Brand/Cassell apart of something BIG!

Here's a hard dose of reality for ya'.

1) The over the cap Rockets can only offer Brand the MLE of $4.5m.

2) Any (according to RealGM) under the cap team for 2003-04...Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, Miami, Orlando, San Antonio, Utah, or Washington can easily outbid the Rockets for Brand.

3) As a Restricted FA, if Brand is made an offer from any of the above teams, the Clippers (if they renounce certain expiring contracts to focus on Brand) can make a higher bid and lock Brand up for 6 or 7 seasons.


Now, you want to explain to me how the Rockets obtain Elton Brand when their primary trading components are:

1) Glen Rice's expiring $9+m contract which is 3x larger than any FA signing (Piatkowski) agreed to by Donald Sterling...

2) Cuttino Mobley who would be a 3rd SG (Q and Maggette)...

3) Eddie Griffin who would be a 3rd PF (Wilcox and Ely)...

IOW, it has a 1 in 500,000 chance of happening...if that...

 

Way to lay the smackdown GATER, I'm so tired of all these posts that make it sound like we even have a snowball's chance in hell of landing Brand.

 

The way Brand comes to Houston will have to be linked to Rice's expiring contract. We need to find a team with tons of picks (maybe Orlando, but experts can chip in here) that somehow wants a big man.....they get Eddie and Rice, trade many picks to Clippers, which is what usually Sterling wants) and they trade out Brand. Moneywide Brand will need to be near Max, if not max itself.

The key is for us to find a team that desparately needs an expiring contract or a big man, and has lots of picks to offer. I do not think that Brand coming here is that impossible a scenario.

The key question is whether bringing Brand here will help our team to move a couple of steps up or not. Marginal improvement will not be sufficient. Plus with three max players would be able to build enough bench and role players - Redd, Eric Paitowski etc. Will he be happy being the third option on offense here - assuming Mobley is gone. I think he and Yao would be a good defensive team, better that Yao and Eddie.

 

I would LOVE to see Cassell back at any time!!!

 

I want no part of Cassell. The only PG more selfish than Francis is Cassell. Cassell is also the one PG who is worse than Francis.

It's funny that people want to bring him in, when his flaws are more glaring than Francis'.

 

Sam is inflicted with the same disease that Francis and Cat are inflicted with...dribbleballhogitis.

We need to be looking for ways to spread out the ball, not looking for ways to keep the ball from spreading.

 

I don't think Cassell would be a good fit on this team as the primary PG. We need a PG that is more of a distributor. Someone that won't take a lot of shots and differ to Yao and Francis for the scoring. We want more motion and movement in our offense and I think if we got Cassell and had Francis as the 2 then we would pretty much be in the same situation as having Francis and Mobley.

As for Brand, here is the deal.

To get Brand it is OBVIOUS that it has to be done via SIGN AND TRADE. He will not be gotten via FA by us via the MCE or most likely by ANYONE with cap room. Word out is that if a team with cap room tries to sign Brand (Nuggets, Spurs etc), the Clippers would then match the offer and keep Brand. Word is that Brand is scared that the Clippers would match any offers and he would be stuck there for 6 years etc. He does not want that unless he sees a committment (which wont happen) of this team trying to be a winner. The same situation can be said for any of the FAs on this team.

So, Brand wants out. The Clippers see Kandi walking this summer for NOTHING. The Clippers see that Brand, Q, Meggette, and Odom are all FAs that can walk NEXT year for NOTHING. What are they going to do? THIS summer is THE summer to move these people because if they take the one year tender offer later this summer from the Clippers then once they do that the Clippers CAN NOT trade them! (Like the Kandi situation this year). So it is NOW OR NEVER for the Clippers with these players.
Either 1) get a long term deal done this summer, 2) sign and trade for some players, or 3) lose them for nothing.

I happen to think the Clippers would want to try to get something here before the lose their talent!

What would the Clippers want? Probably quality players that have cheap salaries. Enter Cuttino Mobley and Eddie Griffin.
If Q and Meggette BOTH leave then Mobley would be important here. One of those guys is likely gone for sure if not both. True the Clippers have Wilcox and Ely but they are losing Kandi and likely Brand for NOTHING. If you were them wouldn't you want someone like Griffin?

Perhaps the Clippers can find a BETTER offer around the league for Brand other than Mobley/Griffin as principals but I think getting Brand is not as much as a pipe dream as some make it out to be.

One more thing. Brand's agent is David Falk and he is one of the more powerful agents in the NBA. If the Rockets are on the same page with Falk on a sign and trade to the Rockets then we have a greater chance of getting it done. Falk has brokered a lot of big trades in the NBA. Plus we did Mo Taylor right on his contract signing him to a sweet deal after coming here as a FA. Falk is Mo Taylor's agent. Do the math.

