Posted by BRIGGS:

Posted by martin:

man, I still don't know why Houston has not picked up the pace for Marb, or maybe even TWolves if they think they can make another push with KG and company. I think a bunch of deals will go down starting with Artest and ending with a lot of big contracts moving towards the deadline.

its like this, with the new cba there is a luxury tax invoked every year unlike before when it was based on total league revenues. now if you are over that 60-61mm$ threshold, there is no way out, you pay $-$ so now teams have to think much more about the money and how it is alloacted to players. If the cap is 60mm$ what team is willing to fork 1/3 of that for marbruy for the next 3 1/2 years? maybe houston, but i doubt it. what other club is willing to put that kind of hurt on their salary system? in almost any case, you are taking back unwanteds i dont see a value-value trade or even close to it, i dont see a trade.

Houston would be forking over 1/3 for only a 2 year window, this year Marb is at $16.5 this year and next at $18.2, $20.1, $21.9, but it's close enough. Do we have a projection of what the cap will be over the next 4 years? $60-65M by the end of his contract? I guess it depends if Houston thinks it can win it all. If I were Dawson I would think long and hard, a trio of T-Mac, Yao and Marb with fillers would be deadly. And Houston ain't gettin' better through the draft, so this may be their chance. Also, playoff teams get money back in terms of $$ earned from seats and other revenue venues, which I know the ownership is keenly aware of, so that may offset the luxury tax.

I would love to see Yao wipe the scowl off Stumpbury face!