Jonathan Feigen: Latest on the tampering charge? They got fined. It's unbelievable. They got fined for a series of stories they do every year on the website analyzing the free agents coming, not just the ones the Rockets are interested in. About 70 of them. They never said pick a free agent. Just analysis. Apparently next year, if there is a free agent to be, when team websites write about them, they have to say tall guy scored, quick guy passed. You can't mention anyone if they're going to be a free agent. It's remarkable. Atlanta was so far over the line. Instead of just smack them, they looked at everything and found examples of "tampering" (because they're writing about free agents from websites they run). It wasn't reaching out to Dwight Howard or talking to Chris Paul's agent. It was stories on their websites, analysis, guys who were going to become free agents. Rockets have any recourse of challenging this? I would think by now they've done that. Not near what the Hawks will get hit with? One would think. You think it would be a more severe action(for ATL). Story you wrote yesterday, they're going after both of them? It's first what you said, if you're recruiting, you don't go for one QB and hope one says yes. They don't know that they can't get Dwight Howard. He's not the only one they're going to go for. That's why I worded it simultaneous and similar. Not joint, they're not trying to do them as a package deal. If they succeed and both say yes, you'd think they're not going to say, what do we do? They know what they can and would have to do. As the story spelled out, the chances for Chris Paul don't seem good. Not a lot of reason that he would leave the Clippers. He hasn't given those indications anywhere. Is it disinterest or disinterest in showing his hand? Howard, you've gotten lots of smoke signals. You get those out of his camp. Paul, you just don't know. He'll let you know when he lets you know. What are the Rockets doing to entice this guy(Howard)? Preparations are similar with both. It appears with Howard, it will probably be in LA. Since the story ran, someone else told me, Chris Paul as well, it will be teams come to him rather than him coming around. You do a presentation. When they prepare, I remember one year, I think it was Brent Barry, they knew his favorite music, they knew what was on his iPod, they knew one of his daughters was into gymnastics or ballet or something, so they were able to present, these are good neighborhoods, these are good schools which also have a ballet studio for children (within this age group). They knew all the things they thought would appeal to him. They do a lot to know what would appeal to this guy. The famous iPad thing with Chris Bosh, he is a tech-y guy, always like a new thing and at the time, an iPad was a new thing. To have the presentation on the iPad, with testimonials from Hakeem and others, they looked into this to know this might appeal to this guy. You find out what Dwight Howard likes. Then there are other things. He likes the idea of playing for McHale and Bickerstaff. I asked "Does he have a history with Bickerstaff?" I don't know. It's just what they knew. Maybe because of Bernie Bickerstaff, who he played for this year. He wants a four year deal because he wants to be a FA again when the TV contracts kick in. That evens the playing field with the Lakers, who can offer five. The Rockets can offer four. It doesn't matter that the Lakers can offer five if he doesn't want five. If he wants four, he can net more in Texas than he can in California in a 4 year deal. There are things like that that make you believe this is part of the pitch, and why they have legitimate optimism that they have just as good or better chance than anyone. Are they concerned(about the half dozen reports) about that swaying Dwight's decision? No, I don't think they are concerned with that. He's shown a difficulty to make up his mind on these things. He's a guy who doesn't like to make people unhappy. That's why he was so wishy-washy in Orlando. He couldn't just say no. Is he willing to look at teammates and say I'm leaving? That's where you have legitimate concern. When Kobe starts recruiting and Pau starts recruiting, if he does, can he say yeah, I'm out of here anyway. That's where you just don't know, if he'll take that leap. ... (Draft) Rockets look at everyone. If a guy is willing to work out for them, they want to see him. When you see reports of who teams work out, it's meaningless. The first one I put down, Mike Muscala. (Here I am talking about who teams work out being meaningless) I know he worked out for them. They do like shooting. They have a history of taking four year guys. They have been known to take a power forward or two. The second one, I put Erick Green, SG out of Virginia Tech, real productive last year. There are a whole lot of possibilities. This year, they'll probably stay where they are. I don't know that they'll waste cap space on a first round pick. I bet you we aren't doing much of anything until the 34th pick is on the clock. _______________________________________________ Jonathan Feigen - part 2 Motiejunas won't be on the SL team. (National team) Rockets going after both Howard AND Paul, BOTH of them, or just simultaneously and hope to get one? If they got two, that would be an issue they would deal with somehow. Simultaneously. This emphasis is really on the preparations at this point. They are really preparing hard for both. Not to get both, for each. If they got both, wow. The bigger reason they don't expect that to be an issue is because there has been little indication from Chris Paul that this is what he wants. Although, is that from him holding his cards close or is he disinterested? They could, the schedule is not up to