Lucky for us he would not have the ball in his hands that often, except if he posts up in the low block or is shooting/driving from the right wing
First, I think IF we land Dwight Howard, we could snag CP3 much, much more easily. CP3 wants to win. Read his interviews after the playoffs ouster. He wants to win bad. To join a super team like Heat 2.0 (but down here in Houston) would not be that hard of a decision. Again, it is in play IF we land Dwight Howard. Second, why would we do a S&T w/ ATL? I absolutely don't see the value of doing this if what we are offering is Asik. Smith could just sign with us -- even in a S&T, he'd have to agree to that amount...so why give Asik to a team that does not have ANY leverage in this scenario? I would rather move Asik to another team for a high pick, then sign Smith outright. That way, at least we get a first round pick out of it...
Attitude pretty rotten? Where the hell have you been getting your info? Assumptions probably. Read articles about his character, hes a humble, quiet dude that wants to get as close to the market value as possible, nothing wring with that. Hes a good dude
I wonder if players like Paul and Howard realises that in order to build a super team, they both need to take a pay cut.The Miami trio did, and that's why they can go out and get the other pieces to make up the roster. Hopefully they take the pay cuts they must take and team up here with a young up and coming superstar in Harden. Money can only get them so far. But a legacy has the potential to bring in even more money than contracts will ever have (endorsements, name recognition, etc).Hopefully, when Howard and Paul discusses what they want to do with their futures, they want to take this in account. "What do I want the fans to remember me for? What do I want to get out of my playing career? Do I still want to win a championship?" hopefully are some of the questions they want to ask themselves since a general consensus sees them as a diva with baby mommas (D12) and a non-proven winner with all the talent in the world ala T-Mac (Paul).The trio of Paul Harden and Howard will be the best answer to give Lebron and co. a run for their money.
No way, he hasn't gotten better at anything since his 2nd year. He doesn't work in the offseason and will only get worse in the Htown. Don't want him, don't need him. Love or Aldridge or keep what we have.
I would love for them to think this way as well. It'd be helpful to shave a couple million off each's payroll, and we'd have a deeper bench. What is nice is, even if they didn't, we would still have decent depth. Probably have DMo start at the 4 to stretch it, but share minutes with TJones off the bench. Bev to back up CP3, some vet wing player Morey gets for the MLE (once we hit the cap), and GSmith backing up at the 4 and 5. Rest of roster mostly filler, unless Morey yet again strikes role player gold (maybe a true backup C w/ good defense, or another wing rotation player). Shaving off a few million would help us in getting that true backup C, or maybe pick up Garcia's contract in free agency (after we don't pick up the $6M team option).
Have you ever heard of this thing called a salary cap? Even if the Rockets were able to trade Asik, Lin, and Thomas Robinson and get NOTHING back in salary, the Rockets would still need "roughly" 5 million extra in cap space to sign CP3 as well as Howard. So even if the Rockets had JUST these players coming back- Harden- 13.7 White - 1.7 Jones-1.5 Motiejunas- 1.4 Parsons- .92 and these players were traded on draft night or part of a sign and trade- Lin-8.3 Asik-8.3 Robinson-3.5 and these players team options declined- Delfino Garcia Brooks Smith J. Anderson Beverley Ohlbrecht The Rockets would have "roughly" 19.23 million signed and would need "roughly" 44 million in free cap space to sign both CP3 and Howard to max contracts. The salary cap is most likely set at 58 million for next season. -I guess it is "possible" on paper that the Rockets could also trade White, Motiejunas, Jones, and Parsons and get no salary back as well, but the team would be below the minimum allotted roster amount required by the NBA. So unless the NBA and NBPA increase the salary cap up dramatically to 63+ million(which wont happen), there is no way, no how that the Rockets can sign both Howard and Chris Paul in free agency even with the Rockets gutting their team.
I see Love or Aldridge a lot, but waiting till the offseason of 2015 just seems like a darn long time away to still worry about our cap space now. 2015 will be so different for our team, we would have plenty of flexibility, but it'd also be impossible to guess what our team would look like. Only Harden is on the books then as guaranteed money lol. And I don't see Love or Aldridge realistically being traded to our team earlier WITHOUT us giving up Asik/Parsons. It just would not make sense (see my post on this on just the prior page). They can easily get better deals from teams who can offer high picks, or similar young assets (but be more willing to part with them as they lack even 1 superstar). Our team w/o Asik and/or Parsons but with LMA or Love...eh.
clutchfans is a pretty big site, so I can imagine my posts on this subject would go unnoticed, and I don't think I mentioned it in this thread yet. Please forgive me if I'm starting to sound redundant though. We have $39.3M in guaranteed money next season. Then let us assume we pick up GSmith, Bev and Parsons. That takes us to $41.9M. I am making an assumption that the salary cap will go up next season, to about $60 or 61M. I think this is a reasonable assumption. Articles have mentioned nba revenue has gone up a noticeable amount this season, with some projecting a 20% increase. Now that does not mean BRI under the cba = simple +20% increase as the BRI is based on numerous variables. I don't know the full details of how that convoluted formula would work out to set the salary cap (or rather, I don't know all the variables' exact figures). But with nba revenue reportedly up, there is a very good chance at the salary cap will at least go up modestly. So let us say $61M. If we then move Asik, Lin and TRob for free (again, assumptions, though I feel confident SOME team will take them for SOME pick...Lin is slightly tougher...Utah?), we'd be able to fit in CP3's $18.6M and Howard's $20.5M maxes. They could make life easier for our bench and 12 man roster if they take small pay cuts, but let us pretend they don't take one at all. Right now, we are right at the cap or about at the cap w/ 9 players. PHX 2nd rounder will get us to 10 and at the cap I believe, or around there. MLE will get us our 11th player, and us over the cap a bit. The 12th roster spot is the tough one. Either we package White's contract w/ Asik when we move him for a first round pick (like lumping him in with a bad contract) and use that to sign a player or two for even more than the min. ($490k)...or we have to trade one of TJones or DMo for 2 players that add up to the same $1.5M salary. Few assumptions, and long shot at getting both CP3 and D12, but teams have done more financial acrobatics than these moves.
