[NYPost] Rockets could make push for Carmelo (UPDATE: Blog post)

You just have to wait and see what the market dictates. If they feel like they are for sure going to lose a player, I do think Morey seriously considers moving him ahead of schedule to get something for nothing in the past.

However right now (without that third star already in tact) Parsons means waayy too much to this team's success to give up just for the sake of giving him up to not lose him for nothing.

But if Parsons is the lynch pin for the Rockets acquiring a 3rd star player, I think Morey moves him and doesn't think twice. Going back to the Rondo potential deal, I think that probably was a bigger statement about what he thinks of bringing Rondo as that third star under the circumstances (injuries, fit, also impending free agency, etc) than it did about Parsons being locked up as a Rocket forever.

 

True we should Not overpay him,he is Not even a top 5 SF
We should trade him for a good first round pick once we get that third star

 

^This.

So many people think this would be a bad hookup, so to speak, but seriously, let's not argue too much about Morey's interest. If there's a chance, albeit slight, he'll pursue Carmelo Anthony.

Would he be able to make the deal? There's the question.

As Clutch mentioned, the Rockets really can't jerk around for another season. The time to win is now. I have never been completely sold on the idea of acquiring Kevin Love; if it happened, fantastic, wonderful. But who knows what will happen with Love in free agency?

Bring in Melo as the 3 point sniper, especially if you slide him to the 4, and let Harden play more of the facilitator. Harden said he'd rather rack up assists and score less than 20 (naturally he said this after making the All Star game and fully guaranteeing the fifth year of his contract, nullifying the need to score at least 20 ppg as another means of making that $$$).

 

A point that has been brought up (by you if I remember correctly) is that in the summer of 2015 the Rockets can sign someone like Love and then use Parsons Bird rights to match any offer. A near ideal outcome. Howard, Harden, Love, Parsons. WOW.

 

That doesn't exactly make sense. If you can get Anthony without giving up Parsons, you do it. If you can't afford Parsons (salary cap wise) after adding Anthony, then you trade him for picks to another team. You don't throw a valuable trade asset into a sign and trade when you don't have to just because you won't be able to afford their next contract in a year. You just trade them for picks/prospects and use those players to round out your bench and restock for the future.

Or you bite the bullet and pay the luxury tax.

That said, I am personally in the anti-Anthony camp. He is a great player, but, for what his role with the team would be, it is not worth 20+ million per season. We don't need to pay that much of the salary cap in order to get the 4 we need. We should instead retain Parsons for the long term and continue to develop this team. Based on how well they have played this season (their first together), and based on Morey's ability as a GM, I am confident this team will compete for titles for the next few seasons at least.

 

Yep I agree. He's a GREAT player for his current contract I wouldn't move him unless I had to or the opportunity presented itself for a 3rd star player.

 

This makes no sense?. How would our defense be terrible. Carmelo is one of the few who can actually match up with Lebron and blocked his shot twice in there last match up. He can also play the PF position if anything our defense gets better. Chandler off the bench and Melo sliding to PF at times. Melo is an above average defender regardless of what his stats say he can turn **** up when needed.

 

Thats only a question that Les Alexander can answer. Its his money, we just have to wait and see what he does with it (assuming they acquire another "large salary" player before Parsons hits free agency).

Also dont forget that if the Rockets are capped out, and they renounce Parsons, that doesn't mean they can go out and get a free agent like Trevor Ariza. The only reason the Rockets can acquire a "large Salary" player now, and still be able to have another player like Parsons, or Ariza is because they hold Parsons' bird rights.

So even though a spending conscious owner might rather take the player that is making 7 mil vs. 10, he might be stuck paying the 10 mil dollar a year player or losing the talent at that position for nothing.

 

I didn't put it down but I don't think Lin and Asik will be enough to get Carmelo. If Lin/Asik are enough then hell yeah keep Parsons and evaluate when we need to.

I see Carmelo as a trade chip for 2015 if 2014 doesn't work out.

 

I can see Melo deciding to come to the Rockets, even though it would cost him contract money and a year on his deal. Why? The same reason Dwight came here. The same reason James and Bosh went to Miami. Winning a championship and not "wasting" the top years of their careers on a rebuilding team, and in this case, one without a good track record. Heck, with a horrible track record. Jackson coming on board as an executive isn't going to change that disfunctional franchise anytime soon, and I think Melo's smart enough to know that. He wants a ring. He wants endorsements, and playoff success. Finals appearences will produce endorsement money like crazy, as we've seen even in Miami, a smaller market than Houston. Hell, as has been mentioned, Durant is raking it in playing in Oklahoma City.

