Morey should have traded the entire coaching staff, Lin, Clyde Drexler, and an Ipad for Doc Rivers in order to steal him away from the Clippers. Then CP3 would have all the reasons in the world to come to Houston.
But would it be as good a situation here? To open up enough capspace for CP3, the Rockets only needed to get rid of Asik(would have assets back), Lin(perhaps throw in assets from Asik trade) and either TJones or DMo(likely can be pwned off for a 2nd rounder). Which leaves CP3/Harden/Parsons/Jones or DMo/Howard Beverley/Garcia/Smith/Camby and perhaps some other vet minimum guys with all our own picks in the future. Even if CP3 can force out of the Clippers any time he wants, it's unlikely he can possibly match this time of star power on his new team.
No, the only thing from the story that mattered was CP3 is king in LA now. In Houston, he'd be Dwyane Wade, the oldest and most likely the first to become secondary as the years go by while sharing the spotlight with 2 other players. On the Clippers, he's the man and Blake is the side-kick.
There are rumors that both the Rockets' analytics guys and the coaching staff are in love with Bev and his upside. So it will be interesting to see what happens in the very near future considering who got promoted in the the recent front office shuffle.
Yep, I'm a huge Parsons fan but you would give him up every day for CP3. DM would have just signed Cisco to play SF and moved on.
I doubt that, not because he doesn't think CP3 is worth it (Morey is on record saying that his all time starting 5 would be CP3, Jordan, LeBron, Duncan, Hakeem), but because I don't think he thinks he would have to. He could keep Parsons and still get CP3 and Dwight if they take a slight pay cut to play together (with Harden).
There's no point in discussing whether Morey would've traded Parsons or not. Because he didn't have to. Given how easily GS shedded Jefferson/Biedrins salaries, the Rockets would've had no problem shedding Asik/Lin's salaries. What's the worst that can happen? We throw in a future 1st or 2?
I would give Simmons a lot more credibility than that. He is not, and never claims to be a journalist, who has tendencies to make in-the-know comments. Simmons has no incentive in this kind of stuff. When he talks about things, he either goes completely hypothetical ("I ran this on the trade machine yesterday"), or gives rather credible information. Remember, he has made a lot of friends in the NBA over the years and is as connected as an ESPN personality can be. In this case, he is a friend of the GM involved - our very own DM.
Simmons is very well connected and has sources the likes of Woj/Stein don't. Among many scoops, Bill was the ONLY guy last August, following the Dwight-to-LA trade, that said Dwight wasn't sold on LA long-term and wasn't a lock to re-sign.
And we could of had a front court of Aging average big men Nene and Pau. Or Washington cold have accepted the Beal for Harden trade, GSW accept the Harden for Thompson. Tons of what ifs in the Association.