them, they could be talking to Paul first, talking to Paul second but they're going hard after each of them. Their thinking and preparation, it's as if it's equal. What's plan A? There are two plan A's - Howard and Paul, then you talk about whatever plan B might be. Is there a preference in the organization? No, I don't think they view themselves of having the luxury of having a preference. If they get one, it's "Holy cow, we got one!" And, there has been so many more reasons to be optimistic that they have a good chance of getting Dwight Howard. You think about that, what are they more likely to do vs what you want to do. It's not up to them. They're going to try. I didn't get a feeling for a "we want him over him". When asked, that's when I got the 1 and 1A comment. Feeling that having the two in the simultaneous pursuit provides some leverage for the Rockets? In some ways, a race to see who gets the Rockets money first? I don't have a sense that there's that much confidence with them. They're not at a stage to know to be confident or not. They can only read the tea leaves we all read. They can't ask an agent or do any of that stuff. Knowing their mindset, year after year, what we know about Daryl, he's made more trades than anyone and has never thought he will actually pull it off. I can't imagine he's sitting over there, wherever he is, thinking "Woo Hoo!" That's not the way he is. I don't know this, but knowing the guy, I can't imagine they have that level of optimism. James Harden - how valuable is he in the process, with the 'fence' between Rockets management and these guys? The NBA allows it. He's definitely been recruiting. I remember talking to him in Denver about this in early February. He has since reiterated it, after the season, his exit interview, and to some of the national media. He's mentioned it (at least) four different times, "Yeah, I'm gonna be recruiting." He has a relationship with Dwight Howard, as does Chandler Parsons. He's close, buddies with Chris Paul. He's definitely putting out the word. It can be done(getting both)? He did the math, I didn't do the math on getting both. I wanted to put in the story that that's not what they're working towards. They'd love to have that problem. To have room to offer Howard a cap space deal, his larger than Paul's, you'd have to clear $3.5 million, which is what Thomas Robinson is due to make. To do Paul in a S&T, Asik & Lin is about $16.7 million. You'd need another $1.3 million cleared, which means trading any of last year's rookies without taking anything back. It's not impossible to come up with a way. The Clippers would have to agree or you'd have to trade them to other teams without taking contracts back. It's sorta like what Pat Riley did putting together the Heat's big three. Again, what we don't know, there haven't been signs from Chris Paul that he's interested in that. I don't think he's leaving LA, for reasons I put in the story. We just don't know that because we don't know if he's interested in Houston, he's not interested in leaving or he's not interested in showing what he's interested in. I don't think he's leaving because what might have made him leave, now they can put together a coaching staff that he feels he can win big, and then the advantages of LA. He is a big celebrity, doing insurance commercials. I can't imagine they hire a coach that doesn't come without Chris Paul approval. Asik has added to his value. Will someone take Lin with the poison pill? Poison pill doesn't matter to most teams. It's what counts against the cap. If you trade him, it's $8.3. Most teams view things by salary cap, most GMs do. $8.3, it's a little much but not an unbelievable amount. I think they could if they had to. Not what they're looking for but if it came to, wow, we gotta find a way to move that for Chris Paul, I think they could find a way. To get Chris Paul, and they said no unless you give us Chandler Parsons, Rockets do that as well? Now you start to get problems because one reason they may want to be here is Parsons. You still have a big three. Right. He's become a drawing card for them, not to mention he is buddies with Dwight. He's buddies with half the league. Dwight falls under that from their Orlando ties. ... That starts to get dicey. You get rid of too many of the reasons they're coming here, one reason Dwight may want to come here is the idea of sometimes playing with Asik and Asik as a backup, so he's not the lone center anymore, the lone big defender. There are some issues with doing that but if it appeals to him, you're not looking to trade him. You gotta tread carefully once you get the real information from the guy. You can't get a real great idea of what they're doing, preparation and what they're presenting, but a whole lot goes into it. Let's say Dwight and Chris both stay in LA. Sense on how or if they end up going shopping in this FA market? What they do is proceed with the obvious names, PF, but want to do it with the Carlos Delfino style contract. That first year is guaranteed but after that, the Rockets have control. They probably wouldn't get them with that kind of contract. If they don't get a big fish this year, they don't want to take themselves out of the running next year. Yeah, one of those PFs would be nice but not at the cost of being in the market again next year. They'd go after them, talk to them, but I don't think they'll have what it would take to get them. I wonder if with David West, he'd be a great fit, but he's not leaving. He's 32 but he isn't leaving. Ideal situation there. It's well known around the league you'd have to pay him stupid money to leave Indiana. He doesn't want to and shouldn't. I always thought he'd be terrific for the Rockets but I don't even list him as a possibility.
