As Carmelo Anthony leans toward leaving New York, Chicago and Houston emerge as frontrunners

The tone I've gotten from fans online is that Phil has a vendetta against the Bulls' owner.

 

Has there ever been a case where team personnel didn't seem happy after meeting with a free agent?

It is the same cookie cutter BS every single time...

 

"Surgery went well."

Yeah, no kidding. When do you ever hear about surgery not going well?

Oh, surgery didn't go well?

Oh, the meeting didn't go well?

Gar Forman: "You know K.C., the meeting didn't go well. He didn't seem interested. We brought the guys in, he didn't talk or ask them any questions. We tried to show him our new practice facility, again, not interested. We don't have good vibes coming out of this meeting. We really think he's headed back to New York or to Houston."

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Taj's inclusion in Melo pitch bigger than DRose's to me. Anthony already knew DRose would welcome his addition. Keeping Taj crucial to plan.</p>&mdash; K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) <a href="https://twitter.com/KCJHoop/statuses/484086969874804737">July 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Yea.....I'm sure the likes of Taj Gibson staying in Chicago well overwhelm him when having to compare him to the likes of Harden, Howard and Parsons.

 

You are right KC, having Taj there only made the reality set in that the Bulls are asking Carmelo Anthony to take a $7,000,000 a year pay cut. I bet that was a bigger deal than having deaf mute Rose hiding in the corner dry heaving while Anthony toured the practice facility.

 

BimaThug mentioned this in a tweet as well - if the Knicks took on Boozer's 16m contract - they will also have to pay the repeater tax on it. So why take on Boozer and essentially pay him over 30 million in doing so (possibly even more than that) and give up your best player for such a privelege?

The Knicks didnt want to pay the repeater on Jeremy Lin's 15 million dollar deal (had they matched) but now they would on Boozer's 16M and lose their best player while at it?

 

By the way, relevant tidbit from Stein's piece:

http://espn.go.com/blog/marc-stein/post/_/id/2619/day-1-free-agency-chatter

Maybe we were appealing last night?

 

I'd add that when you include taxes, we can get very close to the same offer as Toronto....even with the 5th year they can offer.

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/rockets/comments/29l9m7/so_i_ran_into_daryl_morey_at_the_houston_food/

Random fan encounter w/ Morey today via Reddit.

 

I am sure the Rockets were and are appealing to Lowry. Who wouldn't want to join a team that won 53 games and has Howard/Harden and Parsons. The question is, are the Rockets appealing enough?

The Raptors seem really desperate to sign Lowry, and it is obvious that they will over pay him if they need to. Adding a 5th year to a contract for Kyle Lowry, with his track record is a huge gamble.

If Lowry signs with the Rockets it won't be because the Rockets offer the most money.

 

Given the tax difference money has to be somewhat close. Still Lowry has to know Toronto has no chance in the near future of being a contender. Hopefully Morey has sold him on sitting tight until the Melo/Love situation is sorted out. Of and if he does want Houston Toronto will do a sign and trade.

 

I am absolutely fine with moving on Lowry 1ST, assuming we have a deal lined up for Kevin Love.

 

hahaha the idea that Taj Gibson is crucial for Melo ...... hahahahaha

Damm I thought people in this site were ignorant when they would extend Parson for whatever money the market sets for him, like he is some kind of "essential" part of the team, and you have media telling Noah and Gibson are so good superstars would want t play with them above all.......

I truly believe Melo only wants Chi because of Thibs, and I don´t blame him because he is that good, but stop the Gib Noah BS.

 

And yall laughed when I said we needed Jimmy Graham.

 

Okay if we get Lowry/Love/Parsons all on the team, it's over for the rest of the league. Seriously we could do our own Miami Heat celebration and it wouldn't be farfetched.

Lowry
Harden
Parsons
Love
Howard

No way this happens but oh boy if it did. Talk about Plan A

 

So that would require a Lin trade for cap space, signing Lowry, then trading Jones+Asik+young guns+picks w/ salary matching happening from NOLA somehow to Minny for Love. Then re-sign Parsons. I guess it's doable...?

 

Spoiler

This minus the moving of Garcia and basically every asset that we don't have the rights to yet, picks, europeans etc. . We would most likely have to do the Love trade first. Then trade Lin for Lowry meaning Lowry can have a starting salary of 125% of Lin (8.25 million right) so starting around 10.5-11 million with the allowed increases. Then we sign Parsons with the Bird Rights at about 11 per season. It's super complex and i'm not Bima nor am I looking up all of the implications but I believe it's doable.

 

I thought Ujiri wouldn't budge on Lowry in a S&T