Would you trade EGo, CC, Rybo for two first round picks, Lebron?

I didn't call everyone else dunces for not seeting it that way. I presented a worst case scenario and asked if you would do it. Two-Thirds of us would do it. That's a lot of dinces since I supposedly called everybody dunces.

1. You're not offering any plausible trades for Ryan Anderson......two picks or not. Tell me which team is going to take Anderson into cap space for two picks. Go ahead. I'm waiting.

2. The most logical trade involving Anderson is to break hid contract up into two longer term deals that saves a lottery team a little cap space now and a lot of cap space three years from now. Something like that can probably get done sans any picks. (That's a hint. Think about it.)

3. You aren't fully understanding the salary cap luxury tax cost of going into the luxury tax this season, then next season, then hitting the repeater tax in 2020-2021. You should be comparing those costs compared to operating out of the tax next season and pushing the repeater tax back to 2022-23 at the earliest while not paying any luxury tax until 2019-20 at the earliest. Until you run a comparison using your mythical "trade Anderson and two picks into cap spac so we can trade for Lebron and pay the luxury tax now" then you shouldn't assume that stretching Anderson is far-fetched and a waste of money.

Propose your Anderson trade that gets us LeBron. Waiting.

It's obnoxious to make wild statements like you made without supporting out more thoroughly with numbers and doable trades while criticizing me for telling you Paul will take a one-year paycut for Lebron.

There's nothing obnoxious about the way I presented my under-the-cap scenario.. The first post was simple. Would you do it, yes or no? Nothing obnoxious about it. Then I explained very specifically how we get there. That's not obnoxious.

You have a right to believe we can't get those extra first round picks. I unibnoxiously admitted that was the weakest part of my proposal. And I am not saying absolutely that CP3 and Trevor would take a temporary haircut. I don't think CP3 will unless the right situation befalls us. And I don't think he'll have to. I believe that the ability to sign LeBron outright combined with the RFA control we have over Capela will create a situation where we'll be able to trade for Lebron...using pick swaps...and Capela's free agency. And I do believe (with good reason) that CP3 weighs take that haircut for Lebron....but not for KD or George.

 

Yeah.....But no.

 

1. Indy - Good starting point. Let's assume Indy is willing to do the deal. Big assumption. But let's assume they'd do it. We'll look at the trade between now and July 1. And well look at it after the July moratorium.

So if we do the trade before July 1 it would most likely be a three way deal, Anderson and two picks to Indy, Jefferson to the Cavs. But we've got to also send out Gordon or PJ to get the deal done. Let's assume we send out Gordon to Cleveland. And the Cavs send Indy a second rounder. All good. We can now max Paul with a starting salary of roughly $35.3 million. And our team is Harden, Paul, Lebron, PJ, Nene, Onuaku, Qi, and birds rights on Ariza, and Capela.

That's around $115 million in salary before we re-sign Capela and Ariza. Phoenix throws a max deal at Capela and all of a sudden we've fit assume hard decisions to make. Either match and pay him $25 million or pass. If we match we're at $140+ million and then we have to decide wherever to pay Ariza.

So you're looking at Harden, Paul, James, PJ, and Capela as your big 5, $150 million payroll DEEP in the luxury tax, and headed for the repeater tax in 2020-2021 season. But by God we kept Capela and we aren't paying Anderson $40 million......

So you let Capela walk and keep Trevor at a modest $8 million. You're at $123 million. Better.....But still in the luxury tax. And you've lost two picks still headed for the repeater tax in 2021.

Lebron essentially costs you two picks, plus Gordon, plus you either keep Capela and pay a gargantuan tax. Or Lebron costs you Capela too and you are still likely in luxury tax territory if you bring back Ariza. And if you don't bring back Ariza then Lebron cost you him too.

So let's go after the July moratorium. We're going to sign Lebron with cap space. Complete deal with Indy. They go through all their maneuvers rescinding free agents or waiving non-guaranteeds, or making a trade to get the actual cap space for the deal..And then what do you got?

