[NYPost] Rockets could make push for Carmelo (UPDATE: Blog post)

The Bulls are all defense, no offense. A perfect fit for Melo.

 

What???? idc they can have 5 top players. Championships are championships. You want to go back to the battariza days? Enjoy this team and the future to come.

 

Everything Bill says has to be considered in light of his Celtic fanaticism.


Bill wants Kevin Love in Boston. If Melo goes to Chicago it takes them out of the running for Kevin Love. Chicago will have to amnesty Boozer and trade Taj to get the cap space to sign (or trade) for Melo. If Love then tells Flip he's going to leave Minny and Flip has to trade him...then the Celts have all those picks plus Sullinger/Olnyk to put together an attractive package to Minnesota. Probably as attractive a trade package as anybody will put out there for Love without him agreeing to an extension.

(This is one of the reasons in my signature I am advocating trading our 2014 pick for a future pick, and trading Jones/DMo/Asik for as many future picks as possible if a deal for Melo or Love does not materialize on or before draft night. The second most valuable trade assets behind superstar players are unprotected future first round picks.)

On the other hand if Melo comes to Houston and Chicago amnesties Boozer...then Taj plus Mirotic and picks becomes a very competitive package for the Celtics to have to beat to win a trade war with the Bulls for Love.

Bill undoubtedly believes Chicago is a greater threat to trade for Love than Houston is because of Mirotic and the picks they own. Frankly, I believe that too. If I were Flip, I'd be much more interested in Mirotic/Taj plus picks for Love than anything Houston can put together.....UNLESS Houston can come up with a lot of picks.

 

I hear a few reports saying mirotic doesn't want to leave Spain. He seems like he really likes it there, then again money talks.

 

Excellent reasoning.

Problem is, players often ignore reason when making decisions.

 

It's all about leverage and Mirotic getting what he wants.

One possibility that I've been thinking about concerning the whole Love/Rubio scenario in Minny is if Love wants out what would be the best scenario to keeping Rubio there? Well, I think the Spaniard angle which has been discussed before has some validity. Flip Saunders may have the toughest GM job in the whole league. For whatever reason(s) (weather, market, winning), Minnesota has had a difficult time building a winner and keeping superstar players. The best player in their franchise history has been Garnett. They never could build out around him finally resorting to breaking the rules and getting butchered with a very stiff penalty handed down from Stern that basically crippled their future as long as Garnett was there.

Since that debacle they have basically done nothing. Tried to build through the draft. Finally got a couple franchise-type players up there in Love and Rubio. Still losing. And Love most likely leaving with Rubio not far behind him if something doesn't change significantly up there. (Remember, Rubio DID NOT want to go there to begin with. Even delayed his NBA career a season in hopes of getting the Wolves to trade him to NY/LA/better market.)

I know if I were Flip I'd be exploring the Spaniard angle to try to get Rubio anchored in there on the long-term 5-year deal. Seems to me the Spaniards really enjoy playing together. So, if I were Flip I'd be looking to maximize on this if I had to move Love. Mirotic makes a lot of sense. You get him the right money and you can get him here. Rumor is Bulls are going to offer him the full MLE which will be enough to get him over. There's another Spaniard that's going to be looking for a team this summer too. Pau.

Here's the thing with a Love trade to Chicago. If the cap goes to $62.9 million, Chicago could basically swallow Love into their cap space by amnestying Boozer and trading Dunleavy. In other words, Chicago could conceivably trade for Love using only Dunleavy's salary if they amnesty Boozer. That's big. Because a trade of Dunleavy plus rights to Mirotic plus a pick or two to Minny for Love gives Minny the ability to sign Pau Gasol to a decent size contract (4 years/$39 million). Now Minny is sitting on Rubio/Gasol/rights to Mirotic and Pek on a long-term deal with Marc Gasol coming up on free agency in another season and Minny in position to sign him outright. Now all of a sudden Rubio is up on free agency with Pau, Marc, and Mirotic already surrounding him.

Why am I bringing this up about Minnesota? Well, you gotta look at Minnesota's options if Kevin Love is going to be traded. IF........and thats' a big IF......but IF Love tells Flip he wants out and IF Love indicates he is ok with going to Chicago THEN...we (and everybody else) are going to have a tough time trading for Love. And even if Love doesn't indicate he is ok with going to Chicago but Chicago is still willing to trade Dunleavy/pick/Mirotic for Love without Love committing to them then it's going to still be very difficult to beat that deal for Minnesota.

