Kevin Martin $12,939,675 Marcus Camby $1,000,000* Luis Scola $9,408,207 Kyle Lowry $5,750,000 Courtney Lee $3,221,933** Goran Dragic $8,000,000* Patrick Patterson $2,096,760 Marcus Morris $1,959,960 Jon Brockman $1,000,000 Chandler Parsons $888,250 Jon Leuer $762,195 Jeremy Lamb $1,683,500 Royce White $1,371,200 Terrence Jones $1,237,500 Donatas Motiejūnas $1,103,800 $52,422,980 * Estimate ** Qualifying offer Of the guys currently on the roster, these are the 15 that I believe they would go with if they were forced to start the season today. What would you do to get the roster more balanced?
I'd trade Kevin Martin for sure. I like his game when he's productive, but see no reason to keep him at a high salary with Lee and Lamb around. Rather ensure Lamb gets playing to develop. Also, I wouldn't force a trade for Lowry. If nobody values him as highly as we think they should, keep him. Many of us are willing to gamble on Howard and see about forcing him to stay to get his money so I see no reason why we would trade a player who wants out just because if we can't get good value. If you aren't going to be able to get Dwight Howard then I would move Scola to a contender. I'd have to think long and hard about resgining Goran as well.
I think the good news is that, while playing time would be hard to come by for some, they could actually feel comfortable starting the season with that team. I think there is no way that happens, but shouldn't be panicked and desperate as some people seem to imply. They can be patient and still be able to work a deal that benefits them. Martin or Scola & Jones could bring a quality center.
What would you envision gets Dwight Howard here? Something like Martin, Lowry, Smith and a future 1st?
Not hardly. I think they take Lamb and White at least. And possibly Jones was their pick as well. I see no reason for us to draft Jones. We're set at SF and overloaded at PF. So, Jones is likely going to get flipped for a future first and a second or he goes out in a Dwight trade. A Dwight trade is going to be massive. If we trade for him, we're likely taking back JRich and Duhon with him and we're more than likely sending out Lamb/White/Lowry/Martin/Livingston, and Morris or Patterson, whatever they want basically. And I wouldn't be surprised now if a Dwight trade turns into a 3,4, or even 5 team trade instead of just the two principle teams.
The Rockets already said they intend to keep all three of the newly drafted players, which makes me suspect our offer wasn't good enough for Dwight. Also got Les talking about playing lots of young guys. I wonder if we're about to see a SnT for Hibbert.
Why in the world would orlando trade howard for anyone in the rockets possession? Did you not see what cp3,williams,and melo brought back? Nj gave up the #2 overrall. Clippers gave up picks,the previous #7,gordon,and kaman. The knicks gave up gallo,chandler,felton(who was avg 18-8) and picks. None of those guys are big players and got a haul.
Moving Scola and Martin should be top priority. Moving Lowry is too but to a lesser extent. With Jeremy Lamb and Donatas Motiejunas being our two guys with the highest ceiling's. I think its best to move Scola and Martin by any means possible, even if its not for equal value in return.
Because: 1. They can't get him to buy in and sign an extension and 2. They cannot find a better deal for Howard from a team willing to rent Howard. If Orlando cannot get Dwight to sign an extension, the Houston Rockets are still in the driver's seat to rent him. We can offer up more young talent, expiring contracts, salary cap relief, and possible future draft picks after converting guys like Scola, Martin, Lowry in trade. Name me the team that can offer Orlando a better rebuilding package than we can and would be willing to trade for Dwight without Dwight agreeing to extend with them. Name them.
We can threaten to offer him max money if they don't. They would probably rather trade him than pay him the max.
Just looking at that potential roster besides Brockman, that makes 14 players who will need some sort of playing time. That's not even including the possibility of Livingston playing as well. That tells me this team is not done and will be making a few moves to make the roster more feasible moving forward with maybe 10 or 11 guys on board who will get playing time. Not sure if that means the big trade or a few smaller ones like Morey pulled before the draft but with the way the nroster stands, there have to be more moves on the horizon.
