LOL DocRocket riddles make you go ?!?!?!?!!?!?!??!?! i guess his last riddle was right in the sense that all is OK in rocket land
Smith wouldn't get 20 Million per Year - I think the max for him would be around 15 million. And he stated not too long ago, that he would be fine signing less than the max with a contender. So we might get him for 12-13 million per year, which is a fair number for what he brings to the table. If we really get him for that amount we would definetly be in the second tier contenders league. Smiths defense, running, rebounding and overall presence on the offense would really help this team. If we could then somehow nab Howard (some kind of sign and trade around Asik, some young guys and a draft pick) we would be among the front runners...
Anyone want to take a shot at outlining a "plan" that is somewhat remotely "realistic" that could achieve this?
It would be pretty easy logisitically, to be honest. Call up Atlanta, offer Asik in exchange for a sign and traded Smith to Houston for whatever salary and have them agree in principle. Call up Dwight and say we have Josh Smith and Atlanta ready and willing to make it happen once you sign with us. Use cap space to sign Dwight to his max deal and then execute the sign and trade.
Will Asik's 8.3 million be enough to trade to Atlanta for Smith's 14m (Estimate) annual salary with Dwight's max already on the roster? What if we were to trade Garcia's $6 million contract with a team option? Can Atlanta acquire him and then decline his option?
It doesn't really matter about the exact specifics, we have a bazillion different non guaranteed, partially guaranteed, team option guys to facilitate a trade. If the ending result is us in the tax, then we need to send out ~11million (125% less than Smiths Salary) in salary to Atlanta. We have Asik, Lin, Trob, White, Garcia, etc. to make that happen. It really wouldn't be a big deal to put it together under the CBA rules. It would be even easier if the culmination of the moves doesn't put us in tax territory. In that case, we would just have to send out salary equal to Smiths new salary - 5m.
Yep. This, pretty much. Not quite, but the Rockets could easily package other salary with Asik to make salaries match within 150% plus $100,000 (the salary-matching rules for teams under the luxury tax apron, which both Houston and Atlanta would be, even after the Rockets sign Howard). The Rockets would have several non-guaranteed contracts (Anderson, Smith, Beverley, Ohlbrecht) they could throw in for matching, with Atlanta able to waive them without having them count against the cap. No can do. Francisco Garcia can no longer be traded unless and until his option is picked up (which it won't be, since he'd be guaranteed that $6.4M if it were). Also, FYI, the salaries for both Carlos Delfino ($3M) and Aaron Brooks ($2.508M) become fully guaranteed if they are not waived by June 30. They are still eligible to be traded around draft night, though. I'd expect Brooks to be waived if he is not traded before June 30. He can always re-sign for the veteran minimum later this summer, which (not-so-coincidentally) would bring his total salary for 2012-2014 to around what he would have made under his two-year deal with Sacramento. (Paging basketballholic, SEE, I AGREE WITH YOUR PREMISE!!!!) Delfino's future I am less certain of. He could be traded for a present or future pick on draft night, or he could be held onto despite taking up $3M in cap space the team might otherwise need to sign Dwight Howard. I think they probably make calls around the league to gauge his trade value. Then, if a team likes him enough, they could get a deal in place that would not be consummated until after the July Moratorium. Otherwise, if he's not traded before June 30, the Rockets may have to make the difficult decision to simply waive him.
This makes much more sense to me. Dwight and J Smith would create a team that is potentially a defensive nightmare for other teams. Millsap is a nice player but like you said he isn't the game changer Smith can be. I think Dwight and Josh would work great with Harden too. Thanks for passing your info along.
Thanks for clarifying Bima. I'm watching the Lakers game tonight and I'm just thinking to myself, "Dwight can't possibly think this team has a shot to win in the next few years". It's hilarious how out of sync this team is. They're filled with 10-15 year high IQ vets that have won at some point in their career, I just don't understand why they're so bad. If Morey calls up Dwight and says that Smoove is on the way, I don't see why he would turn that down. Lin Harden Parsons Smith Howard will compete with Miami and OKC as the best team in the league. If he stays in Laker land? Old vets, no cap space, no draft picks. It's a no-brainer. I don't know why there's only a "3% chance" that Dwight walks to Houston in the off-season (according to cyberx)
Rather have Asik/Horford than Howard/Smith. How the hell are we going to make free throws at the end of a game?
