dean456 wrote:KingDavid wrote:dean456 wrote:This is a possibility but it requires a lot of things to go in our favor for this to happen. First we need to find people to trade for TJ's poison pill contract where in a situation where we tank and don't re sign Dion and JJ, TJ will get more of the ball and chance to show his value. We could also package him with JRich/Dragic/Ellington/Winslow to make it more appealing (we would have to receive expiring contracts and picks.)
Then after all that we need to convince Lebron and Wade to come back which isn't the craziest idea but i think the only way it happens is if they all decide together that's what they are going to do I don't see us being able to convince them if they hadn't already thought of the idea.
Money wise,
With an estimated $105-$108mil salary cap
If we keep Whiteside at $24.43mil and Bam at $2.95mil also if we manage to keep Winslow $3.44mil
Leaves us with $74.18Mil capspace for LBJ, Wade, Paul and Melo
Assuming Lebron gets a max roughly $38.55mil ($35.63mil left)
That means Melo/Wade/CP3 split with $11.87-$14.87mil(depending on salary cap) each for Wade that might be okay but for Melo and to a greater degree CP3 that would be a hard sell.
however if we did pull off,
CP3
Wade
Lebron/Winslow
Melo/UD (We all know somehow this will happen
)
Whiteside/Bam
The rest would then be filled with vet mins and probably some exception.
It's possible but I'm still not sure that team setup would be a sure thing against the Warriors and I don't see Lebron making that move unless it is.
"hey, 33-year-old-Chris-Paul-looking-for-his-last-big-contract, we gave your buddy LeBron every single penny of the max, but you know how you made $24.5 million last season? We're going to need you to take 10 million less than that".
Exactly I just don't see it happening. Now another option that I'd rather explore is the possibility of positioning ourselves to be big players in the 2020-2021 free agency.
This year sign Dion and JJ to a 3 year deal with a team option in the 3rd year let them play out their contracts with Dragic and Whiteside and see what we can achieve for the next 3 years.
Because then when they all expire in 2020/2021 headlining would be;
Harden
Leonard
Irving
Wall
Whiteside
I think the way the Warriors look it could make guys like Leonard and Harden think about partnering up and going East. If we can manage to have only Bam on the books at that point our salary cap space would be roughly $105mil to spend on free agents if we could somehow convince 2 or 3 (slightly less realistic) of those guys to combine that would be pretty dangerous for years to come.
Only way 3 with a combo of Harden and Leonard would happen is if Whiteside sacrificed to bring us a championship but he would have to take like $25mil starting salary 19mil less than what he's worth for it to work assuming Harden and Leonard wouldn't sacrifice on their biggest payday of their careers.
Better option may be to hope Adebyo has developed into a nice player by his 4th season then resigning Whiteside may not be necessary then just fill out the roster with the remaining $25mil.
For the Banana boat to work you would have to trade Whiteside for future picks. Bam fits very well as a starting center with a year of experience next to that group anyways. Once you account for him, Winslow, Mgruder , and cap holds you'll have roughly 90 mil left on the table, which is really all the Banana boat can get anywhere.
I am guessing Wade is probably good for 10 mil which leaves 80 mil for Melo, LeBron, and CP3. It's 26 million per guy, that's what Melo, and CP3 are making this year. If a 36 year old Melo can get more than that on the open market more power to him, but IMO he ends up taking 20 leaving 30 mil a piece for LeBron and CP3.
They going to force us to give him the MLE. Everyone just toying with us now 
