Soup-

LA would have been HUGE players in the FA market this year if they hadn't screwed up with Kobe's deal.

Say you pick up Lebron or Melo. Sign Lowry. Resign Pau and Jordan Hill. Pick up Pierce on the cheap to come home and fill a deadly 6th man role.

That's a salty team
Lowry, Kobe, Melo, Hill, Pau
Pierce, Young, Randle off the bench.

Thank goodness they were morons.

Another interesting thing is Lebron coming out and saying he wants max money. Don't get me wrong, he deserves it more than anybody but I thought this was all about winning Championships.

It just seems to me like it's a much tougher sell to pull Bosh and Wade together and tell them they have to opt out of their lucrative deals and take less money while Lebron takes a huge chunk of what they are giving up instead of using it to get better.

I would have thought Lebron would have sold them on him deserving more money but not taking the max - say like $17M per year instead of $21M and then making the team better.

If things start to fall apart with this Miami team, I could see things getting ugly between all of them and then they are stuck.

Melo in Chicago

Edited to add: visiting

[This message has been edited by Iowaggie (edited 7/1/2014 12:21p).]

Between Sterling, Melo, the Heat saga, Kidd, and the Rockets chasing every major FA hoping to buy a title, this is set to be a pretty interesting offseason. Even us Spurs fans get to watch a real prospect in summer league for once.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 7/1/2014 12:25p).]

quote:

---

Another interesting thing is Lebron coming out and saying he wants max money.

---

I think it is interesting because didn't he say it after it was announced those other two had opted out?

Again, the timing on all these is pretty interesting. If he says it before Wade and Bosh max out, would that have impacted their decision?

[This message has been edited by Iowaggie (edited 7/1/2014 12:24p).]

One thing to add to the Heat saga:

While the rest of the US hates DWade and knows he sucks now, the man is practically royalty in Miami. More so than even Lebron. I wonder if Miami tries to lowball him at 12.5 million or so, does he say screw it and tell managment he wants near max money too? Wade is a proud dude and seems to still think he is a super duper star. Don't think that his cannot happen once people start talking about Lebron and Bosh deserving more money. Miami is supposed to be his town and he put this whole idea into motion 4 years ago. I'm not sure being the lowest paid Heatle is going to sit well with him.

I really get the feeling Lebron is going to piss everyone off all over again. He still has a chance to go to a struggling young team that has a bunch of underrated players and nice draft picks, win titles, and be the good guy, but if he pushes Wade and/or Bosh out of Miami or into much smaller contracts so he can take a max deal and still be on a team without much chance of winning it all....

quote:

---

While the rest of the US hates DWade and knows he sucks now, the man is practically royalty in Miami. More so than even Lebron. I wonder if Miami tries to lowball him at 12.5 million or so, does he say screw it and tell managment he wants near max money too? Wade is a proud dude and seems to still think he is a super duper star. Don't think that his cannot happen once people start talking about Lebron and Bosh deserving more money. Miami is supposed to be his town and he put this whole idea into motion 4 years ago. I'm not sure being the lowest paid Heatle is going to sit well with him.

---

This has been overlooked. He is their (dirty thug egomaniac) Tim Duncan. He had to accept second chair before Miami could win a title. He's under a lot of pressure... everyone in Miami is.

Not related to much of anything, but here's a video with DeAndre Jordan, Shawn Marion, and Ricky Rubio for some movie coming out..

The acting is about as good as you can expect from an ad for some movie featuring DeAndre Jordan, Shawn Marion, and Ricky Rubio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rd6EiqhmZhQ

quote:

---

quote:

---

While the rest of the US hates DWade and knows he sucks now, the man is practically royalty in Miami. More so than even Lebron. I wonder if Miami tries to lowball him at 12.5 million or so, does he say screw it and tell managment he wants near max money too? Wade is a proud dude and seems to still think he is a super duper star. Don't think that his cannot happen once people start talking about Lebron and Bosh deserving more money. Miami is supposed to be his town and he put this whole idea into motion 4 years ago. I'm not sure being the lowest paid Heatle is going to sit well with him.

---

This has been overlooked. He is their (dirty thug egomaniac) Tim Duncan. He had to accept second chair before Miami could win a title. He's under a lot of pressure... everyone in Miami is.

---

Wade won a title before accepting being the #2.

Am I the only person that think Paul Pierce is done? I don't see him being that lucrative to anybody.

I meant with Lebron. He has moved to second place already.

My prediction goes something like this:

Big 3 = Stay in Miami.

Carmelo = Chicago / NY

Deng = Dallas

Parsons = Stays in Houston.

Gasol = Chicago / LAL

Monroe = Unsure.

Lowry = Stays in Toronto.

Hayward = Stays in Utah.

Bledsoe = Lakers / Phoenix.

Stephenson = Unsure.


[This message has been edited by Sher Thing (edited 7/1/2014 2:14p).]

I don't see Melo going back to NY. It's chi town or h town imo

quote:

---

Am I the only person that think Paul Pierce is done? I don't see him being that lucrative to anybody.

---

I think everyone knows he's done

I think Pierce is done as a starter and star. However, he can still be a very valuable 20 minutes a night type guy IMO

Dirk/Deng would be the greatest teaming of a German and a Sudanese player ever.

Phoenix can offer two max contracts someone is going to take that money.

quote:

---

Phoenix can offer two max contracts someone is going to take that money.

---

No one worth a Damn though

[This message has been edited by Mr.Bond (edited 7/1/2014 1:39p).]

I would say Gasol to Phoenix but I think he wants to go to a proven winner.

and I didn't mean to put new york actually meant to put los angeles. oops

I think Wade wants a longer deal for fewer dollars per year but more total money. He knows he is fading and this is likely his last contract. Bosh is harder to judge. The Heat blew any chance at a Lebron discount when they tried saving money last year and the lack of talent was exposed in the championship.

quote:

---

Hearing that Luol Deng will not take significantly less than his market value to join Heat

---

-Chris Broussard

RT @WindhorstESPN: Heat telling free agents they'll have $12+ mil to spend, indicating Wade & Bosh ready to take huge pay cuts, sources say




Wow..... I call bull****

If that's the case they could get Lowry.


Lebron is tied to Wade now. If Wade is willing to take a huge pay cut (would just be getting payed what he's currently worth tbh) then I would stay if I am Lebron. That would allow the Heat to get him 1 more marquee player to play with.

If the Heat only come out with ~8M in cap room after the big 3 re-structure I would leave if I was Lebron. JMO.

[This message has been edited by Sher Thing (edited 7/1/2014 2:46p).]

Pat Riley's pitch to these free agents has to be pretty comical

Only way I see Riley being able to pull that off is if he backloads those contracts. Specifically Bosh's. Allowing him to have some extra cap this off-season.

Gortat stays in Washington. 5 years 60 mil. Wow.

3/16 for Shaun Livingston to Golden State.

Full MLE.

That seems like a lot for Gortat. Shows how thin the center market is.

Bigs always get overpaid.

Washington desperately needs to keep it's core together to win so fans will stay.

fwiw

quote:

---

Kyle Lowry told Raptors today he'll take a few days to make up his mind.

---