Has Morey found a taker(s) for Jeremy Lin? (Speculation on possible deals)

Philly ideally wouldn't want Lin. However you have to remember these factors:


1. the 90% salary cap rule. Philly has to pay it's players 90% of the salary cap. If the cap is the projected $63.2 million, they've got to dole out at least $56.8 million. Right now they are sitting at $25 million. If they add #3 and #10 to that they're up to a whopping $31.6 million. They still need GAZUNTA, right around $25 million to meet the MINIMUM required salary outlay.

So....Philly COULD take on Asik and Lin....if the asset pile was big enough to make it worth their while. And it wouldn't really cost them that much since they GOTTA SPEND THE MONEY ANYWAY.

2. The assets Philly gets for taking on Lin MIGHT allow them to make a trade up to get their second lottery pick.

3. Lin will turn into a small asset at the trade deadline to a playoff team. He will probably be able to be moved out to a team like Golden State or perhaps Denver or some other playoff team for another future first rounder or at the very least a high second-rounder or two.




Now as to your second point about Hinkie wanting Asik and not Lin...yeah, I'm sure that's the case. And you are right. If that's what Hinkie wants...he needs to be prepared to dole us back a draft pick. This is why I think #10 for Asik and another asset is doable if Philly cannot get something else done to get the #4 or #5 pick.

And yes, that would leave us with Lin and the #10 pick. But Lin, #10, #25 could possibly be synergized into a trade for Love or Melo IF it was done simultaneously to the Asik trade.

 

1. Teams like Sacramento are not players in free agency. They have no cap room. So trading Lin to Sacramento for an ending contract of less money is a distinct possibility of Sacramento wants to spend money and compete for the playoffs (which they do).


2. Teams like Philly have more cap room than they know what to do with and they've got to use 90% of it. Philly and Utah are teams that are using their cap room to acquire assets; basically buying draft picks and young players with it since they have no hope for signing free agents outright.



Oh....Utah........there's another team that could take a flyer on Lin for #25 and DMo or Jones. Basically buying 2 young players with $15 million and having Lin sitting on the books to flip at the deadline for another pick. And they've got to spend the money anyways.


Utah would also be a nice drop off point for Derrick Williams as well, since they are looking to stretch the floor around Favors. Or....Utah may want to consume both Asik and Williams since they are looking for a significant defensive upgrade. This would allow Favors to move to the 4 and Utah could trade Kanter for something else of value (future pick or young player).

 

It sends the message to the league and players like Melo, Lebron, Bosh, etc. that Morey has a deal or deals in place to move out Lin and Asik and sign a max free agent.

There is NO WAY that Morey goes into the off season with Parsons restricted and having to pay Parsons this year without having a concrete deal or deals in place to acquire a 3rd superstar.

That's why it's a distinct message to everybody to get to the table. It might get Phil Jackson to move on a Melo trade. And it might get Flip to move on a Love deal. That's why Morey leaked it. He's either got deals in place to clear cap and chase a max free agent or he's faking he's got deals in place. The objective is to get teams to the table to possibly consumate a trade before July 1 or at least to get a trade agreed to to be consumated after July 1. Nobody besides Morey (and possibly a few cronies) knows whether he has deals in place or not to move out enough salary to open up max cap room. But it's a clear signal that he wants teams and max players to believe he's creating max room so the players will indicate they want to come here and so that GMs will come to the table and he can get a deal done or at least agreed to prior to July 1.

 

He's not desperate. Already proved that. Still holding Asik.

 

We


are


not


trading


Parsons.

 

If a GM wants to get fired from their job, they should concentrate on making sure they **** block everybody else from getting better instead of trying to build their own team into a championship contender. That would be an asinine way to go about doing the job.

People were crapping all over Hinkie last year when he gutted the team including practically all the Philly locals. And people have crapped all over Morey on his way to acquiring the core of this team today for how many trades he makes and for how he looks at players as assets. People crapped all over Pat Riley when he let all his players go and created cap space to sign Lebron and Bosh. That was a huge mess...Cleveland allegedly not cooperating with sign-and-trades. But...it happened. And Miami has 2 more rings. And now Riley is a genius. OH.......look how much it cost Miami too. Draft picks....luxury taxes. Terrible, terrible cost. Very expensive.

The whole purpose of leaking the Parsons' restricted free agency stuff was to try to accomplish his goals without gutting the entire team. He may just be able to do that. And if he does have to gut the entire team..to get his third superstar...but he retains Parsons....so what.


Championships baby.