Well if you trade Gordon for a pick into somebody else's cap space....And tut sign and trade Capela to Phoenix for a future first.....then you have an extra $4 million of salary to work with after you dump Onuaku and Qi. So we can pay one of Lebron, Paul, or Ariza a little more money. And you get back those picks you traded for Al. That is provided you can get those picks......remember that's the weakest part of my deal.

Oh, a multiple team trade involving Indy and Al after the moratorium....? Same thing. You've gotta send out Gordon or Pj......or a freshly signed Capela to have enough salary to get it done.

Let's look at using Caoela in a S&T. Most likely Phoenix. Last thing Cleveland would want is another $100 million salary obligation to a player that isn't a superstar. So let's assume we send Capela to Phoenix, Anderson to Indy, Jefferson goes to Cleveland and Cleveland sends Nance, Jr, or some other contract/pick to Indy and signs and trade Lebron to us. Well.......we gotta send Cleveland something. After all they are signing and trading LeBron to us, sending something else to Indy and getting back $4 minion of dead money for their efforts! They have no invective roti do any of that. We'll have to give them that pick that wet fit for signing and trading Capela to Phoenix. But wait this is now a 4 team deal. So that Phoenix pick is Phoenix's touch to Cleveland. We gotta send Cleveland Qi. And Cleveland and Indy and Phoenix have to touch.

Not to mention Capela signed and traded is half his salary for outgoing trade purposes. Anyways...by the time you get done figuring out all that mess, our team is Harden, Paul, Gordon, PJ, James, plus maybe Ariza and the rest of the roster sans two picks. That's $124 million in Harden, Paul, James, Gordon, and PJ. Great team. But we're nite feeling with the apron since LeBron was signed and traded. And we're in the luxury tax. Repeater tax coming in 2021. And sans two picks.

Show me something better in a Ryan Anderson Al Jefferson deal. And frankly...I don't see Indy wanting anything th do with Anderson and two crappy picks. It would likely cost them other opportunities. And they're trying to compete now. They're not a lottery team. And they for sure can't afford to stretch Anderson.

Show me something better.

Do I have to go through all these teams that you suggested would deal for Anderson and our two picks into their cap space?

Look, the same problems arise in all of them. We're either up to our eyeballs in luxury tax plus we lose the flexibility of our picks.......Or we have to give up the same players I suggested plus the picks plus were still in the luxury tax.

And that is IF we could get any of those teams to take Anderson and our picks and we could get Capela to wait for us to find this great deal before we decided what we wanted to do with him.

Show me something better. I walked you through something that could potentially happen. That brings it down to whether Paul wants it to happen. I showed you what it world cost Paul to do it. I showed you what it would cost the team to do it. Hey even if we have to let Capela walk and Gordon go for a couple second rounders, at least in my scenario we've still got all our picks, plus we're out of the luxury tax next season......which will save us about $50 million juat next season and will allow us to save a ton of repeater taxes in the future. That is HUGE.

So take the rest of those teams, show the transactions, and show the final result, what the team looks like, what the payroll is, and what assets we have left to build and make changes with in the future.

You'll see they're all coming down to the same place. And York see you have to look at a possible Anderson trade differently than what you are currently.

 

By the way....the reason I'm laying this out here this way is because if I had simply unloaded everything all at once you wouldn't even consider it.

I want you to see the futility of most of the stuff you're suggesting. Not to make you look bad. But to get you to eliminate it from your thinking.

That's why I've given you a plausible WORST CASE SCENARIO to consider. It's all based on Paul giving up approximately $23-24 million over a 5-year period.

Now find something better. But eliminate what won't work. And understand that there's worse problems than stretching Anderson and eventually paying luxury taxes on his dead money. I just showed you that.

Once you eliminate Anderson being traded into cap space with two picks as a realistic solution to anything then we'll go to the next phase.

 

Ok.

So ........if Paul is willing to take a one-year paycut to get Lebron........while simultaneously getting us out of the luxury tax............then would he not be willing to take the same paycut (or possibly even less of a paycut) for us to trade for Lebron and have more options to build the team out while staying out of the luxury tax next season?