Agreed that Asik and TRob are easy to move. That is why I Don't think they are the hurdles that Lin's contract is. It isn't about whether we can eventually move Lin though -- it is whether we can move him quickly, i.e., by around July 10. That is tough to do in this offseason. And you say convincing CP3 and Dwight to sign in Houston TOGETHER is hard to do. Can you tell me why you think so? Again, do they really prefer living in the city of LA That much more than playing alongside each other WITH Harden and Parsons in Houston? We aren't MIL you know I don't think they'd need to take much of a paycut at all. If it were a large paycut, sure, but it'd be less than a million or only up to a million each if we could move all the aforementioned contracts (some easier than others). I know guaranteed money is nice and all, but that is easily made up by our lack of state income taxes. <$1M is not that big of a deal when they're going to be maxing around $20M/$19M, esp. if it means they get to play together. Now if LAC got KG and Doc Rivers WHILE keeping Bledsoe, I Would be super worried as well. Doesn't seem like that'll be happening though, thankfully: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/9...tant-trading-eric-bledsoe-boston-celtics-deal We will see, though if Clipps lose Bledsoe in that move, I think LAL is even more unlikely to agree to that SnT. The other benefit we have is that we can actually move our contracts separately (albeit in a difficult manner) and sign the two outright. To get to LAC, both players AND the TWO teams have to agree. Here, just the two players. That already makes it slightly easier.
I do not think the Clippers dream will come true. Trust me. I'm an insider. As we speak, I am inside Chris Paul's house.
I can tell you that the Lakers will never do this. That is a worse luxury tax bill than just keeping Howard, and puts them in line again for the even worse repeater tax the following year. I don't see the Lakers taking back salaries in any deal if they can avoid it. I think they let D12 walk and start fixing what Kobe's and Gasol's and all those other ridiculous contracts they have taken on and extended over the last few years.
A poster on RealGM said that a local radio guy says that CP3's people are looking at Houston as a distinct possibility if the celtics/clipps deal does not happen. Dont know if this is true. Did anyone listen to Houston sports radio yesterday?
http://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=1247714&start=195 It's on the bottom part of the page, under the username inquisitive. I dont really think theres much to this rumor.