As Carmelo Anthony leans toward leaving New York, Chicago and Houston emerge as frontrunners

Man I don't even know the point you are getting at with this. Seems like quite a stretch.

 

id take this over melo anyday

 

Bring back Kobe, add Melo and the Lakers will still be a lottery team in the West.

 

Asik and Lin are still on the Rockets. If Melo is making his decision tomorrow, it is not likely to be with us. NY has the edge over LA I think.

 

I could see Kobe-Gasol-Melo make the playoffs. Who knows, they could be pretty good for a year or two.

 

Assuming we have deals lined up for them, I don't see how this is relevant.

 

He can make his decision tomorrow and still choose the Rockets. He can't sign until the 10th. When Carmelo can sign, the Rockets can complete the Asik trade and then trade Lin.

Not relevant as Fullcourt said.

 

It's not and Asik isn't on the Rockets he has already been traded to the Hornets, I believe that small portion of the trade is agreed upon in principle and anything that happens this week will dictate what happens next. I honestly wouldn't be upset getting that pick + Ryan Anderson. I also wouldn't be surprised to see that trade stretched to get us KLove.

 

They always have had the edge. Notice that the Lakers only really showed up as serious suitors when Dallas moved on? Only two suitors with true max cap space.

This Melo free agency hoopla was basically a big power play charade for Melo & his camp. They wanted to ensure a max offer, and power in the front office to make moves. They didn't get any big moves out of New York, but they are getting the max.

 

I don't think so - I bet half the "sources" we see quoted regarding NBA rumors are intentional leeks from agents. My point is just that some of these rumors seem to suggest a real motive to me. I mean it's a known fact the guys at CAA exercise more decision making power within the Knicks organization than the average agents. If your an agent, you stand to make the most of opportunity by wielding strong influence on the wealthiest teams like CAA does with the Knicks. You got to throw ethics out the door when talking about agents - they can and will manipulate players and teams if given the chance.

 

If we miss on Melo, part of me wouldn't mind him going to LA. It sure would make the Western Conference regular season and playoffs interesting. Also 1)it's one more team you can possibly slot above the Pelicans and keep the pick that we own in the lottery and 2) takes one team out of the mix for Parsons offers.

 

I don't think a superstar player needs to do anything extra to guarantee him a max contract.

 

They would challenge for the 8th seed and probably miss. An Old Kobe Bryant that has not been healthy for a while and Gasol who is still good but not the defender he used to be by a long shot. Who would they pass?

SA
OKC
LAC
HOU
POR
GS
Memphis

7 spots are locks

Dallas & Phoenix are still damn near 50 win teams.

Melo couldn't do it in the very week east with Tyson Chandler defending the paint. Now he is suddenly going to come a much better conference where even the 8th seed will likely have 50 wins and the 9th best team will likely have between 48 and 50 wins.

Melo is an elite level scorer that would be awesome as a PF on a team like Houston, stretching the floor for Dwight on offense. But Melo is not going to cary a team into the play-offs by himself. Kobe and Gasol are far past their primes. Good luck to ya Melo if you go to the Lakers.

By the way, where are all of the, "Melo will stay in the East because that is the easiest rout to the NBA Finals" talk now that LAL is in the picture? That was a huge deal when the Media was talking about Houston.

 

I think the chances we still have that Pelicans pick by the end of the summer are very small. Really just my opinion though.

 

-------HOU has gotten word from Melo camp that he's not coming, feeling is he's staying in NY after failed attempt at scaring NY into SnT to CHI

 

source?

 

https://twitter.com/InsiderJayNBA/status/485876442744360960

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>HOU has gotten word from Melo camp that he's not coming, feeling is he's staying in NY after failed attempt at scaring NY into SnT to CHI</p>&mdash; Jason McLaed (@InsiderJayNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/InsiderJayNBA/statuses/485876442744360960">July 6, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Who is this guy?

 

Phil has repeatedly challenged Anthony to take less.

 

Two tweets in one year, strange.

 

Fraud source, it's from InsiderJayNBA. He reported that Josh Smith to Hou was going to happen.