Well, we rent him because a starting lineup of Dragic, Lee, Parsons, Dwight, Patterson, with Smith, Budinger, Duhon, QRich, Marcus Morris can make a serious run in the Western Conference playoffs. This proves to Dwight that we are already there and he can go get his boy DWill to sign with us. And if we lose Dwight, we got our youngsters, our picks, and a whole gob of cap space to get a guy like Asik and offer Gordon a max deal while re-signing Dragic and going to war again. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain by renting Dwight. Now, here's the other part. We get him here, we can sell him on who we are, who our owner is, and our front office. New Jersey? A Russian owner running for president. Deep pockets but at the end of the day, what is he? He's a foreigner interested in making money. You tell me, what's that franchise going to be worth after the move to Brooklyn and sign Dwight and DWill???? A lot!!! And don't be surprised if all of a sudden dude decides to sell the team, pocket his profits and go back to Russia, where he already is. Now, I'm not going to say this is going to happen. But, when you look at the two owners of these teams, which owner is comitted to owning a team in the NBA and winning championships??? It ain't Mr. Russia. It's ........ LES! The same guy that has pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed for us to compete, avoid the lottery and get in the playoffs!! The same guy that has driven some of us up the wall with his unwillingness to tank for a truly great lottery pick!! If there's anybody that can convince Dwight to stay here, it's Les! Oh,........Money???? Dwight will have his Bird's rights here, will be ablle to get his 5th year and 7% raises, and won't have to pay state income taxes. Oh.....he'll own Houston and will wind up owning Texas in a relative short period of time. I've been telling you all along. We have a legit chance to bring Dwight here and keep him here. It may not happen but Morey is doing his darndest. Give the man credit.
First of all, we need to trade what we have to suck next year if Howard leaves. Second of all, it is easy to get a guy to stay here once you actually get him here. If Morey can get Howard here with Clee and Lowry as our PG, we will have a good chance at keeping him here. We all know Morey is a badass in the draft and can surround Howard with great role players. The problem is getting an all star here to begin with. That is Morey's biggest flaw.
Rumors from "someone close to Howard"? Well if his dog groomer's brother says it, it must be true! I think we have a shot at convincing him to stay. Better supporting cast, better front office, bigger market, and it's still a ton of money to leave on the table.
The Rockets tried to trade for Bogut last summer, tried to trade for Pau in pre-season. Both are bigs with a good passing game. So the mystery trade could involve a big man with that skill set?
Yeah, you take the swing at the superstar. Between the good cast, big although not massive market, and our ability to pay him we would have a good chance of convincing him. Maybe he then convinces d-will. If it comes down to flat free-agency we have zero chance. Morey has proven he can get good NBA players almost at will if he leaves. We have a chance at the big kahuna, so its more than worth the risk.
If we rent Dwight and make a serious run in the playoffs and NJ is sucking hind tit with DWill, what do you think those guys are going to be talking about in the offseason???? Which team would have the better supporting cast and draft picks to add to the core of Dwight and Dwill??? Knicks miss the playoffs. We got their pick at 8 or 9. We got our youngsters. We got Motie and Llull overseas. We can convert some of these guys to a third star if we need to. NJ has ...... about $7 million in cap space after they sign Dwight, maybe a few million more if they find a way to move some of their junk for expirings by Thursday, possibly even a little less if they re-sign Lopez. They got a dinged Lopez whom I assume they will try to make a PF out of. Or they let him walk for nothing and pocket the cap space. And they got our pick which would be around 20 if we make a run in the playoffs. You tell me...which team has the preferrable winning supporting cast?
Not sure if serious... Duhon, QRich? WTF. As it is we can barely make the playoffs, much less win any playoff series. You seriously believe replacing KLow/Martin/Scola with Dwight can make such a big difference??? If so, you're in for a big let down, bro... Color me not excited. Asik is a nice player, but not somebody you build around. Gordan a max deal??? LOL An owner many fans have been pointing finger to? A GM that gets teh reputation of treating everybody as "asset"? Hmmm That's all fine and dandy. But Orlando can offer all that too, can't they? As of right now Magic is 3rd in the eastern conference, and have a much better chance to make a playoff run. But still he's "determined to leave". So obviously he doesn't care about the Benjamins that much. Or playing in New Jersey and soon Brooklyn makes money an non-issue?
That's reasonable. We'd have to offer Lowry or significantly more picks/assets to beat out the offer of Ellis. Bogut isn't worth gutting the team.
Do you really believe that, jopatmc? That lineup looks to me like one superstar, four borderline starters, and some scraps. Not saying I'm against renting Howard, but that roster above looks like a first-round sweep and a long off season.
As long as Goran and Chandler are out there running around that team is going to compete until the final horn. Dragic, Lee, Parsons, Dwight, and Patterson is a defensive juggernaut. Now, where do you get the offense? Goran's gotta play more efficiently. Lee is gonna give us what he gives us. IMO, Patterson can replace Scola's offense. Dwight is gonna pile up dunks and get us in the bonus. Yes, I believe they will make a run in the playoffs.
The Rockets didn't pull out this deal... The Bucks GM just put down the phone. The Bucks are already loaded at PF and wanted a scoring wing and also a C. This was Morey's serious offer? Come on.
Parsons, Dragic, and Lee are all solid starter level players. Nothing borderline about them. They can't create for themselves (except Dragic a bit) but you won't find many better roleplayers or a much better perimeter defense in the NBA.
I agree with this. Those are not borderline starters. On half the NBA teams Dragic, Lee, Patterson, Parsons could start on.
