Celtics emerge as serious suitor for Lee, Rockets open to sign&trade

Damn!! Where he signing!!!

 

I think Courtney was biding his time to see if Dwight would land in Houston. I guess now that Dwight has "officially" declared that he wants to be in LA, Courtney's signing elsewhere.

 

I'm guessing he was waiting on Minnesota and Batum.

 

Probably Celtics....hopefully its a sign and trade for Boston's 2013 1st (unprotected)

 

So no SnT?

 

It could be us guys. We still have his bird rights. He could be waiting for the Asik offer to go out so we have that cap hold in place and then he can sign with us for whatever amount we've agreed to without messing up the cap for the Asik signing.

 

My first thought, too. 48 hours is the exact time we have to wait from when the players were waived to present the Asik offer sheet, so maybe these will be done at the same time?

 

I think the 48hr is really a big hint. The team that'll sign Lee will need 48 hrs to clear cap or wait out for something else to happen, like Asik's contract offer.

 

I actually think he is going to re-sign here. I expect a Dwight trade by early next week and I think the Scola amnesty was done primarily to retain Lee's rights.

 

Why would that impact anything? What Dwight wants has little to do with what's actually going to happen. Otherwise, he'd be in Brooklyn right now.

I'm with justtxyank - I think this could very well involve the Rockets. After all, what other team will have a different cap situation in 48 hours than it does right now? If it's Minnesota, the Batum sheet has been matched. Lee could sign right now.

Sure, it's possible that Lee and his team is putting this out there to round up final offers. But they've been at this for 20 days, so I don't know what that would really do. It may be more likely that they're anticipating a certain team's "situation" to change in the next day or two.

 

If he must wait 48 hours, it pretty much has to be relaated to cap space on some team, right? Other than the rockets, has any other team waived players in the last 24 hours?

 

I think the only way we sign CLee is if we get Dwight (Or maybe Bynum). Otherwise, it would make more sense to just roll with what we have and let Lamb and others develop.

 

Doubtful it's us... but I'd be pleasantly surprised if we do.

 

interesting

 

This precisely. By tomorrow the waivers will be complete and the Asik cap hold will officially be on the books with the offer sheet out. That will open the Rockets to sign Lee without worrying about botching their ability to extend the offer sheet to Omer. (at least this is my understanding of the way the holds work)

Once all that is done the cap will be set the way the Rockets want it for the next step: Obtaining Dwight.

Also remember that Omer signing will put them at the cap and then signing Lee will put them over. They could then sign and trade Goran with a second rd pick to get a trade exception which could potentially be a big help in the Dwight deal.

 

Pretty sure (for the same reasons others have mentioned regarding the timing) that Courtney would be signing a contract with the Houston Rockets.

Now, whether that is a contract to play for Houston or to be immediately traded to another agreed-upon team, that has yet to be determined.

Assuming that Lee IS, in fact, signing a contract with the Rockets (again, either a regular deal or a S&T deal), the reason for the timing is that the Rockets must first make sure they have the cap room available to sign Asik to his offer sheet. Once that is done, they can exceed the cap to sign(-and-trade) Lee to any amount. Of course, any S&T deal brings with it some Base Year Compensation issues (in which Lee will likely only count as 50% of his new salary as "outgoing salary" but will count 100% to his new team as "incoming salary", making trades a little more difficult).

Here's hoping the Rockets either keep Lee or get an extra first round pick for him in a S&T deal. Another one of my favorite players.

 

BTW, I wasnt trying to be Cpt. Obvious. What I meant to say is, the only way we will sign him in the next 48 hours is if we know for sure we are getting Dwight.