IF LIN AND ASIK are considered BAD CONTRACTS and we could in fact get back 1st and 2nd round picks for taking their contracts back, I think we should consider it
Have Linsanity part II, rather than no leader at all, and let Melo walk for nothing in return

I am thinking something like

Lin
Asik
2 1st round picks
2-3 2nd round picks (not Houston's, maybe our's, Phillys, or another teams)

(some people say they make 8m per year and some people say they make 15m next year, in which we would need to do sign and trade for Lin and Asik in the summer but we also lose leverage as well, so I would rather try to get something done now, adding another team or teams in the mix)

for

Melo
JR or Felton
Chris Smith

This gives Houston a big 4 of

Harden
Parsons
Melo
D12

and they already have some solid role players at low contracts to begin with, with some picks coming in as well

For us it, gives us something to work with in addition to relieving Felton or JR's contract for 2015, and multiple picks to build a foundation on
What we need is a GM, COACH, President of Operations, that Dolan can trust and let them do their job, working together in building and courting FA's with VALUE
I would offer Poppavich a HIGH salary, in addition to a future promised job, as he finds his successor much like Riley did in Miami
In 2015, I would still love Duncan at a salary for either 2 year vet min or even the room exemption, in which can retire and get the full 2year amount and be part of our future coaching staff, either development coach, assistant coach, or even HEAD COACH

Despite his age, he still brings much knowledge to the game that he can pass on to our future players
He offers leadership, respect, fundamentals of the game, high IQ, and could help lure and develop many talents, similar to what Hakeem is doing for Houston

Such a trade gives us something to work with in terms of assets and would free up salary cap, and have a management to lure FA's to come to NYK, with a PLAN to execute together
Most importantly, Dolan needs to focus on other things like how he can use his connections, power, and money to help lure more FA's to come to play in NYK by helping them make $$$$ off the court, and possibly even take less to do so

Contracts are only a part of a athletes income and Dolan has plenty of connections, establishments, where he can make an offer that would be hard to refuse, but it would have to first start with a change in management and himself

When 2015 comes

Lebron James

Love
Aldridge
Roy Hibbert

are the ones we should be targeting

2014 Summer
================
and this summer we need to find a player with the MINI MLE that would be part of our future like

Sessions
Bayless

Marion (older but still very effective)
Ariza

I am just not interested in Blake's contract and I question his abilities at this point if he cannot do it with the team he has right now in The Clippers, we likely won't be able to build a team better than the one he is currently playing with the past few years

In addition to buying a pick with the 3m we could use and I think we could use it again in the summer
and
With any incoming picks in any deals we could do now, we should do it, if we can get "fair" value or better for it rather than wait
With some players, I think their values would go up if we can add Lin/Asik and have more ball movement/team chemistry, and then trade them in the summer....

tkf wrote:

raven wrote:From an interview on denver's stiffs with one of the Clips main bloggers, loads of valid points:

1) Melo for Blake Griffin, do you make that deal? A crazy rumor I recently discussed with my colleague Jeff Morton. That leads to ... What's up with the Clippers chemistry? Is the team close? Overblown media stuff?

Steve Perrin: I'm really glad you asked me about the Griffin-Melo rumors -- which aren't rumors so much as idle speculation from the likes of Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, guys that like to hear themselves talk. I've made a couple of comments along the way, but never felt compelled to do a full blown post on it, so you've given me that opportunity.

The Clippers would never consider trading Blake Griffin for Carmelo Anthony, nor should they. Carmelo does exactly one thing better than Griffin -- score. And even there, you sort of have to define your terms, since Griffin is a more efficient scorer than Anthony (Anthony's TSP of .560 last season was very near his career high, but it was still less than Griffin's .572). So actually the one thing Carmelo does better is shoot free throws. Griffin's a better rebounder, passer and defender, plus he's younger, still improving, less expensive, signed for longer, more likeable, better looking, a better actor, and nicer to animals (I'm just assuming on the animals part, but it stands to reason). Griffin is wildly popular among Clipper fans and the front office would think twice about trading him for a player who is actually better than he is (say Kevin Love) for fear of alienating the fan base. They would scoff at the idea of doing it for Anthony. Why would they? For Carmelo's star power? As if the Clippers and Griffin are lacking in that department.

