uhhh...yah. Its simple math. No 1 option means you are getting the majority of the shots...so you score the most points... For example Kyrie irving is the no 1 option cause he leads the team in points. CP3 could easily drop 25 a night but chooses to act like a PG and differ being the 2nd or even 3rd option some nights. My point is CP3 is the best PG and the no 3 player. But because he is so good and knows what his strengths are and chooses not to be no 1 option. So I dont believe he would have an issue scoring 15-16 points a night while getting 12-13 assists a night and Harden and Howard both scoring 20+ points. But your right he would no doubt be the leader of the team. All parties would have to accept that...and if howard had a problem with that...well go get milsap instead. I am sure Morey would feel the same. CP3>>>>>>>>>>>>Howard CP3 is the priority Hes the best player in the conversation.
miami had erik spolestra....lol...everyone thought this guy was r****ded the first year. Not a good point. Not to mention we could easily bring any free agent coach we wanted next year. Chemistry is out the window at this point anyway.
That'll work until one GM calls the other and they find out it's all a bluff. I don't think you can run a prisoner's dilemma in the NBA. It'll only work if it's actually true that Paul and Howard have decided to come to Houston. Of course you will have vets taking cut-rate contracts to play with a Paul/Harden/Howard superteam. It worked in Miami and Boston and Chicago when they were great. It worked for the Rockets in the mid-to-late 90s. And Alexander has said he'd pay a luxury tax for a contender and has shown his willingness to spend, so I don't see that as a limiting factor. Incidentally, I agree on preferring Paul/Asik to Lin/Howard. I agree. As good as Harden is, if Chris Paul came, he'd be #1 and Harden #2. Talent-wise, it may be a wash. But Paul seems to have a more dominant personality, and he has the benefit of controlling the ball as the point guard. And though I'm sure this is endlessly frustrating for Howard, he's third. He needs to come to grips with that and accept his identity as the defensive anchor and third option instead of yearning in vain to be the first offensive option. That's what I worry about with Paul -- you lose some utilization by having two great players in the same backcourt. Of course, that also happens as we saw with Dream/Barkley when you have two great low-post scorers in the same frontcourt. But, that's going to happen when you have 3 great players, so I'm okay with losing some utilization if the alternative is having only 2 great players. The ideal scenario is probably what OKC has -- PG, SF and C -- but I wouldn't quibble.
I do hope you are keeping in mind the minimum roster numbers. going by your scenario: the only guaranteed contracts next year. Lin 8.3M Asik 8.3M Harden 13.6M White 1.7M DMo 1.4M Jones 1.5M Robinson 3.5M comes up to about 37M (plus 2M for empty roster spots) Cap is 58M this year Taxline is 70M [all numbers via Shamsports] Only 7 players on the roster if you released/declined all options and unguaranteed contracts. Teams must have 12 spots filled or they have to pay cap holds on the vacant spots roughly equal to a minimum rookie salary per slot.(about 500k) Unguaranteed contracts. All these guys are under contract for next year, but the Rockets could release them without financial penalties. Parsons Beverley Smith Anderson Ohlbrecht If you traded like you are saying, Paul would be right about 18M and Howard at 20M so add the additional amount of their salaries to Lin and Asiks above(an additional 22M roughly) That equals 59M with just the 7 guaranteed contracts. Just over the cap. That isnt even counting the amounts that will need to be paid to Parsons at the very least or the additional 5-6 players you would need to add to the roster. Basically....I find it EXTREMELY doubtful they can afford both Paul and Howard.
Yep as I said in the other topic. The only hurdle is for the cap. Forget Josh Smith. If you get three superstars together you can just sign mostly anyone to fill out your team because you can have a superstar player on the court at all times. But Morey gets past the cap hurdle Chris Paul and Dwight Howard would be absolute fools to turn it down. People said that Wade and Lebron wouldn't work either. In fact Morey thought it would not really work out IIRC. Fact is these guys respect each other. Harden deferred to Westbrook and Durant...honestly some people may not want to hear it but Harden may just have a hard time trusting some of his current teammates.
I'm not saying it won't work, but you are not going to be utilizing the maximum strength of both players, and you need to be if you are paying them max money. Lebron and Wade both took a little less than max to coalesce and it took them a season to get the chemistry right to begin with. I feel like we can spend the money on a great front court player because having two max level players in one backcourt hasn't really proven to be a winning formula. You need elite big men to win a championship.
I'd actually be far more willing to explore signing Brandon Jennings than Paul. If Harden is going to handle the ball why not bring in a gunner to play next to him in the back court?
