Let's not start speculate on Howard coming here....if he does want out from Orlando, I think it's almost a sure thing he ends up as a Laker, with Bynum coming to Orlando.
Mannix is legit so if he says Martin is being "dangled" then Morey is willing to move him. He is right, Martin was here to play with Yao and now that he is history it maybe time to reset. Martin needs to score because when he doesn't, he is pretty much useless.
I don't know where Howard would end up, but I wouldn't expect it to be Houston. I really don't expect any superstar FA to consider Houston, unless they have some kind of tie to the city. Todays superstars want to play in a big high profile city. For a superstar, Houston will have to make a trade or get lucky in the draft.
While its not for certain, I wouldnt put it past Morey to make a run at Paul and Howard. Keep atleast Martin and Patterson and you have a legit starting group. Paul/Martin would be insane offensively Patterson/Howard would be insane defensively
Chris Mannix: NJ, Detroit wait, Denver issues a 'gag order,' Houston continues to call and the Nets put out a strategic press release http://bit.ly/hYXvu9 3 minutes ago
I was wondering about this. Why the hush? I thought Denver WANTED all this public in order to drive up the price. Now they want to 'gag' NJ?
I think all the trade rumors is probably distracting the team and affecting their performance as well as the locker room.
The Denver front office seems to think this is a poker game where deception/lies/bad faith do not have consequences.
Face it, do any of us know how DM the GM thinks? And Face it II - - until the MeloDrama plays it's Fat Lady song there will be no (significant) activity in Houston, NJ, NY and how many other NBA towns?!!
With gutting their team looming in the near future, I wouldnt think they would be especially concerned about their performance this year. Especially considering that the players most affected by all the talk are likely to be traded.
I don't think Mannix is advocating that we lose Martin. He is saying it OK to trade him for Melo, and if we lose Melo, too, it's not the end of the world, and we would have drastically reduced our team salary. As for gagging NJ, how many of you have actually been there? I think we should put a bubble over the whole state.
You might have a point if he weren't the 3rd most efficient shooter in the league behind Dirk and Nash. It's not like he just gets his 9 points from the line every game and then does nothing else. Rockets shouldn't even bother with Anthony, go after your actual weakness, which is center.
From what I saw on twitter today, teams across the league are waiting for this Melo trade to go down so other teams can start trading. Apparently we're going to see a lot of trading taking place in the eastern conference because of Miami. It's crazy how many teams are afraid to do anything because of this whole melodrama. IMO, if Melo goes to the East, the Western Conference will be wide open for the next 2-3 years. Morey has to be smart on making this team better overall. All I want for them to do is focus on picking up a legit center. Whether it's a young one or a center in their prime, the Center spot must be a priority IMO.
The problem with trading Martin is that he has so much more value to us than anything we get in a trade. Heck, even Rockets fans don't think much of Martin. Only statheads rate Martin highly. And only contenders need him. So there just isn't much of a market.
Melo hasn't played a significant part of the playoff race in the West, so why would his departure leave the west "wide open"? The Lakers aren in a solid posiition to keep their run going for another 3 years. The core players (odom, gasol, ron, kobe) minus Fisher, will be 34-35 at that point, similar to the big 3 in Boston. Although Kobe is declining they have Bynum coming on up. He's either going to increase his production/role or make a nice trading piece to get another impact player for LA. Close to the end of their contracts are : Nene, Brooks, EGordon, Beasley, Love, Lopez, CP3, DH, Deron, Mcgee, etc....You never know when guys will ask out and LA is always a welcomed destination for most.
