CBS Sports: Rockets the most serious "rental" team pursuing Howard

I guess it depends on the trade.

Dwight and Turk for say

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=7d3fblc

Scola, Martin, Morris and NYK 1st rounder (crappy thing is you have to include dallembert to make it work $$$ wise...and to give them a center) Maybe we can redirect scola and get another piece because thats a lot to pay for a rental.

The thing is...this is RISKY...but It takes a lottery pick we dont need. Our two only real cap hits. Giving us the most money to spend in free agency. So worst case scenario we go through super fast rebuild.

We will have a team of Lowry Lee Parsons/Bud Patterson/??? Dwight/???
to go into 2012 with money spend on names like:

Deron Williams
Raymond Felton
STEVE NASH
Eric Gordon
RAY ALLEN
Nick Young
Jeff Green
Wilson Chandler (possibly)
KEVIN GARNETT
Kris Humpries
Miachel beasley
Back up C's like:
Omir Asik
Kaman
(plus a bunch of other nice young guards like bayless and sessions)

You would basically be able to custom build a team around Dwight. Next season...if he wants to play with D will...you trade lowry in a sign and trade for D will and Humpries or something. Or you can add Garnett and Allen if he wnats to play with vets... You basically tell howard...sign with us and you get most money , play with your boy Lee, a large market, to play where the great Bigs played...and as icing on the cake will be we will custom make a team around you.

 

Would it still be depressing as all hell if he signs an extension?

 

yes. but the thing is they don't count towards the salary cap.

 

Scola is a winner?

 

of course not....i just don't think anyone expects that would actually happen. would love to be surprised though.

 

I just don't see a Rockets team, post-DHo trade, being competitive enough to actually convince him to resign. I think he'd feel like, at best, he was on the Magic of the West. Unless Morey can work some absolute wizardry in the early goings of free agency.

 

We had 2 superstars and were contenders multiple years. It isn't dmorey's fault they got injured. He pulled of those deals to surround our superstars with the best possible players. Now we are left with assets after one retired and the other tore his acl

 

I don't think Morey would pull the trigger if he didn't honestly believe there was a chance.

 

I wish the Rockets would get permission to speak to DHoward before they pull the trigger, if he agrees to come over for a rental then theres a good chance we could resign him.

 

He wins in the olympics.

 

of course there's a chance.

i also think morey has a limited window and needs to do something massive to shake things up...so he's willing to risk a lot more now than he would have in years past. a team that can't sell tickets, never finds itself on national TV and people have stopped watching locally is not going to support a GM keeping his job very long.

 

I'm fully aware of that, but it is completely irrelevant to my point. I am not, nor will I ever, assign blame to Morey for the failure of Tracy/Yao.

 

Honestly the more I think about it...you do it.

This draft will suck for us...either we get 14 and 15 picks...on a team loaded with young guys that cant get playing time... or we get the 12-15 pick and loose our pick. Either way it doesnt make us better without a trade.

If we can include scola and martin while keeping lowry ...we basically keep all the players that are really playing right now and effective for us...and add howard. Legit chance at the western conference championship.

Then we have a great shot at keeping howard at that point. Be able to say hey... we won or almost won it all. We can give you the most money...we can add who you want and keep who want. Finally he would be the MAN ...the no 1 option on a team coached by one of the best bigs in NBA history. In a large market. With a Wiz of a GM that just took a big risk.

I think if magic will trade us...you have to do it... moderately low risk (take in consideration salary relief and morey's ability to rebuild) with insanely high reward...all those guys would die to play with howard in houston...for mchale.

 

I see what you are saying now.what could have been....

 

If you want to have a minimum chance that Howard stay in Houston, better not touch Turkoglu's contract.
The Nets will not have any bad contract.

 

With regards to Dwight being acquired and potentially signing an extension, here are the positives:

1. Houston is a VERY large city, and significant media market.
2. Houston is a VERY international city
3. Houston already has a VERY large Chinese fan base

Why do the above matter? Because as much as anything, the process is being driven by Dwight's relationship with Adidas. His contract - his SHOE CONTRACT - is also coming up for renewal. And he wants a D.Rose esque deal ($200 million). And I think, based out of Houston, he could get that.

So if you factor in (1) potential for large shoe contract, (2) potential to sign him to the biggest max deal if you have his rights, (3) no state income tax, and (4) team probable to at least be extremely competitive

it is possible that he could resign.

But that possibility is so minute, it's almost laughable.

Houston vs. NYC/LA as preferred destinations to get the biggest endorsements, have the best lifestyle and then win (a wash) is laughable. It's much better than Houston vs. Orlando, but c'mon (and no, I don't want to get into an argument about which city is better than which city... this is popular opinion, by a large large majority... NYC/LA>>>Houston>>>>>>Orlando).

 

Kaboing!

Nailed it.


Do ya think Yao could get Dwight some China connections for Adidas and a huge shoe deal????

 

Imagine that last 3 minutes of defense against the Thunder last night with Yao in the middle!

 

You think this guy cares about being competitive? He's willing to leave the 3rd best team in the East to go play with his buddy in New Jersey.

I think with Cap space D-Will will come. It would be their team and they already know that this GM can surround them with great role players. This whole team is a bunch of great role players.

 

Orlando fan forum already talking about having a lineup of Lowry,Kmart,Hedo,Anderson,Dalembert and they really like it. Magic fans want Lowry,Martin,Parsons and Sammy D.