Houston a good fit for Lebron?

[Sports Arsenal]

ESPN Insider article says so... must be true right?

LeBron James has a big decision to make this summer. Should he re-sign with the Cleveland Cavaliers, or sign with another team like the Knicks, Nets and Heat. Well, what about the Rockets? Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle thinks LeBron should consider playing in Houston.

Justice writes: "LeBron you've got a big decision coming up, and amid all the talk of you playing for the Knicks or Nets or maybe staying with the Cavs, we hope you'll consider us. You'd love it here, and you don't have to take my word for it. Ask anyone who has played here. It's one of the NBA cities others are measured by. Players love it here. I don't know all the factors you're going to consider, but if you want to win a championship, if you want to play for a smart, first-class organization, you might not do better than the Rockets. That's where we'll begin. If you've got questions about real estate, shopping or weather, we can answer 'em all. Who needs Manhattan's crosstown traffic when you can have Allen Parkway?"

T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times thinks the Los Angeles Clippers are the best team for James.

Simers writes: "I'm listening to Colin Cowherd's radio show Tuesday morning, and he's talking with someone about LeBron James maybe ending up in New York or New Jersey, and I keep waiting for Cowherd to say something brilliant. He usually does, but he's off his game, and so now I'm the one who will have to make the argument that there's an excellent chance James will be playing for the Clippers next season. Right now there are seven teams in salary-cap range to make a run at James. Among them, the Clippers offer the most attractive supporting cast to a guy who is probably pretty intent on winning a championship."

Just wanted to see what you guys thought on this.... Seems like a pipe dream to me

[Sports Arsenal]

Thought I have...
Playing in New York with nobody
Playing in New Jersey with nobody
Playing in Miami with another scoring wing.
Playing in Cleveland where you still haven't won.

or...

Playing in Houston with Yao and Co.

Les has the money and has went above the LT threshold before.

Brooks/Lowry
Ariza/Battier
Lebon/Buginger
Scola/Landry--- (probably coulnt keep Scola if signed Lebron)
Yao/Hayes

Wow that is a pipe dream...

[Mr. E]

The "source" for that Insider piece is an Op/Ed by Dick Justice at the Houston Chronicle. That is a pretty creative way be ESPN to start a rumore!

(that said, i love the idea! )

[Sports Arsenal]

Well. isn't that how all rumors get started? By a columnist opinion? I think if Houston would like a chance at him we should have already entered the sweepstakes. Knowing Morey though, he isn't going to cough up a bit of info on who he is targeting this summer. I think that if we make no trades that involve our expirings, especially McGradys it should be a good indication that DM is looking for something big in 2010. Morey has been shining so far in his tenure as GM. He is already talked about as one of this better GM's in professional sports. This summer is going to be his judgement time. Take the crown or stand still. Standing still isn't going to advance his status though.

[KiDdFrESh]

I'd love for that but how the hell would we get him here? We have no money to offer him a contract. It would have to be sign and trade. Yao would have to opt out of his contract this year just to have a shot at LBJ.

[Sports Arsenal]

Having no money is a huge misconception honestly. Les and the Rockets have plenty of money. Right now the cap is set at 57.7 and luxury tax is set at 69.2m, and the Rockets current payroll is @ 73.274m. Les will pay pay luxury tax just like the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, if 2 things happen. A. Instant contender. B. Increased Revenues. Both things would occur with bringing Lebron here. According to shamsports the max a player can receive on his 7th year of playing is a little over 16 million. Also after tallying up the numbers on shamsports of players who the team will pick up the option on and if Scola and Lowry played for the QO. The Rockets are at around 49.9 m in salaries. Lets assume Scola isn't happy with 4.1 and Lowry is okay with his 2.9m., so the team offers him 7m. I think he would take it. So that puts us at 52m. Still 17m down from the luxury tax. Granted we will have to sign draft picks, and if we want to make any other acquistions that will put us over. It still isn't that far from being possible MONEY wise.

[Guy986]

Having no money is a huge misconception honestly. Les and the Rockets have plenty of money. Right now the cap is set at 57.7 and luxury tax is set at 69.2m, and the Rockets current payroll is @ 73.274m. Les will pay pay luxury tax just like the Lakers, Knicks, Celtics, if 2 things happen. A. Instant contender. B. Increased Revenues. Both things would occur with bringing Lebron here. According to shamsports the max a player can receive on his 7th year of playing is a little over 16 million. Also after tallying up the numbers on shamsports of players who the team will pick up the option on and if Scola and Lowry played for the QO. The Rockets are at around 49.9 m in salaries. Lets assume Scola isn't happy with 4.1 and Lowry is okay with his 2.9m., so the team offers him 7m. I think he would take it. So that puts us at 52m. Still 17m down from the luxury tax. Granted we will have to sign draft picks, and if we want to make any other acquistions that will put us over. It still isn't that far from being possible MONEY wise.

If our total salary is at 52M and the new cap is set at 57.7 that means we have 5 million to sign free agents.

