This. LBJ has been the equivalent of a human pinata (lost 7 of the last 8 finals games against the Worriers the last 3 years). One would think that if he had a real good chance for some payback vs. experimenting, he would come to Houston.
if anything it was a tad deflated because a lot of players missed a lot of games and it was the first year playing together
You are right , it'll be an expensive team but you gotta pay the piper if you want to knock of GSW - they were deep into the cap this year and will be again in 2018/19 with the same team that's won 3 of 4 Larry O'Brien Trophy's. You are looking at a short window here - two , three years tops and with LBJ and this roster intact its hard to imagine they don't win 2. The key was not being in the tax this year because the nasty part of the tax is when you are a taxpayer in three of the last 4 years …. meaning the next two aren't gonna be so bad , its that 3rd year where you have to cut salary and as I said earlier in this thread , its highly probable that LBJ would only sign a 2 year contract with the second being a player option meaning he'd be gone in year 3 - avoiding the most punitive part of the tax. That's the same type of contract he's signed on currently. If Tillman don't wanna pay …. Morey may as well fold up shop and tank like the rest of the league.
I also agree on the Lakers being a real threat here, finsrider made some good points about this in another thread a couple of days ago...there's an actual chance they can end up with three stars if they're willing to move/lose most of their young players (Randle, Ingram, Kuzma), and for Lebron i'm pretty sure they are. The only problem i see with this is that they would have a pretty short/poor rotation behind the big three, inferior to our own, but with Lebron there it's very possible that they would get a couple of decent enough veterans for cheap so... We better hope that the Spurs don't trade Leonard soon or that Ainge gets him eventually.
I'll give you that it "seems" more like, but not near to the degree. On a scale, Durant move a 10. Going to the Lakers a 0. I give coming to the Rockets a 3. So it is still closer to the move to the Lakers than Durant's move. Durant went to the team that had recently won a C'hip and was the favorite to do so again. He really had no other ties that I remember. Leaving a team that was just in the finals and looked strong. Bron is coming to help win, has friends here, and from a team that just got swept. This move has been publicly discussed and acknowledged (Melo) for about a year. Over the course of the that year, nobody I have heard said anything negative about coming. He will probably get little to no criticism for coming to Houston. ... If he comes.
There's almost no way for LAL to obtain 3 max players unless they are willing to play at big discounts. They have to dump Deng's $18M contract and renounce all of their FAs just to sign two. No cap room to sign a 3rd and little to match salary with in a trade. The Rockets are a much better option because (assuming that we will pay the tax) we could keep our core together. Even if LAL could get 3 max guys, the rest of the roster would have to be min salary guys. That's not likely to beat GS or Hou.
Yeah, what i mean is, they can trade for Kawhi using Deng, Ingram, Kuzma and pick/s or Hart, renounce Randle and still be able to sign Lebron and George to a max. Basically just keeping Lonzo. Than they might be able to sign, let's say Noel with remaining cap space or exception and get few veterans for the bench. This should be doable on paper right?
I wouldn't assume Paul coming back is a given. He just sold his house and loved living in LA. No reason why he can't go join Lebron in LA. LA could sign Paul, Lebron, trade some good players for Kawhi and who knows could also find a way to get George.
As I said ealier... it would be a lesser version of what he did with the heat but in a better conference, while being much older, and with the NBA landscape way different. I just dont see it as a better option per se...but rather a "less Durant option." Which that might matter to him...but he doesnt seem to care what anyone thinks. The ONE other thing that would shock the world but maybe isn too far fetched is...if he and KD team up in LA. That would be very lebron. Manipulate a move while also changing the NBA landscape himself.
No, they need to free up Deng's cap space in order to be able to sign 2 max guys. If you use Deng in a trade then you don't have enough cap space to sign 2 max plsyers. If you did sign 2 max guys, then there is no remaining cap space and you've lost your exceptions too.
http://www.tmz.com/2018/04/23/chris-paul-selling-houston-mansion/ If you have better info feel free to share.
I don't see the relevance of this, given that he put the home up for sale in April and he was this close to the finals in May. You think he was planning to leave even before he made it to game 5 of the WCF? I don't.
The only info I need is that cp3 is still going to be a Houston rocket. This in no way is relevant to me. Like I said he moved in with James harden
Not sure i get the bold part aelliott, isn't salary cap set at 101/102M next season? Assuming the Lakers renounce Lopez, Randle,Thomas, Pope and Frye, if they trade Deng with at least Ingram, Kuzma and Hart for Leonard, that should leave them with only Lonzo (7.5M), Leonard (20M) and few young players at the minimum for somehting around 30M. Lebron and George max should start at 35M and 30M if i'm not wrong(?) so, if that's the case they should be able to do it, am i missing something here?
Sorry, I misunderstood your previous post. Getting someone to take the remaining 2yrs/$37M on Deng's contract isn't going to be easy. I personally don't believe that Leonard is going anywhere but if SA decides to trade him, I'd think that they could do better than Ingram and Kuzma. Under any circumstances, I don't see SA completely tanking. I'd think that both Philly and Boston could easily offer a much better deal for Leonard. If SA had to trade Leonard then Heyward + a young stud would be more appealing and likely doable. Deng, Ingram and Kuzma doesn't quite work in matching for Kawhi. SA would be taking back too much salary by about $1.5M. Adding in Hart would make is slightly worse. LA would be forced to take some additional salary back. Also, if you drop below 12 players then you get charged a cap hold for each empty slot below 12. The cap hold is equal to the rookie minimum salary (~800K). In you're scenario, LA only has Ball and Leonard on the roster so you'd be charged rookie minimum for 10 empty roster spots. That's an additional $8M in salary. So, realistically under that scenario, you'd have around $62M to $63M in cap space, no exceptions and 10 roster spots to fill. That's not enough to give both guys the max but it's certainly close enough that one of the two or both could easily take a small discount to fit but is that a championship team? Too much overlap between LBJ, Kawahi and PG13. If you're going that route then you might as well get rid of Ball because he's useless alongside those 3. He'd just be the guy that you doubled off of. IMO, Lebron, Kawhi and PG13 surrounded by min salary guys isn't going to beat GSW or HOU.