No, we can do it that way; these folks are just trying to be clever and retain as many players as possible.
The Blazers certainly can clear enough cap space for both. If both want to play here and want to allow Neil the ability to re-sign one of Meyers or Mo, the two combined would have to take $7M less as starting salaries.
The funny thing about us getting both would be taking out Howard and his 50% FT shooting to replace him with Plums and his 51% FT shooting during hack a Dwight time.
Here's one way that the math would work, as nearly as I can tell: According to this OLive article, the Blazers are currently $7.2M under the cap. http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/i...ers_offseason_guide_contracts_free_agent.html If they waive Kaman, Roberts and Henderson, they have $26.4 M. Parsons signs at $22M for his first year. That drops available cap space to $4.4M. If the Blazers waive Harkless and Leonard, and trade Davis for picks, they add another $21.5M to get to a total of $25.9M, which should be enough to sign Howard at $24M. The Blazers' roster would be: Howard, Plumlee Aminu, Vonleh, Alexander Parsons, {Crabbe}, Layman CJ, Crabbe, Connaughton Dame, {CJ}, Monterro What am I missing?
I've seen a few different salary numbers out there for the 16/17 season, so this might not be entirely accurate but should be close enough: Trade Aminu for a draft pick - clears ~$7.5M Trade Davis for a draft pick - clears ~$7M Renounce Harkless - clears ~$7M That's over $21M that we can offer Howard, plus any remaining cap space available after Parson's contract. That also allows us to keep Crabbe & Meyers, AAAAAAND it nets us two draft picks that we wouldn't get if we cleared the space by renouncing Crabbe/Meyers. Basically we've traded Aminu for Parsons, Davis for Howard, and Harkless for two draft picks. That, IMO, is the best route to take. We wouldn't be losing Vonleh/Crabbe/Meyers without compensation.
Guys stop. If we are gonna have 4 guys close max, aminu and davis are that much more important to keep on this team. They almost become untouchable just because of the value and productivity they give. Plumlee is gone because he is gonna get paid the year after next. Get a future 1st so we get a cheap player eventually. Trade vonleh and connaughton too instead of davis.
Bones--you're a freaking genius. I completely forgot about the fact that BYC only kicks in if the initial signing puts you over the cap. So, yes, if all the UFA's and Mo are renounced, we at that point have 9.7M in space (all dependent on the actual not-yet-calculated salary cap), factoring in MyLe's cap hold. Now, Houston, Portland, Dwight, and Leonard would all have to be in agreement, but yes, we would at that point be able to trade a S&T Leonard at $18M for a S&T Dwight at $23M (have to be within $5M if both sides are sending over $10M). However, why would Houston help us? Is Leonard worth the $18M they'd have to pay him in order to make that happen?
Verajao costs us $2M in cap space. And no, I think the Rockets would be batshit goofy to pay Leonard that kind of money. They get the cap space themselves and could use it on better (more proven) players.
You think I want to read through pages and pages of swill to pick out the few pearls of wisdom? Add a couple of vets using exceptions and I am good with that roster.
