The trade tonight (Asik to NO for future 1st) signifies one thing: Morey's prize is Kevin Love

I personally think it moves us more towards Melo and then a still very slim shot at LBJ.

I think Kevin Love to GWS is all but a done deal myself.

 

Think about it. Kevin Love and D12 would absolutely dominate the Boards on a nightly basis. Defense we would suffer. Unless we get Corey Brewer in that trade package for casspi, T. Jones.
Starting Lineup.

Howard
Love
Parsons
Harden
Beverly

I'd take that lineup all day everyday!
Houston Rockets fan since T-Mac, Yao Ming era.
#REDNATION

 

I was hoping for Kevin Love or a combination of Paul Milsap and Kyle Lowry.
Never did I think we could get Kevin Love AND Kyle Lowry.
If Morey could pull that off, that would be awesome and Morey would forever be revered and worshiped as one of the greatest GM's of all time.

 

Take the best you can get regardless of destination. Have to think Morey did exactly that. No reason to take a lesser asset. If everything goes right New Orleans with Asik should be the least of our worries.

 

Stop posting.

 

Fixed! I'm just messing with you sun12, I get what you are saying. Offense wins games, defense wins championships.

 

Don't you need to win games in order to win championships?

 

You know it's a good time to be a Rockets fan when acquiring Kevin Love is like Plan D at the moment.

 

To clarify, I meant I'd rather have Melo than love (not Lebron) if it means we keep parsons. I would take Lebron regardless of the price

 

This trade means that we are getting LOVE and LEBRON. Get ready Clutchfans and CLUTCH CITY!

 

There should be no doubt in anyone's mind whether or not Morey is going after Love TODAY. He might not get Love today but Morey is going after Love hard today.

The ONLY THING that will change Morey trying to land Love today is if Lebron makes a commitment through agent and player channels that he is going to walk here. And as much as we'd like to think that could happen...the odds of Lebron walking away from Miami and coming here are very, very small.

And Morey isn't going to wait on him and simply clear away cap and see if he can possibly sign one of Lebron/Melo. Morey is going to try to move heaven and earth to acquire Love TODAY or at least get a deal agreed to and announced to acquire Love by trade after the moratorium.

So...really most of what we should speculate about is what kind of deals can we get for Lin to package together with this Asik pick that will be a package that Flip would be enticed to take NOW before July 1st.

As I stated previously I believe there are 3 elements that Flip is wanting out of this deal that when wrapped up together represent a path forward to being a consistent, competitive playoff contender. Those 3 things are:

1. Some draft picks
2. A starter or two on a quality value contract
3. A cleared up cap and future cap to sign a free agent this summer (Pau) and possibly a max free agent next summer (Marc).

With that in mind, it's very easy to see what moving Asik out for no incoming salary and this pick does for a possible Love trade.

1. This 2015 first round pick between 4 and 19 and most likely between 4 and 14 has MORE VALUE than any single pick that Boston or Chicago owns. Check their picks. They are lottery protected or 1-10 protected except for their own picks and Brooklyn's picks in later years. While the Brooklyn unprotected picks could potentially be a 1-3 selection.....so could Houston's 2016 and 2018 unprotected picks be a 1-3 selection.

So this essentially puts Morey in the catbird's seat in terms of pick value.

2. This pick allows Morey the flexibility to trade multiple picks...and in consecutive years if necessary. For instance Morey could in theory trade our 2014 pick and both our 2015 pick and New Orleans 2015 pick....as soon as tomorrow. We could theoretically pick the player at #25 that Minny (or whomever) wants and then trade the rights to that player plus both 2015 picks out simultaneoulsy. Not to mention trading the 2015 New Orleans pick along with our 2014 pick and our 2016 pick if that is what Minny prefers.

3. The $1.5 million cash will come out of this year's cash stash. We still have $1,480,160 of cash available to trade until June 30th as part of our $3.2 million cash trade allotment for the 2013-14 season. Even if the actual swap isn't completed until after the moratorium, we can use this cash for this season by sending it to New Orleans for Luke Babbit's (or possibly Jeff Withey's) non-guaranteed contract. And then possibly defer the actual swap of Asik for the pick until after the moratorium if we have to, in order to use the 2014-15 salaries or combine the trade into a mega trade involving Lin and others.

This also means that we have the entire $3.3 million of cash allotment for 2014-15 to send out with Lin to help cushion away his salary. With that $3.3 million cash, Lin's net salary now dips to $11.7 million. If we throw in a prospect (Jones or DMo) with that cash, we may be able to preserve the #25 pick for Minny.


----------


With this in mind speculation on Lin's landing spot???

1. Philly - an obvious choice after the moratorium (or even before if we can get all the side deals worked out with Minny), we give Philly the cash and DMo or #25 (whatever Minnesota prefers).

2. Utah - another team with cap space they have to use who have no chance of attracting a premier free agent and who have no reason to sign a free agent to an extended deal besides their own Gordan Heyward. Who are also probably going to miss out on Exum and whom Marcus Smart does not want to go to.

