This thread might be a moot point, now that Vancouver has been given permission to move, but here goes. With less than 2 weeks to go until the trade deadline, will the Rockets make a trade or not? I've checked this one out on RealGM & it works. It's similar to the ones that have been posted before, but with some twists & an explanation as to why it could work for those that say we can't do it. Houston sends Cato/Walt/LOS to Miami Houston sends Bullard to Vancouver Houston sends KT to Chicago Chicago sends Drew/Crawford/Artest/Miller/Fizer to Vancouver Miami sends Ceballos/A.C.Green/Majerle to Vancouver Miami sends Ricky Davis to Chicago Vancouver sends Reeves/Bibby to Chicago Vancouver sends Shareef to Houston Houston would receive a trade exception of $1,976,787. The biggest question that I see is, does Miami want Cato? If they think, like we used to, that Cato has potential & can overcome his injury problems, they might. If Chicago agreed to the deal, they would have a starting lineup of: C: Reeves PF: Brand/KT SF: Davis SG: Mercer PG: Bibby If Miami agreed to this deal, they would have a starting lineup of: C: Cato PF: Grant/LOS SF: Mason/Walt SG: Jones PG: Hardaway If Vancouver agreed to this deal, They would have a sarting lineup of: C: Miller PF: Fizer SF: Swift/Artest SG: Dickerson PG: Crawford/Drew Vancouver would probably waive Bullard, so that we could resign him for the minimum & they would waive Ceballos/Green/Majerle, so that Miami could resign which ever one they wanted, to round out their roster. In this deal Miami gets the center they need & a couple of players that they've allegedly shown an interest in. Chicago gets a great young PG & a center that they've shown some interest in acquiring, along with depth at the PF spot with KT & a small, but promising SF in Davis. Vancouver gets $13 mill in cap relief, can opt out of Miller's contract & resign him for less, & still ends up with a talented, but very young lineup. Houston gets Shareef. As far as draft picks, Houston would receive Chicago's #2 pick this year as compensation for releasing them of their obligation for the Drew trade. The #2 will in essence be the equivalent of a late first round pick, because of the depth in the draft. Chicago would then have to send their #1 pick this year to Vancouver, who would then alter our obligation to them for the Francis trade, by letting us repay them with an unconditional #1 pick in the next 5 years, instead of by next year. I'm not sure what to throw in as far as other picks go, but I would like to keep our 2 #1's this year & try to get a good center. Now, for those that say we can't get Webber & Shareef, you're not completely wrong, nor are you completely right, according to the numbers that I've crunched. If the trade I just proposed actually went through, we would have 5 players under contract at the end of the year & 4 free agents to resign. We could renounce everyone else. Using "Davo's Rocket Salary Page", I came up with these salaries for next year: Langhi- $465,850 Francis- $3,473,520 Collier- $1,280,040 Mobley- $4,410,450 Shareef- $11,250,000 (used RealGM's salary) For a total of $20,879,860 under contract. We would have to renounce Dream & resign him at the veterans minimum of $1 million later, which would leave us with Shandon- $2,860,000 Moochie- $628,200 MO- $2,700.000 as unrenounced free agents that count against the cap for a total of $6,188,200. That would give us a total salary of $29,668,060 with Maloney's $2.6 mill salary (according to RealGM) added in. Assuming that the cap limit will be $43,000,000 next year, that would leave us with $13,331,940 available for Webber. I've seen reports that he could get around $12.8 million as a free agent, so for this example, I'll assume we sign him for $13,000,000. We could then resign Shandon first, to get us over the cap & then Moochie/MO/Dream. Shandon-$4,500,000 (early bird) Moochie-$628,200 Dream-$1,000,000 (veteran's minimum) MO-$4,500,000 (4.5 mill exception) By resigning all our FA's, the $6,188,200 that counted against the cap would be replaced with the amount that we resign them for, which is $10,628,200. This would give us a total salary of $47,108,060. Add in about $3,000,00 for rookies & FA fillers for a total of $50,108,060. That would put us $7,108,060 over the assumed cap of $43,000,000. We could keep KT instead (the trade still works) & renounce MO, which would drop another $3.5 mill off the total salary so that we would only be $3,608,060 over the cap. Personally, I'd rather have MO, but it's not my money to spend. Would you, as the owner, do this deal if you could floor a team that would look like this? Keep in mind that the salaries increase each year, but the cap isn't guaranteed to increase. C: Dream/#1 draft pick/Collier PF: Webber/MO or KT/Draft pick or FA SF: Shareef/Langhi SG: Anderson/Mobley PG: Francis/Moochie I promise to never do another post this long. ------------------ [This message has been edited by Hottoddie (edited February 13, 2001).] [This message has been edited by Hottoddie (edited February 13, 2001).]
