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Be the Brooklyn Nets. I'm thinking this race was over before it started.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 6/27/2012 4:31p).]

Sell their soul's

Actually, it appears that we already can sign a max free agent, if we let Lee, Dragic, and Camby all walk.

Don't let Dragic walk - I don't care about Lowry, but I want us to bring the Dragon back

If you could sign DWill, why would you give a F?

DWill isn't coming here

If we made the best trade offer to Orlando and were able to secure Dwight Howard and we had the cap room to add Deron Williams, I think it is something he would seriously consider.

I agree that it would be an option that would require some consideration, I just see it as an extremely farfetched pipedream, and not really a legit possibility

Sounds to me like we have as good of a shot to trade for Howard as anybody.

I would agree with that. The only thing I know for certain is that all of these rumors and reports are causing my grades and study habits to plummet. Damn summer school

Lets put it this way:

what other offers are on the table? Brooklyn?

This is not Dwight Howard's decision to make. He was an idiot for signing that extra year. The Rockets have the best available pieces to give to Orlando. I know they are under new management so they may be hesitant at first but you can't ignore the fact that Howard is leaving Orlando no matter what and if you want to rebuild what better way to do it than with 3 draft picks in the first round?

I think I'm starting to lean towards not even going after Dwight, but lets consider if Orlando doesn't want to cut ties with him just yet anyway.

If the Rockets were able to trade up and get the #5 and #6 picks I feel like they could grab two players with all star potential and do so without giving up everything we've got.

Portland has made their interest in Lowry clear as have the Kings so lets assume the Rockets could send Kyle plus one of the three picks, preferably 18, to either team to get their pick. Even if they had to give up #12 or #16 I still feel like it's a trade worth making. After that we'd be left with two mid first picks to try and make a deal with the remaining team. With young assets like (Lee,Parsons,Patterson,Morris,Motiejunas) and the expiring contract of Martin the Rockets should be able to work out some type of a deal for the remaining pick. With both the picks in the deal I feel like an addition of Morris or maybe Motiejunas would be enough to seal the deal. Personally I'd really like to keep Parsons and Lee but if one had to go I'd give up Lee. Parsons ability to defend the new type of 6'8" scorers in this league is a huge asset.

If the Rockets mangaged this deal we would have the ability to draft two of these five players.

Beal
Barnes
MKG
Robinson
Drummond

You give me any two of those plus Scola, Dragic, Parsons, and the players that wouldn't be traded and thats not a bad mix of youth and experience. Not to mention all 5 of those players have very high ceilings and could develop into the type of star we are currently seeking.

The problem is that this is not the NFL Draft. The 12th, 16th, and 18th picks do not translate into immediate starters. In actuality, teams are very lucky if they find a decent starter in those draft slots two or three seasons down the road.

Three draft picks, plus a few quality pieces from the Rockets' roster (Kyle Lowery, K-Mart, Patterson/Scola), and perhaps that's a package enticing enough to tempt Orlando's front office to send Dwight our way.

I would like it to happen but it will be a tough transaction to pull off, in my opinion.

The fact that we have traded Big Sam tells me that Morey probably has something lined up in the works. I just don't think he would trade away basically our only center without having a plan to replace him. Time will tell

Hahahaha. Houston fans...the very idea you could put together a trade that would entice Orlando to sent Howard your way, AND you're going to then sign DWill. Excellent stuff.

Send the three mid 1st rounders, Parsons and Lowry for Superman. That oughta do it. DWill to follow.

In order to acquire Howard, I could see the Rockets also having to take on Turkoglu's awful contract to push the Magic to make the deal. I think what Morey is going to try to do is get 1 or even 2 top-10 picks in this draft to trade to the Magic. The Cavs need a 2-guard and a replacement for Jamison. Maybe he can offer the #12, Kevin Martin, and Scola to the Cavs for their #4. The Kings need a true PG. Maybe Kyle Lowry plus the #16 and the #18 to the Kings for their #5 and a bad contract (Salmons). Then he comes to the Magic and offers them the #4, #5, Marcus Morris, the rights to Montiejunas, and their pick from Parsons/Patterson/Livingston (whoever they like more) for Howard & Turkoglu.

I think Deron has already said it's either the Nets or Mavs, so he's not in play for Houston. But if he were if Houston were able to somehow land Howard, you could renounce Dragic & Lee ($9.5M in cap holds), then give away Turkoglu to a team with cap space for a future 2nd-round pick and free up an additional $21M to sign Deron to a max contract (which starts at $19M).

Your trade examples aren't possible in the nba

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Your trade examples aren't possible in the nba

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You talking to me? The examples I gave would be legal. What would not be possible?

The salaries aren't even close to balancing out on most of those trades and would push the Rockets over the salary cap in your proposed Magic trade.

[This message has been edited by HotardAg07 (edited 6/28/2012 9:10a).]

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The salaries aren't even close to balancing out on most of those trades.

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Only teams over the cap have to worry about that. Teams under the cap can do whatever the hell they want as long as they don't end up more than $100k over the cap following the trade.

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and would push the Rockets over the salary cap in your proposed Magic trade.

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If the rockets did the 2 trades I mentioned before the magic trade, then no, they'd be far enough under the cap to be able to absorb the incoming contracts of Howard & Turkoglu.

