Miami's bench and depth has always been a concern too. They are in their 3rd Finals appearance in a row. Players will gravitate here for the minimum if it means a chance to contend for a championship.
If Paul and Howard would credibly team up in Atlanta, the LA teams would be dumb to not do a S&T to Houston or Atlanta. They can lose their players for nothing, or for something. Obviously, we would be in a stronger position if we could clear enough cap room to sign both guys outright, but we'd also lose more talent that way than we would by S&T. If the Clippers don't want Asik, that's okay, because you can bring in a 3rd team to pick him up and send, say, a small forward their way. But, just clearing cap space and signing outright means about $5m in talent we have to dump for nothing because we don't want or can't have an LA team as a counter-party. Look at S&T first, and only dump players for cap space if both LA teams prove stubborn.
We have draft picks. The Knicks second rounders in 2014, 15, the Clippers second rounder in 2015. We can even trade our 2015 first rounder
More difficult? Getting commitments from these guys or clearing the necessary cap space? Seems like a long shot and I guess it is. (What did Daryl say, 20 different moons have to align?)
I don't understand why so many would say something like this. Lin is a cash cow, maybe not on the level of Yao Ming but this organization would probably never trade Lin unless it meant forming a Big 3 here in Houston. Multiple teams would love to get their hands on a guy like Lin, knowing their cities don't attract top flight free agents, such as Milwaukee, Sacramento, hell even Orlando could use a PG and Lin would be a perfect peice to build their team upon. (Not sure if they have the needed cap flexibility although.) Point is Lin should have no trouble finding a new home if the situation were to arise.
CP3 to Dwight all day. I would love to see these two play together, as Rockets or not....but hopefully as Rockets.
ATL actually doesn't have enough to do a S&T for either player, unless they give away Horford. oooo. But then they'd be on a team w/ literally no one but themselves haha. That is a bit absurd. I just don't get why everyone thinks ATL is a credible landing spot for both of them when it requires either a) Horford is given up in a SnT so that pretty much only Lou Williams, Jenkins, Howard and CP3 will remain for like $45M; b) keep Horford, both Dwight and CP3 take large paycuts, and then they have literally no bench but would be at the cap. I imagine going to Houston would be so much nicer esp. if they're already willing to take the same sized paycuts...
About two years ago there was supposedly a conversation had between paul and lebron about staying in opposite conferences, so yes being in the same division as miami would be a giant turn off.
Alright so let's compare the three and see the advantages and disadvantages (not taking into account who would be traded to LA - I'll leave that up to the numbers guys): Dallas: + Great, enthusiastic and involved owner + Some nice young talent in Beaubois, Collison & Crowder + Kaman / Brand to back-up Dwight + Collison again to back-up Chris Paul + Carter & Dirk established veterans who have something left in the tank + Taxes - Worst record of the three last year - Old team - Injury prone / woes - Cuban has a tendency to blow up a championship team Atlanta + Established players in Horford, Smith & Williams + Almost top 10 defensive team + Horford to back up Howard + Good frontcourt partner for Howard + Chris Paul could take energy off on defense, can go nuts lobbing it up and feed the big men +/- City + Good record, took Indiana to 6 - Taxes - Smith's tendencies Houston + Coaching staff + Great offensive system that would fit both players perfectly + Good back-up for Chris Paul + youngest team of the three + team with the best upside of the three, more chance of several championships + Morey has shown to find perfect role players + Taxes I seriously cannot come up with any negatives other than the players the Rockets would lose in getting the money to get both.
Realistically there are maybe 2 or 3 teams who might take on Lin's contract and that's only if they don't address their PG position throught the draft. Another bad Les signing holding the team back.
Maybe I'm tempering my expectations, but if this is true, I think it pretty much confirms we are out of the running. 1. Dwight would want to play with CP3 over Harden 2. They both Love L.A. 3. Dwight changes his mind every second 4. Houston would have to make too many "perfect" moves to make this happen
I am worried about Atlanta though. I'm not sure I believe Paul and Howard really would have to take pay cuts to sign there. The sham sports $23m number is Horford ($12m), Louis Williams ($5.5m), John Jenkins ($1.3m), and roster slots (9 slots x $0.5m each = $4.5m). Chris Paul needs about $18.6m and Dwight Howard needs $20.5m. That'd put them $3.6m over the cap. If they can find a taker for Louis Williams (and they have 1-2 1st rounders to sweeten the offer), they are there. That has to be a lot easier than Houston finding takers for Robinson, Lin, Asik, and White. Sure, Atlanta's roster would be decimated. But they can do it without an S&T. Houston might not be able to. And Houston's roster would be pretty decimated too. The only benefit is that Harden is better than Horford, and we can probably come out with Parsons still on the team, unless we can't clear space and need to give him up to make the S&T happen.
Whatever we get for Asik and Robinson would probably need to go with him, +extras, we have a bunch of 2nd rounders as well from Camby etc.
Nope. Doesn't work out. They have Jenkins and Lou Williams on contract for about $6.5M combined. Horford is $12M. Howard and CP3 at max would be $39.2M. Their guaranteed total + the contracts ends up at about $57.7M. BUT that is with only 5 players on contract. 7 roster charges of $490k take them WELL over the cap, so that CP3/Dwight both have to take like $1.3M paycuts EACH. This is to just get them to sign UNDER the cap and have a 5 man roster (one being Jenkins lawl). Come on, that is pretty crap.
I was under the impression that with Josh Smith off the books, they'd have enough room to sign 2 max free agents while KEEPING Al Horford. Are you sure they'd have to trade him away? I thought the entire idea was to form a big 3 in Atlanta.
Atlanta have 2 first round draft picks as well (ours rofl), and really, White and Lin are our bothersome ones, Robinson and Asik are easy to move.
