[ClutchFans] Kevin Durant to Houston? Don't Hold Your Breath

P.G. - Harden (6-5)
S.G. - Parsons (6-9)
S.F. - Durant (6-10)
P.F. - Howard (6-9)
..C. - Asik (7-0)

This Starting 5 + RGV scrubs still = Championship!!

 

Harden and Howard aren't on board with winning championships?

 

If that's "possible", I'd trade the whole team with the exception of Howard and Harden just to get KD. It's an instant ticket to the finals. The other positions would just be fillers. Just look at the Heat when they almost discarded everybody except DWade just to get LBJ and CB. It's the same thing.

 

That will put the Rockets in super over the salary cap much more than the Knicks and Lakers at their highest. I expect for tickets prices to raise at least 3x.

 

What happened to old Les being willing to go over the cap for the right player? Why isn't Durant the right player?

Oh, I guess it is just a maximizing the profit type business?

 

basically we are back to the Yao-Tmac era salary-wise.

 

That would be very sick. That would be the best lineup I ever seen in Rockets history. Would be 82-0, LOL.

 

Of course it's possible, in fact, it is likely IF the three of them want it. This thing gets hammered out during the moratorium. DH opts out, the three amigos agree to split the cap about equally, a la Bosh-LBJ-Wade, then Morey dumps Parsons and every other contract before the signing of DH and KD, a la TRob/RoyceWhite. So you end up with DH-KD-JH-room-exception-FA and 8 min players.

Players who willing to take a slight paycut are pretty much fully in charge of their destiny.

 

unfortunately you can't turn salary cap off. Parsons and Asik are getting +10M per year and they expire before Durant so you can't use bird rights to go over the cap.

 

Howard has an opt out clause in 2016. He will opt out that season for anything short of a catastrophic injury. And then sign a long term contract with the Rockets.

Yes, if the Rockets want to have any semblance of a team surrrounding Harden/Dwight/Durant core, Howard and Durant both must take some paycut. But it doesn't have to be a huge amount. Maybe $2mil/yr from both players. Dwight especially will likely take a paycut anyway because he should be in the decline by then. And the Rockets will give him extra years and extra benefits in exchange for a lower annual salary.

The cap is scheduled to go up to $64mil next year. And assuming a minor increase for each of the next two years, I fail to see why it wouldn't work.

 

Oh, no question about it, Howard WILL take less than Max. What are his options, really? If ROX would offer him a 4yr deal starting with 105% of his salary with 5% increases, that still beats any other offer he can get. Compare this to a 5yr deal starting @80% of his salary, with 7.5% increases, and opportunity to play with Durant. Given that this deal will make him way overpaid in yr 5 when he'll be 36yo, I think you take the second "pill".

KD will have to appear likely to take less. if he does, OKC will have to fold and do a S&T for Parsons+ . People seem to forget that even Dan Gilbert agreed to do S&T for LBJ, despite throwing a fit. So if the Rockets have moveable assets (Parsons, TJ, DMo, 2014 MLE free agent, some 2015 FA signed such as Lin or others) then a S&T is quite likely...

 

What if the Rockets win the championship before KD becomes available? Would this then become a moot point? We're probably more likely a decent PF away from winning it all.

 

Loyalty comes in AFTER thery won championships with their team. Will KD be able to win one in OKC?

When they reach a certain age and they still don't have one, they want to chase a contender.

Legacy trumps loyalty. They've seen how the public had embraced Lebron after he became a champion.

 

Sir, loyalty is a two-way street! Have the Spurs ever let down Tim by not doing what is needed to keep the players he wants to play with and chase championships? James Harden was instrumental in getting OKC to the Finals, good teammate to KD and Russ, sacrificing his game. If their sleazebag owner had been loyal to him and paid the market rate everything would have been great in OKC.

The moment they traded James, KD was like, "Oh, OK, that's how this is played, OK, I'll keep that in mind."

 

This is a team that has had a COMPLETE overhaul of it's roster in two years so I would not being saying anything is certain for the next two years... Alot could happen that could make this happen.

But hopefully our team as is can win the Title and we can stick with these guys.

 

Bima...cap-wise we know this would be difficult to accomplish. With that said, I asked myself why would Rose say this? I'm pretty sure he knows the cap situation as well.

There are only 2 possibilities: A. he's simply a ratings-w**** or B. does he know something that we don't? Maybe he has heard through the grapevine that all three guys would be willing to take less money to play together?