Will this happen? Unlikely, to give my honest opinion, but as I said, I can see it happening. I think Les is willing to go into "Luxury Tax Land" if Morey can avoid the repeater tax. Does anyone seriously believe that Morey can't manage that? I think he can. It's really all up to Melo and Les. If Melo wants to come here and win, and make a bloody fortune doing so, and Alexander is willing to open his pocketbook, and make a bloody fortune in doing so, in my opinion, then we'll see the cat in Rockets red sometime this summer. My fingers are crossed!



Melo is holding the dustpan while raking it in, but has a flunky running to get him a larger one. Probably a dump truck.

 

It's an assuption from the league office. The league office has historically been pretty accurate on these assumptions. OH....they actually undershot their assumption last year.

I have never said it's written in stone. I have consistently said it is an assumption from the league office and it should be considered. The specific reason why the league office provides this projection is to give all the teams some guidance for their roster moves. IT DOES HAVE VALIDITY AND SHOULD BE CONSIDERED.......NOT IGNORED.

No, never said it was a no-brainer. What I said was the idea that he is going to just give up mounds and mounds of greenbacks to come here to Houston is false. When you consider taxes and cost of living, and the effects on a player's career and future earning of winning a championship or not winning a championship, the idea of Melo giving up less than $12 million of basketball salary over 5 seasons to win championships is VERY REALISTIC. Especially in light of the fact the man himself has said he's willing to take less money to win championships. You can continue to ignore those factors or you can be realistic about them. Winning is important to these guys. They have egos. They have pride. And they want all the glory and MONEY that comes with WINNING! THAT IS A FACT.

No we shouldn't be discounting facts. Facts like we made a run at him at the deadline. Facts like SAS' sources are STILL SAYING that Melo is leaving the Knicks because he wants to WIN. Facts like the state and city tax rates for living in New York and the cost of living there. Facts about how much losing costs these athletes over the course of their careers and lives. Those are all part of the facts that we cannot leave out.

It's highly dismissive and naive to think that no one would make a career move to win based on all the FACTS in play here.

Sarcasm is ok but when you have to resort to sarcasm to make an argument it's troublesome. However, I do agree with you partially here. Age is going to be somewhat of an issue and it's one of the reasons why I personally prefer Love over Melo. And I suspect it will be a factor with Morey as well since Love is one season from free agency. My personal feeling right now is Morey is going to use this Melo scenario (if Melo shows that he wants to come to Houston) as a convenient excuse to bang on Flip about trading for Love. And I am personally wondering if Melo does come out after the season and tell Dolan/PJax that he wants to leave if that will trigger Love telling Flip he is going to leave Minny too. Love as well as Melo sees the teams in the league. He's just as competitive and wants to win just as bad as Melo does. Love may decide to out his desire to move on from Minny if he sees Melo is wanting to come here. I don't know. It's a possibility. A possibility I am hoping occurs so we can add Love to this team instead of Melo. I'd take Melo but I'd like to have Love.

It is a risk. But it's also a risk if he stays. If he stays, he could wind up with 5 years but no rings. Roster can't be rebuilt for another year. Realistically they're not going to be close to winning a championship for another 2 years. And if he gets injured in the meantime....so much for winning a championship. So he banks an extra $50 million but that's about it. No long-term earnings power anywhere close to what he could have if he won a championship.

Money is not the end-all, be-all for all players. Winning means a lot to these guys.

Me too. As long as Love isn't available. But if Love is available I'd prefer Love.

No. We didn't witness that. What we witnessed was a bunch of rumors and gobbly-gook in the media....the vast majority of which is false. Heck, I'm sure there were probably a lot more crappy deals ran past Morey. After all this is GMs trying to cut a deal. But Morey didn't deal. Know why? Because he knows Asik's value. He wasn't going to get short-changed on Asik. What we know is we were trying to acquire Melo. I personally know (can't prove it to you, you'll have to take my word for it) is that Morey could have traded Asik for a first round draft pick.

I have never said you could move players on a dime. Quite the contrary, I know it takes plenty of time for deals that are done to actually develop. Precious few deals happen quickly. And those deals that happen quickly rarely involve top-notch players. So I haven't been dismissive of anything here. What I have done is show you ways that they could be moved. (And I haven't even gone into all the things that could be done here because I am waiting for someone else to confirm what else I have already discovered and had confirmed to me by one source.)

