MeloDrama Part V

[K_ick_God]

Anytime the Lakers ever do anything under Kupchak and Buss it comes out of nowhere, as with Nash. But now it's suddenly public? Not buying it.

And Melo and Bron would EACH lose more money taking 16 than Bron would lose taking the MLE for a year.

I call BS.

[2010]

Melo wants to go to Chicago. What he's doing is using the Lakers as leverage. At this point they are the only team outside of NY that can offer him the 4-yr $96mm max. Bulls and Rockets would have maneuvering to do. Mavs are said to be unwilling to offer him the 4-yr $96mm max. So that leaves the Lakers.

What Melo is trying to do is threaten to sign with the Lakers with credibility (since they can offer him the most money outside of NY) so that Phil Jackson takes the threat seriously. Then his agent will present the option of instead of losing him for nothing, they can sign & trade him to Chicago for Boozer. Melo knows Phil is reluctant to sign & trade him to Chicago. So that is where the Lakers come in.

Melo cannot genuinely want to play for the Lakers. Their roster is worse than ours, they still don't have a coach, Jim Buss hasn't been on the same page as Jeanie Buss so there's front office disharmony, and Kobe is on his last legs while Gasol may walk. Nash is a corpse. I can't see how he would envision LA as a favorable situation to NY at this point.

This is a leverage power play to get him signed & traded to Chicago. Which is why Chicago all of a sudden are signing Mirotic, keeping Taj Gibson, and not actively dumping Dunleavy.

[2010]

Anytime the Lakers ever do anything under Kupchak and Buss it comes out of nowhere, as with Nash. But now it's suddenly public? Not buying it.

And Melo and Bron would EACH lose more money taking 16 than Bron would lose taking the MLE for a year.

I call BS.

Melo's camp, CAA is leaking this info in hopes of getting him signed and traded to Chicago.

[postcall]

My view is that Lebron and Melo want to play with each other and there will not be a better opportunity. They arent going to Phoenix but if the Knicks Heat or Lakers can come close they get them both. Phil should be trying to move mountains right now. As of now the Lakers have the most realistic capspace, The Knicks have Bargs and Amare, the Heat owe Dwade and Bosh esp Wade. If Bosh goes to Houston and Wade takes a big paycut then Melo goes to the Heat but if Bosh stays Lebron will leave.

[ChiCitySPORTS#1]

Gasol
Randle
Melo
Kobe
Marshall

Melo's wife gets her own TV show, "La La in L.A." Continues to perform in small roles of upcoming Tyler Perry productions.

Lol that team sucks. Might as well stay in New York

[jigga_man]

Melo wants to go to Chicago. What he's doing is using the Lakers as leverage. At this point they are the only team outside of NY that can offer him the 4-yr $96mm max. Bulls and Rockets would have maneuvering to do. Mavs are said to be unwilling to offer him the 4-yr $96mm max. So that leaves the Lakers.

What Melo is trying to do is threaten to sign with the Lakers with credibility (since they can offer him the most money outside of NY) so that Phil Jackson takes the threat seriously. Then his agent will present the option of instead of losing him for nothing, they can sign & trade him to Chicago for Boozer. Melo knows Phil is reluctant to sign & trade him to Chicago. So that is where the Lakers come in.

Melo cannot genuinely want to play for the Lakers. Their roster is worse than ours, they still don't have a coach, Jim Buss hasn't been on the same page as Jeanie Buss so there's front office disharmony, and Kobe is on his last legs while Gasol may walk. Nash is a corpse. I can't see how he would envision LA as a favorable situation to NY at this point.

This is a leverage power play to get him signed & traded to Chicago. Which is why Chicago all of a sudden are signing Mirotic, keeping Taj Gibson, and not actively dumping Dunleavy.

So Phil will call his bluff because just like you said, Melo cannot genuinely want to play for the Lakers. But your reasoning why is very flawed. How can the Lakers roster be worse than NY when they're are only four players signed? And you can spin this the exact same way for the Knicks. Is Amare not on his last legs when he has had a several knee surgeries? Pau can walk but the Lakers have flexibility since they own his bird rights while you have one of the worst rebounding big men in the history of the league guaranteed to be back next season on an untradeable contract.

Melo cannot genuinely want to play for the Lakers but genuinely wants to play with a core of Amare/Bargs/Smith as his best players.

[K_ick_God]

My view is that Lebron and Melo want to play with each other and there will not be a better opportunity. They arent going to Phoenix but if the Knicks Heat or Lakers can come close they get them both. Phil should be trying to move mountains right now. As of now the Lakers have the most realistic capspace, The Knicks have Bargs and Amare, the Heat owe Dwade and Bosh esp Wade. If Bosh goes to Houston and Wade takes a big paycut then Melo goes to the Heat but if Bosh stays Lebron will leave.

Again, even IF Lakers can dump Nash, LeBron and Melo each lose more than Bron would taking the MLE.

Lakers for both Melo and Bron
16
17
18
19

Losses of about $4.5 per year = $18M each

Bron in NY
4
20.5
21.5
22.5

Loss of $16.5M for Bron

[Jump Shot]

If he stays, he stays. If he leaves, he leaves.

I'm not even worried, just enjoying the chaos.

[K_ick_God]

And Bron and Melo get to face the West head on as additional insult to add to their financial injury.

