Kinda off topic.... But Bosh is willing to take a pay cut to stay in Miami according to his interview with LeBatard. What if, they all did and added Melo since they are all friends after all. Don't know their cap situation but if Bosh is willing to take a pay cut, I can see the rest of them would too.
If there's one thing Morey has proven he can do in this league, it's punking the Knicks. Steal Jeremy Lin away on a backloaded "poison pill" contract, THEN make NY take him back for the poison pill year? Classic! No. In a salary dump to receive Carmelo Anthony in exchange, it would be nothing short of legendary! But I think it's actually realistic, given that Asik, a first rounder in this draft, and future draft considerations would actually be really good assets to take back. You gotta give some salary to make the trade meet in any case. But someone correct if I'm wrong...can we even do sign-and-trades in this current CBA? Is the answer, yes, but only if you're under the cap like the Rockets are?
Comes down to if Melo wants to play in Houston. He says he's willing to take a paycut to play for a contender. Other than maybe Chicago there's no one else and sorry the Rockets are better than the Bulls. Basically the same arguments we threw around last year with why Dwight should choose Houston. Except now with Dwight the argument is even better.
He might... just to have them off the books to rebuild the whole team... I wouldn't do it. But Phil is a mastermind and it could propel them to the playoffs...
Good point. I think he was fine in Denver. It could be that the Knicks are the cancer. They couldn't turn 2 max players into a eastern conference playoff team.
All of them need to take roughly 30~40% paycut to make that happen. I know chasing rings is all the rage these days, but I'm not sure how that's feasible. I'm also not sure how that's a significantly better situation than the Rockets with Harden and Howard. And with Houston, Melo doesn't even have to give up much if any pay to come. Chicago is clearly our only competition if NY's out of it. Here's hoping for not so rosy news on his knees.
I think there's close to zero percent chance he'd team up in Miami, but it would be a better situation just because they'd walk through the Eastern Conference. But I agree Chicago and New York are the only real teams we have to beat out. I think he's going to end up back in New York, but Houston seems like an obvious choice over Chicago.
For next year? Sure. But over the long haul? I think it evens out more than one may think. The Spurs have continued to contend because of their youth infusion even as their core grew old. But Miami has been the opposite, their rotation's pretty old even beyond the big 3. And if they want to retain some of their young talent, Melo/Lebron/Wade/Bosh would have to take even bigger paycuts. 30~40% paycut is more like the bare minimum necessary to fit everyone under the cap.
Its so funny reading the Knicks forum. They don't seem to realize that melo is a free agent and they aren't getting anything of note for him.
My feeling as well. Would love to have Kevin Love, but not at the expense of Parsons....IF someone the caliber of Carmelo can be had for limited assets.
It's not unique, I remember "Why don't we get Blake Griffin and Eric Bledsoe for Dwight Howard?" from the lakers forums.
Or even more appropriate to the current situation: "Why don't we get Omer Asik, Jeremy Lin and Chandler Parsons?" from Lakers hangouts last year.
I wonder if Dwight Howard actually wants Melo as a teammate. What exactly is his preference as to HOU's offseason moves?
Cyberx said that Dwight wants to be the primary post scorer... so if we acquire Melo, I doubt he plays 4. Melo would play 3 and we'd sign or draft a PF..
Why would you post Melo against power forwards? send him out to the perimeter, watch him destroy them off the dribble. You'd really only post him against smaller people, at small forward.
Exactly. But if he plays 4, he's just as big of a weakness on defense as TJones is now.. Besides if we get Carmelo, I'd suspect Parsons would be dealt.. Maybe not in that specific deal... But a separate one it's quite possible..
Melo's game actually complements Howard better than Harden's. Melo truly is an iso monster whereas Harden is a hybrid PnR/iso player, thus doesn't require Howard to come out and set picks. He's also more perimeter oriented than Harden, better mid range shooter and arguably better 3 point shooter. I personally LOVE Melo's fit with this team on offense. It's the defense and rebounding in particular that I fear with him. He lacks the bulk to take the pounding as a full time PF, even if skillwise that's his best position.
Not sure which team would take Lin + a low 1st rounder in a trade, not his trade value was destroyed by milk hair completely.