3. Milwaukee - I think there is a distinct possibility here of sending out Lin for nothing but Ilyasova straight up. It actually saves MIlwaukee a few dollars and clears their cap and gives them something of value. There's really no place for Ilyasova there anymore if they get Parker today. And Ilyasava is a logical contract to push to Minny as a replacement for Love. A further separate note...Milwaukee may be willing to move Ilyasova out for no incoming salary at all with possibly sending out a second rounder (#36) with Ilyasova just to get rid of the salary. (MORE ON THIS LATER)

4. Orlando - Aaron Afflalo is another player on a value contract that makes sense in Minnesota. Orlando wants to get a pick or two out of him. Don't know how good of a pick they want for him or can get for him but his trade value is going to start to decay as he plays out this season as essentially an expiring contract. However Minnesota has #13 pick. Not high enough to get McDermott or Stauskas but good enough for possibly Gary Harris, TJ Warren, or possibly Zach Lavine. A possibility here could be Lin to Orlando with the Minny #13 pick with Afflalo going to Minnesota.

5. Minnesota - as part of the Kevin Love trade, combining Lin's salary with Asik's salary and the salaries of one of Jones/DMo, the #25 pick, the Asik pick, and some non-guaranteeds and taking back enough salary along with Love to allow Minnesota to make a nice free agent offer to Pau Gasol in July 1st.

6. Golden State - into their trade exception along with #25 for nothing back. This would give us plenty of cap space to take back Martin and multiple expirings from Minny.

7. Sacramento - they still need/want a PG..perhaps Lin and the New Orleans pick for #8 so Minnesota can take McDermott and take back an expiring from Sac to make the trade work for Sac.

8. Brooklyn - in a twisted, convoluted trade sending Deron Williams to Sac town with Sac sending out Jason Thompson and expiring and us sending Lin to Brooklyn.

Several other teams deserve mention here as well, including Indy, Miami, and Toronto.

But this is all about getting a deal done for Love as soon as today or at least agreed upon by Monday.

 

Wow. Just wow.
We are not getting Love. This trade has nothing to do with love

 

What he said. Seriously how do you guys not see that Houston isn't number 1 on every player and gms list.

 

Valid points, but isn't the biggest contingency whether Love wants to sign an extension with his new team or not?

It's why the Cleveland talks died, and there's no telling if he actually wants to be in Phoenix. There are rumors he's interested in being in Boston though.

 

I think you could be very very wrong. Morey will try for love he is a perfect fit. And I do not see parsons leaving the team.

 

The better deals that lottery teams can offer compared to the Rockets only matters if Love is willing to sign an extension there. The Cavs can offer Kyrie, the first pick and 2 future first rounders, but if Kevin Love says he won't sign there it's not happening.

 

That's right. You can write off CLE, PHX, and DEN. He's already told them he'll walk away.

That leaves BOS, CHI, and HOU right now. And here's the problem. If Flip waits until after the moratorium to secure a deal for Love his market could become even more limited if Melo goes to CHI or HOU and BOS moves forward with a total rebuild by moving Rondo.

Flip isn't stupid. He knows if he continues to wait, the market for Love is going to continue to shrink and then as he heads into the regular season and teams have built out their roster and Love is a pending free agent, his trade value will further decline.

Flip realistically has to agree to a deal for Love before July 1st to maximize value. If he waits around he's taking too much risk and he simply WILL NOT get as much in return as he will if he agrees to a deal before July 1st.

Zoplicone, you don't know what you're talking about. We may not get Love but this trade of Asik and the moves Morey is trying to execute today and before July 1st has EVERYTHING to do with trading for LOVE. The ONLY THING that will change that focus for Morey is if Lebron tells Morey through the back channels that he is coming. And that simply has an extremely small chance of happening right now so small that it's not even worth mentioning.

Morey is trying to acquire Love. Don't be surprised if he does get Love. And don't be surprised if him and Flip have been working on this deal for a long time, with Flip knowing all along that Love wanted to come here and Flip working with Morey to maximize Minny's return on Love.

Finally....we may NOT acquire Love. But it won't be for a lack of trying. Morey is busting his a... to get a trade for Love agreed to before July 1st.

 

As much as I think Parsons will stay for the long haul in Houston, wouldn't a package of Parsons, DMo, Thaddeus Young and draft picks be palatable for Minnesota? Of course with some bias, I think it would but if Minnesota is holding out for picks (which we can get and give up), young players (Parsons, DMo), and decent player(s) with short contracts (Young) this is a pretty good deal.

You trade Lin and Jones to Philly. Philly trades Thaddeus Young to Minnesota (a win for them to get out of another contract). Houston moves Parsons and Dmo plus #25, the future 1st from N.O., and maybe a 2nd rounder to Minnesota. Houston gets Kevin Love back. Call me crazy (which y'all probably will ) but this isn't that farfetched.

 

Kevin Love is the target, he would be great for team chemistry. Carmelo is a cancer! Lebron will stay in Miami, according to sources lol

 

first we're going after lebron and melo, now we're going after love...

obviously we can't get all 3 so somewhere, somebody is getting very wrong information and sources.