http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/po...on-what-lakers-will-do-with-dwight?src=mobile When word began to circulate Saturday that the Clippers have weighed offering Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe to their Staples Center co-tenants for Dwight Howard in a potential sign-and-trade swap after July 1, that naturally made folks wonder where the Lakers stand in their quest to re-sign Howard when he becomes an unrestricted free agent. Here's the latest: • The Lakers have had several discussions with Howard's representatives over the past few weeks and remain confident that they will ultimately keep him with the franchise, even as he's made it clear he will entertain other suitors. • Yet the Lakers also, according to sources, have not completely ruled out the idea of a sign-and-trade if they come to find next month that Howard is determined to leave. Sources say they are indeed leaning against sign-and-trade scenarios because they'd rather bank the resultant cap space from Howard's departure for the summer of 2014. But sources say they've adopted a keep-all-options-open approach. So they'll at least listen to just about anything. • One source with knowledge of the Lakers' thinking said Saturday that any suggestion they could not philosophically allow themselves to make a major trade with the Clippers was "overblown." If the Clippers do indeed decide to formally offer Griffin and Bledsoe in a sign-and-trade package for Howard, indications are that it's a proposal the Lakers will certainly not dismiss outright. • The threat of the James Harden-led Rockets signing Howard away from L.A. is very real to the Lakers, sources said, which means the Lakers will eventually be getting a sign-and-trade pitch from Houston as well. The Rockets will have the cap space to sign Howard outright after the expected shedding of Thomas Robinson's contract, but sources say that the Rockets will certainly attempt to convince the Lakers to take in return Omer Asik and Jeremy Lin in a sign-and-trade deal for Howard, thus theoretically keeping alive the possibility that Houston could preserve its cap space to pursue Chris Paul and possibly pair Howard with Paul. • Asik is a quality defensive anchor at roughly half Howard's price. And Lin had the greatest success of his career under Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni. But sources maintain that the Lakers' main priority this offseason -- besides re-signing Howard -- is getting their financial house in order. Which is why the overriding expectation persists that L.A. will rebuff sign-and-trade proposals to simply bank the cap space for the summer of 2014 if Howard bolts. • Should Howard decide to leave the Lakers, sources said, several options have been discussed internally in Lakerland. Among them: The Lakers could simply let him walk, go into the season with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Steve Nash as their centerpieces -- as they had planned in July 2012 before the trade for Howard materialized -- and focus on slicing into their luxury-tax bill.
Thanks for putting this in a new thread. I think very few people actually read hundreds of pages worth of other threads to catch every article posted there. In 2014, the Lakers have only Steve Nash on the books. They need 12 other players. Most critically, Kobe Bryant would have to be re-signed. If Kobe re-signs without a raise, then the Lakers would have about $20m to spend on FA's and absolutely no hope of increasing that amount. If they renounce everyone else and you count cap holds for empty roster spots, I believe that cap space reduces to about $14m - again with no chance to increase that amount. To think that in the summer of 2014 - when Kobe is 36 and Nash is 40 - the Lakers can offer a competitive team to an FA who will accept $14m (at least $4m short of the max) is not realistic. This whole plan is doomed from the get go simply because Kobe looks to make $30m and Nash ~ $10m and there are at least 11 other roster spots to fill. That's already roughly $40m out of a salary cap limit of ~ $60m. Having said that, I don't underestimate the ego of the Lakers organization. I feel they will actually pursue this idiotic goal. In reality, I think they would be brilliant to take Asik, Lin and Robinson for Nash and Howard. Robinson is essentially a first round pick with 1 guaranteed year contract. Asik will always be worth his contract. Lin could be an excellent fit, marketing wise and basketball wise, in Cali (I think that's his home state?). I also think they would be smarter to take Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe if it were offered. I don't think it would be accepted though, and I'm not sure it's being offered. The Clippers would have to unload DeAndre Jordan then - which is a more difficult task than the Rockets losing Lin/Asik/Robinson. I think ultimately, if we can convince ANYONE in the league to take Lin and picks for nothing in exchange, then we can find the space to acquire Howard and Paul. If Howard commits and we find a taker for Lin, no one else will have a chance. We can offer a team full of young, talented role players AFTER acquiring Howard and maybe Paul. No one else can say that. If Howard stays in LA, then his salary + Kobe + Nash = $60m = $10m OVER the cap = no more significant help coming in 2014 - I hope Howard sees that.
So much flaw. Kobe is NOT GOING TO MAKE ANYWHERE NEAR THE 30 MILLION HE IS NOW IN 2014. I don't even know why you would even think that. With a resigned Dwight, the Lakers will have enough cap to sign a max free agent. I thought this was common sense? Without Dwight they will have MASSIVE cap space.
Never thought the Clippers would consider trading Griffin but now it looks like its CP3 and Dwight to Houston or LA or nothing at all. Crazy turn of events. Houston is a better situation for those two but I imagine CP3 is stubborn about not leaving LA and Dwight will be easily convinced. We'll see what happens in a couple weeks, but I'm not as confident as before.
I would still hesitate to give up Griffin for Howard. Howard is better right now but Griffin still has some untapped potential.
Without getting into the rest of your post, um, Kobe re-signing at 36 to anywhere near his current salary?? Are you being serious? That is not happening hahahaha. More likely around $15M per yr for 2 yrs, option on 3rd. If Kobe REALLY wants to win, he might even take a steeper paycut, though I think his pride would not allow that. lol $30M for 36 yr old Kobe on a new K, smh.
How is that false? You have a star pf and a young very athletic PG over an average pg and a good center.
Me too. I don't have the time to read hundreds of comments just to get to the most recent page. Real life interferes so having the chance to get the interesting bits on their own threads is huge. Lumping all information in one subject into one huge unreadable thread while we allow starting other individual garbage threads bashing our own players for a multitude of reasons has never made sense to me.
You think this because he has been steadily declining every year since he started playing in the nba?
why does it seem like every team in the league helps the lakers get what they want. whether it's a three team deal or S&T. They dont wanna help anyone. Thats the way it should be.
Right now, a player cannot be signed and traded to the Lakers. But a player (Dwight) can be signed by the Lakers and traded somewhere else.
You're missing something. Under the current cba, a team over the apron ($4M above the luxury tax line) cannot receive the SIGNED AND TRADED player back in a SnT, but they can give that player out AND accept back other players (assuming other trade stipulations met, i.e. 125-150% contract matching). So LAL can send out Dwight and take back players, but hypothetically, they could not have sent players out and received Dwight back from Houston (assuming Dwight was w/ us this yr) if it would take them over the apron.
I feel like I'm missing something. This isn't a Lakers decision. This is a Howard decision. If he wants to play for the Rockets (obviously unclear), then they can either let him walk or do a S&T with us. We aren't competing with the Clippers in terms of assets the Lakers want, so who cares if Blake/Bledsoe >> Asik/Lin?