First of all, the idea that the Cavs would trade the #4 pick for Scola and Martin just seems silly to me... but they couldn't do that even if they wanted to because it would put them over the luxury tax threshhold. Plus, the incoming aggregate salaries would have to be within $5MM of the outgoing aggregate salaries since it is over $9.8MM in that trade example... which it is not.

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but they couldn't do that even if they wanted to because it would put them over the luxury tax threshhold.

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Damn it, I forgot about Jamison. My calculations were based on him being a free agent that the cavs could renounce, but he stays on their books until next week. I guess you offer Orlando Scola and Martin instead of the draft pick and hope the Magic like that better and bite.

If we had Howard, it changes everything. Same way having olajuwon helped us land barkley and pippen

Yeah that Barkley-Pippen thing really paid off for the Rockets.

getting barkley was a horrible idea at the time, and still is now

^
That's not the point. When we got those guys to sign it was a pretty big deal. Sure it's easy to say it didn't work out in hindsight, but the point is having a superstar will encourage others to follow suit. Getting Howard opens the door to attract others.

For the record, I am in favor of keeping the top 10 picks (assuming Morey is able to execute the trades) instead of using it to get Howard. But by bringing Howard, it certainly provides something for DWill to consider. Whether it ends up working or not is a different story

Edit: @Trex

[This message has been edited by Houston Summit (edited 6/28/2012 11:53a).]

Update for after last night's draft:

If I were Morey, here's about the most realistic way I can come up with that gets Howard in a Rockets uniform based on what the Rockets have to work with:

Trade #1: Kevin Martin to Minnesota for W. Johnson and B. Miller. You waive Miller by tomorrow and save $4.25M. I think this trade works for both teams. Minnesota has a need at the 2-guard, and this trade gets them a legit starting 2-guard for basically free. Plus he goes to the best situation for him by getting re-united with Adelman, who knows how to use him. For the Rockets its a salary dump and it trims $7.3M off their 2012 books.

Trade #2: Kyle Lowry, Luis Scola, Chandler Parsons to the Lakers for Pau Gasol. Again, I think this makes sense for both teams. The Lakers upgrade themselves substantially at their 2 most glaring positions of need (PG and SF), plus get a very capable player at the 4 who can play off Bynum. For the Rockets, they finally turn their collection of assets into an all-star player, setting up trade #3:

Trade #3: Pau Gasol, Patrick Patterson, Jeremy Lamb, Marcus Morris, Terence Jones, Shaun Livingston (for salary matching, ORL would dump him), Greg Smith, 2013 and '15 1st-Round Picks to Orlando for Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu.

If the Magic deduce that Howard isn't re-signing, then they'll probably look for the best collection of players, picks, and cap space while also trying to dump Hedo's contract at the same time.

This trade would give them a legitimate top-5 C in Gasol to replace Howard. They would also be able to transform themselves and become much more younger and athletic overall, which would help overcome the defensive drop-off you get from losing Howard. They would be able to waive Reddick and dump Hedo as part of this trade, saving $7.8M in salary for the upcoming year.

If these moves were pulled off, and if the Rockets brought Donatas over from Europe and re-signed Lee, Dragic, and Camby, it would look something like this for next year:

PG: Dragic, Fortson
SG: Lee, W. Johnson
SF: Turkoglu, D. Simpson
PF: D. Montejunas, Leuer, Royce White
C: Howard, Camby

Obviously the Rockets would be lacking in depth, but they would have their franchise main piece, which is the hard part. The rockets would have the MLE and bi-annual exception to fill in the fringes.

And what if Howard leaves after a year? Then the Rockets would dump Hedo (saving $6M) and conservatively have at least $20M in cap space to go after a max FA in 2013. Or if there are no worthy max FA's, they tank the 2013-2014 season, probably end up with a top-5 draft pick for 2014, plus again $20M+ cap space for summer 2014 to rebuild the team (Lebron and Bosh can opt out and be FA's in 2014. I'm not saying anything will happen, I'm just saying). Or a 3rd option is if they know he's leaving, they can pre-emptively unload him for assets at the trade deadline this year.

Either way it's better to unload everything we have right now for Howard rather than being stuck in purgatory and winning the award for tallest midget every year like they are now.

The Rockets will not acquire D-Howard. That ship has sailed my friend.

Nice hyperbole, but if everyone stayed healthy it would be a playoff team. Then in the playoffs it's all about matchups. Catch the right matchups and it can become very interesting.

Let's see what Morey can cook up over the next several weeks. It would be incredibly disappointing if the roster the rockets have now is what they head into the season with. There must be an end-game to what he's doing. Maybe not Howard, but someone else, like a Gasol or Josh Smith or Rudy Gay. It may take multiple moves to get the main chess piece.

i actually like the roster if they bring in Donatas. I think we could practice a ton and make a playoff contending team, even with all the rookies. Just trade lowry

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i actually like the roster if they bring in Donatas. I think we could practice a ton and make a playoff contending team, even with all the rookies. Just trade lowry

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I don't like the roster. Although if we keep all these guys, we could trot out an all-forward lineup: Marcus Morris at the point, Terence Jones at the 2, Parsons at the 3, Scola at the 4, and Patterson at the 5, with Royce White, Leuer, and Donatas coming off the bench for a full 8-man rotation. Who needs guards or centers?