The funny thing is, I actually think Carmelo might respond really well to playing alongside Chris Paul. Melo has always been "the man" in Denver and New York, but I've never been more impressed with him than I was when he was a designated scorer on Team USA. Without the responsibility of being the team's "best player", Melo was free to do what he does best, score unapologetically. But the Clippers wouldn't touch Melo for Griffin with a ten foot pole.

Based on your question, I can only assume that you've read something recently that implies that Paul and Griffin somehow don't get along -- no doubt also coming from guys like Stephen A and Skip, offered up to support their trade idea. If so, I've successfully tuned it out. I saw some of those issues reported last season -- but never bought the stories. I've never seen any indication of issues between the two, and I've yet to see any such tension reported by a source I trusted. The chemistry on the team is terrific as far as I can tell, but as with every team, it's better when they're winning, worse when they're losing.

http://www.denverstiffs.com/2013/12/21/5232284/blogging-with-the-enemy-clippers-steve-q-a

As I said beore blake is the better player,and the clippers have no need to trade him for carmlo....

the only way carmelo is the better player is to put him in an obsolete and irrelevant stat vacuum and disregard both his negligible floor impact and his general fecklessness. he has to be one f the most overrated and overpaid players in the league right now.

dk7th wrote:

tkf wrote:

raven wrote:From an interview on denver's stiffs with one of the Clips main bloggers, loads of valid points:

1) Melo for Blake Griffin, do you make that deal? A crazy rumor I recently discussed with my colleague Jeff Morton. That leads to ... What's up with the Clippers chemistry? Is the team close? Overblown media stuff?

Steve Perrin: I'm really glad you asked me about the Griffin-Melo rumors -- which aren't rumors so much as idle speculation from the likes of Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless, guys that like to hear themselves talk. I've made a couple of comments along the way, but never felt compelled to do a full blown post on it, so you've given me that opportunity.

The Clippers would never consider trading Blake Griffin for Carmelo Anthony, nor should they. Carmelo does exactly one thing better than Griffin -- score. And even there, you sort of have to define your terms, since Griffin is a more efficient scorer than Anthony (Anthony's TSP of .560 last season was very near his career high, but it was still less than Griffin's .572). So actually the one thing Carmelo does better is shoot free throws. Griffin's a better rebounder, passer and defender, plus he's younger, still improving, less expensive, signed for longer, more likeable, better looking, a better actor, and nicer to animals (I'm just assuming on the animals part, but it stands to reason). Griffin is wildly popular among Clipper fans and the front office would think twice about trading him for a player who is actually better than he is (say Kevin Love) for fear of alienating the fan base. They would scoff at the idea of doing it for Anthony. Why would they? For Carmelo's star power? As if the Clippers and Griffin are lacking in that department.

The funny thing is, I actually think Carmelo might respond really well to playing alongside Chris Paul. Melo has always been "the man" in Denver and New York, but I've never been more impressed with him than I was when he was a designated scorer on Team USA. Without the responsibility of being the team's "best player", Melo was free to do what he does best, score unapologetically. But the Clippers wouldn't touch Melo for Griffin with a ten foot pole.

Based on your question, I can only assume that you've read something recently that implies that Paul and Griffin somehow don't get along -- no doubt also coming from guys like Stephen A and Skip, offered up to support their trade idea. If so, I've successfully tuned it out. I saw some of those issues reported last season -- but never bought the stories. I've never seen any indication of issues between the two, and I've yet to see any such tension reported by a source I trusted. The chemistry on the team is terrific as far as I can tell, but as with every team, it's better when they're winning, worse when they're losing.

http://www.denverstiffs.com/2013/12/21/5232284/blogging-with-the-enemy-clippers-steve-q-a

As I said beore blake is the better player,and the clippers have no need to trade him for carmlo....

the only way carmelo is the better player is to put him in an obsolete and irrelevant stat vacuum and disregard both his negligible floor impact and his general fecklessness. he has to be one f the most overrated and overpaid players in the league right now.

