http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/217148/Rockets_Working_On_Three_Way_Deal_That_Would_Send_Paul_To_Lakers

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Rockets Working On Three-Way Deal That Would Send Paul To Lakers

The Rockets have been working with the Lakers and Hornets on a three-team trade that would result in Chris Paul going to Los Angeles.

Houston would presumably acquire one of the big men from the Lakers, as either Andrew Bynum or Pau Gasol would need to be dealt by the Lakers.

The Lakers are trying to acquire Paul while retaining Bynum, according to a source that spoke with Adrian Wojnarowski.
Via Sam Amick/SI.com (via Twitter)

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WTF Morey?

Who do the Rockets have that the Hornets would want?

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ckzdnpy

If I'm Morey, I don't make the deal unless we get Bynum in return. Gasol is old and washed up, and we need defense around the rim. If the Lakers really want Chris Paul, I would make that a dealbreaker and force the Lakers to hand over Bynum. No Bynum = No Paul

Assuming this deal involves K Mart and Scola (which is what I've been hearing), we would have something like this for our starting lineup:

1. Lowry
2. Lee
3. Bud
4. Patterson/Morris
5. Bynum

That's not a bad lineup in my opinion. Very athletic bigs with good shooters on the outside. That could work

Bynum is younger, but I would have thought the Rockets would have learned from putting all their eggs in one really tall basket with horrible injury problems.

can't imagine bynum would be involved...the lakers are holding him back to trade for howard

and frankly, i wouldn't want bynum anyway for the reason GS just said

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Gasol is old and washed up, and we need defense around the rim.

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I don't get this. Laker fans say this after last season; 1 season! (not saying your a Laker fan). Gasol is THE Reason for 3 straight finals appearances. The Lakers have the most fickle fans in the NBA.... Anyways, he is still a top 5 big man in this league. He'd be a huge get for the Rockets and would push them into the playoffs.

That would definitely make us a better team. I like it.

DEFINITELY not a Lakers fan. I bleed Rocket Red.

But when you compare Bynum and Gasol defensively, Bynum is much better. He's longer and stronger. Gasol is a good shot blocker, but he gets pushed around inside when he is matched up with strong aggressive players.

That being said, Gasol would still be an uprgard over anyone that we have on our roster right now

Coach McHale would never know what to do with a tall, slightly awkward white guy that passes really well.

please god, let this happen

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/7332598/talks-three-way-trade-sending-chris-paul-new-orleans-hornets-los-angeles-lakers-pau-gasol-houston-rockets

If we only give up Scola and Martin, I'm fine with it. Anything more, and I'd walk.

Championship move there

Make the trade happen, and you'd be a fool to prefer Bynum over Gasol. If any team should know better than taking an injury plagued big man it is Houston.

Although this move would'nt have a huge impact on this season IMO, it still is a move in the right direction. But the Rockets shouldn't stop there though. Try for Howard, J. Smith, Rondo, and any other player that has been mentioned as available over the past year. Let other gms know that everyone on the roster is available.

No one is content with this middle of the pack bull*****anymore. We may trade all of our young talent away and the players we bring in decide to go elsewhere as FAs. Then the team goes to *****but so what? We get a high draft pick and start rebuilding with guys that have higher ceilings than the players on the current roster.

At this point almost any move Morey makes is a good one so long as he doesn't give up the draft picks we already possess.

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Although this move would'nt have a huge impact on this season IMO, it still is a move in the right direction.

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I think you don't make a move for a 31 year old 7' player unless it makes an immediate impact. If you want it to have an impact a few years down the road, his career is over.

so amare chose to go to NY and tried to recruit other FAs to join him.

no luck.

then melo forced his way giving them a "big 2".

and now that paul apparently wants to go there, bringing amare's plans to fruition, he may be the one who gets dealt to new orleans to make it happen with tyson chandler in his place.

probably not what he had in mind

first, i'm not sure this would be the only move the rockets make.

second, adding gasol is an impact move. i like scola and hayes, but they're not in gasol's league. you slip patterson in at the 4 and that's a nice front-court.

third, while kmart is a nice scorer, he was a terrible defender. assuming lee steps into the starting role, a backcourt with him and lowry is a dramatic improvement defensively.

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third, while kmart is a nice scorer, he was a terrible defender.

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This is spot on. I don't think many people realize how much of a liability KMart is on defense. Scola, too, for that matter. Lee plays much better defense than KMart and is more than capable of scoring points too. I wouldn't lose any sleep if we lost them.