You need to be about 17 million under the salary cap(not the lux tax) to sign a max player like Bron/Melo/Wade. We don't have that kind of cap flexibility.

[Sports Arsenal]

Ok, my confusion I thought teams can sign to any amount, but once they hit the luxury tax they had to pay luxury tax on every dollar.
So how does LA have a $91m payroll?

[Iggyemu]

Lets stop dreaming now. If LeBron leaves its because he wants to be in a bigger market. Houston is a big market for a lot of things...basketball isn't on that list. More than likely that'll he go to a coast. Either East or West. There just isn't enough interest in the NBA in the South and Mid West.

[Sports Arsenal]

Iggyemu, Im pretty sure in both my original post and my first reply, I stated that it was a pipe dream.

So technically speaking we would have to renounce the rights to Scola and trade Battier before this years dealine for an expiring contract right?

Then you couldn't sign anyone else though right? Except minimum contracts

Brooks/Lowry
Ariza/Taylor
James/Budinger
Landry/Hayes
Yao/Andersen
+1st rounder +2nd rounder
+ a couple of vets min guys...

By the way, I am not arguing that Lebron is going to come here. I am trying to understand the possibilities due to CBA rules.

[Guy986]

Ok, my confusion I thought teams can sign to any amount, but once they hit the luxury tax they had to pay luxury tax on every dollar.
So how does LA have a $91m payroll?

Bird Rights. You can re-sign your own players even if your team's salary exceeds the League's madated cap.

The Lakers can't sign Lebron James to 17 a year but they can resign Kobe Bryant to any amount they want because Kobe's right belongs to the Lakers.

This is why The New York knicks are trying everything in their power to move Jeffries and Eddy Curry so they can have enough money under the cap to throw at 2 max free agents.

[Guy986]

Unless we trade away Shane Battier for expiring and decline extension on Luis Scola, we are not getting any high prices Free Agent. Bron is not coming here.

[PocketRockets]

Skip Lebron man....get d-wade. Proven winner and has a great attitude. Both of them have played for crappy teams so they even out there, but after Lebron's tirade after the Magic playoff series, I've lost a lot of respect for him. Wade, Kobe knows how to work with a big man, Lebron, maybe not. He's had a decent big man in Z and now Shaq (granted he's on the decline), but the Cavs are still playing the same way and may even be playing worse. I kind of blame that last point on their crappy ass coach too.

I think wade would be a better fit in our system with our team now than Lebron, but with that said, I don't think we can afford any max contract player. With the economy the way it is, it's very bad business to sign any player to a max contract.

[rocketsballin]

he mos def will be a good fit in here, but he also will cause salary problems 2 years after he signs. scola or landry have to go, which still can be managable w/ hayes at backup pf, and bron should play some pf . i doubt he'll want anything less than 100mil. we'll see. jersey has lopez and harris who can be great sidekicks to bron . lee perimeter defender, improving yi, cdr, perfect backup pg rafer brickston , not a bad team w/ a star player , terrible w/o

[TMACFORMVP]

Whether it's LeBron, or Wade, we don't have enough money to attract them. Guy986 pretty much nailed it, we'd have to trade Battier for an expiring, and likely renounce the rights to both Scola and Lowry. Then all of a sudden, that attractive depth is reduced, and the main star attraction for LeBron will be a big man that has chronically missed games for the past couple of years, having missed the entire previous season.

I think he'd be a good fit here, and likely better than the options he has (Knicks), but we just don't have the money to pull something off.

[tisbee]

ShaqSux,
A team can see it's payroll balloon for several reasons.
Rookies on modest contracts play well enough to get huge contracts.
!0.5% raises on contracts while the Salary Cap and Lux Tax have been rising at less than 5%.
Using the MLE to sign players.
takes back more salary in a trade than it sends out.

For example a team has a payroll of $50mil and 14 players.
The next season:
Player coming off rookie contract at $5mil gets extension starting at $12mil.
Player coming off rookie min gets $3mil/yr deal.
Trades two players that previous season combined for $10mil,but w/raises,for a player making $13.5mil.
Replace one of traded players w/a player getting a MLE deal at $5.5mil.
Doesn't re-sign player making vet min.
Replaces him on roster w/high First Rd draft pick @ $2.7mil
Raises for rest of team adds another $3mil.
New payroll is $73mil+ and the owner is sitting there going what happened?

[aznkillabeezZz]

It would be a smart move for Lebron or wade to come to houston. This team has the best supporting cast in the NBA.

If lebron or wade want to be succesful, Houston is the place to be.