I agree 100%... It really is as if people close their eyes after carmelo shoots and don't watch the other parts of the game..

Knicks trade:
Melo to LAC

Knicks Receive:
Gallinari
Mozgov
Re-Acquire our 2014 1st rd Draft pick
Denver's 2014 rd 1st Draft Pick
LAC's 2014 1st rd Draft pick

LAC trades:
Griffin to Den
2014 1st Rd Pick to NY

LAC Receives:
Carmelo Anthony

Denver Receives:
Blake Griffin

Denver trades:
Gallinari to NY
Mozgov to NY
Rights to NYK 2014 1st Rd pick
Den 2014 1st rd pick

Not sure if this works under the cap or not, but we would have a good amount of draft picks to start over, including our pick back which would allow us to just tank to get the worst record possible to get a high draft pick in a draft that has potential superstar talent.

Chris Paul and Doc get the star player that they like better than Blake.

Denver gets the star talent that they have wanted to add to their team to go with their nice core.

tkf wrote:

KEEPCAMBYNY wrote:How about this trade:

Knicks trade:
Melo to LAC

Knicks Receive:
Gallinari
Mozgov
Re-Acquire our 2014 1st rd Draft pick
Denver's 2014 rd 1st Draft Pick
LAC's 2014 1st rd Draft pick

LAC trades:
Griffin to Den
2014 1st Rd Pick to NY

LAC Receives:
Carmelo Anthony

Denver Receives:
Blake Griffin

Denver trades:
Gallinari to NY
Mozgov to NY
Rights to NYK 2014 1st Rd pick
Den 2014 1st rd pick

Not sure if this works under the cap or not, but we would have a good amount of draft picks to start over, including our pick back which would allow us to just tank to get the worst record possible to get a high draft pick in a draft that has potential superstar talent.

Chris Paul and Doc get the star player that they like better than Blake.

Denver gets the star talent that they have wanted to add to their team to go with their nice core.

why involve NY? denver can just go to the clippers with a similar deal and offer faried as well.. clippers probably decline the trade, as they would this trade and denver is not planning to trade picks in this talent heavy draft...

Why involve NY? Because the Nets just lost Brook Lopez for the rest of the season, the Sixers management did everything they could to try to tank this year, and Knicks are still only 3games behind an unproven Celtics team who can come crashing back to earth at any moment. Plus you never know when Ainge might make a move to intentionally make the team tank as low as it can go. Regardless of how much we sucked so far, we are still the safest bet to win the "Titanic" division in the eyes of most right now. If Denver has a chance at an already established star like Griffin, I think its a no brainer to do the deal for a guy coming off major knee surgery, a backup center, and a Knicks pick that is not guaranteed to be a lotto pick. This trade if it were to happen, would be around the deadline, so if the Knicks are still in contention for winning the division, then I think they go for the guaranteed thing instead of risking the Knick's pick becoming a mid 1st rounder.

LAC is only going to want a star player back if they trade Griffin, so they have no interest in Denver's package, plus lets be real, CP3 (and probably Doc) would definitely be pushing for Melo, but Sterling can be as stubborn as Dolan so who knows.

smackeddog wrote:

raven wrote:Don't know if you guys saw this, but I was pretty impressed for a guy that is said to be able to only dunk:

I mean, the guy is 6'10...

