Westbrook Is a clear upgrade over CP3

Maybe we can send a Covid tester to Portland.....?

 

Think we can trade him for CP3?

Chris is the perfect fit for Harden. It could work if Harden buys in.


Oh wait.

 

The original plan was trying to get Butler to come here to play with Harden and CP3. Then it was trying to get Westbrook while keeping CP3. While Harden and CP3 were not friends it reportedly wasn't toxic.

How would waiving CP3 give us flexibility to rebuild? His salary would still be on the team's cap hold. The best we could do is stretch provision the remainder of the contract, but CP3's contract was so big and we were already well over the cap (near luxury tax territory). So waiving him wouldn't create any cap space, we'd would lose the ability to trade his contract for other pieces, and we'd lose a pretty decent player. I'm not seeing the flexibility.

 

I thought bought out contracts would not be on cap hold.

As for the original plan, I don't see how you can afford Butler without either shedding CP3's contract or unloading all non-minimum players on the team. Same with Westbrook. Basketball-wise, Getting Butler makes sense. Westbrook with Harden and CP3? I don't know how it would work. I guess nano ball would be an apt description, starting 3 point guards.

 

Not anymore! His showing in the Playoffs says that he isn't the same player anymore and does not deserve
the money on his present contract! Yetti

 

If a player is waived all guaranteed salary remains on the team salary for cap purposes. If a player agrees to a buyout the amount the team and player agree to pay the player remains on the team salary. We owed CP3 $124M and it would be unlikely he would agree to give us a significant amount back in a buyout. He worked his whole career to get this kind of contract. Andre Iguodala refused to give Memphis a single penny back in a potential buyout this season, as a point of reference.

The plan for Butler was to unload Eric Gordon and Capela in deals we don't know the details of.

https://rocketswire.usatoday.com/20...ler-ghosted-harden-rockets-in-2019-offseason/

 

The salaries of Harden, Westbrook, and Butler add up to fill up the whole cap. So there's about 23M left under the tax line for all the other guys, less than 2M average per person. You can have one MLE level role player (e.g. Covington) and the rest are minimum contracts. Can that kind of team contend for championship?

 

Yea actually, a lot of championship teams were top heavy.

 

Any team with Westbrook is not a championship team.

 

Oh sorry, I thought I saw Paul their instead of Westbrook. That's right. As long as he is here, we arent winning anything.

 

The plan was for CP3, Harden, and Butler. Depth isn't as necessary if you have a superstar trio. The plan for the Lakers this past offseason was to get Lebron, AD, and Kawhi. They would have been surrounded by minimum contract players. The plan blew up in their face when Kawhi signed with the Clippers. In the aftermath the Lakers had to settle for mostly minimum players on one-year deals to round out their roster, with the exception of Danny Green. Even on plan B and not that much quality depth they are in a position to win a championship this season. If they had Kawhi I don't think any other team would even stand a chance.

 

The only championship teams with three max contracts in recent history were Miami, Cleveland, and Golden State. They were all way over the tax line and had more than one MLE level role players. Can you think of any contending team that fill 2/3 of the roster with minimum contracts? I am sure there are gems playing for cheap. But can you imagine your whole bench and one of your starters are all this type of players?

If our owner was willing to pay like those 3-star teams, it'd be another story.

 

That is prolly the reason many downgraded to only having 2 superstars.

They have to be severely 2 way players though.

KD had to accept a significant paycut for it to work.

I thought the Cleveland one was below the others in regard of starpower.

 

Sure I can, our bench was trash this year. But Jimmy Butler is an eliete two way player and so is Cp3. Harden is the best offensive weapon in the game and play defense at a high level. Tucker is an elite role player. Yea I think you can fill out contracts and that team could get a championship(provided we have at least one big).

 

Avery Bradley, KCP, and McGee aren't minimum players. Even a guy like Caruso makes more than 2.5M. I guess if you are a super team, some veterans may be willing to play for cheap.

 

Yeah, I also think the Lakers' role players were one tier above the Rockets' but our players could shoot some.

But nobody would listen, everyone goes, oh Rockets in 6, Rockets in 6.

It was more House Jr. in hotel room having 6.

 

Don't forget, they gave KCP a ridiculous deal a couple years ago so that he could take a smaller deal going forward

 

Agree to disagree. If we didn't have a guy like Gordon or similar, who would we play when the starters sit? Rivers, McClemore, and Green. That's pretty much it.

 

Ill take it with three all nba players. Agree to disagree though.