What are his options?
Oklahoma city- Too young, and supporting cast sucks, unproven but decent team. Nets- They're not giving lebron much to think about 2-20, so no. Knicks-Good Market, but the team is struggling to make the playoffs in the east! The team has no center or forward who can play defense. Supporting cast are a bunch of overrated underachievers. Clippers- Good luck taking the ball out of Baron davis hands. Their team isn't great apart from blake griffin. I doubt Lebron would want to play in a city thats owned by the lakers. He'll be overshadowed by Lakers/kobe.
Cleveland-Its probably his best option because the team has already built a supporting cast around him that are better than the other teams he might go to. But has lebron taken Cleveland as far as they can go? Maybe. So he might want to move.
Rockets- best fit , im biased but they have the best supporting cast for lebron, and great coach. If the rockets want a championship, they should try to get lebron or wade. Go over the luxury tax and get one of them.

[Teckon]

Firstly it will take max contract to get Lebron or Wade. They will not sign for less than max contract. Rockets maybe a good fit for Lebron/Wade but it would be extremely difficult for Rockets to get either one even if they would like to come to Rockets. I see 3 scenarios:

1st scenario:
Rockets do not have the cap room to sign them upright without trading away Battier and losing Scola, Lowry and even Hayes to the free agency and going this route to sign Lebron/Wade mean Rockes will not have the MLE to retain these 3/4 players => about half the core of current team will be gone. The eventual team will be Lebron/Wade, Yao, Brooks, Landry, Ariza, Budinger, Anderssen, J.Talyor, 1st & 2nd round picks, minimum salary players. Rockets added a superstar but lost the depth. Going this route mean Battier has to be traded for expiring contract by the deadline. If we see Rockets doing this, then we know Rockets' plan for 2010.

2nd scenario:
Another way to get either Lebron or Wade is through sign & trade and that means Rockets must give back some good players to either Cavs or Heats which mean similar scenario above that a big part of the current team will be traded away. This only happen if Lebron/Wade has decided to leave their current team and forced the current team to go for sign & trade instead of letting him walk away without any compensation to the team.

3rd scenario
Cavs/Heats might be interested in Tmac and that will reduce the number of support cast needed to add into the trade. This is the best case for Rockets but also the least possibility to happen as a few things have to happen:
- Lebron/Wade decided to leave their current team
- They are interested to join Rockets
- The other team like what they see in Tmac this season (assuming he is not traded away this season).

[YaoZaii]

Firstly it will take max contract to get Lebron or Wade. They will not sign for less than max contract. Rockets maybe a good fit for Lebron/Wade but it would be extremely difficult for Rockets to get either one even if they would like to come to Rockets. I see 3 scenarios:

1st scenario:
Rockets do not have the cap room to sign them upright without trading away Battier and losing Scola, Lowry and even Hayes to the free agency and going this route to sign Lebron/Wade mean Rockes will not have the MLE to retain these 3/4 players => about half the core of current team will be gone. The eventual team will be Lebron/Wade, Yao, Brooks, Landry, Ariza, Budinger, Anderssen, J.Talyor, 1st & 2nd round picks, minimum salary players. Rockets added a superstar but lost the depth. Going this route mean Battier has to be traded for expiring contract by the deadline. If we see Rockets doing this, then we know Rockets' plan for 2010.

2nd scenario:
Another way to get either Lebron or Wade is through sign & trade and that means Rockets must give back some good players to either Cavs or Heats which mean similar scenario above that a big part of the current team will be traded away. This only happen if Lebron/Wade has decided to leave their current team and forced the current team to go for sign & trade instead of letting him walk away without any compensation to the team.

3rd scenario
Cavs/Heats might be interested in Tmac and that will reduce the number of support cast needed to add into the trade. This is the best case for Rockets but also the least possibility to happen as a few things have to happen:
- Lebron/Wade decided to leave their current team
- They are interested to join Rockets
- The other team like what they see in Tmac this season (assuming he is not traded away this season).

in other words, it ain't gonna happen.
i expect morey to get use the MLE and get someone else.
forget lebron, forget wade. we'll probably resign Tmac or say bye bye to him or do a S&T and use the MLE for a decent player. the number of free agents in 2010 is a lot and of decent talent. So i believe Morey will not break up this team. Landry is showing that he can be a go-to guy in recent games. Brooks too. i'm starting to feel that Morey is trying to build a team where everyone is an option. We must lacking a particular talent which Morey had probably zeroed in long ago.

[Sports Arsenal]

Once again, I dont think it is going to happen but...
Really we would only have to trade Battier and let Scola walk.

If we could draft well and sign some vets min contracts it wouldn't be all that bad.

Say we draft at 15-17. Greg Monroe is slated to go around 16. Guy would be perfect for us. Good passing big man who plays well in the high post.

Then grab somone like Jerome Dyson if he slips to the 2nd round . Morey is great at identifying good talent in the 2nd round. Dyson would be a great distance shooter around Lebron

Sign Kurt Thomas for vets min. to back up Yao
Sign Q-Rich to vets min. to back up the wings.


Yao/Thomas
Landry/Hayes/Monroe
James/Budinger
Ariza/Q-Rich/Taylor/Dyson
Brooks/Lowry

Good mix of talent and youth and veteran leadership.

Keeping the dream strong...