The thing here is that in a NORMAL situation getting Brand for Mobley/Griffin IS a pipedream but there are CIRCUMSTANCES that are presenting themselves that are allowing us to have a better chance to get someone like Brand.

 

I agree with Gater, but this is how getting Brand is going to be a pipe dream. At the end of the season, Karl Malone decides he wants to move on and Staton retires. Utah comes in and offers Brand 10mill per and Miller the other 8 per yr for the 6 or 7 yrs. Clipps will not match either of those and both players would probably be comfortable playing for a no nonsense winning coach like Sloan. Add those 2 to Harpring and AK-47 and the Rockets will still be behind Utah for yrs to come. For all intensive purposes, I still like the idea of SAR and Glover for Cat,Taylor,and Griffin.

 

Folks, this is why I advocate Stockton and Malone keeping their linkage alive in the Salted desert.

 

It is entirely possible. But again, I am not sure Brand takes ANY offer for fear of being "stuck" in Clipperdom. Brand will stay in LA if he sees a committment to the team for the future. But if he does not see it (which is likely), he may not sign any agreements and stay there one more year so he can pick and choose where he wants to go. The Clippers might be willing to offer Brand a big contract but ONLY Brand. So this is risky for Brand to accept any FA offer for fear of having the offer matched by the Clippers.

I don't think we should assume that the Clippers won't match any big money offers just yet. It is one think for the Clippers to let Kandi walk but they value Brand and Odom MUCH higher! They are not going to let them walk for nothing.

 

You are correct, but Cuttino and Eddie's salaries this summer will not add up to within 15% of the $10 million starting max salary that you will have to give Brand (and don't think for a minute he would take less when co-ROY Steve Francis already has such a deal). Therein lies the problem - who else would the cheap Clips take in addition to Cuttino/Eddie to get the salaries up?

The only other "asset" I see the Clips taking is Rice plus $3 million (with part of Rice's remaining salary being paid by NY, so in reality Sterling gets Rice almost for free, plus freed-up cap space next summer). But that gets our package up to around $17 million, so the least we could receive in return is around $15 million. So the Clips have to throw in another player. It gets complicated.

Frankly, I think the Clips will max out Brand this summer, and that will be the end of it. Our best shot at raiding the Clips is Miller/Odom in sign and trades for Cuttino/Eddie/Rice/$3 million.

 

I may be wrong, but i don't think you can do a sign and trade with a restricted fa. I think the guy has to be a unrestricted fa if i remember. In fact , if you match a rfa contract, he has right to trade denial for at least a yr and can't trade him to the team that offered him the contract for at least a yr. Kinda like the Mrc Jackson situation of last yr.

 

Why the hell do you want cassell? Try to take the emotion out of it from the memories of championships,just take his play on the court now,is he still the right man for the job at 18 mil over the next 3 years?

Id rather have the dude in my sig.

 

JBC, yes I was using Mobley/Griffin as principals in any deal. I know those two alone don't cut it cap wise but that is the tallent that is being exchanged. Like you said Rice would have to be thrown in to match the cap.

leebigez, From what I have read online the Clippers are seriously considering offering close to the Max for Brand this summer. Obviously a change from the past. But that is the only BIG contract they are offering. I think the Brand camp knows this but is STILL leary because they don't want to be stuck there with no committment to winning. This is EXACTLY why I don't see Brand signing with the Clippers.

As for Miller/Odom, that would be interesting. I still think Brand is a better fit but Miller/Odom would certainly add a lot to this team.

 

Can anyone confirm this? That we can't sign and trade for a Restricted Free Agent? Obviously if that was the case then there is no way we can get Brand.

I thought with the Marc Jackson situation that once we offered him the contract and it was matched it was THEN that we could not trade for him until after 360 days. So in other words, as long as we don't offer Brand a FA contract we can still trade for him with the Clippers signing him first and THEN trading him.

 

Deuce -
I do not believe what leebigez has stated is correct. A team can SnT their own FA's even if the FA's have been renounced so I am relatively sure restricted FA's can be SnT'd.

There is one other complication concerning Brand. We have all gotten comfortable with the Clipps being well under the cap, but IIRC in another thread heypartner demonstrated that the Clipps could technically be over the cap until some of their players are renounced.

I believe what he was getting to was the possibility of Brand being BYC in a SnT if the renouncings of Odom, Miller and Maggette aren't handled first. These 3 plus Brand are on Rooke scale contracts and count 300% until renounced or re-signed.

 

Would it work if they renounced Maggette (who is off to Denver), and Kandi (who just bought a home in Miami)?