Random Houston Rockets Trade Ideas - 2012-13

A healthy Granger would solve most of the Pacers' depth issues. This seems like a deal for a rebuilding team, not a team that was 1 game away from the finals.

It's a well built and fair deal overall but I doubt any of the other teams (besides the Rockets) would do it. They all give up the better player, and there's the "superfriends" factor for Miami.

 

First time post. Please tell me if this trade scenario is realistic.

• Trade Omer Asik & D-Mo to Philadelphia for the 11th pick of the draft. If rejected, make the same offer to Dallas for the 13th pick of the draft.

• Give away the 11th pick of the 2013 draft, the 34th pick of the 2013 draft, and a 2015 1st rd pick to any team that will accept a salary dump of Jeremy Lin's $16.7M 2-yr contract.

• Give away Thomas Robinson and $3M cash to any team that will accept Royce White's $1.7M contract.

The Rockets will now only have $21.3M commited to 10 players in the roster: Harden, Parsons, Jones, Smith, Beverly, and 5 cap holds at the league minimum. They'll have $37.2M of cap space to fill 2 roster spots.

• Sign Chris Paul to the max deal he's eligible for: $79M over 4 years.

• Offer Dwight an identical contract to Chris Paul's: $79M over 4 years. This is $8M short of the max Dwight is eligible for.

• Re-sign Carlos Delfino using the Room Mid-Level Exception (approx $2.5M).

This gives the Rockets a solid 8-man rotation that will benefit from some continuity. Only 2 of those 8 players didn't play for Kevin McHale last season:

C: D.Howard (G.Smith)
PF: T.Jones (G.Smith)
SF: C.Parsons (C.Delfino)
SG: J.Harden (C.Delfino)
PG: C.Paul (P.Beverly)​

Realistic, or not?

 

Not. No one is going to take Royce White, not even for TRob and $3M. The litigation risk is too high. He'll either sue under discrimination and the ADA if he gets cut/waived/not offered a new contract (meritless and frivolous lawsuit but that won't stop him). Or he'll get an underaged girl pregnant in the bangbus and get the entire team sued for aiding and abetting statutory rape because they provided inadequate supervision of a mentally disturbed individual and paid his gas money. And then there are the twitter rampages that will eat up news cycles and questions from reporters, especially if he starts going after the team in his twitter rampages.

And I don't think you'll need to ship all those picks with Lin. Someone will take him for free, and you can probably even get something back. His contract isn't that bad. It's about par for his performance. Average salary for a non-rookie starting PG, and he's producing like an avg one so far with potential upside in the future to be more. Not a superstar performance, but he's not getting a superstar salary either. People really need to look at what starting PG's get paid on non-rookie salaries if they think $8M is too much. $8M is not going to get you a super PG. Some lackluster team in need of a spark or buzz or a PG to orchestrate (Jazz with all those Big Men and no PG?) will take a flyer on him.

Why would you trade away Omer before you even know if Dwight will sign? You can't even talk to Dwight until free agency begins. And if you trade Omer for picks in this upcoming draft, it will be before free agency begins.

And not only are you asking Dwight Howard to take less than his max, you're actually asking him to take less than he currently makes. If you think money isn't important compared to winning, you should see Harden at the negotiation table with OKC after winning 6th man of the yr and the WCF. Money is always important. Taking less than max is one thing. But if you think Howard is going to take less than he made last year as well....well, that might be asking too much. The salary he made last year is more than CP3's upcoming max. So not only are you asking to forgo the 5th yr and bird right raises in LA, and not only are you asking him to take less than the max he can get with HOU, but now you're asking him to take less than he made last year as well (especially when CP3 is getting his max)? No way he goes for that much of a sacrifice.

And the Rockets won't touch Delfino till the injury/recovery/health issues are resolved. They learned enough from the Yao years. They're not going to commit money to him when he can't even play right now. Wait for him to come back from rehab, then assess.

 

Terrible.

You're giving away the farm just to dump salary. Lin and TRob have way more value than having to give away draft picks to dump them.