I can't decide whether its impressive or hilarious!

tkf wrote:

KEEPCAMBYNY wrote:

tkf wrote:

KEEPCAMBYNY wrote:How about this trade:

Knicks trade:
Melo to LAC

Knicks Receive:
Gallinari
Mozgov
Re-Acquire our 2014 1st rd Draft pick
Denver's 2014 rd 1st Draft Pick
LAC's 2014 1st rd Draft pick

LAC trades:
Griffin to Den
2014 1st Rd Pick to NY

LAC Receives:
Carmelo Anthony

Denver Receives:
Blake Griffin

Denver trades:
Gallinari to NY
Mozgov to NY
Rights to NYK 2014 1st Rd pick
Den 2014 1st rd pick

Not sure if this works under the cap or not, but we would have a good amount of draft picks to start over, including our pick back which would allow us to just tank to get the worst record possible to get a high draft pick in a draft that has potential superstar talent.

Chris Paul and Doc get the star player that they like better than Blake.

Denver gets the star talent that they have wanted to add to their team to go with their nice core.

why involve NY? denver can just go to the clippers with a similar deal and offer faried as well.. clippers probably decline the trade, as they would this trade and denver is not planning to trade picks in this talent heavy draft...

Why involve NY? Because the Nets just lost Brook Lopez for the rest of the season, the Sixers management did everything they could to try to tank this year, and Knicks are still only 3games behind an unproven Celtics team who can come crashing back to earth at any moment. Plus you never know when Ainge might make a move to intentionally make the team tank as low as it can go. Regardless of how much we sucked so far, we are still the safest bet to win the "Titanic" division in the eyes of most right now. If Denver has a chance at an already established star like Griffin, I think its a no brainer to do the deal for a guy coming off major knee surgery, a backup center, and a Knicks pick that is not guaranteed to be a lotto pick. This trade if it were to happen, would be around the deadline, so if the Knicks are still in contention for winning the division, then I think they go for the guaranteed thing instead of risking the Knick's pick becoming a mid 1st rounder.

LAC is only going to want a star player back if they trade Griffin, so they have no interest in Denver's package, plus lets be real, CP3 (and probably Doc) would definitely be pushing for Melo, but Sterling can be as stubborn as Dolan so who knows.

I mean why would denver and clippers include NY in this deal? I understand why NY fans want it..

Ok, lets try it this way, why don't you tell me why they wouldn't include NY, then we'll go from there.

NardDogNation wrote:

KEEPCAMBYNY wrote:How about this trade:

Knicks trade:
Melo to LAC

Knicks Receive:
Gallinari
Mozgov
Re-Acquire our 2014 1st rd Draft pick
Denver's 2014 rd 1st Draft Pick
LAC's 2014 1st rd Draft pick

LAC trades:
Griffin to Den
2014 1st Rd Pick to NY

LAC Receives:
Carmelo Anthony

Denver Receives:
Blake Griffin

Denver trades:
Gallinari to NY
Mozgov to NY
Rights to NYK 2014 1st Rd pick
Den 2014 1st rd pick

Not sure if this works under the cap or not, but we would have a good amount of draft picks to start over, including our pick back which would allow us to just tank to get the worst record possible to get a high draft pick in a draft that has potential superstar talent.

Chris Paul and Doc get the star player that they like better than Blake.

Denver gets the star talent that they have wanted to add to their team to go with their nice core.

My first inclination was to pass on the deal, then noticed our 2014 pick was included, along with Denver's pick in 2014 (to replace the one in 2016 we lost in that stupid Bargnani trade). That is most certainly something I'd do, despite being underwhelmed by getting Gallinari and Mozgov back. I don't think the Clippers would give up a draft pick, considering that their getting the older talent, but I think your deal would have some legs. Good job! The only tinkering I'd do in it, is to also include Tyson Chandler to the Clippers for DeAndre Jordan. I don't care for Jordan's game but his deal is cheaper, he is younger and has more utility to a rebuilding team.