here's the plan: Howard tells Lakers he's coming to Houston, thus force Lakers to a S&T to get something return for Howard. Howard S&T for Asik + Lin + TRob we keep our max cap room to offer CP3 and he'll be convinced to win a title with Howard, Harden, and Parsons. Line-up Howard, Smith, Tim T.Jones, DMo, White Parsons, #34 pick Harden, Anderson C. Paul, Beverly
Thanks as always jr. Repped. Interesting that feigan's answers confirmed what Ron from the G said - that Dwight was interested in playing with Asik. That means if Dwight wants to play with Smith (or someone like Milsap who would be a great fit), Lin would have to be moved. I really like Lin. But if you get smith or Milsap at pf and Asik and Dwight as well, that would be a great front line. Perhaps they could then talk Llull to come over too? He'd probably be too expensive.
Not sure how much it matters or how much truth there is to it, whatever... Marc Stein: George Karl, the Clippers seem to be the most likely option for him if he is going to get a job immediately on his way out of Denver. Chris Paul is trying to stay out of this. I can't tell you where he stands on George Karl. He's trying to keep some distance.
Thanks for the transcript J.R.! You're plan doesn't work. We are currently about $4.4m short of offering Dwight the max ($20.5m). After you S&T Asik+Lin+TRob (20.4) for Dwight, you will be short by about 2.8m to sign Chris Paul to the max ($18.7m) You need to sign Dwight outright first and use the 150% rule to S&T for Chris Paul or give away Asik and Lin and Jones/D-Mo elsewhere to create the cap room again to sign CP3 outright. From J.R.'s transcript: What they do is proceed with the obvious names, PF, but want to do it with the Carlos Delfino style contract. That first year is guaranteed but after that, the Rockets have control. They probably wouldn't get them with that kind of contract. What I interpret from this is that they would only go after Milsap if they could sign him to a Delfino type contract. Delfino's contract is a 2 year / $3m per year with the second year non-guaranteed. NO WAY Milsap comes for that. I think Milsap is worth 4yr/36m at least.
I think they just meant the style, where Rockets maintain control, i.e., it could be first 2 yrs guaranteed, then 2 yrs non-guaranteed or team options. Something where Rockets can cut out early if they decide, but it will be at least for $36M, I agree. I don't think Millsap will agree because even though the price is right, those terms are mehhh.
@pwnyxpress Nope, don't think Feigen was talking about style (see the part of the transcript above). Definitely talking about a team option after one year to maintain cap room for next off-season. I know a lot of people on this board like many mid-level players like Milsap, Jefferson, Granger or whoever, but under the new restrictive CBA, I think Morey is right. You go for 2 or 3 big stars that will eat up most of your cap room, them you fill the roster with minimum contract role players. Until you land that 2nd star, you keep maximum cap flexibility (team option and non-guaranteed contracts). You don't blow that flexibility on multi-year $5-12m contracts that eat up cap room.
Okay sure, first yr guaranteed, then non-guaranteed from the second yr out. It will be for a much higher contract price though. All they care about is the control remaining in their hands.
I didn't think this really deserved its own thread... but here is a podcast with Feigen from SportsRadio610 on the Rockets pursuit of Dwight Howard and CP3. He also discusses the tampering situation. http://nyc.podcast.play.it/media/d0/d0/d1/d2/dZ/dX/dP/12ZXP_3.MP3
NO THANK YOU. I thought we had this discussion on another thread. Isn't he a chucker? We got Lin, he's a more efficient scorer and better playmaker.
So if we did sign Howard and Paul, there any chance of some veterans coming in on a minimum or for the room MLE (if they are worth it) to try and win a championship? Any possible/likely candidates for that? We could get some extra depth that way possibly
PF/C Blatche is a good choice for 2 years LLE SG/SF Barnes is also a good fit for room MLE PG/SG CJ Watson LLE?
How about Melo, the ultimate chucker. I can't believe we almost got the NBA scoring champion and nothing more.
Can they simply get a guest "blogger" to write the article next year (non-employee) or have the employee post the article on a non-affiliated site? I'd guess no to either but Stern is heading out so...
I would be very happy if only Howard come to Houston Getting both Howard + CP3 must need to sacrifice a lot of things