Ha, Ha... I love smart people who know their ****. The funny thing is, someone will come on here and say yeah but I'm sure they would take less salary in order to win.
No need to even do that. Refer to my above post. The only real thing that we disagree on (dobro and me I mean) is what the salary cap will be at. I think $61M is quite reasonable, if the many articles about nba revenue being up are to be believed. That should raise it some modest amount; no need to be $63M. The most the cap has ever been raised in one season was around $7-8M I believe, so a $3M increase is not that farfetched at the tail end of a reportedly good yr. We get to keep Parsons, keep Bev, maybe keep GSmith (technically Harden's salary goes up a bit if the cap does as it is based on a % of the cap, so maybe or maybe not room for GSmith) and either keep White + one of DMo/TJones or package Asik and White together for a lower first rounder and keep both DMo and TJones...along with CP3, D12, and Harden. Few role players who will be paid close to what Bev and Olbrecht were paid this year -- we know Morey finds them in his sleep and gets them on those contracts...overlooked players. Best part is, they don't even have to be good, just roster filler. Knowing Morey though, some will be good haha. MLE on a vet wing guard rotation player. That is a better bench than what the Heat had their first yr together, and we'd only be a few million above the cap, but well below the luxury tax line.
I really wish you would at least read to the end of the page before responding to my post at the top of it
And this still doesn't explain why we would do a S&T w/ ATL. If you're just trying to clear Asik's cap hold, it is much more beneficial for us to simply move him to another team for a first round pick and then sign JSmoove outright. Giving him to ATL instead just so we can do a S&T simply destroys value. I don't see the benefit we gain in doing that (unless ATL also agrees to give us their first rounder, and we assume that their first rounder is the highest pick we can get for Asik).
Let's see, using rounded numbers not to my arguments advantage at all 21 mill +14 mill +19 mill = 54 mill that's Harden Paul and Howard. Now Parsons, Smith, Anderson and Beverley let's say that's just under 58 the current max cap I think. Paul/Beverley Harden/Beverley Parsons/Anderson G.Smith/min vet Howard/min vet I'll take that all day everyday. Vets will lineup to sign with that roster as well so know those vet mins will probably be solid backups. No reason anybody would turn that down weak bench or not.
Yeah I read it and not to be cynical but it is just so unlikely. Okay if CP3 and Dwight Howard both want to sign here let's try to make it happen. But you are going the assumption the salary cap goes to 61 mil. What if it goes on the low side 59 or even 60 mil. And let's not forget Harden's salary is tied to the cap and if it goes up so does his salary. At 60 mil Harden gets 25%, please correct me if I am wrong. Add that to your 39.3 and now your at 54.3. Add Royce white. (You would have to give future 1st round pick and 3 mil for someone to take him). That takes you up to 56 mil with 4 players. Since you need to fill your roster those 8 additional players would be at a cost of 4 mil which comes to 60 mil. Maybe you could squeeze in one of those players but thats it. Let's say you are able to squeeze in Parsons. Now you CP3, Dwight and Harden plus maybe Parsons and Royce White and a bunch of minimum/Dleague/undrafted rookie players and those guys. Be realistic do CP3 and Howard throw away 27 and 30 mil respectively to come on that squad. Do they leave the fame and limelight to come to that pile of crap roster of a rebuilding team for winning. **** it ... Okay you win. Sign em up. I understand your desire to have those stars. I would love to have kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. But it ain't gonna happen. They might walk to a team that really has a chance to win but not if you have to gut the team. The thing is we are so close we don't have to scrap the team to win a championship. Maybe Josh Smith ain't the answer but Morey is not going to scrap all of his work so easily. We could wait another year if Morey really beleives all of the free agents are crap but there isn't much out there next year. Sign the best piece for this team moving forward and then move on. We have assets to trade at the deadline. Our MLE starts kicking back in next year. And we will just get better from experience and hard work.
I would love to add Josh Smith to this team. His game would fit right in to what we are doing. He has the athleticism to not only play our uptempo style game, but to thrive in it. He would be able to play off the ball more with Harden and Lin which I believe would increase his effeciency. He would also add a much needed top shot blocking presence and would be able to do so to the best of his abilities by roaming while Asik holds down the paint. Now with all that said money becomes the biggest question. While he has all those positives he is not a max player. Fair value for a player like Smith should be right around 12 million a year. Now I would imagine if he leaves Atlanta that they would try and work out a sign and trade and that Smith would want the same so he can get that 5th year. I would make the move and be willing to part with any two of Motiejunas, Jones, Robinson and White to bring Smith on board for 5 years anywhere between 60-65 million.