 

Exactly my feelings.

 

There was a quote on hoopshype around the trade deadline that it is at around 75% that Mirotic is with the Bulls next year. It was from a european reporter with a hefty amount of followers so it may be true.

 

Why is everyone so sure that Reinsdorf is going to amnisty Boozer. He hasn't done it so far, and there is no guarantee that he will do so now.

Carmelo Anthony obviously makes the Bulls better, but are they willing to jettison Gibson, Dunleavy, their 2 #1 picks, release Boozer and not bring over Mrotic for Anthony?

Is Anthony really to go to a team that has their best player (Rose) hurt and his long term health and effectiveness questioned?

Who plays PF for CHI if they get Anthony? They will have to fill their roster with minimum guys.

The Bulls front office is very conservative, are they willing to take that risk? I am skeptical all the way around.

Ultimately I believe he stays in NY after Jackson spends some time with him. Otherwise, Houston makes the most sense..... the Rockets core of: Howard/Anthony/Parsons/Harden/Beverley is the best in the NBA 1-5.

 

Here is the cost of buying out Mirotic's contract. The second column is what Chicago can contribute. The Third column is the cost to Mirotic.



So Chicago probably has to sign Mirotic for around the MLE. However Mirotic is under contract to Real Madrid at $4,408,600 a year. So it might even take more money than the MLE to bring him over. A fairly high price to pay for someone who has never played a NBA game. He is at this time just a prospect, so there is a high risk factor here.

 

I believe that it will cost far more than the MLE to get Mrotic to come over. The amount being thrown around is $8,000,000 a season.... and that is a large risk for the Bulls, because they will be using up cap space on a player that they do not really know how good he is.

 

Wow. I had figured something just above the MLE - $6M. That is just a huge risk. Has anyone ever been offered $32M without having played in a single NBA game? I can see why Morey dumped him for D-Mo.

 

Since talks of Boozer getting amnestied started (maybe since start of last season), when has there been a player like Carmelo Anthony linked to Chicago? There's no point in using your amnesty unless it leads to a better option (aka the Anti-Knicks Strategy).

If that's all they lose, why wouldn't they be better? Boozer is almost a non-factor at the end of games right now as Gibson is clearly the better player and Dunleavy is an interchangeable part. Gibson also is playing much better on offense is due to the fact that Chicago has no offense outside of him. The draft picks are almost pointless if Rose comes back healthy.

Who knows? My original statement stems from the fact that Thibodeau is a much much better coach than McHale and I said if Melo's going to pick a team based on coaching, it's no contest.

Who plays PF for Houston if we get Anthony? You bringing this question up as if Anthony going to the Rockets is infinitely better than him going to Chicago when it really isn't. If you're going to obtain Melo via trade, you're going to have to find suitors for Asik (not an easy thing to do) and Lin (definitely not an easy thing to do). Then you have to ship off enough assets to New York to make it work, which probably means you're shipping off at least Jones or Parsons...or even both. Then you have your Big 3 but you still have that hole at the 4 to fill and a bench you would have to fill "with minimum guys".

I'll agree that they're cheap and don't want to go into luxury tax land but to label them conservative is a stretch. They're not going to come out guns ablazing during the trade deadline or during FA but that doesn't mean they haven't made attempts to (e.g. the summer of The Decision). Just because they're not making stupid moves like the Knicks or the Pistons don't mean they won't take a shot at getting Melo if they could.

I think either destination would be good for him. Houston has more to offer in terms of salaries (no income tax v. income tax in Chicago), he has Harden to rely upon, and a market that won't burn him at the stake if it doesn't pan out. But Melo's been in the West before and he knows how tough it is....does he want to leave the East? Melo/Harden/Howard is a lethal trio but you're still dealing with the Clippers, the Thunder, the Blazers, etc. Depending on how things shake up in the East after this season (when Miami's trio can opt out and go other places) and how healthy Rose is when he comes back, a trio of Melo/Rose/Noah would certainly be Top 3 on paper...maybe even Top 2 right behind Miami and ahead of Indy.

