For Sterling, it's about keeping CP3, don't think he wants to give up Griffin at all. He loves Blake, kid sold them out from day 1.
The issue isn't whether the Lakers would re-sign Dwight or not. Of course they would, if given the chance. The question is whether what they'd be given in a trade is worth two things. 1.) The luxury tax impact, which either means paying an enormous bill for a terrible team, or amnestying Pau and still paying somewhat of a tax bill 2.) The impact of the acquired salaries on their cap room next summer Dwight signing with Houston outright does save the Lakers millions and/or prevents them from potentially amnestying Pau. That has value. It doesn't make it a slam dunk to decline any S&T, but it's a factor being considered.
Google This : Blake Griffin Dwight Howard Trade Lakers Clippers Sure the Clippers would love to not throw Blakes' name out there in a Dwight Howard S&T, but we all know that its the case. Blake Griffin is what the Lakers will demand, and its what they need to send to get the deal done. If the Clippers want Dwight, they have to give up Griffin and most likely Bledsoe. There is no way around that one. At the end of the day, the Clippers will give him up to get Dwight and keep CP3 in town despite what Chris Broussard said yesterday about how the Clippers are NOT offering up Griffin.
Exactly. But if you're already meeting his needs with finding his "black" coach in Doc and a suitable PF/C that could take you to the WCF how would you have that much more leverage to say, "HEY Dwight's coming too! And you're trading away Griffin for him BTW...." I don't see that happening.
From Larry Coon: “Bledsoe/Griffin proposal was never made. This is just an agent working people. One guess as to which agent. Clippers are not talking to teams about Griffin, and wouldn’t do a Griffin/Howard trade.” http://forums.lakersground.net/viewtopic.php?t=161883&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=225 If Rivers comes to LA, and it seems likely that will happen, then Paul's leverage is GONE. There is no way on planet earth that Doc Rivers, a guy who could get almost any job he wants, would agree to work with Donald Sterling and the LA Clippers without assurances from Paul. Same for Kevin Garnett, who has a no-trade clause. If/when that deal gets done, the chance of Dwight to the Clippers goes from 0.1% to 0.0%.
Don't be silly. You're trying to make Dwight sound old. He'll only be 27 years old when the season starts. That is not old by any stretch of the imagination. He is younger than Chris Paul. And Dwight during his rehab season was more dominant than Griffin last year. He was 17/12.4/2.5 compared to Griffin's 18/8/0.6. With Dwight's rehab season out of the way, there's no reason to think he won't be better next season. Personally, I think it's amazing that Dwight missed only 6 games last year. And I don't think many people would agree with your assessment that Griffin has "more potential". Griffin has barely improved in his 3 seasons in the NBA. Statistically, he has gone from 23/12 to 21/11 to 18/8. In terms of his development, he's not exactly heading in the right direction, is he? The Clippers were not on Dwight's wish-list last year. The only teams that were on his list were the Nets, Mavs, and Lakers.
If Dwight wants to team up with CP3, it's going to cost him. Smaller raises each year PLUS he'd still be in Cali paying that tax. Yes he will opt out after 3 yrs and sign another contract, but I wonder over that entire span how much money he would lose with lower raises + taxes.
The big problem I have with this scenario is simply a trade of such magnitude between a team that has always been looked on with disdain by pretty much everyone in and out of the league for as long as I can remember, and the Lakers, with the Celtics, and possibly the Bulls due to Jordan, Jackson, and the 6 championships, seen as one of the premier franchises in league history. The trade gives the Clippers arguably the best point guard and the best center in the NBA, while giving the Lakers some young talent. This is a team that plays in the same city, and the same stadium as the Lakers! This isn't the Rockets getting Maxwell or Scola from the Spurs, this is a gigantic deal sure to make the Clippers the "hot ticket" in the Lakers' own backyard. I just don't see that happening. Yes, the current Buss kid is clearly an idiot and should be selling lemonade on a street corner, instead of having the Lakers to play with, but even he couldn't be this stupid.
Negotiation is all about convincing the other side you have a good alternative, or 2nd option. By definition your 2nd option is not as good as the 1st option (which you negotiate for), but the better the 2nd option is the more leverage you have. In a potential Lakers/Clippers sign and trade negotiation, for Howard: 1st option -- S&T to Clippers 2nd option -- sign outright with Houston/Atlanta/whatever 3rd option -- sign with Lakers For lakers: 1st option -- sign Howard 2nd option -- get assets more valuable than cap space 3rd option -- get cap space by letting him walk As soon as Howard decides and convinces the Lakers that Houston is a better option for him than the Lakers, Lakers' 1st option is no longer possible, they have to change their goal to 2nd option and therefore have to listen to Clippers' offer. So the options for both sides becomes: Howard: 1) S&T to Clippers vs 2) sign outright with Houston etc. Lakers: 1) get valuable assets vs 2) get cap space Howard will then have to convince the Lakers in some way that he is almost as happy signing with Houston as going to the clippers so that his fall-off between his two options is small. And the Clippers will have to present a very good package that gives the Lakers a much better option than having just the cap space. When that happens, a deal is made, and we are screwed. Such a scenario is totally legitimate. The Lakers cannot simple call Howard bluff because he is NOT bluffing. If they call him bluff, they are basically forcing him to sign with us, which will actually happen and they are left with just cap space.
why is howard's best option a SnT to the clippers? He'll get the HOU contract at the Cali state tax rate, and it's very much arguable whether he'll be in a better position to win than in HOU, plus he'll be actively hated by a large percentage of the people living in the very city he occupies.
