that. Anthony just wants to win at this point. I think he can find balance with someone like Howard. NOt sure he will see Chicago as a team one piece away from being a contender. Houston is closer to that. Anyone who doesn't think he fits is crazy. Having another guy who can score in crunch time from the perimeter is huge. Right now it's basically just Harden. Love would be the best fit in my opinion. With Love you can get away with a Lin/Bev backcourt. With Rondo you still have the issue of having a PF who can spread the floor for Dwight. Plus Rondo isn't a great outside shooter. With Rondo you would need to find a Dunlevy or the like as well.
Melo is one of the best players in the league. You HAVE to account for him. With him, Harden and Howard, you would have a player at each position that could light you up if not defended. That would benefit Howard in particular since it seems he has the most difficulty when he gets doubled near the rim.
I know its a long-shot but...... Bosh is really the perfect fit for this team especially after seeing how tough the PF's are in the West, and seeing how horrible Love is at playing defense. Plus, do we really need a guy who is a DH on defense that can score, or do we need a guy that has the ability to score 30 points on any given night but can do so much more like: -play the 5 to backup Dwight if you stagger their minutes -Can space the floor and shoot 3's -very underrated defender -have the length to guard larger PF's & most centers -Good passer -excellent teammate -proven winner ................... Now to the Finances: If Bosh wants to be maxed out with a long term contract this Summer(I would think he does) I think the Rocket should pursue Bosh, and try to work out a deal to send Asik, Lin, and some assets to the Heat in a S&T. That gives the Heat ample flexibility to still be very good next year around Lebron as their centerpiece moving forward. Free agents will still come there the next year to play with Lebron. They are still going to dominate the East, and could possibly be even better with more balance on their team. The big 3 model financially moving forward doesn't look like its going to work for the Heat moving forward unless the big 3 continue to take much, much less (and Bosh's earnings really get hit the most vs. his market value & doesn't have the long term security & endorsements that Lebron has). But the Rockets have an interesting situation where Harden isn't on a true veteran max deal since he was extended so early in his career, so they have a couple years to splurge a little bit before his annual raises get him to that veteran max level (18+ mil a year when Harden is ONLY making 14.7 mil next year. That's almost 6 million less than D. Wade is making). -Bringing in Bosh would most likely mean that the Rockets are stuck between a rock and a hard place with Parsons the following year where they would only be willing to give him a contract that puts them right at or under the luxury tax line. Unless he is willing to sign for mid-level type of money, they aren't going to be able to afford keeping him without going into the lux tax. However... .even if they did go a million or two over the lux tax, Les will still have the option of paying a few million to keep this roster in tact WITH Parsons. If my calculations are correct the Rockets (if they signed Bosh & traded Lin & Asik) would be at 64 to 65 mil with 10 players signed. Add in another 5 players on either vet min salary or the "Morey special" non-guaranteed rookie deal and the Rockets are looking at adding another 5 to 7 mil to that number putting the Rockets under the luxury tax if they keep Parsons next year on his final year of his rookie deal. So all this being said.... I think if Morey can bring in a max player, and just pick up the final year of Parson's deal he's going to do it, and see how much the Luxury tax increases the final year to see how much they could afford, in theory, to give Parsons (Right now looks like they could afford about 7 million a year in 2015/16 since they would theoretically be at around 70 million in payroll when the luxury tax is set to be right around 77 million next year). Anything more than that, and Les is paying the luxury tax. IMO, I think Morey, if he has the option, takes the max player now, picks up Parsons' option, and deals with Parsons' free agency the following year, and lets the cards fall where they may.
Nice to know you can read Melo's mind and know exactly what he wants, even if he said different things in interviews...
No way the Rox is going to trade Parsons. This team doesn't have anybody that play defense on the perimeter while contribute solidly for the team. Garcia is not fast and it's old. The team's weakness is PF.
It's going to take a Sign and Trade to get Melo here. With Chicago losing in the 1st round like us, we have competition for Melo's services. I think a package of Asik, Lin, Parsons, Montijuenas, 2 1st Round picks for Melo will get it done. This will leave us with the following... C-Dwight PF-TJones SF-Melo SG-Harden PG-Beverley Bench-Daniels, Canaan, Powell, Caspi, Covington Actually, I would try to have Knicks include Jeremy Tyler in the deal. That would help our bench.
Kevin Love won't be a free agent for a year, and the Twolves might find a trade for him before then that we wouldn't be able to match. Phoenix, for example, is loaded for bear with cap space and tradeable picks/players. So..........our only play for KLove is to ride out another year, NOT re-sign Chandler P. until AFTER Lin and Asik come off the books AND we sign Love.... Lots of things on that list, and I don't know if another year of mediocrity (in terms of achievement with this level of talent; see also McHale, Kevin) with Dwight approaching 30 is our best bet.
Hopefully the Rockets can avoid ever having Carmello even consider being a part of their team. I certainly hope he goes anywhere besides the Rockets.
Not completely true. He's well above average from the 3 point line, which makes him a good pick and roll ball handler.