 

OH.......................and how stupid and lame can you get to think that Hinkie is such an amateur that we are just using Philly as a farm team. That's r****ded. And exhibits a total idiocy in regards to what Hinkie is doing in Philly. Philly will probably be in the playoffs this next season. And they are on the doorsteps of contender status in another season when they sign a big time free agent....or two. That will be a total turnaround in 2 seasons. And they'll be calling him a genius then.

 

My "stupid", "lame", "r****ded" comments were not directed towards you but were directed towards this section of your post:

That's not you, dobro. That's people that will crap on Hinkie for making deals for Philly and them accusing him of making sweetheart deals for Morey. That is stupid, r****ded, and lame. And you know it is. I give you more credit than that. I know you're not dumb enough to believe that that is the way Hinkie does his job.


And the bottom line is.....we know (or we should know) that Hinkie is a quality, quality GM. Philly has a great GM. They are on the road to being a playoff team as soon as this season. And they are set up beautifully to blossom into a playoff contender in another season. So....we should know that IF Hinkie trades for BOTH ASIK AND LIN that it's undoubtedly a good deal for Philly.

My point was that line of thinking is stupid, dumb, and r****ded....and it simply doesn't matter. It's not going to make one bird feather's difference to Hinkie and whether or not he decides to do a deal. Hinkie is going to do the best deals for Philly that he can find. Anybody that doesn't believe that is off their rocker.



Now...if someone wants to challenge my idea that Philly MAY be one of the teams that takes on both Asik and Lin (if they can get enough other assets for doing it) and tell me why Philly wouldn't do the type of deal I suggested if it helps them lock down another lottery pick this season....then go ahead. But just bringing up the argument that people are going to say bad things about Hinkie ..... that's a complete waste of time. Doesn't matter what they say.

 

By the way, I'm not overly confident because of a tweet by Woj. What I am very confident in is that Parsons' immediate basketball future is here in Houston. Because we cannot get a great trade value for him and because he means more to us on-court than he does in trade. I am very, very confident in 2 things:

1. We are keeping Parsons.

2. We are not giving Parsons big money until we have secured our 3rd superstar.


I have been very consistent about this. Just like I was very consistent about Terrence _ones not being the answer for us last season at the 4 and us not being able to win a championship with him starting and playing major minutes at the 4 for us.

The only thing the Woj tweet did was cause me to wonder why. Why would this be leaked? What was the purpose? Because I am very, very confident in 1 and 2 above. The only thing the Woj tweet did was give me a clue as to what Morey is doing. That's all.

 

So...

Here's some speculation regarding Love for Asik/Lin, etc.


I gave you the Sacramento scenario earlier. #8, McLemore, expirings for Love with Sacramento taking in Lin also.

But in that scenario Minnesota doesn't get back cap space. And they're still stuck with Martin and Budinger's cap space impinging on their ability to create max cap space next season.

Why is that important? Well....because I think the most logical play for Minnesota to get Rubio to stay long-term is to go get the Gasol brothers. They'll need around $10 million or so of cap space this year and they'll have to have $20 million or so of cap space next season to make that happen. Marc Gasol signed long-term in Minnesota along with Pau signed up for the latter part of his career may be enough to get Rubio locked down on an extended 5-year deal.

So....here's what Morey's advantage is in a Love trade. If....Morey can trade Asik elsewhere for a decent pick....say Philly at 10 or Charlotte at #9 or possibly even Sacramento at #8 or maybe Denver at #11 (all those teams are rumored to be shopping their picks) THEN Morey could put together a deal thustly:

Omer Asik pick, #25, a couple more future first rounders and 3 future draft pick swap rights, plus Dmo or T _ones plus the rights to Llull.....for Love, Martin, Mbah A Moute, and Shved.


What this does for Minnesota is:
1. Give them about $10 million (or more) of cap space to sign Pau Gasol to a 3/30 or 4/40 deal.

2. It clears their cap so they can make a max offer to Marc Gasol in 2015.

On top of all that it fills their roster with youngsters and future draft picks.

The net deal is Love, Mbah A Moute, Shved out and the Asik pick (#9 to #11 perhaps), #25, plus 2 future unprotected picks, plus 3 pick swaps rights, plus Pau Gasol signed to a fresh deal in.

In this scenario, Minnesota would take Lin back themselves and use him as trade bait down at the deadline. Better than Sacramento with #8 and McLemore? I think so. Especially if we can peddle Asik for a pick somewhere between #9 and #11.


What about Chicago? What can they do to give Minny cap space to sign a player like Pau??? Nothing. Can't do it. They can amnesty Booz and take back Love and send out #16, #19, rights to Mirotic (probably around #9 to #11 pick value) plus some future picks that are partially lottery protected. But that's about the best they can do. They can't take back Martin or other salary without trading Boozer instead of amnestying him. And then Minny is stuck with Boozer's dead money. NOBODY wants Boozer at $16 million for one season....at least not until the trade deadline. So Chicago cannot give Minnesota enough cap space to sign Gasol.

