[CBS Sports] Howard no lock for Lakers; interested in Rockets

I think this may be a tip-off that we would be going after CP3 or some other point guard upgrade...possibly even......Deron Williams???????

Remember this is all about winning. If Dwight comes here, it's all about winning. And winning involves Jeremy Lin. You don't just move the guy out to create space to sign Dwight. Too easy to create space by waiving non-guaranteed guys and then if necessary trading one of DMO/TJones along with TRob to get some future value and cap room.

 

i really wish we get to keep garcia

dude is a winner

 

After reading recent rumors, I suspect he is cut June 29th or June 30th and if no team offers him big money I think we re-sign him late in the summer with whatever MLE we have after we've made our other moves. Probably $2 million/season for 2 years.

 

Not making a joke here, but please explain?

It seems to me that from an objective mind like that of Dwight or any other big time free agents, Jeremy Lin is just another average PG who brings in the Chinese market. If it takes shipping off Jeremy Lin to get CP3, JLin is as good as gone.

 

Hey guys,

My personal opinion is that packaging T-Rob + White (with $2m) is probably toxic to a lot of teams because of the the White situation.

If we offer T-Rob and T-Jones or D-Mo (possibly with cash or future picks), I see no reason why teams wouldn't give a future picks in return.

I'm confident Morey can get this done because I think the FO and Les would really try hard to hold on to Lin, especially after letting him go once and getting egg on their face.

@PhiSlamma
No problem about the rep points, its the thought that counts. Thank you

 

Yes. We either keep Lin or we trade him for a superstar upgrade. BECAUSE Lin is not just another average PG. He is above average. It involves Lin either way but not in the form of a salary dump to sign Dwight. We will make other moves to have the space to sign Dwight.

My point is if this rumor from Ron is legit, then I think it is hinting at the possibility of Lin being involved in a sign and trade for a serious upgrade at the point...and CP3 is the guy most available.

 

Just to be accurate, Houston could do a sign and trade with the Lakers without matching salaries. As long as Houston has the cap space to cover the difference in the incoming salary (Howard) and the outgoing salaries then they can do the deal. From the Lakers perspective it also works because teams are always allowed to take back less salary in a trade.

For example, Houston could trade Lin straight up for Howard. Under this scenario we'd have to have cap space to cover the additional $12M or so (Howard's salary - Lin's salary) that we were gaining in the trade. With this example, the Lakers would also gain a $12M trade exception.

I'm not saying that we should SnT for Howard or who we should trade if we do. Simply claifying that you don't necessarily need to match salary in a SnT.

 

White and Trob will be expiring rookie contract in the worst case scenario...

 

Yes, basketballholic, I agree with your line of thinking but if you extend that a step further, there are problems with the Lin for CP3 scenario.

The insider seemed to intimate that Asik would play with Howard. CP3 max is about $18.7m. Lin (8.3) and Asik (8.3) is needed to make the salaries match for the trade. More importantly, how do you FORCE the Clippers to trade? I just don't see any trade scenarios for CP3 that doesn't involve BOTH Lin and Asik.

 

You're completely wrong. Winning doesn't have to involve lin. He's not a difference maker. You can get Jarrett Jack on a cheaper contract and he's a better player. The rockets know that too.

 

I'm not sure what "White situation" there would be under this scenario. The team would immediately waive White and pocket the remaining $300K that's leftover after paying White's salary.

You'd certainly have to trade White to a team that could afford to have his $1.7M salary count against their cap next season but there's quite a few teams that fit that profile this offseason. You take a small cap hit for a $300,000 profit. For the right team, not only isn't that a toxic situation, it's actually a good deal.

 

Thank you for pointing that out but if we had the cap space to cover Howard's salary, wouldn't we just sign him outright.

Further to your point, doesn't the 150% salary matching rule for non-taxpaying teams still apply? So Lin going out for $8.3m would still fall outside 150% of Howard coming in at $20.5m.

 

Hi aelliott, we are posting so fast we have 2 topics going at once.

I understand White is an expiring contract and teams can profit $300k from this trade. I just think many teams don't want to deal with the problems his anxiety disorder could cause. Bad publicity from a public feud could easily cost the team more than $300k in sponsorships or advertising, not to mention the headache for the front office.

 

What team in their right minds will take Royce White..Dude is more than an head case...The Rockets are stuck with him. Unless we gonna eat up over 75% of his salary. ( meaning pay).

 

I can personally vouch for Ron. I've known him for over a dozen years, went to his wedding, held his baby, made love to his mother. He's a good guy and he has legit contacts inside of the Rox organization, better than most of the talking heads probably have.

 

Read that post again. He said "if we have enough cap room to cover the difference", not enough cap room to sign Dwight. If we have $18 mil of cap space and Dwight costs $20 mil, we can trade Lin ($8 mil) for Howard, and we'd have $6 million left to spend.

 

I can personally vouch for Xerobull. I've known him for over a dozen years, went to his baby, held his mother, made love to his wedding. He's a good guy and he has legit contacts inside of Clutchfans, better than most of the talking heads probably have.

 

Thanks Xerobull for vouching for Ron. It gives me more confidence in his insider info.

But I'm conflicted because a lot of people on this board also vouched for cyberx and his views seemingly contradict Ron's. I maybe reading too much into Ron's insider info. but he said "if Howard comes, Lin is in Jeopardy". It seems to imply some kind of trade involving Howard and Lin.

cyberx: "Howard will be signed outright"

Ron: "If Howard comes, Lin is in jeopardy"

Seem to contradict.

 

Which info is newer?

 

Ahhh, got it now. Thanks aelliot for originally pointing that out and thanks Fullcourt for the clarification..

So, for this to work, Lakers would actually want to help us get Dwight by doing a S&T and they actually want Lin from us. If I were the Lakers, I would say "We're not going to help you do a S&T unless you give us Asik, Parsons and Lin (not in any particular order."

Basically, if we can't clear the cap room, Lakers have all the leverage?