Let's lose money and to the Spurs and Thunder with our vet-min roster behind us.

I really don't believe it.

[JSmooth93]

The leverage angle is total contrivance.

"I want to play in LA" - Melo
"He wants to sign the max in LA but he's willing to get sign and traded to Chicago" - Leon

"Bitch What???" - Any person with reasoning skills above the level of a platypus.

Either you wanna play somewhere or you don't. What happens if Phil calls the bluff? He plays somewhere he was using as a "smokescreen".

All that smokescreen talk for players like the Heat Big 3 and Melo are really just fans and analysts overthinking the deliberation of where these guys wanna play. This isn't a Christoper Nolan film, it's basketball.

[K_ick_God]

Phil should just call bluff, seriously. Say we have a 5-year deal on the table but we prefer 4 years. Please decide by Monday at 12 high noon or we will offer 4 years instead.

Don't let Leon win. It's the general principle.

If it's not a bluff, cool. Bye. Melo wants the 5th year though. That's a 27M insurance policy to a 35 year old.

Take it soon or see you in LA.

[nykfan42]

Melo to Lakers? This legit? I'm not buying this garbage. Lakers have a worse roster, no roster actually. No way they sign LeBron and Melo too. It's just a bunch of garbage and only getting attention because it's Los Angeles.

[kblo247]

My view is that Lebron and Melo want to play with each other and there will not be a better opportunity. They arent going to Phoenix but if the Knicks Heat or Lakers can come close they get them both. Phil should be trying to move mountains right now. As of now the Lakers have the most realistic capspace, The Knicks have Bargs and Amare, the Heat owe Dwade and Bosh esp Wade. If Bosh goes to Houston and Wade takes a big paycut then Melo goes to the Heat but if Bosh stays Lebron will leave.

Again, even IF Lakers can dump Nash, LeBron and Melo each lose more than Bron would taking the MLE.

Lakers for both Melo and Bron
16
17
18
19

Losses of about $4.5 per year = $18M each

Bron in NY
4
20.5
21.5
22.5

Loss of $16.5M for Bron

Lakers would let both opt out after 2 years most likely and take care of them.

16
17
22

Is better than taking a low ball offer, reportedly the whole pitch was we take care of our guys. Kobe killed himself and popped an Achilles for a playoff spot, we made him the highest paid guy in the league. Magic got HIV, we honored his deal and gave him a share of minority stock. Worthy got hurt, we still paid his deal off and gave him a 6 figure salary to announce for the rest of his life. That's a part of the psychology in Kobe's deal and their pitch to both guys, you get hurt, you take a cut here, and we will take care of you for coming to us when we were down and we will make you our family

[kblo247]

Kobe seems set on the two year thing as he's reiterated it and said that's what he and the lakers and his family agreed to. He's always talked about wanting to take his kids off to Italy before so they can experience life there. And he does own half the Italian league team his dad played for.

[kblo247]

I just don't think the offer will be you take a low number the whole stay, as much as you take a discount for two years with an opt out after year 3, and we got you. We have your early bird rights and can increase your wages and Kobe comes off. I can see that

Hell I wouldn't be surprised if they paid Bron and Melo 70% of their pay on the first day of the season so it collects interest since that's what they did for Kobe and Shaq to offset taxes

[berkkobe7]

He will stay

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[BodyCount]

if he wants to go to lakers for max he can be my guest. I'm looking forward seeing that team fail terribly.
But I don't see a damn reason why we should be offering him max. I mean... he'll sign with lakers if we don't? So let him rot with bryant and no cap space there.

If Phil thinks there's really no other way to get him sign here except giving him max, the most he should do is to offer max with team option last year. Or 5 years, 100-105 mil. That's it. If he doesn't take it he can go.

I mean, what is he really? A SF or PF? I want PF to be anchor on the defense and anthony isn't that. I want SF on this team to be more like Pippen, well Anthony certanly isn't that.

If you put together a team like: Calderon (7mil), Afflalo (7.5), Deng (I dn, 8-10 maybe?), Pau Gasol (10) , Marc Gasol (or Alridge) (15-19),(it's a **** example of balanced team, so don't **** jump on it like dogs), I think it's a more balanced team with a chance to do at least the same with whatever team we assemble with Carmelo (unless it includes lebron). Even if it doesn't work, the whole team costs around 50mil and you got 15 additional million left (for quality bench, 6th man). It's also far easier to move such contracts if it doesn't work out and you have more flexibility to make changes.

[ag3]

If Melo was about to choose the Knicks then I'm not sure what the purpose is to leak this Lakers stuff.

I've always said from the beginning that he is either staying with the Knicks or will leave to team up with Lebron.
Jackson needs to do everything possible to try and trade Amare.

I have a feeling Melo will leave for Lebron.

[Mobius]

Knicks are getting played just like Memphis did with Pau Gasol.

Phil is not a real Knicks exec. He is a Lakers mole just like Jerry West was with the Grizzlies.

News flash: Phil's WIFE is the OWNER OF THE LAKERS.

Melo to LA for nothing, Phil retires within 12 months

[gavran]

Knicks are getting played just like Memphis did with Pau Gasol.

Phil is not a real Knicks exec. He is a Lakers mole just like Jerry West was with the Grizzlies.

News flash: Phil's WIFE is the OWNER OF THE LAKERS.

Melo to LA for nothing, Phil retires within 12 months