Sure you would be. They are both shooters and creators...they can both shoot when the other has passed to them. They also do not always have to be on the court at the same time. That is the biggest advantage to having three superstars that you can keep two on the bench and still have a formidable team while the other two rest. You need elite big men....well that is what Howard is for isn't it?
First post, decently long time lurker. I do want to point out what Juan Valdez pointed out. While it is technically possible to offer both Howard and CP3 a max contract, we would be tight on roster spots afterwards. We actually have $39.3 in guaranteed money at the moment, tied up in 7 players (per http://www.hoopsworld.com/houston-rockets-team-salary). Let us assume the salary cap for next yr goes up to $60M, as is widely believed. This is an assumption -- it could easily remain around $58M, but revenues are reportedly up for the nba, so some upward shift on the salary cap is not a ridiculous assumption. Working w/ $60M, we would be able to sign Howard outright to the $20.4M he would command on a max contract, but of course, we would not renounce our rights to Parsons and probably not Bev either, so let us pretend we keep them both (for about $0.9M a piece). TRob would have to be moved for free then. I think it is reasonable that we can get TRob moved for free either to LAL in a S&T, or to any other team for just a 2nd round pick. We would then have to move Lin + Asik just to afford CP3's $18.4M max contract under a $60M scheme. Moving Asik for a first round pick is SUPER easy. S&T to LAL would be easy too as no way LAL turns that down if Dwight is leaving. Lin is the tricky part, and the hardest part of this longshot materializing. Who is willing to take Lin for free? He's an $8.3M non-expiring hit to the cap. Maybe Utah? But okay, assume we CAN move him for free... So now, on the roster, we have CP3, Harden, Parsons, DMo, TJones, Howard, White and Bev. We are at the salary cap of $60M (already assuming it goes to this) with just 8 players. Now of course our PHX 2nd rounder and MLE exception can net us our 4th and 5th roster spots, but most likely, we will have to find a suitor willing to take one of our young PFs for free. This is a little tricky, and we can assume White is unmovable (unless Morey is sly and moved him w/ Asik in the same deal, like a bad K -- least it is expiring)...so one of TJones or DMo must be given away for free. That clears up ~$1.5M to sign 3 players to the minimum of $500k each (minimum amount required, really closer to $490k but whatevs) to get us to 12 roster spots. So all in all, technically do-able, but not easy at all. Requires a lot of teams in a lot of trades and a lot of players agreeing to things. Lots of assumptions. If getting LBJ, DWade and Bosh on a team was hard, this is harder, as in that case, those 3 only had to sign as FAs. No trades necessary to clear space. But of course, Howard and CP3 can make life easier by not only signing here, but also taking a pay cut like LBJ, Bosh and DWade did. Then life is easier -- I know CP3 would, but not sure about Howard.
Yes but we cannot afford both at max contracts. You need to choose one or the other and at this point I would take Dwight cause he would be a great roll man.
Hey, why not go for broke! Sign me up for CP3 and DH12! BTW, IF the Rockets could ever get CP3 and DH12 to buy into joining Harden here in Houston, the Rockets have to do what it takes to get it done. And if that means blowing up the roster to do it, so be it. That is what Miami did, and over the last 2 years they have been able to get some role players to fill the void.
Any one that comes here will be turning down money. If they are both after the absolute most money they can get then we have no hope of signing either.
A lot of IF´s... Howard is a possibility after the nightmare season he had in LA, though i think he likes the stardom and wont leave that city. Paul seems probable from a basketball point of view, but considering a buisnesman point of view you never let go the "golden key" Lin is in today´s most powerfull economy for a shot at an NBA title.
Correct me if i'm wrong. But, i was told many times that sign and trades pretty much won't exist anymore. So we can't sign and trade anything i guess? All we can do is do 2 big packages to trade. 1 package with Asik+fillers and 1 with Lin+fillers. And then we can just sign cp3 and Dwight? Eh..CP3 stays. Dwight is more of a possibility but still a long shot. Don't think CP3 and Harden will work together anyway.
It's only doable if CP2 and D12 are willing to take a pay cut. I have to say OP hit the bulleye with plan A. Plan B is to sign D12 and trade Asik for a PF, possibly Amir Johnson, Millsap, or Ryan Anderson Plan C is to S&T Millsap or Smoove. Plan D is to trade for Pau Gasol for one year rental/expiring contract and wait for 2014 class of FAs. Plan E is to stay pat and make minor ungrades.