In my opinion if we can secure a back end lottery pick for Asik...we can trump Chicago in a trade for Love.


Boston?????

Well, they can trade #6, and #17, and they can match us in future picks (or even exceed us by a pick or two) and they can put together Bogans non-guaranteed salary with Olynk and Sullinger and some more minimum non-guaranteed salaries they have on the books to get Love there. And they can even take back Martin with their Paul Pierce TPE. But that landlocks Boston. They won't have cap space to add anybody else next season. Rondo is a free agent and he is going to be re-upped for a max deal.

Boston has to save assets to use to clear out both Jeff Green AND Gerald Wallace if they acquire Love....so they can re-sign Love, re-sign Rondo and still have space for a 3rd superstar after next season. That means all those extra picks and players going to Minny and taking back Martin is NOT going to happen. Ainge isn't going to landlock himself into being an also-ran every year. Ainge is pulling his hair out right now trying to figure out how to get rid of Green and Wallace. He's in the same place with Green and Wallace that we were in with Asik and Lin LAST YEAR. Nobody wants those guys on those contracts clogging their cap. There's simply no market for them right now. And neither guy is close to being as good as Asik.

So.....if Love is actually traded.....Morey has a legit chance of getting him by being able to take back Martin and help Minnesota create space to sign Pau and have space to add Marc Gasol next off season. It's not just about picks and talent. IT's about the ability to help the other team set up to accomplish a plan they have in mind to return to contender status. Rubio and the Gasol brothers is a very, very nice core to build out around. And Minny has to try everything in their power to keep Rubio and give him a bunch of guys that he can make plays with. Or else Rubio will walk away from them too. And they're still stuck in the mud for years to come.


I'm not saying this is going to happen. I'm saying it's a logical angle that Morey has to approach Flip with.

Oh, and Martin???? Yes, that contract could get in the way if Love walks away from us next season. But we can waive and stretch him and if the cap goes up to $66 million or so...we will still have around $17-$18 million to go after LaMarcus (or somebody else) with. But if Rubio and Pau are having showball fights in Minnesota, then we probably won't be able to beat them to Marc Gasol because they will have the most cap space money to give Marc and the most young talent alongside that cap space to flip in trades if Marc becomes available at the trade deadline (Pek plus picks or talent), and if Marc actually gets to free agency and Rubio and Pau are in Minny....it's going to be difficult for him to turn down max money to play with his bro and his bro.

 

And just a tidbit about Memphis and Marc Gasol here.

Do you think Memphis wants to see this unfold with Pau going to Minnesota?

Absolutely not.

Memphis has their fingers crossed that Zach opts out of his contract so they can dump him and sign Pau themselves. Thereby virtually assuring that Marc will re-sign with them after next season. Memphis is hoping and praying and sweating and stewing that Zach opts out and that Pau doesn't go to Minnesota.

So...here's how pressure can be created on Minnesota to do a deal. If Morey has takers for Asik and Lin he can start discussing with Memphis about taking back Zach for no salary going back to Memphis but future pick consideration going from Memphis to Houston in exchange for Memphis being able to unload Zach and sign Pau.

Flip may decide to go ahead and get Love out of town for the picks and cap space to sign Pau and the cap space to bring in Marc behind him next season....if he sees it breaking down this way.




Now...call me nuts. I don't care. I'm putting together things I know with some speculation.

Things I know:

1. Our intent is to keep Parsons and add a 3rd superstar.

2. We have no intention of trading Parsons.

3. We have no intention of paying Parsons big money until we have acquired our third superstar.

4. Pau and Marc are both very interested in playing together and have been for several years.

5. Pau and Marc (and as a consequence Rubio because of their national team connections) have great on-court chemistry. It's a no-brainer to try to combine them if possible. Put two 3&D guys on court with that core and Minnesota has a very, very nice team for several years to come. And they've got guys like Deng, etc. sitting on the bench...soaking it all in.

6. Memphis has wanted to replace Zach with Pau for some time because of the above. (I know this directly through inside league sources.)

7. Players don't want to go to Minnesota to play. They are not a free-agent destination. The only chance they have to get a big time core is what I described above...special circumstances...the Spaniards.

8. If something like the above doesn't happen...Rubio will leave Minnesota as well. He didn't want to go there in the first place. He hates losing. He really wants out now if he could get out. They'll have to win big time to keep Rubio. And they will win big time with the Gasol brothers.

9. Minnesota is interested in building a long-term winner, not in constantly going to the lottery and rebuilding.