Source: Rockets Expected to Pursue Carmelo Anthony

[Mush Man]

Beverly/Harden/Parsons/Melo/Dwight
Canaan/FA/Casspi/Smith/FA
bench is weak, but one hell of a first team, and with all five starters being scorers

Beverley is a scorer? 9.6 ppg on 40% shooting? That's the same as Raymond Felton except Felton averages twice the number of assists as 1Pat. Yeah he shot well vs Miami last week but has been awful in the 5 games since offensively and his defense is overrated now.

ok make it 4
still better than most starting line-ups
and still leaves the option of making sure one of Harden/Melo/Dwight is on floor with B-team at all times

[doctorrain]

Even for Asik and Lin, I'd be hesitant to trade for Melo but even less so if Parsons is involved. Terrible trade and it screws up chemistry. Rockets are near being a contender now, why mess this up?

[victorhe]

Even for Asik and Lin, I'd be hesitant to trade for Melo but even less so if Parsons is involved. Terrible trade and it screws up chemistry. Rockets are near being a contender now, why mess this up?

Why are we talking about Rox being a contender when the playoff has not arrived yet. Let's get out of first round first and talk being a contender. I just don't see us beating any teams during playoff yet if Harden keeps playing isolation basketball and Mchale being a Mcfaile when it comes to playoff. Regular season games all don't matter.

[moofs]

...and Mchale being a Mcfaile when it comes to playoff...

[MaxRider]

i don't care as long parsons is still on the team

[slicedbread2]

This would totally be interesting to be truthful here. I think Melo+Harden+Howard would be lethal. You gotta keep Parsons since he's the type of glue guy who can keep things leveled and the hound dog of Beverly, boy oh boy what a menace. I have an interesting trade proposal that would actually be pretty decent and you could bypass New York since if Melo leaves, there'd be no point in going over the tax even though Asik is most likely leaving despite the fact he could be a valuable guy:

Houston: Carmelo Anthony, TPE money at 16.6 million combined you could use to acquire depth through trades to fill the bench.
Dallas: Omer Asik
Minnesota: Jeremy Lin
Utah: J.J. Barea, Chase Budinger, Terrence Jones, 2014 first rounder via Houston, 2014 second rounder via New York and 2015 second rounder via Houston, 2 second rounders from Minnesota via GSW and NO, 2 second rounders from Dallas in 2014 with one coming from Boston.

Houston gives up a first rounder, 2 seconds and a guy in T-Jones who I feel can grow more, but most likely will have to go in any deal involving bringing Anthony to Houston unless he's willing to cater down his salary demands plus Anthony has been great at the 4 and is more consistent with his shot than Terrence Jones has been. Instant title contender that gets more dangerous and could be lethal with time plus Morey knows that picks don't mean crap when you are getting a potential top 25 player. May have to throw in an additional first rounder to solidify the deal though.

Beverly/Canaan/pick
Harden/Garcia/FA
Parsons/Covington/Casspi
Anthony/Motiejunas/FA
Howard/FA

Mavericks give up Sammy, but they get a defensive anchor in Asik who would be the perfect compliment for Dirk plus he's expiring. The seconds going may be tough, but you won't be getting much of an asking price to give up.

Calderon/Larkin/Harris/Mekel
Ellis/Carter/Ledo
Marion/Crowder
Nowitzki/Wright
Asik/Dalembert/Blair

Minnesota gets a vast upgrade at the back-up point guard spot while shedding some salary in Budinger in the process. Lin's team mindset and work ethic will make him the ideal sixth man and the new coach most likely could make things work pretty well and they save about a million while giving up two seconds to move Budi and J.J.

Rubio/Lin/Price
Martin/Muhammad/Shved
Brewer/FA/Hummel/pick
Love/LRAMM
Pekovic/Dieng/Turiaf

Utah will eat up some salary since they are rebuilding and will be left with 17 million after absorbing these contracts before picks are considered, but getting a stretch 4 with tenacious defense and athleticism in Jones along with a slew of picks makes this deal a no brainer for Utah in spite of Budinger's deal. Jones is a better fit at the 4 and they could be an intriguing team next year plus with the picks acquired they could say move up in the draft to acquire Jabari Parker

Burke/Barea/pick
Hayward/Burks/Clark
pick(hopefully Jabari Parker)/Budinger
Jones/Evans/Thomas
Favors/Kanter/Gobert

Thoughts? Truth be told if you ask me, they are better off holding Lin and Asik since even though they haven't lived up to the contracts, the defense for H-town outside of Bev and Howie would be brutal on the wings and they don't affect the plans for 2015.