[CBS Sports] Howard no lock for Lakers; interested in Rockets

The whole what will people think and media think is overrated . Dwight is being blasted for not winning . When he starts winning believe me all of those nay sayers , fans ,media will quickly jump in the bandwagon and praise him . This is how our society works , kobe was hated on ,won a championship all was forgoten, Tiger woods,Dennis rodman , Jordan , etc You win people forget and jump in the bandwagon . All he has to do is win

 

Agreed. Winning solves everything for Dwight, especially his image problems.

 

James Harden and the distinct possibility of Josh Smith being on a young roster is one reason. Another reason is that the Lakers got old, are capped out next year and Kobe blew his achilles out. Try thinking a little before you post.

 

Lin
Harden
Parsons
J.smith
Howard

Would be top 5 in defense and offense.
Top 3 in the West

 

Can you explain how we would afford that, please?

 

If Howard does sign here. We have to move Lin and asik to get another piece... Like josh smith or Paul milsap

 

Sign and trade with Atlanta using Asik as the main chip to get Smith. The Rockets wouldn't have to clear a major piece to clear up enough cap space to nab Howard to a max contract if he agreed. This is very do-able.

 

Atlanta would be thrilled to land Asik for Smith.

 

If Howard signs, the team is at or slightly above the cap, which I think would be fine from Les's perspective as the status quo over the next two years* given it pretty much guarantees contention over that period of time.

At that point I don't think that finding a significant upgrade any other position, including PF, is going to be all that easy. In fact, I would argue that it would not be worth moving more than a single player in the Asik/Lin/Parsons trifecta unless you got another superstar-level player in return.

One thing people seem to be forgetting is that the team was unusually healthy last year. Even Morey pointed out that they should have expected far more injuries. In that case, you need significantly more bench depth than the Rockets displayed last season for every single position. For instance, ask the Bulls if they would like to have Asik back given Noah's injuries. Or consider that Howard can be slotted into the PF slot for some minutes to significantly mitigate the talent drop-off at that position from the four available guys we have now. Or even consider that Lin has shown he can actually play combo/shooting guard much better than the other guys who were on the bench should Harden go down.

Depth is something you have to account for if you're building a team over the long haul. Yes, you can go all-risk all-reward and just pay max for three guys and surround them with chumps, but at that point you risk a severe drop-off in talent should any of them go down. Look at OKC for a prime example of what happens to a team's playoff run once that happens.

There are three levels of achievement:

1) Getting to the playoffs
2) Going deep into the playoffs
3) Getting the championship

The Rockets are already clearly past the #1 hurdle for the next few years. #2 is an open question as to whether they can do it with the current roster, but I don't think anyone would be surprised given the relative youth and inexperience of the roster that they will improve to go deeper in the playoffs if all they did was stick together. #3 is a mix of having the talent, experience, and depth to reach #2 with a lot of luck thrown in. As much as everyone likes to pretend it is true, not even the Heat are a guarantee to make the finals every year, especially when you consider the risk of injuries to key players like LeBron and Bosh.


*For the umpteenth time, Lin and Asik hit the cap exactly the same over the next two years regardless of how much they are actually paid

 

I think you're just asking me to do it just so you can pick me apart.
Here you go...

Current cap commitments given that we waive all non-guaranteed contracts except Parsons and Beverley.

Harden 13.6
Asik 8.3
Lin 8.3
Robinson 3.5
White 1.7
Jones 1.5
D-Mo 1.4
Parsons 0.9
Beverley 0.7
Ohlbrecht 0.7
Smith 0.8

Total 41.4 million

I'm working with a cap set at $62 million.

Reason:
Cap stuck at 58 for last 3 years, estimates of $5 billion (20%) record breaking league revenue increase this year from China sales http://www.nba.com/2012/news/11/13/stern-nba-revenue.ap/index.html

62 -41.4 = 20.6 million cap room

(July 10) Sign Dwight Howard max = 20.5

How:
Sign outright using cap room

Reason:
I'm not gonna go through all the reasons, read my sig. Mainly because Houston chicks rock.

(July 15) Trade for Josh Smith 4 / 14m

How:
Send Asik + T-Rob (11.8) for J.Smith (14)

Reason:
4/14 is not the max for J.Smith but is 105% of his current 13.2m salary. I think J.Smith will take a little less to play with his friend Dwight. Smith has also indicated he wants to leave Atlanta. Its hard to force Atlanta to do this trade (why would they want to help us?). Atlanta did try to trade Smith to Houston for Asik and Parsons at the deadline so we know they are interested in Asik at least. I think they could be convinced to take T-Rob as he is a top 5 draft pick and Atlanta has had success developing young big men like Horford.

*Please note I personally do not think this trade will happen. I was just asked to explain how this would work. I believe if we get Howard, we will keep Asik and play the Twin Towers.

After the acquisition of Howard and J.Smith

Lin 8.3
Harden 13.6
Parsons 0.9
J.Smith 14.0
Howard 20.5

Beverley 0.7
2nd Rounder (???)
White 1.7
Jones 1.5
D-Mo 1.4
Ohlbrecht 0.7
G.Smith 0.8

Total Cap Hit = 64.1 million

I believe we could use some "exceptions" to sign some veteran role players to round out the roster.

***This numbers I used are not precise and this is a rather simplistic method of how we could trade for Howard and J.Smith. Obviously, an increase in the cap limit would effect the first year max value of Howard, but I think we could probably waive non-guaranteed contracts of G.Smith and Ohlbrecht if needed.

Don't ask me to do this for Chris Paul because its NOT HAPPENING! Keep dreaming.

Just to reiterate, I believe we will keep Asik after signing Dwight outright and play the Twin Towers.

For the real capologists out there, feel free to pick apart my scenario... always willing to learn from the experts.

 

this is a good option at the moment, but i would prefer milsap, smarter player and will be cheaper.

 

TRob is much better defensively than JoshSmith already. In 2 years, he will be also better offensively. Why spending money to down grade? Not to mention giving away Asik.

 

Yep, Milsap last year was at 7.2 million. We could probably land him at 8-9 million.

 

If you feel that way then you could just substitute T-Jones or D-Mo in the trade for J.Smith.

Asik + T-Jones = J.Smith

or

Asik + D-Mo = J.Smith.

 

Trob is better than Josh Smith defensively!? That's crazy talk. You realize if Trob was good at anything, he would get PT right?

 

I don't think he's better than Smith defensively, but I believe the main reason he didn't see the court much was because he was mentally young and wasn't able to find his role in the offense or his own personal rhythm.

 

Does anybody know what exception we can use when over the cap to bring back Delfino, Garcia or possibly Brooks?

I heard there was some 3.5m MLE?

 

I want july 1 to hurry up already

 

Big fan of Milslap

guy has high motor can hit 3'sss play physical

is value about 8 million... high IQ.. good character

keep asik