 

I'm sorry, but you're wrong. Why would Royce White be unhappy? Getting waived would be the best thing to happen to him. He would receive the entire amount guaranteed in his current contract. And he won't be forced to endure another season in the D-League just to collect his paycheck. Best of all, he becomes an unrestricted free agent one year early. No need to waste another year in the D-League just to become a free agent next summer. Plus, he would actually earn more money if he is waived. He'd receive his salary from his old Rockets contract, plus whatever salary he gets from his new team (in the NBA, in Europe, or in China).

The idea here is that teams will make the Rockets pay through the nose to clear cap space. If they sense the Rockets are desperate to clear cap room to for a blockbuster Dwight/CP3 move, they will exploit the situation. It's like when the Heat were forced to overpay just to unload Michael Beasley during the Summer of Lebron.

Also, I disagree about Jeremy Lin's trade value. I believe the Rockets were the only team willing to pay him $8.4M salary last summer. And I think we can all agree that his value today is significantly lower than it was in the immediate afterglow of Linsanity.

 

He would be unhappy if he languished on the bench or in the D-leagues on another team waiting out his contract. And if he's waived, he would get even MORE money by sitting back and suing for free cash to cover imaginary infringements on his civil rights under the ADA. Better than playing in the D-leagues or playing in Europe. Just sit back and sue (meritless and frivolous lawsuit, but he can hope to make enough of a publicity stink that the team will settle and and pay up just to quiet him). Any money he gets from his lawsuit for punitive damages and pain and suffering and infringements on his civil rights would be gravy on top of getting his full salary paid up from the waiving. You can never have too much money, especially when you're cranking out babymamas and child support and whatever money he wants to start his own music label.

The Knicks FO were reportedly celebrating and willing to match after hearing the 5/5/10/10 offer. That caused Les to goad Morey into upping the offer. The 5/5/10/10 offer would have been $7.5M on average, not that far off from the $8.3M he's getting against the cap now. It's the fact that it's poison-pilled into the last year on top of the Knicks tax situation that caused them to decline matching the 5/5/15, not because of the $8.3M. And if you read the ESPN Six-Degrees article, there were other teams after Lin. He only chose to visit with Houston because he only needed 1 offer to bring back to the Knicks, when everyone assumed them would match, so why waste time visiting teams. And other teams didn't go after him as hard because they all assumed the Knicks would match "up to a billion dollars." I do agree that other teams would try to apply pressure if they thought Morey was desperate for capspace, though. Anyway, it's a given that you need to pay a premium if you want to pry away RFA's, and even then you may still fail to pry them away.

 

I realize that the rumors are just that, but if the clippers are considering griffin on a Howard deal and I'm morey, I pick up the phone and offer the farm for the leagues best under 28 power forward. Asik, parsons, Robinson, a future pick. Whatever it takes. Sign a 3 (granger or iggy if they'll take a discount or roll with delfino and Garcia of they won't). A core of harden, Lin (if he busts his ass to be a defender and spot up 3 man) and griffin is a really solid core.

 

I would salary dump lin and robinson/d-mo to bucks who will lose their backcourt this summer. After signing Howard, I'm trading Asik to phoenix for Dragic. Sign Jermaine O'Neal and Mcgrady. Bring brooks and beverly back.

 

Ouch! I certainly wouldn't, Leeb. O'Neal? McGrady? You lost me there. Asik for Dragic? Really? I think Omer is worth more than that and wouldn't do it. I like Dragic, but for Asik? Nope, wouldn't make those moves.

 

Lin+Asik+fillers for Rondo+Bradley.

I don't think Celtics would accept though. Maybe if you switch Courtney Lee for Bradley, although Lee has been terrible for the Celtics this season.

 

I am all for dumping Lin but I'd stick with Asik and beverely, while trying to bring llull over.

