Marc Stein: Christopher Paul is already recruiting Lebron

capela to Suns confirmed?

 

When you put it like that you realize Harden is just a superstar 6th man lol. He is meant to be the third wheel of a super team. Thats how Okc made it to the finals that one year, Harden just need to focus of gettin buckets when the Kd and russ offense was stagnant.

Cp3, Lebron MDA offense with Harden as the go to iso man at the end of the clock would wreck the Warriors. Hopefully Lebron comes to West with us

 

Deandre Jordan on the cheap to Hou confirmed

 

Booker to houston confirmed

 

What’s the PHX connection?

 

we trading capela and deandre gonna sign for cheap

 

How on earth do you have any spacing with Lebron in the post on the court with Embiid and Simmons?

Unless Simmons develops a 3 pointer in the offseason, that elbow is going to be overpopulated.

 

Except, he needs to win. This is all about legacy and he is pissed off. HE NEEDS TO WIN. He can't do that in Cleveland, Philly, or LA. HE NEEDS TO BEAT THE WARRIORS...and he knows a team that did just that without him. For once we didn't **** the bed when we had an opportunity to make a great impression.

 

There's only one man stopping that plan and his name is Ryan Anderson.

 

capela & ryan traded to PHX?!

 

Nah, but I sure did whirligig saw everything I came in contact with.

 

,don't we have to take salary back unless the Suns are way under the cap.

 

Is it possible to trade Capela afterwards right way if we match his salary as a RFA that was offered by another team?

 

The magic number is $28.8m in outgoing salary to absorb Lebron via the opt in route. Ryno's $20m makes up the bulk of that , the easiest and probably most palatable option for Cleveland is EG's $13m which allows the Rockets to take back a total of $41.25 of which $35m is Lebron. Then you have another $6.25 you can add with another player from Cleveland or a 3rd team involved.
Cleveland can probably leverage a 1st round pick out of EG at the trade deadline from some contender …..

Tucker and Ryno is short of the outgoing salary required , you'd have to add a 3rd salary to the mix.

 

That's what I have posted in the past but just didn't remember the exact number. It is another small contract. There are some interesting 3 team options that can get us the most back that I am sure Marley has played out. It's been a while since I diagrammed them all out. There is one where the Rockets can get LBJ and PG13. We would have to send out the Ryno, EGo, Tucker combo with our 1st split between Cavs and OKMe but it works. I 100% doubt it happens but just playing with contracts.

 

So any plane landing in Phoenix, is taking away the 1st pick ?

 

I feel the chances are about the same before the WCF, the odds of Rockets really winning a championship was around 50% at best even with HC which the refs negated thoroughly.

With the Rox possibly going to the Finals, Lebron would have never joined.

 

I'm skeptical as well, but I don't think there's anything more overrated in sports than FA "visits" for max players. For mid-tier guys, perhaps, since their usage and role can vary significantly from one system to the next. But for legit stars, and LeBron is obviously at the forefront of that list, they are the system. Just a matter of where he thinks is his best chance to win, and he can figure that out with his circle just looking at the rosters, salaries, etc. That said, I'm not naive that some stars do enjoy the attention that comes with these dog-and-pony show visits.

I also think the laser focus some have on West vs. East is overdone. If this were 5 years ago, perhaps. But outside of GSW and HOU (and in this hypothetical, he'd be joining HOU so they're irrelevant), no one else in the West even won 50 games! The West really isn't all that good anymore, in terms of a high volume of contenders. Either way, it all comes down to one seven-game series against the Warriors... just depends on whether it's the West Finals or the NBA Finals.

 

Woj: He's gotten better. ... For LeBron to do what he's doing, you kept waiting in his 30s there'd be a point where does he need to go play with guys where he doesn't have to be the best player. He'll be the best player on the court until his late 30s.

Bobby: That's the question he'll ask himself this summer. Do I want to go another 4-5 years in Cleveland putting this team on my shoulders? I wrote about Chris Paul. Be careful on the back end paying $45M when he's 36/37. I don't have to write that about LeBron. I would sleep OK at night if I had to give him $200M on a new contract.

Woj: You mentioned Chris Paul. When the Rockets made that deal for Paul & knew they would re-sign him FA, they made a conscious decision we're gonna have to live with that $46M salary when he's not nearly the same player in his late 30s but we'll make a run now & deal with it later. We'll see how that plays out in their contract talks. Chris Paul didn't turn down $200M from the Clippers because the Rockets would somehow talk him into saving them LT money. I don't imagine it playing out that way.

Bobby: I said it was a business arrangement. I'll opt in, take $10M less in 2017-18, you can go get someone with your MLE(PJ Tucker), the roster stays intact. If he were to sign, that would have been a complete gut job. Now it's time for me to make up what I lost last summer.

Woj: That trade last summer was a novel idea at the time. No one saw it coming. We may see it as a blueprint this summer. The S&T, talking to GMs & agents, they're all gonna try to be creative here to create some player movement and create salary for players like a DeAndre Jordan perhaps or any other number of guys, that the S&T may be the way to get your guy paid & where he wants to be where there's no salary cap space.

Bobby: [...] The lack of cap flexibility, we'll probably see some players force a S&T. We may see it with LeBron going the CP3 route, opting in & finding a new home.

Woj: If hypothetically LeBron wanted to go to Houston, S&T is really only the only way other than Houston gutting their roster. Daryl Morey & Houston, they're not afraid to be creative & find ways to move pieces around the board but you documented it on ESPN.com, it would take a lot of work to do that. [...]