Why is it a long shot, I wonder? I've read a lot about CP and from everything I've read, he'd be one of the most likely in the league to take a pay cut to contend. What's the major drawback? Seems like a no-brainer to team up in Houston.
CP3/Beverly Harden/Anderson at the minimum Parsons/Anderson/2nd rounder TJones/Dmo Howard/Smith We wouldn't be very deep but our first unit would be as good as anyone's.
Don't forget that we would likely be able to get Garcia back w/ maybe the Room MLE. That'd help make us a lot deeper. Depending on how we acquire CP3 and Dwight, not sure if we'd still have Anderson though. That's a decent 9-10 man rotation though, and we all know Morey finds good role players in his sleep. Not too worried about that at all.
does anyone know the rockets draft pick situation for say, the next 4 yrs? im jw what we have to offer after the Harden trade.
I don't believe they owe any future first round picks(they will have fulfilled the Terrence Williams obligation this upcoming draft). Beyond that, future drafts detailed.
you know, if dwight and cp3 care about their own pockets rather than that of their agent, it shouldn't even be that hard to convince them to take less in houston. the biggest reason? NO TAX! they are actually taking a 33% hit by STAYING in l.a. someone needs to show them the size of the actual paycheck to convince them that by taking 10% less in houston, you're actually pocketing 20% MORE! it's like buying a house without an agent - you can convince the seller that he's actually getting more by selling to you then to someone with equal or higher offer.
It is more complicated than that. They pay a jock tax, so whatever city they play their game in, that is where the taxation rules apply, so even if they came to Houston, only roughly half their games will be w/o income tax. But it is true that the games in Cali are particularly onerous due to the heavy tax laws there. There has been a solid article already that did all the complicated math that showed how over the life of a 4 yr contract, Dwight would make more playing in Houston than in LA. But it wasn't by some super large amount, esp. when you recall that we don't have their bird rights, so already can only offer 4.5% raises a yr rather than the 7.5% the other teams could. So even setting aside the extra guaranteed yr, they're already giving that up, though it works out coming to TX. But by taking a near 10% paycut, they're actually now taking a much larger hit as the extra cash of playing in Houston over LA already wasn't that huge over 4 yrs. I have no idea where you're coming up w/ this 33% figure...it isn't like TX doesn't have a FEDERAL income tax, we just don't have a STATE tax (Cali has one and some other ones, like millionaire's tax). State tax is closer to 10%, but may be lower depending on how it combines w/ the Jock Tax.
It's definitely possible and makes sense from a pure basketball perspective. But in recent months, Paul seemed sold on LA. Obviously he's big into the Hollywood scene and endorsements, but he's the face of a franchise that won 56 games and has quite a bit of say in how things are run. He's apparently taken a leadership role (Barnes said Paul was recruiting him to return) in the organization and has say in personnel moves. He also has a history of knee injuries, which potentially could make that 5th year important. None of this is overwhelming evidence, but combine it with the fact Paul has a quiet "inner circle" and the consensus media take is to follow the market/money. Contrast that with Dwight, who has been very open about his problems in LA (called season a "nightmare") and has an inner circle that leaks practically everything. Even with all that, it took until the past 2-3 weeks before the consensus opinion finally began to change on his re-signing with the Lakers. With a guy like Paul that plays his cards close to the vest, the consensus media opinion will be that he stays until he outright tells them something different.
Besides what the Cat just stated above me, it is also a long shot because it requires a lot of moving parts to pull off. We'd have to convince either one of LAL or LAC to SnT Dwight or CP3 to us while outright signing the other one. We'd also have to convince them to take Lin/Asik/TRob. If not, we'd have to move those 3 independently and maybe one of DMo/Tjones as well. Stuff like this is really a lot harder to do irl than people musing about it on the interwebz makes it seem. Oh yeah, and we'd have to convince Dwight and CP3 to both agree to come here in principle before we take the united front up to LAL and LAC. That is a lot of people, a lot of fickle minds, a lot of conflicting interests and whispers, and a lot of things that have to go off w/o a hitch for it to work. Long shot.
