I am assuming you mean the trade is so terrible that the Bobcats would never agree to it.

However, I think that if the Rocket’s can get a truly elite player—Paul or Carmelo, Igoudala if you must—then I think Morey will take back one or several hideous deals. Wages of Wins aside, I’m not sure whether Gerald Wallace is enough of an elite player like Paul or Carmelo in order to take back a Diop or—shudder—Stephen Jackson-type deal.

New Orleans is and has been the interesting wild card for me. The NBA owns the Hornets now and is desperately searching for a buyer. To crib from another poster I’ve read, finding a buyer trumps all other considerations, including keeping the team competitive. Remember how badly MLB ran the Montreal Expos. If what it takes to find a buyer (and move the team—but let’s not get there yet) is to clean up the balance sheet and exchange proven, very expensive talent for inexpensive draft picks and rookies, then that is what New Orleans’s new owners will do. I found it baffling that pre-season, people felt the Rockets should not try to do a deal including Yao with New Orleans for Paul and Okafor; I can see why people felt New Orleans would not want to cut the cord—even with Paul’s hissy-fits in the media—but why people felt the Rockets would not want to do that deal always confused me. Of course, you’d need Paul to agree to and sign an extension.

The trade I’d love to see happen is a 3-team trade involving Philly, New Orleans and the Rockets where New Orleans gets gutted—David West to Philly—in exchange for multiple number 1s from the other two, and as much young talent as Philly and the Rockets care to part with (one of the Holiday/Williams/Turner Philly backcourt + the usual trade suspects from Houston: Brooks, Budinger, Lee, Hill, Patterson.)

In any event, the Rockets have badly needed to make a 3 for 1 type deal since before the season began. Along with other posters, I’m just delighted that management has finally come around to the idea that Yao is tradable at all, and hopefully now we can look forward to this type of deal actually occurring.

I don’t buy the supposed rationale of trading Yao to get a young with “upside”. Do we really believe Morey is going to take on a bad contract of $10-15mil for a 2-3 yrs,just to get an “upside” young player? W/a new CBA coming? And that Les is willing to pay the Lux tax for a team not going anywhere this yr,so he can get a player who may or may not pan out in the future,instead of keeping Yao’s insurance for himself?
I’m not doubting Les’ desire to win,I’m doubting his will to spend on a team that won’t contend this yr. The Rockets are some $2mil+ over Lux tax,and the below Lux Tax payments are usually some $3-4mil-which is just about what Yao’s insurance pay-out will be.(If Yao were healthy,Les would likely have been willing to go into Lux Tax for shot at Title,w/out Yao,different story.)

My guess is the whole Yao-is-being-offered story is somebody playing w/the trade machine thinking of a way to get Carmelo to NY. Yao,First(or Bud) to Denver along w/Gallo or Chandler,2013 NY First…Curry,Randolph to Rockets…Carmelo to Knicks. Makes superficial sense as Denver gets monetary relief,young talent and a First or two. But in the real world never gonna happen.

Cameron14,I’m not trying to be an a-hole here and fixating on minor junk.
But we have a report that the Rockets are supposedly considering trading the face of the franchise for the past decade and the report starts off showing no comprehension of basic NBA facts,then proceeds to Rockets are willing to trade Yao,take on a bad contract for a young player w/”upside” then wanders to the Rockets are also considering re-signing him depending on what their doctors say and has no response whatsoever from the Rockets.
So we have the Rockets want to trade him and they want to re-sign him. Teams want him for an expiring contract,teams want him because they think he can play again and they can re-sign him.
Pretty much covers all the bases. And there’s a noticeable lack of any team’s names being mentioned.
I’m calling BS on this one.

Of course the Rockets could kick in $3mil and that would add to the other team’s savings.

My guess is teams heard the mumblings about Yao retiring and called the Rockets hoping that the team was ready to cut it’s ties and willing to accept a bad contract to get a young prospect.

What the Rockets have to look out for is trading for trash contracts like Gilbert Arenas. Morey is sifting through offers hoping to find an offer that even though it may come with one bad contract, the trade will also come with a nice, less expensive potential star. Just think back to last year when we traded T-Mac to New York. Yeah we got a trash contract in Jeffries, but we also got draft picks and Jordan Hill. Hopefully this time around, the trash contract can actually produce more than Jeffries and we get a potential start, but we will see how it ends and it more than likely will not be until right around the trade deadline.