Let me ask you a question here. What would you pay for the #10-#14 pick in the 2014 draft if you were an NBA GM and wanted that pick? If you wanted that pick and you could buy it, would you be willing to give $5 million for it? Everything has a price you know.

All I'm saying about moving Asik and Lin is it isn't IMPOSSIBLE the way some posters are describing here. It's a matter of framing the deal. And with the acquisition of a max free agent, that changes the dynamic a WHOLE LOT regarding what you are willing to trade Asik and Lin for. You don't have to hold out for max value. You're getting max value with the signing of a superstar player. So the dynamics of a trade involving Lin and Asik will be a lot different if we are trying to clear them to sign a free agent versus us trying to trade them for ending contracts and draft picks for a future trade. It's just different dynamic. You have to consider that and not look at everything in vacuum not taking into account dates, times, team conditions, etc.

You are being dismissive of the possibilities and assumptive of the impossibilities.

I've been wrong plenty of times and admitted it. I freely admit I was wrong about Lance Stephenson. I didn't give him a snowball's chance of making it in the NBA. I figured he'd be in prison by now. I can go through my own list of hits and misses on players, teams, etc. at the drop of a hat.

I am hoping with all my heart that I am dead wrong about Terrence Jones and Donatas Motiejunas and them helping us win a championship this season. I would love to admit that I'm wrong about that. Because it would mean we won a championship. Wouldn't bother me a bit to admit I was wrong about how I feel about them. In fact, I'm going to put some more of my money on it. I've already stated what I'm going to donate to the tip jar if we win a championship and I'm wrong about Jones.

Don't mind doing it either because this is the best basketball message board on the planet. Help keep it that way, Dobro, by talking about basketball and ceasing the personal attacks. We're all fans of the home team. It's okay to disagree and still be agreeable. We don't have to turn discussions into a "I'm better than you" contest if we just discuss basketball.

And last but not least. 2 ids in 11 1/2 years.




Yours truly,

Jopatmc, Basketballholic....and the 596 other IDs I haven't had over the 11 1/2 years I've been a part of this board. LOL (that's how you use sarcasm dobro)

 

Yeah, that's pretty nice, and I dont know too many folks that would probably choose Melo over Love.

However I think you are seeing the Rockets maybe thinking that if they got the opportunity to bring in Melo now vs. waiting to see if Love will come, they will most likely take Melo now, and worry about the future later.

Also there might be a knowing floating around the league that Love is almost for sure going to LA in 2015. I also think that the Lakers have the ability to offer a 5 year deal while Houston will only have a 4 year offer to give. However I'm not 100% positive about that rule so I'll have to check.

Love is pretty incredible, and would be an ideal fit. However I just think in this case, if they can get that 3rd star now, and get another full year to compete at a higher level I think they take the bait, and let go of the thought of getting Love in 2015.

 

The Rockets would go into deep luxury tax territory to resign Parsons. He can be the difference between the WCF and a Championship if the Rockets add another star player.

 

We will see. Morey has been focused in on the summer of 2015 for the last 18 months. I imagine the talent costs for dumping Asik's and Lin's contracts would be prohibitively high. But I certainly have no crystal ball.

 

Bingo. The team is competing, but the Rockets brass knows we aren't serious contenders.

Melo would make us that.

 

It depends on the team taking Asik and Lin. For the Knicks, they very well may want both players as they gear up for 2015.

 

Having cap space for Love in 2015 requires similar talent dumps.

Jones, Lin, Dmo, Asik, Smith and both our 2014 and 2015 #1 picks would need to be off the books.

 

First Josh Smith, then Rondo, now Melo? Why do people always link the Rockets to players who are cancers or simply don't fit the team? Can't we ever get a good rumor on a guy that would actually make the team better for a change? No? Okay I await the "Westbrick to Houston" rumors soon.

 

We could sign Love (or some other max free agent) and then go over the cap in 2015 to sign Parsons to a long-term deal. But we can't "match" any offer. Parsons will be unrestricted in 2015. He could walk away if he wants to. As a possible restricted free agent this summer (if we go that route) we have the opportunity to "match" any offer Parsons receives. But next summer he will be unrestricted if we do not let him go through restricted free agency this summer.

 

You and I both know that 2015 is a FALL BACK option for the Rockets. Morey is going to try and get a star caliber player by the next trade deadline. Right now, it is like fishing.... he is waiting for a star player to be available... and he will not be overly picky. I remember Morey saying with star players you "make it work" and that will almost certainly be the case.