thanks for the link well if the rockets are some how able to hold onto beverly, anderson, jones, d mo, and greg smith and add D12 and CP3 i dont care how many future first round picks we have to throw in to make it work. with those five on the bench developing we dont need any late first rounders eating cap space. and it looks like the lakers dont have any draft picks... if we could pull cleveland or charlotte into a deal picks might be what convinces la to pull the trigger
[From BleacherReport]Step-by-Step Guide for Houston Rockets To Land Chris Paul and Dwight Howar http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...-rockets-to-land-chris-paul-and-dwight-howard
Generally not wrong, but kind of weird. Why waive Beverley? According to the author's own math and steps, it would be completely unnecessary lol. Obviously we would keep Bev... He also didn't factor in the min roster charge cap holds I believe, which come at $490k a pop. That affects the math a little bit. It is also odd that he seems to think we HAVE to have a 15 man roster or something. That is not so. We only need 12. Finally, I also believe that any veteran of 2+ yrs only counts as around $850k against the cap (same as 2 yr veteran), and the league actually pays the rest of the veteran scale to that player (but it does not count against our cap). It is a rule to encourage older vets getting signed by teams at the minimum vs. teams only signing younger vets. This is only if they are signed to a 10 day, 1 yr or rest of season deal. The crux of this whole thing is whether we can convince either LAL or LAC to SnT Dwight or CP3 to us, AFTER having convinced both CP3 and Dwight that they want to come here. That isn't that easy to do.
Plus it's not like the Clippers were a bad team for him to really want to leave unlike Howard and the Lakers. Although, I think Paul would be intrigued if Howard decided to come to the Rockets.
LAC did get pwned in the playoffs, as far as their reasonable hopes had been. But I agree that Paul has to at least be intrigued if Howard decided to come to the Rockets and we came a-knocking. He's a competitor, always talking about winning above all else, and has shown interest in the past w/ the idea of forming a super team. Well now...
I've been thinking about leverage and how to force a S&T with either the Lakers or Clippers. The prisoners dilemma or police interrogation method where we say to the LA teams, "We have the cap room to sign one outright, the other will get Asik and Lin in return." This leverage only works when the prisoners are separated and whoever gives up the information first goes free. Our leverage using this strategy is greatly diminished for two reasons: 1) The LA teams GMs are not separated and confined to their own cells / interrogation rooms. In fact, they are in the same city and share the same facilities. They can literally walk across the hall and speak to each other. It will be them teaming up on us. Basically, they will be planning the best way to screw us for attempting to raid their star players. Could it be that they just hold out on the S&T until we blink? I'm sure there are numerous ways in which LA can screw Houston. 2) Everyone knows Houston wants Dwight more than Paul. This not "whoever agrees to a sign and trade with us first will get something in return otherwise we sign your player outright" scenario. The big prize is Dwight, and we will not jeopardize his signing by using our cap room to sign Paul first, leaving us with little leverage in a S&T situation with LA. The Clippers and Lakers know this and will use this to manipulate us. Don't think for one minute that any offer we make to one team won't be on the other team's GM's desk 10 seconds later. There will be no playing the teams off on each other, it will be their united front against us. For these reasons I think the likelihood of FORCING a S&T using the prisoners dilemma is very low. I think the best leverage is using a 3rd party. A team like Atlanta for example who is interested in Asik. If Paul expressly states he wants to come to Houston and there is the real possibility that another team like Atlanta is willing to take Asik, Lin, T-Jones for a future second round pick (why wouldn't they), Clippers would then rather take some value in return rather than letting Paul walk. In that case, because of the 150% rule, we can just give up Lin and Asik, keep Jones. So the leverage comes from playing off a third team with the Clips, not from playing off the Clips and Lakers with each other.
While all thats true, the Clippers WITH HIM didnt go any further in the playoffs than the Rockets WITHOUT HIM. He has to wonder how far the Rockets would go WITH HIM
the more i think about this the more i see that there is no way its going to happen. sign howard and then who knows what morey will do but i am almost 100% convinced that CP3 will not be a rocket next season.
