How is there zero benefit?! And they can snt they just can't receive a FA. The benefit is he can go to the team he wants that couldn't sign him outright. I think the Knicks would welcome Lin, asik and a pick. How is this still not universally understood?
Melo would be a nice stretch 4. He's proven he can play well at the 4, and he can also be a pretty good rebounder when he wants to be. As far as defense goes, I think more of that comes down to coaching. Beverley Harden Parsons Melo Howard Even though I think this might be Melo's safest bet to win, I don't think he'd be interested in the Rockets.
I guess the talk about other players who would be awful for the team got old. First it was Josh Smith, then it was Rondo, now it's Melo? LOL, I keep telling you guys that Morey wouldn't let guys like that on the roster, it always ends up being nothing, yet the conversations drags on.
silent cancer who recruits knucklehead who plays little defense until crunch time. You still want him?
Lin. Asik, Jones, First rounder for Carmelo. Get it done. Imagine OKC for instance trying to use Ibaka to double team Dwight with Carmelo around. Ridiculous. Same with Lebron or Aldridge or Blake Griffin or Duncan.
Would be a good deal but nobody's gonna take Lin + Asik. Those two are poison-pills. NY would practically be paying for part of the 2 years those two served here in each of their $15m.
This has been said before, but just to reiterate: In the case that Melo clearly wants to come to the Rockets, the Rockets wouldn't be able to sign him as a free agent regardless of whether or not Lin & Asik are traded beforehand to a third party team unless Melo takes significantly less which is pretty unlikely to ever happen given how much less he'd have to take. (The Rockets would most likely have around 45 mil in salary committed without Lin & Asik and you are looking conservatively at a salary cap in 2014 of 60 to 61 million dollars.... so Melo might take less, but not 7 million less a year and cutting out the final year of his contract as well). S&T to New York with Lin & Asik would probably be the only way the Rockets could acquire Melo due to the ability to take back a max salary player in trades due to the 150% trade rule. So ask yourself this when discussing the probability of Melo coming to Houston first before anything: Why the hell would New York want to take back Lin & Asik when they could instead have the cap space left with Melo leaving to rebuild? I just dont see any reason for New York to do a deal with the Rockets unless Morey throws them multiple 1st round picks, and every young player on the roster that New York could ever want except Harden, Parsons, and Howard.
Team fit is laughably underrated by fans. Let us look at some of the important considerations: Does the offense have the available shots to support playing Melo at their current pace? The answer is obviously no. The Rockets currently take 1.56 shots per minute. Harden, Melo, Howard and Parsons need 1.69 shots per minute. And that is without a PG on the floor. The coaching staff would have to take shots away from Harden, Parsons and Howard, each of whom is a more efficient scorer than Melo. Locker room? Melo has always been top dog. Cancer precursor. Nuff said. Offensive fit? Melo does not play Morey style basketball. Far and away to many mid-ranged jumpers. Defensive fit? Melo automatically makes the defense worse. Total fit? Look at the oRTG and dRTG. Not good for someone who will collect $20M every year. Contrast Melo's numbers with the Rockets roster: Fans tend to buy into the hype. Morey will never fall for it.
^ I do agree with JTR. Their simply isn't enough shots in an NBA game to make a simplistic statement like "The Rockets could just plug X superstar in this spot where we aren't getting ideal production". Even everyone's favorite wet dream acquisition Kevin Love creates the same type of scenario. It doesn't work like that folks. Melo as incredible as he is, and how I'd love to still gamble at taking him IF he could come here, would completely alter the makeup of the Rockets and what they do well right now. If your thought process is to just add shooting from the 4 spot, there are simpler ways to fix that problem: 1. Work with D-Mo especially, & Jones on their shots in the off-season. 2. Acquire a Ryan Anderson type if you can. There are very few in the league that are as good as Anderson is so you have to be careful about what you give up to get them, but that should be your target. -Also note that "cheaper" versions of a Ryan Anderson type typically come with warts that can boot them out of the rotation so proceed with caution. Such as being too small (Casspi & Morris), not having a great shot selection & low BBIQ (Mullens), and even health issues with higher paid well performing stretch 4's (Anderson & formerly Frye). So more than likely folks, Morey is probably just going to have to solve the stretch 4 conundrum internally and unconventionally. I do think though, that Anderson will become a trade target once again this Summer. Melo on the other hand, is not just a role playing stretch 4. He completely changes the dynamic of the team, and the style they want to play. Harden most likely goes back into more of a role like he had at OKC even if he's starting which isn't necessarily a bad thing(considering he was one of the most efficient guards in the league at the time), but its something everyone needs to consider.
Carmelo is 45% from 3 this year. Morey would trade/sign for him in an instant if it were possible. Team fit can come later. See: Miami Heat.
Plus, all you're showing me in the O&D net ratings is that Carmelo is that much better than his garbage team in a team-based stat.
Dobro is exactly right. Ideally getting D-Mo shooting 35% from beyond the arc is the most appealing option. I don't know how many have noticed, but D-Do's dRTG has gone from about the worst on the Rockets roster after the first six weeks of the season, to the best on the roster. We may be seeing the development of a shut down defender at the 4. I think Morey will roll with what he has at the PF spot. One of the measures as to whether a team can compete for the chip is if the team is top 10 in both offense and defense. The Rockets are currently there.
Actually if Melo decides he wants the Rockets and the Rockets want him, we could sign him outright provided these things happened: 1. The cap goes to the $62.9 million figure the league office is currently projecting for next season. 2. We can trade Lin away for no incoming salary. (I know we can move Asik, Jones, and DMo for no incoming salary. And Garcia is going to opt out.) 3. We release Covington and trade Canaan. 4. We trade away our 2014 first round pick. This would allow us enough cap space to sign Melo to a deal less than $7000 short of his max. If he wanted to come here he would sign that deal and would probably actually sign for a couple hundred thousand less so we could retain Canaan. The biggest challenge by far in all this is finding a team for Jeremy Lin that would trade for him without taking back salary. And this why the deal for Lin (and Asik) fell apart in December. (One team did not want to pay both Lin and Asik $15 million each next season. You can guess which team. Should be easy to tell now.) That's right, the deal for Asik was actually a deal for both Asik and Lin. A deal that is likely to be revisited this summer and possibly as early as the draft but not likely consummated by the draft. This may still come off or it may not. However in my opinion the crux of our off season moves revolves around finding a home for Jeremy Lin. I actually believe trading Lin could become much easier this summer than most people have anticipated since the $15 million salary is looming. There are several ways to make that salary palatable.