And I do see the point about Bynum being injury prone. As a lifetime Houston fan, I know all about superstars being hampered by injuries. But I just think it would be tough to turn Bynum down, especially since Gasol isn't getting any younger. But either way, our team would be getting better, and I would be happy with either scenario

If Amare gets dealt to NOLA for CP3, you can go ahead and put him on suicide watch.

I would be against trading for Bynum based on the fact that he is a complete *******.

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I think you don't make a move for a 31 year old 7' player unless it makes an immediate impact. If you want it to have an impact a few years down the road, his career is over.

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I agree that move alone really wouldn't do a ton of good, but it's the kind of trade that could set things moving in the right direction. Get lucky and add one more big name and now we have a team that can at least compete in the west.

Also you'd be trading a 31 year old Scola and a 28 year old KMart. So it's not like we'd be getting any older.

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second, adding gasol is an impact move. i like scola and hayes, but they're not in gasol's league. you slip patterson in at the 4 and that's a nice front-court.

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This. If you have that front-court, not to mention Morris and Motiejunas, selling other big name guys on Houston becomes that much easier, everyone in the NBA wants to play with a top notch post player. While Gasol isn't Howard, he is once again, better than what we currently have to offer.

What it comes down to is this is a team stuck in limbo and while I don't really fault Morey for it, it is time for him to shake things up and bring some big name guys to Houston. Even if it means somewhat overpaying. If he can't accomplish that with the depth and youth of our current roster then it may be time to start looking for our next GM.

If you're trading away kmart and scola to get pau, you do that every day.

Welp. This discussion is moot. Paul for Pau straight up.

[This message has been edited by ItalAggie (edited 12/8/2011 5:10p).]

Scratch that. Paul for Pau and Odom.

The problem is that you are trading your two best trading chips for a #2 guy when the team has no #1 guy. That is a move that would further the mediocrity. Good enough for 5th-12th in the West, but not good enough to seriously contend.

Thats where our opinions differ I guess. I think that our younger players would be considered more valuable assets to most teams we'd be looking to deal with. Especially when you consider how much $ Kevin Martin is making right now.


On a side note does anyone know how to take a picture from facebook and put it on here?

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I think that our younger players would be considered more valuable assets to most teams we'd be looking to deal with.

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I think Houston fans highly overrate their trade assets. There is a reason Houston has been able to make lots of moves and upgrade in talent piece by piece, but haven't been able to make the big splash move.

Paul to Lakers
Odom to NO
Gasol to Rockets

ESPN reporting deal is done...

Who do the Rockets give and to whom?

like i said, i don't think the rockets are done. if the deal, as reported, is finalized, they clear roughly another $3mil in cap space. could amnesty thabeet and probably get to $16mil or so.

Pau is a better trading chip for a star than kmart and scola.

Guitarsoup,

It may be true that Rockets fans over value our young assets. But if you think that giving up a 31 year old Scola and a 28 year old KMart for an all star 7 footer of the same age is giving up too much, you are over valuing both Scola and KMart.

While both are very skilled offensively neither plays any defense at all. Combine that with the fact that Kevin Martin is making somewhere in the range of 12m/year to play absolutely no defense, and it is pretty clear that the Rockets would benefit from this deal.

And I do think that the Rockets have enough valuable pieces to still aquire one more all star caliber player. I would say Kyle Lowry actually carries more trade value than either Scola or Martin due to the fact he is relatively young and has consistently improved over the past two seasons. Not to mention he isn't making 12m/year.

And the reason the younger players have more value in this situation is that the teams willing to trade their top players aren't going to want to downgrade in talent (which is inevitable) without getting younger while doing so. This is why Morey has been stocking up on young players with upside (through the draft and trades) rather than signing free agents who are already in the prime of their career.

ESPN News - Sources: Chris Paul to Lakers, Pau Gasol to Rockets, Lamar Odom to Hornets in 3-team trade

Done

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Pau is a better trading chip for a star than kmart and scola.

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This is also a good point even if we intended to trade Scola or KMart down the road any deal we would have done is still very possible. Pau is easily more valuable than either of them.

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Sources close to the process tell Stein that the Houston Rockets remain part of the talks and are trying to complete a deal that would send Gasol in Houston and the Rockets' Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic to New Orleans along with Odom

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So our top two players plus my favorite player for a 31 year old post?