Additionally, were the rockets to include Budinger or the Knicks pix, they could offer a package of those three assets to a third team who is under the cap, like sacramento, in exchange for them picking up the tab on a year of Battier. If the picks are worth 3 mil each, then 'selling' them by trading them to a team to take salary makes sense. We all know Bud is worth more than 3/4 mil, is someone willing to pay extra salary for him?

By renting cap space in this way, they can send new orleans 12 million less than they take (or 20 mil if they do it twice), take Okafor and Posey, and STILL make a legit bid (Ariza, Brooks, Hill)

I agree with some other commentators on the unlikeliness of Chris Paul being traded for another “star” player, which would seem to increase the Rockets' chances. However, I think this same blog raises a good point with Brandon Roy – the Trailblazers actually have a talented/potential laden shooting guard in Rudy Fernandez who would need to be traded right now unless the team can find more minutes for him. Giving up Roy could outweigh any potential deal the Rockets have, although if the Hornets decided to go into full rebuild mode, they might still find the Rockets more attractive as a destination for Paul since Brandon Roy for Chris Paul just makes them a slightly worse team that is still a fringe playoff contender without significant hope of competing. The possible Roy trade also ignores the fact that Fernandez is coming off a dissapointing season in which he came into conflict with the coach and expressed desires to be traded or return to Europe, making it less likely the Blazers would be willing to risk starting him next year.

Aside from actual on-court play-things like passing inside to big men where they can do something w/the ball and penetrating and dishing-I want Paul for his mental attitude. He is a leader,a fierce competitor who hates to lose,someone the Rockets sorely need. This mental aspect is something the SF flavor of the moment lacks.
The Rocket roster would be a perfectly tuned Steinway for Paul to make beautiful music with. The SFs mentioned are just another electric guitar w/out an amp.

Anyone notice how Iguodala is being praised by Coach K for not needing the ball,for blending in. Yeah,that's what the Rockets need-another good role player at near-max money. And what does it say that Granger can't beat out Iggy? These are not Franchise players,they're just very good,which is not what the Rockets need to put them over the top at this time.
Carmelo is an outstanding scoring machine. But he doesn't pass,won't defend and only collects offensive rebounds because it gives him another opportunity at shooting. You cannot pair him w/Martin-and Brooks-unless you want to see how fast the Rocket bigs foul out trying to protect the paint.

The loss of Bird Rights is a factor I thought about, too, and I agree it's the biggest obstacle to pulling this off. While Yao won't lose much money, if any, for THIS season (presumably, the Hornets would agree ahead of the trade to a small-ish discount for the buyout), the loss of Bird Rights means that, next season, assuming something like the current system holds, the most the Rockets can pay him is the MLE. And who know whether the MLE or even the Bird Exception will remain in place under the new MLE. They might, however, make a “Joe Smith” deal with him (of course, hopefully not putting it on paper) to (a) sign Yao back with the Bi-Annual Exception for the rest of the season, with a 2nd year player option (to give Yao some security), with a promise to (b) spend the MLE (or whatever the highest dollar they can pay him with) next offseason when he opts out, on a 3 year deal with 3rd year player option, and with a further promise to (c) sign him to a full Bird-Right deal once he opts out fo the MLE-ish deal to compensate him for the discount the took in the earlier years.

Maybe too much machination for it to work, and it would be easiest for Yao to simply hook up with another team with cap room (assuming the market for him is hot at that time) after being waived, but it would theoretically allow Yao to get some of this money back if everyone agrees to make it work.

The only other way I can see to eat CP, Okafor and Posey while leaving NOH only expirings would have to involve third teams– i.e. something involving the Rockets sending NOH Battier, Jeffries, and Andersen, and sending someone like Ariza to a third team interested in his services, who eather has cap room/trade exception to eat his contract or agrees to send an expiring to NOH.

This would then mean that the best move for Yao would to move now would be to sign on with a team with cap room for the most salary that he can, so that not only does he get the his “non-Bird” rights (or even “Early Bird” right)

I heard somewhere that the Hornets would prefer to dump both Okafor and Posey with CP. Tough enough to take on Okafor and CP, adding Posey makes it even more difficult, perhaps even impossible for any team to pull it off while giving back only expiring or cheap contracts.

The Rockets has plenty of expirings other than Yao, but to eat all 3 of them, Yao's salary would probably have to be involved.

My guess is the Houston hasn't been named in national media because no one from the team went to the national media to “leak” their possible interest (and somebody from NJ or Charlotte probably did).

We'll see how it plays out, but it may be that since CP has 2 years left on the contract, the task here is more to convince the Hornets than to convince CP, so the Rockets are not trying to get publicity on the nature of their interest/offer, etc.

Yeah, CP can threaten to (a) leave after 2 years, or (b) not even show up (ala Mourning in Toronto or Jimmy Jackson in, well, New Orleans). However, I think the Rockets still take their chances in scenario (a) that they will win enough within the 2 years and– hopefully win a trophy — so that (i) CP will stay and (ii) even if he doesn't the championship is worth it. I can't imagine CP would even contemplate scenario (b). It'll ruin his image horribly (even more than the “trade demand” would) if he chose not to show up to what is a pretty good team even without Yao. He's not a vet at the end of his career like Mourning or Jackson.

Houston is more or less the only team that can give up young pieces, expiring contracts, and draft picks of any value depending on the outcome of New York's season. I have no hesitation that in any trade for Paul, the Rockets would have to give up both New York picks among other things. Just two more cents.

That said, maybe what the Superfriends has done has changed everything, but I still can't see Paul having leverage. My example is that of Stephen Jackson – wanted to go to a contender ie. Cleveland or a Texas team when he wanted out of Golden State, and ended up in nowhere. Of course, maybe being Lebron's buddy is good enough to get you leverage, at which point there needs to be a lockout and the players forced out.

As for his personality, let's not forget that MJ punched a teammate, and Kobe is one of the biggest assholes in the NBA (remember the elbow to Battier's head?). All that matters, putting aside real criminal activity, is on-court production.

This anti-Paul attitude is just insane. He's hands-down the best PG in the league. If the Rockets are able to get him, they are a lock for the WCF, barring injuries.

And there's the question of shots. Do we want Yao getting 10-12 a game? Martin gets 18,Brooks will get 15,Yao and Scola prob 25+. If the starters ave 36min,the bench should get 1/3 of starter's shots.
Last yr the Rockets ave'd 94 shots a game. Let's give them 96 this season. Bench(Lowry,Bud,Hill,etc) get 24 plus the other 4 starters min 58 shots and you have a whopping 14 shots/game for your SF. Hard to imagine Carmelo happy w/that,much less paying near max for a Granger or Iggy to get such limited production on offense. Note I'm assuming Brooks will get less than the 18 shots/game he had last yr,that Yao is getting @15 shots and Scola @10.
Also ignores Adelman's history of having a prime scorer,a secondary scorer and several players all capable of going off for 20-30 pts but counted on to score 10-15ppg.
Want aan elite SF,fine,Martin has to go.