That hard cap would be a problem for a year. Assuming we could keep Ariza, DMo, Capela, Johnson, that would only leave us about 14 million or so to try to bring back Brewer and Smith; and maybe Bev. plus fill out the roster with 5 more players which also needs to include an upgrade at PG. It would be tough, but if ANYONE can do it, it would be Morey. I would expect that if we DID get LMA, and kept Harden, Howard and Ariza, some discounts and great veteran deals would be available to us for those wanting to pursue a championship run. But still...that HARD CAP though. And for those that keep repeating that getting LMA without including Ariza is impossible, please read through this thread where it has been shown at least a couple of times that IT CAN BE DONE!
Parker is going to be 33 years old next month, Ginobli will be 38 this summer and Duncan just turned 39 yesterday. How long a contract LMA would accept in SA is the question? Can see your point with Kawhi but Green is not an attractor for a free agent IMO.
I don't want to lose Ariza because he's such an important part of our team's new identity. What is our new identity? Defense. Defense is the difference between getting killed by Portland last year and sweeping the Mavs tonight.
To have Howard, Aldridge (via S&T), Harden & Ariza all on this team, the rest of the roster would need to be mostly vet minimum players. Would be tough to re-sign Brewer or Bev or to use the MLE.
I know LmA killed us and played like an all time great against us but personally I would rather spend our money on a pg to complement Harden then use a rotation of vet 4's.
Could you go over the cap to resign Brewer, Smith, Terry via bird rights? Or would we be up against the hard cap/apron? I could see Smith and Terry resigning for vet min or close to that. I honestly don't see anyone throwing much money their way this summer and it sounds like Smith REALLY wants to be here. It's retaining Brewer along with Ariza and LMA that I would be worried about.
Once you trade for a S&T'd player, you're hard-capped at the apron. Can exceed cap to re-sign guys using Bird rights, but you can't exceed the (higher) apron level ($4M above the luxury tax threshold), which would act as a true hard cap. Technically, the Rockets have a sort of Bird rights over Smith: Non-Bird rights. It allows the Rockets to give Smith up to a 20% raise over his prior year's salary. Unfortunately, that'll only be ~$2.5M they can offer him.
prior to the beginning of the season, a team can have 20 players on its roster, so yes, a trade like that really can happen
We had all of 1 more win than the Spurs. Either way, it's about adding a major piece to an already successful team - I think either of those are potentially very successful situations. To me, it comes down to what Aldridge wants for himself. If he comes to Houston, he's pretty clearly the #3 guy. Harden is the clear cut star, and as long as Dwight's health remains ok, he's the #2 guy (not as an offensive option, but as a personality/overall impact). In San Antonio, I think there's a lot more parity in terms of who the man is- it's Duncan's team till he retires, but that's probably not that long from now. In Dallas, he'd basically be responsible for taking the torch from Dirk. I think that situation isn't all that different than Portland, just brings him home.
Dallas is getting old fast and looks ripe for a complete rebuild. I can't see Aldridge wanting to join that situation.
I understand what you are saying, but what about: Howard $22,359,364 Aldridge $20,000,000 Harden $15,756,438 Ariza $8,193,030 Brewer $5,000,000 Smith $2,500,000 Bev(another PG, KJ, Lin, or other) $2,500,000 Dmo $2,288,205 Terry $1,500,000 Capela $1,242,720 18th Pick $1,000,000 Vet minimum $1,000,000 Vet minimum $1,000,000 Johnson $845,059 32nd Pick $500,000 Total Salary $85,684,816 I don't know how we get there with the trade rules, etc., but the raw numbers could work theoretically with us being right at the HARD CAP. Also, Aldridge could take a million or two less on a 2 year player option deal so that we can sign him to a bigger longer term deal as the salary cap hits it's big increase. That would give us a little more money to put towards a starting PG, which we desperately need bad. I also don't know how Brewer will feel about $5,000,000, but it's slightly more than he was going to get and we could offer a bigger deal as the cap goes up also. I also would imagine that if we traded for Aldriged, Portland would want that 18th pick and even maybe that 32nd as well. So there's that. Just throwing the raw numbers out there to say...Hmmmmmmmm Howard/DMo/Capella Aldridge/Smith/(Scola?) Ariza/Brewer/(Vet or pick) Harden/(KJ?)/(Vet or pick) New Starting PG/(Bev, Lin, other?)/Johnson
^^^^^^^^^ Howard/DMo/Capella Aldridge/Smith/(Scola?) Ariza/Brewer/(Vet or pick) Harden/Terry/(KJ?) New Starting PG/(Bev, Lin, other?)/Johnson Left Terry off. Also, could trade or keep DMo or TJones, so they could interchange. As a possibility.
I wasn't saying this is going to happen, we are just talking about what's possible. It would take a LOTTTTTTTTTTTTT to make that happen, first being LMA saying that he wants to come here and trying to force a trade. Then several other players have to buy in, even before Morey beings to work his magic. Second, I would never pretend to be able to predict what Morey would or is able to do. He probably has a plan that is much better than I can think of.
Can't see LMA accepting a SnT under any scenarios. I see him taking a 2 year deal with a second year player option so he can resign in 2016 to a massively larger contract than anything he can get in 2015. Houston has just as a legit shot at him as anyone else.
If the Rockets sign Llull I think Bev is gone. Would this work? A 3 team trade that sends to Team C: Bev via S&T + incentive (young player or future pick) to Blazers: Pap, Dorsey, Jones, DMo, rookie selected w/. 2015 18th pick Llull (MLE), Prigioni, Johnson Harden, Terry (Vet Min), * (Min) Ariza, Brewer (Early Bird), McDaniels LMA (S&T), Smith (Non-Bird), Scola (Vet Min) Howard, Capela, * (Min)
