Lee is Dwight bait. If we trade for Dwight, he likely stays. If we don't get Dwight, he will most likely be gone. Maybe even S&T'd to Chicago for ..... Omer.
I really want to keep White and Montejuinas.......the rest can go.... But Monty being a left handed really quick big man is a huge advantage, and White has skills that are rare for a big forward.... Please keep those two..... DD
I would love to offer up Martin, Patterson, and Morris but I don't think NO would exactly jump for joy at that offer.
I like to think of this as what is NO's marginal utility for Gordon above his max offer. i.e., at what point does the contract obligation PLUS the players and flexibility we can offer outweight keeping him. Martin, Parsons, Morris/Patterson, T Jones, and Dallas' future 1st should be the max. Lamb, Motie, and White are off limits. We're essentially giving them 2 starters (Martin and Parsons), two prospects (Jones and Morris/Patterson) and a pick, plus increasing their cap flexability by including an expiring in Martin, and not committing a long term contract to an oft injured player.
Here's my theory: 1. The Rockets' preferred pre-Asik signing cap clearance move would be to get a team that's well under the cap but is not in any position to pursue a big time FA (like the Kings) to take some contracts off their hands-- maybe Scola, maybe a combination of Morris, Livingston and Brockman. 2. I know that the Rockets cannot do an economically sensible S&T for Asik and cannot pay Chicago not to match, but I wonder if you can do it in a sort of under-the-table way: Tell the Bulls that, once we have Asik, the following trades might be mutually beneficial to both teams: First Chicago sends Korver and Rip Hamilton to Houston in exchange for a signed and traded Courtney Lee (signed at a starting salary of, say, $5.5 mil), Greg Smith Diamon Simpson and Courtney Fortson. Then in a separate deal, Jon Leuer to Chicago for a top 59 protected 2nd round picks. Korver can be either sent to New Orleans (maybe making part of a 3 team trade) with other assets to land Eric Gordon in Houston. Maybe he can be sent to a 3rd team that wouldn't mind having a sharpshooter on a 1 year, $5 mil contract (or maybe he can do the teams a favor and push back his guarantee deadline so that he can be traded and then waived). For HOU, they get Hamilton on essentially a 1 year contract (2nd yr only $1 mil guaranteed) for a FA they may not want to spend on long-term assuming they get Eric Gordon. Leuer, a decent 6'11'' PF is redundant on the roster with numerous other PFs. Smith is a decent enough young prospect for the Rockets to waive Jeff Adrien and sign him to a multi-year deal last season. For CHI, they actually get out of luxury cap hell, which would have left them kinda screwed with or without Asik in the upcoming season. They'll have an upgrade at SG (Lee over the older Rip), a couple of cheap fill in options up front with Leuer and Smith, and (after waiving Simpson and Fortson) some breathing room under the cap to either bring back Watson for a year or actually offer the mini-mid-level ($3 mil) for a PG like Hinrich without getting hammered with the luxury tax.
We need to not get anyone at this point, but rather get RID of everyone. Got to build around a young star in the draft, not any other way.
ya know, I've been hearing a lot about Jonas these last couple weeks and how he's a potential sleeper for ROTY next year. can't say I've heard the same about Donatas. Didn't he finish up as the leading rebounder for his league last season? Is Jonas that much better than Donatas? I understand one's a C and the other, a PF, but still.
This, absolutely. The guy is.. pretty good. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rRWUvHknGr4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> The question about his health though, are legitimate, at least from watching how he plays. So, the thing I am wondering, from people who have watched him play a lot: are his health concerns a direct result of the way he plays? He is kind of a wrecking ball in there, and if that is the case, then I do not see how we can expect him to ever be healthy. Worth the risk? Yes I think so, but so was Yao and TMac, and it is taking a long long time to recover from those soured situations. Hopefully his injuries have been more flukey bad luck things, and his body can actually hold up under the stress with which he plays.
One thing being overlooked with the Asik signing is if Chicago matches it takes them out of the running for offering Lee a MLE contract. They may have been the single team that wanted him in the worst way. If they match Asik and sign Hinrich, then Lee may fall back to us in a Carl Landry type contract match. That would be another nice, tradable contract with Lee undoubtedly outperforming it. Lee may also see this coming and just sign the QO and live to play in next year's free agency pool as an UFA. In either case, the Rox win.
You do realize that when teams try to build through the draft, they count their lucky stars if they can draft someone like a 23 year old Eric Gordon.
Here's the thing: 1. Even if they DON't Match Asik, they cannot sign anyone to the full $5M MLE without either getting into tax territory or be forced to dump a significant contract. 2. So, the reason why they may decide to match Asik is that "we are ****ed either way, might as well bring Omer back." 3. A Courtney Lee + Leuer + Smith (plus 2 non-guaranteed contract fillers) for Korver+Hamilton deal will actually allow the Bulls to not be ****ed if they let Asik go while also giving Rockets a couple of players who are relatively useful and easy to move (short contract).
i was really eager to hear if those discussions produced any results. At this point, i was willing to trade Scola as a pure salary dump, but to get back a future 1st or satisfy the NJ obligation, that's a huge bonus. As much as i love Scola, the person, I'm really hoping these talks resume after July 11th.
I think that Scola deal with the Nets will be off the table if the Nets make the rumored Joe Johnson trade. That trade involves the Nets literally trading EVERY SINGLE REMAINING CONTRACT ON THEIR BOOKS (except for maybe MarShon Brooks) in exchange for Johnson. If that were to happen, it would be almost impossible to make any trade for Scola. Barring a S&T for either Brook Lopez or Kris Humphries (which I think is highly doubtful), those two trades cannot both be made.
I want to keep Leuen, because he is a legit backup C. Lee, we either need to get whatever we can out of him (future pick?), or cut him loose, if we have Gordon and Lamb, and at least one of Dragic / Lowry. Right now, it looks like we might have Lowry; Dragic might or might not be here.