If he stays in New York then we know he wasn't all too serious about winning and that's not a player I would ever want on the Rockets' roster. Unless he opts out to sign a lower salary to help the Knicks bring in free agents, Melo will never sniff an ECF let alone the NBA Finals.

 

After having read a number of very intelligent posts on the subject, I now believe that if Melo decides to leave NY (and that juicy $30M on the table) Chicago should be considered the favorite to land him. Chicago seems to fit Melo's ego more than Houston. He certainly would be the first scoring option in Chicago. Would Melo be better than the 2b scoring option in Houston? He would be behind Harden and neck to neck with Howard that is for sure. Plus his game fits so much better with Chicago. The defensive side of the ball is well manned in Chicago and Melo has never really shown an interest in playing defense. In Houston he would have to put forth some defensive effort.

That said, "it ain't over till the fat lady sings".

 

Don't take this the wrong way but I think some of your assertions probably won't come true.

1. Melo taking a back seat to Harden would be no different than him taking a backseat to Kobe in LA or Rose in Chicago and this isn't even talking about basketball. Kobe and Rose owns their respective cities much like how Houston is Harden's. Anywhere he goes he'll have to play 2nd fiddle either on court, off the court, or both. The funny thing is that I don't think Melo minds at all. He shared the ball with Iverson in Denver, he played 3rd banana behind Kobe and Lebron in the Olympics, etc. If anything, going to Houston would be preferable because he can worry about scoring and not worry about leading the team.

2. Defensively, Melo would be working MORE in Chicago than in Houston. Rose and Boozer were bad defenders before Thibodeau and are passable defenders after they got his defensive sets down and that definitely took some work. I don't think Melo minds working that hard on defense because he's shown flashes of wanting to play defense. Here, however, I doubt he'd have to put any more effort into defense as he's had to do in NY now.

Like I said before, Melo can't lose with either team. There's higher risk with Chicago and relying on Rose's knees but he's also been through the buzzsaw of the West so it depends on how much of a challenge he wants to go through. Melo definitely needs to bolt from NY asap because New York don't have real cap room until after the 15/16 season (JR Smith and Felton ain't turning down their player options any time soon).

 

In the end, melo is going to stay in New York. Phil joining helps so much. Plus too many people are looking at Dwight leaving LA as a comparison when they are completely different animals. Carmelo is loved in NY. Throughout this whole disaster of a season no one is pointing the finger at melo. Dwight did not get that treatment in LA. Is it the right move for melo basketball wise? Absolutely not. He should join a winning situation and when he stays in ny i dont think itll be because he believes they can turn it around as much as its because he loves ny and they love him We should all pray Atlanta wins their games, cuz missing the playoffs will give melo more time to sit at home and watch others play in the postseason and make him rethink it.

 

lol at the guys that hate for no reason on CyberX...dude has stated multiple times what he has heard and has also reiterated things change and nothing is certain...so far everything he has told us has later been confirmed by media sources....some people just love to complain smh, appreciate any and all news CyberX

 

We have a slight disagreement. No problem. I believe that Melo in Chicago becomes their highest scorer. Probably by 5 or more points a game over Rose. Chicago is built to handle Melo's inefficiencies on offense because their defense is so perennially good. If Melo is scoring more than Harden in Houston there is going to be a major problem. In Houston I could envision the coaching staff working hard to make Melo the third option. After all I am sure that Melo's PPP is less than Harden's PPP and in all probability less than Howard's PPP. And of course Melo is guaranteed to increase the Rockets dRTG.

 

I, too, think that Chicago is a better fit for Melo. However, his path to the Finals, if Miami stays together, is undoubtedly harder than it would be if he went to Houston. A trio of Melo/Harden/Howard can take on literally any team in the league, even Miami. A trio of Melo/Rose/Noah is formidable but Miami's Big 3 would still take them out in a seven game series.

 

If all Melo cares about is money and living that New York life then he'll stay in New York because that's all he'll get until he retires. The Knicks' cap room won't be respectable until the summer of 2016 when JR Smith and Felton's contract comes off the books (this is under the assumption that they don't opt out of their overpaid contracts and that nobody in the league wants to trade for them). By that time, Melo's cap figure hits, what, $30 million? They would still have Hardaway Jr on the team but have to spend money on the other 13 players they need to make up a roster.

Would they have room to chase Durant and Love by that time? Of course they would but that's a lot of wishing and hoping in 2 years.