I'm not making him sound like anything, I'm taking all my assessment from the Clippers FO POV. I would trade Dwight for Blake mainly because Dwight can have a bigger impact on the game more than Blake while still offering the athleticism that Blake has so far. The Clippers love Blake, he is their Golden Boy and will not be trading him for a (again from their POV) washed up center who has gone thru one of the worst seasons with one of the more storied franchise in the Lakers and still has no idea where he wants to be long term. I hope they keep thinking that way because that means Dwight will be ripe for the taking once July 10th roles around. Also The Cat just posted this which backs up my view of what the Clippers are thinking:
As I already said: If the Lakers re-sign Dwight and amnesty Pau, their payroll will be the same as New York's and Brooklyn's. You can't possibly argue that the Lakers won't go the same distance as those teams (in terms of luxury tax)? The only player the Lakers have on their payroll next summer is Steve Nash. With or without Dwight, the Lakers will not be paying luxury tax next season. Assuming Kobe re-signs at a hometown discount (like Duncan & Garnett did last year)... the Lakers should still be able to offer a near-max contract to a free agent next summer. The only impact Dwight's contract will have on the Lakers next season is that it will prevent them from going after LeBron. But let's be honest here. LeBron is not leaving Miami for Los Angeles next summer.
i'm even starting to think that the lakers BEST option is to let dwight walk. even with dwight, the lakers are in limbo next year with the kobe situation. so basically we can write off next year barring a miraculous resurgence from a team identical to last year's only without its best player. Think of what tanking next year enables: 1) option to amnesty metta rather than pau. metta has two year's, whereas pau's contract is expiring, and if pau is the only viable option with nash next year, he might actually muster some interest at the trade deadline for a team looking for a playoff push without longterm cap impact. 2) avoiding luxury tax AND avoiding repeater penalty. 3) extra assets including high 2014 draft pick in loaded draft, whatever future draft considerations you can get for Pau along with garbage expirings, plus INSANE cap space for a franchise that can actually draw FAs, especially if Kobe agrees to come back for very little, which is plausible if his motivation is rings and rings alone. Whereas you sign Dwight, you likely end up 1) losing pau for nothing to amnesty; 2) still facing a luxury tax bill and a repeater tax bill, even if it's less; 3) likely ending up with a 2014 pick in the dreaded 12-18 range; 4) facing current pressure to contend that will likely result in reduced financial flexibility in FA
oops sorry wrong about metta having two years. still would be better to amnesty him though, b/c pau is only one egregiously miscoached year from being a legit superstar, whereas as metta is certifiably washed up.
Nobody in their right mind would consider Dwight Howard a "washed up" center. He missed only 6 games the entire year. He averaged 17.1/12.4/2.4 for god's sake. He was still named to the All-NBA team this season. Those are pretty impressive accomplishments for any center. They're especially remarkable when you consider he did it during a rehab season, having taken 6 months off basketball. And don't forget the Lakers got much better as Dwight got healthier towards the end of the season. They had a 24-11 record since February 1. They got knocked out of the playoffs by the Spurs, who are looking like the eventual champs. The funny thing is that I don't necessarily disagree with your idea that the Clippers will be reluctant to do a Dwight trade because of their sentimental attachment to Griffin. But it's hard to take your opinions seriously when you say silly things like Dwight being a "washed up" center or Griffin having "more potential". I know it's the Internet, you really don't need to make ridiculous exaggerations just to get your point across.
Of course this whole scenario depends on how much the Lakers value Griffin/Bledsoe/whatever Clips offer versus cap space, and if that outweighs the pain of seeing a super team forming right in LA. If they like cap space more than the Clips package, we are safe. If they like that package, it's very bad for us -- there isn't too much we can do to prevent that. In fact, the more Howard likes us, the more leverage he has to force his way to the Clippers. What we can try include: 1) Give the Lakers an even better S&T package than the Clipper's offer. Well, not possible, we just don't have Blake to offer. 2) Avoid being used as leverage. Somehow give the Lakers an impression that Howard will sign with them instead of us if S&T breaks apart. Well, how could you convince Howard to sign here while convince the Lakers he will not? 3) Make Howard like us so much that we are his 1st option and he does not explore S&T to Clippers. This is the only thing Rockets can do.
First of all, stop taking snippets of my OP and replying to those. You're making it sound like I said I think Dwight is washed up and yes Blake does have more potential mainly because he is younger and still has time to learn to play his position. Now he'll more than likely have a mentor in KG who can teach him how to play the PF position the correct way. You don't have to take anything I say on here seriously, trust me I could care less what you think of me. But the fact that you are still arguing numbers when I've been giving my perception of what the Clippers FO is thinking, is idiotic, no one is arguing how good or bad either is. My point is they don't want Dwight and would rather keep Blake because he's homegrown and still has a high ceiling, IN THEIR EYES! Jeezus Christ, you peoples reading comprehension skills really need some work.
I'm just analyzing the leverage he in a S&T negotiation if he prefers clippers. This may or may not be the case, and the Rockets should be actively working to convince Howard we are the best option. All I'm saying is that Clippers is a real competitor to us even without cap space IF the Lakers value Griffin/Bledsoe more than cap space.
You're failing to grasp the repercussions of doing that in the long term. There's a reason Jerry West said "you should just let him walk", there's a reason that Lebron never met with a team who didn't have the cap space to sign him outright. The reasons for these two things occurring are the same.
