We may need Howard to tag along with Nene if we are losing so many SG or SF it seems. We need some depth and it would help if he could come here for the min.
1) Amnesty (or S&T) Thabeet 2) Offer Marc Gasol 5 yr 60mil deal starting with 12mil. -convince him to play with big bro Pau -move to a better market and team -no state tax means our offer is better than Griz offer -have him tell griz owner not to match our offer 3) Do the LA-NO-HOU trade but take out one of Martin or Scola and substitute with 2-3 of our young players and picks to appease Stern 4) depending on who's left over, we can make lateral trades (eg with Indiana for Granger/Martin swap) to put out championship caliber team of: Team A Gasol/Gasol/Granger/Lee/Lowry or Team B Gasol/Gasol/?/Martin/Lowry Pure awesome!
Isn't it necessary to do the Pau Gasol trade before we can commit that kind of salary to a FA? Also, Marc might be easier to get once Pau is already here.
Actually... yeah. I think there was a source that said Griz would match offers unless Marc expressed he didn't want to be there anymore.
Here's my trade proposal: Lakers incoming: CP3 Outgoing: Lamar + Pau Rockets Incoming: Pau Gasol Outgoing: Martin, Scola, Dragic, 2012 NYK Draft pick, NOH Incoming: Lamar, Martin, Scola, Dragic, 2012 NYK pick, Outgoing: CP3 Salaries match and makes sense for all three teams. It's perfectly legal. Oh... wait...
Rockets trade: Luis Scola, Chase Budinger,2012 Knicks Pick Suns Trade: Marcin Gortat, Earl Clark Trade Exception for Budinger's slary Don't put it trade machine they haven't taken out Vince Carter's salary yet. I think they're like 7 million below cap since they waived him. If they amnesty Childress's contract that'll give them some cap room to work with this and next off season. Maybe throw in Jordan Hill too. If we do include him, maybe sign another forward in case some goes down since Motiejunas is overseas. Lowry/Dragic/Flynn Martin/Lee/Flynn Williams/Morris/Parsons Patterson/Hill/Morris/Parsons Gortat/Thabeet/Hill Nash/Teflair/Brown Dudley/Brown/Budinger Hill/Budinger/Pietrus Scola/Warrick/Frye Lopez/Frye/Siler I think we both upgrade, and become 4-5 seeds.
Time to see if the Hornets will take one or more of Hill, Flynn, Thabeet or Williams for nothing in return so that the Rockets can still salvage Nene and look for other opportunities. This would seem to be the most natural and least complicated thing to do. Hornets only have 6 guys under contract and apparently are not allowed to take on long term deals, so they can use a cheapish body or two.
Do you still want Nene if he is sharing the front court with Scola. It doesn't seem like a good fit. Nene only made sense as a piece of the Pau puzzle, but that is over now. I do agree we could unload some of the fodder on NO, but not in order to pursue Nene.
Nene is a talent, you get him when you can. If you need to find someone who fits better than Scola, you do that later. And I think Scola and Patterson are a good enough fit with Nene: Nene works inside while Scola and Patterson have solid shooting range.
HOU trades: Martin, Hill MIN trades: Randolph, Webster, Utah's 2012 1st, MEM's 2012 1st (Minnesota would first trade Randolph to HOU for a part of Battier TPE, which Houston would then trade Hill for the newly created Minnesota TPE). Saves Houston ~$6 million to throw an offer to Nene or M. Gasol.
Time to just get Kamen. The clips need to clear space to match the offer on Jordan. Offer the clips Hill and Flynn. Kamen is better than a lot of people on this board think, plus he is in the last year of his contract. If he plays great he leads us to the playoffs. If he sucks we wash our hands of him and get a better lottery pick and cap space next year. I would rather take this path than over pay for Nene or Daly and be stuck with a grossly overpaid player for years.
If we want to go into tank mode lets send Scola and Martin to Minnesota for a deal bringing back Kevin Love.
See, that seems like the kind of thing the Knicks would have done back when they were giving big deals to the likes of Weatherspoon. Basically, throwing money at players to stay a relevant team, but never formulating a cohesive plan to develop a team capable of winning a title. Overpaying for Nene to put alongside Pau for a 3-4 year window in which the Rockets could chase a decent free agent in 2012 and then compete for a title -- cohesive plan. Overpaying for Nene to slap him alongside what we happen to have, to not have good cap space in 2012, and to ensure both mediocrity and a lack of cap maneuverability -- Isiah Thomasesque. I think it might in fact be time to beat a tactical retreat, trade players like Scola and Martin for draft picks and re-position the team to be a player in the draft and free agency of next year. In particular, Indiana has a lot of cap space, and seems like they are going to strike out of the front court free agency bidding. Trade them Scola for Paul George and their draft pick next year. See if you can trade Lee and some contract fodder players for Jefferson (If need be use Martin instead). After that I'd do what I could to get Kaman (Dragic? Flynn? -- the clips do need point depth). A Front court of Jefferson, Kaman and Patterson along with wings of Martin, George, Budd, and Morris would be tough alongside Lowry. And if you end up with Lee instead of Martin...it might work out even better. This allows youth like Patterson and George to potentially flourish. Then, that on display talent, along with a few picks next year, Donatus and Lull coming to America. Hey Morey, better a tactical retreat than Custard's last stand.
Tanking Trades: 1. Kyle Lowry to Clippers for Minnesota's unprotected 2012 1st round pick 2. Kevin Martin to Chicago for Omer Asik, Charlotte pick (top 14 protected in 2012, top 12 protected in 2013, top 10 protected in 2014, top 8 protected in 2015, unprotected in 2016), Chicago 2012 1st rounder (lottery protected: like it would really matter) 3. Luis Scola and Goran Dragic to Boston for Clippers pick (top 10 protected in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, unprotected in 2016) Goals: Give best opportunity over next five years to get top 3-10 picks and clear room for young players to show what they can do. Between our pick with the way the team would look and Minnesota, odds would be good to get Anthony Davis.