Personally, I don't see Rockets wanting both Howard and Smith. There are much better complements to Howard than Smith and Howard desires to play with a superstar point guard much more than he prefers to play with Smith. The Howard/Smith friend thing is way overblown. I expect Morey is going to attempt to team up Howard with Paul. Will he get it done? Not likely. But he's gonna try. If Morey gets an audience with both guys, he's got a puncher's chance. Because honestly, neither guy has very much of a chance of winning anything by playing against each for the next 5 years in LA and on top of that trying to get past OKC and Denver. If Morey gets a chance to lay out his plan for both guys together he may generate something special. Personally, I think both guys are going to end their seasons with a bad taste in their mouths. If the Lakers don't even make the playoffs......or if they get creamed in the first round........If the Clippers get popped sideways in the first round...look out. Now if Morey fails on Dwight/CP3 then he'll look at Smith or Millsap as the backup plan. Morey is going to try to get each of them to sign for the least amount he can get away with. I believe that is who Morey will go with. He'll sign whichever guy is willing to play for the least amount of money. If Smith is really willing to play for less than the max for a contender perhaps he'll sign here for 3 yrs and $40 million. And if we get Smith (or Millsap) don't assume that he will be here for his whole contract. We may simply be acquiring him to flip him for value at the first opportunity. Barring the above possibilities, if Morey strikes out on all 4 of these guys he'll probably just keep the cap room and see what arises. If we can flip TJones and/or TRob for a future first and get somebody to take Royce White for a future second, that's a nice future pick or two plus possibly one or the other youngsters to throw into a trade for an existing superstar. A dark horse possibility I think is worth keeping up with is the Eric Gordon situation. Minnesota has long coveted a top-notch shooting guard. I can see the possibility of acquiring Gordon for a couple youngsters simply to have another asset to flip to somebody else for a superstar. (Minnesota comes to mind. Remember Kevin Love represents the end game of the best player at his position so if he becomes available we are all in on trying to attain him.)
If we trade Asik and Lin for a Jefferson or Cousins could we then sign Josh Smith as well in free agency? Is that possible or can we only have 2 max contract players.
I think if the Mavs beat out the lakers for playoffs and we beat the clippers in the first round then it would work. But we d also have to packagelin n Asik n maybe parsons n trob plus d mo as well for a sign n trade. We would almost be stripped to the bone.
That's ok if you have CP3, Harden, and Howard. It will only take one offseason for Morey to rebuild the bench.
Signing both Howard and Paul could be done outright without a sign and trade. Morey could package Asik/Lin/TJones to Boston for Rondo and one other contract. He could then turn Rondo and that contract into future draft picks. A team like Utah, Dallas, Atlanta, etc. would gladly throw two to four future picks at us to get Rondo. You then sign both Howard and Paul outright and you keep DMo, Beverley, etc. Here's the thing. If the situation progresses to that point, then most likely the Clippers would come to the table with a sign and trade offer for Paul. If they see they are going to lose Paul for nothing then they most likely will want to bring in the next best thing which would be Rondo. So they would probably complete the deal themselves and give us a couple future draft picks to go with Paul. Obviously this scenario is based on Boston trading Rondo. In my humble opinion I think Ainge is going to trade him this off season. When you consider the Celtic history and how they have rebuilt under Ainge it just makes sense that in light of them being able to control their destiny and play themselves into the playoffs without Rondo that now is the time for them to strike to secure their future. Asik and Lin are very, very good players. There is no way we even trade them without getting superstars for them. For Boston to trade Rondo for a lottery ticket and then have to tear down the rest of their team in order to be bad enough to go to the lottery themselves......it's just not the way they do things. Trading Rondo for proven talent makes way more sense for them. So, simply put, if Boston decides to trade Rondo and if we get both Dwight and Paul wanting to come here, we have a great opportunity to get it done without stripping our bench and set ourselves up nicely for the future with some picks as well. Oh, by the way, another option to go with Howard could be Rondo himself. Yeah, a lot of you don't like the fit with Harden because Harden has to have the ball in his hands. But my response to that is Harden is not a point guard. Our record is directly reflected in Hardens turnover count. When he starts piling up 5-10 turnovers we have virtually no chance of winning the game. When he can keep his turnover count to 4 or less we have a great chance of winning the game. Hardens usage is too high. We're using him like Van Gundy used McGrady, just burning him up game after game. Lin has the ability to take the pressure off Harden but he doesn't have the personality to just take over the ball. I have said all along and I still believe this that Hardens usage still needs to decrease and Lins usage needs to increase. However I question whether Lin has the personality to do this and I question whether Harden would accept it from Lin. I do not question that Harden would be willing to defer dribbles to Paul or Rondo. I worry about Harden breaking down. He plays so hard and he absorbs so much contact. All these games he has played this season where he's gone off with big numbers and 12-17 trips to the free throw line are what superstars do when they are in playoff mode. They play more minutes and take more shots. Harden has been doing that all season. Every time he goes crashing down the lane and tumbling into the photographers I cringe. I just feel like a torn up knee is coming faster and faster like a speeding train toward him and this franchise. For his and this teams health and long term future Hardens usage needs to decrease significantly over the regular season. We need that other guy, whoever he is, that can take some of the load off Harden.