 

Lakers get Granger+Asik
Pacers get Lin+T Rob
Houston gets Howard then sign CP3
cut and stretch white
for depth use MLE/Vet Min sign Dalembert and Garcia


CP3/Bev
Harden/Anderson
Parsons/Garcia
Jone/D Mo
Howard/Dalembert

Lakers do this bc Asik would be good with Gasol and Granger is an expiring contract
Pacers do it for young talent and a real pg
Rockets do it to win championships

 

That's cool. I brought up j'oneal as a backup to jones and howard. I'm figuring for 20-25 mins a night the rockets get a vet rebounder,shot blocker,post up,mid range shooting big. Been watching o'neal last couple of years and he seems to have gotten his lift and mobility back. All I'm talking is for a yr or 2 to help howard and jones out.I know the mcgrady deal is still a sore subject for a lot of people,but I'm looking at it the same way I do o'neal. He's a high iq, vet,swing who can play 20-25 mins backing up harden and parsons. In response to asik for dragic, I think asik have good value. To me that value is a pg who played under mchale like dragic did. I guess you can get more,but I also think other teams see his ceiling too. That's not a bad thing. What do you think u can get for asik? Probably can get kg if u want to go that route. I would argue with it.

 

Thanks for explaining your reasoning. You've clearly seen more of O'Neal lately than I have, so perhaps I shouldn't be quick to dismiss him. As for McGrady, the few minutes I've seen him play with the Spurs aren't enough to make me believe that he has his health back (or his back back!). I just don't want to go through another melodrama with the guy. Maybe he'll show us something next year that'll impress me, but lord, it was misery dealing with all his issues before we ended our relationship with him. I will admit that he looked the part of a former star willing to come off the bench with a smile on his face on the Spurs. My opinion is that the Spurs can have him. :-D-

As for Dragic, you probably recall that I absolutely hated letting him go, and thought it a big mistake. I'd love to see him back on the Rockets, but can't see Les and Morey going in that direction again. I think Alexander, for good or ill, likes have Jeremy for reasons that go beyond how well he plays basketball. I don't see that as a slam at Lin, who I like and see as having some upside, even if I think Dragic is a better fit (I do). The two bringing Goran back would shock the hell out of me.

What could we get for Omer better than Dragic? I think the possibilities are endless. Just looking at your suggestion of Dragic, I wouldn't consider doing that unless we were also given an unprotected 1st from the Suns next year. Even then, we could probably improve on that (the player we could get, not the pick, which would be a jewel). Do the Suns have a 1st next summer? Also, although I realize the odds of affording both are very slim, my gut feeling is that Omer on the Rocks is a big positive from Dwight's perspective. It wouldn't surprise me if we kept him at least through next season if Morey manages to steal Howard from the Lakers. Then we might move him in 2014.

 

Trying to think of a good S&T scenario where we sign Dwight Howard, and then we make a 3-way S&T involving Utah to get Paul Millsap. Anyone got anything? Utah needs a PG, but I don't see them taking Lin + picks so it would likely take a 3-way deal for us to not get ripped off.

 

Milsap is a borderline tweener and doesn't show up consistently enough. pass

 

Talking about trading Asik is ridiculous. Asik is already becoming a monster player. He become unstoppable. Why would we need to trade him? We just signed him last offseason and now we trade him? Not make sense at all. I know its Howard, but come on. Asik is already better than Howard. If we want Howard, we better still keep Asik. We can both play Howard and Asik. I am okay with trading Lin but I am worried about his departure affect our marketing.

Acquiring Howard + Paul are possible, but we need to be careful about our current players that are getting better and stronger.

 

Asik is already better than Howard? Seriously? I'm a diehard Rockets fans since the early 90's and don't get me wrong, I love Omer but, he's not anywhere near Dwight's level. Omer cannot post up, cannot shoot jumpers, he always fumbles the ball even off simple passes and is not a good finisher especially when there's a defender infront of him. He's awesome on defense though but Dwight is a game changer on defense as well.

 

Yeah, but I am concerned about Howard's injury. I don't know if he will be 100% or not. Howard seems not 100% in every game he played last season. That's what it concerned me. I rather want to keep 100% Asik.

 

Even an injured Howard (17.1ppg,12.3rpg,2.4bpg), beat a Healthy Omer (10.1ppg,11.7rpg,1.1) this season. Howard is a franchise/game changer. Omer is a solid solid role player. I like both. Both Omer will never be a Dwight. That's all.