I wouldn't mind Jordan, but I was thinking of a Tyson/JR deal to somewhere for young talent, picks, and or expiring contract(s). We would be set with plenty of draft picks and still have a good amount of cap space after Amare is off the books. Imagine landing Wiggins or Parker on rookie contracts, then still having the chance to get two Max players, and still have a guy like Gallo (assuming he comes back well from injury) as well. Plus we could still have Shump and THJ here perhaps.

2 1st round picks

2-3 2nd round picks (the value is actually here, in a deep draft, Houston owns a lot of HIGH 2nd round picks)

and a dump of Felton or JR brothers

Than a max contract to Griffen, when we lack a PG, and cannot build a team that even closely resembles Clippers while limiting our financial abilities to sign any FA's in 2015....

NardDogNation wrote:

KEEPCAMBYNY wrote:

NardDogNation wrote:

KEEPCAMBYNY wrote:How about this trade:

Knicks trade:
Melo to LAC

Knicks Receive:
Gallinari
Mozgov
Re-Acquire our 2014 1st rd Draft pick
Denver's 2014 rd 1st Draft Pick
LAC's 2014 1st rd Draft pick

LAC trades:
Griffin to Den
2014 1st Rd Pick to NY

LAC Receives:
Carmelo Anthony

Denver Receives:
Blake Griffin

Denver trades:
Gallinari to NY
Mozgov to NY
Rights to NYK 2014 1st Rd pick
Den 2014 1st rd pick

Not sure if this works under the cap or not, but we would have a good amount of draft picks to start over, including our pick back which would allow us to just tank to get the worst record possible to get a high draft pick in a draft that has potential superstar talent.

Chris Paul and Doc get the star player that they like better than Blake.

Denver gets the star talent that they have wanted to add to their team to go with their nice core.

My first inclination was to pass on the deal, then noticed our 2014 pick was included, along with Denver's pick in 2014 (to replace the one in 2016 we lost in that stupid Bargnani trade). That is most certainly something I'd do, despite being underwhelmed by getting Gallinari and Mozgov back. I don't think the Clippers would give up a draft pick, considering that their getting the older talent, but I think your deal would have some legs. Good job! The only tinkering I'd do in it, is to also include Tyson Chandler to the Clippers for DeAndre Jordan. I don't care for Jordan's game but his deal is cheaper, he is younger and has more utility to a rebuilding team.

I wouldn't mind Jordan, but I was thinking of a Tyson/JR deal to somewhere for young talent, picks, and or expiring contract(s). We would be set with plenty of draft picks and still have a good amount of cap space after Amare is off the books. Imagine landing Wiggins or Parker on rookie contracts, then still having the chance to get two Max players, and still have a guy like Gallo (assuming he comes back well from injury) as well. Plus we could still have Shump and THJ here perhaps.

I get your rationale. I just think that the Clippers would demand Chandler back since they'd be looking to win immediately. May we could simply move Jordan for picks and filler; I could see OKC taking an interest in him for Perkins and draft picks. I also could see a team like IND wanting JR S ith as part of a larger deal for Granger and draft picks. In any case, I like your thinking and totally agree with you about needing to rebuild and start by getting in this draft. With our own pick back, I think we'd definitely have a shot at Wiggins or Parker (Parker preferably), although there are other guys still available that I'd love to have all the same e.g. Marcus Smart and Juluis Randle. What do you think about them?

I haven't seen Randle play outside of YouTube clips, but I like what I saw and hear of his game, though I am not sure how his game will translate at the next level. I have seen Marcus Smart play though and he reminds me of DWade. If Shump could tighten up his ballhandling skills a bit (and gets his head back on right again), I would like him at the other guard spot next to him. Shump/Smart/Gallo seems like a good fit to me (also possibly a good fit for Phil's triangle offense) and then you still have cap space to add a frontcourt to them as well as the other draft picks. As for Randle, I could see him and Gallo making a nice interchangeable tandem at the forward spots. I wouldn't mind that Lin/Asik trade in that scenario Lin/Hardaway/Randle/Gallo/Asik with a little cap space and picks going forwarded would be nice.