WrigleyField 22

Well it would make sense for any Vitters supporter to back track since he's K'ing at a rate he hadn't ever done outside of his MLB cup of coffee. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Afflalo is a good wing defender. He's not Butler but his shooting more than makes up for that. And if your keeping our all D front court intact we're good. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I only agree to the extent that it's a waste of time and maybe we can flatter Melo and increase our chances by going all in on him over Lebron. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Until we hear anything else I think the only thing you can assume is Lebron is maximizing his earnings. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You need more than just LeBron taking less to make that work. if we hear that bosh and wade are opting out, that's bad news. Agree. However, I think it would be to make a run at Lowry rather than Melo. I don't think everyone takes enough of a paycut to fit all 4 in. I can see them all taking smaller pay cuts to free up $10-$12M for Lowry. Or maybe Gortat. But I never though the Big 3 would be formed, so who knows. Either way I'm praying Bosh and/or Wade don't opt out. I'm pretty sure Bosh is going to opt out. Wade's the question mark. Does he give up less to accommodate or does he take the money knowing that he's never going to see a payday like this again? If Wade and Bosh opt out ; they're planning on pay cuts to bring in extra talent If Wade and Bosh opt in; Lebron is staying and just wants to max out his salary If Bosh opts out and Wade opts in; Lebron is seriously looking at leaving and Bosh is keeping his options open knowing he can still get a lot of dough and doesn't want to be abandoned with a hobbled Wade. Wade will ride it out because he would actually take a significant pay cut and could try recruiting guys to Miami again if both guys actually left. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think they'd both have to play off the ball a little, but it's really clear Rose needs another guy who can create. If I had to guess Melo ends up dominating the ball more, especially in the half court. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Let the madness begin. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm starting to believe this. Phil is smart enough to take the long view and realize that Melo doesn't realistically fit a window for the Knicks to contend. Of course he does. Even with a maxed Melo they would have cap room next offseason. If Melo wants to be in NY, he's gonna be. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk For a guy that has never proved he is a #1 player on a title caliber team and with the rest of the roster largely being crap I don't see how you can say Melo clearly fits into the Knicks window when they could conceivably contend. Unless there is some wink wink agreement to bring LeBron into the fold. He was the number one on playoff teams for like 9 straight years, some of them pretty good teams. And with the current state if the East, especially if the Bulls fail to capitalize should remain fairly open as Wade continues to deteriorate and Lebron up in the air. It's no slam dunk, but retaining Melo gives them a better shot than losing him unless the haul is really good. They can't even really luck into a pick because of how leveraged they are for future pick obligations I think. I think whatever picks they still own the next few years are swaps or other teams. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm starting to believe this. Phil is smart enough to take the long view and realize that Melo doesn't realistically fit a window for the Knicks to contend. Of course he does. Even with a maxed Melo they would have cap room next offseason. If Melo wants to be in NY, he's gonna be. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Baker, at his current rate, TRIPLES that. I think Plaid was going for longevity. I laughter so freaking hard when it was reviled he nearly lopped his fingers off during the offseason as a reason why he could hold a bat. I think he played another entire year after that too. Baker still has a positive WAR for his career. Yeah, I know Baker is technically on pace for some crazy number, but I'm genuinely interested if anyone's entire Cubs career is worse than Koyie Hill's. Eddie Miksis is the worst according to fWAR (-2.8) and having at least 1000+ PAs with the Cubs (2515 PAs). For comparsion, Hill was -1.3 in 834 PAs. If you want the worst regardless of PAs, Jerry Kindall was -3.4 in 849 PAs. If you ask me, even though it was just 1 year, I would vote for Aaron Miles. Kindall costing us a win every 249 PA is pretty bad. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't think they'd save much cap space as they'll still have a cap hold assuming it's in the first round. And he won't fall far enough to get as a second rounder. Still could be a nice pick at 19 and maybe be a good trade chip for a Melo S&T. To a team like NY the cap hold isn't s big deal as they're well over the salary cap, but the cap hold would effect their luxury tax. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It wouldn't have to be a current batting helmet either though. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Wait why is this monstrosity better than just a hard shell helmet that would look normal. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A one time emergency long snapper who hasn't played football in how many years? What Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Haha nice. Patrick Mannelly will definitely be missed. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where are the pinstripes? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Nice thing about a sign and trade in the case of Melo is that you don't necessarily have to part with equal value to get the return you seek. Even though it's NY and they throw around money, accepting Boozer back does likely mean luxury tax along with possible repeater tax concerns. So we have to give them something worthwhile probably. Best case scenario they like one of our two 2014 picks as a main part of the package. Thing is we won't be able to directly pick for them. The other possibility is maybe having to accept Felton or JR Smith to aleive some of that salary for them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

And probably a draft pick. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hope they just keep him and try to resign him. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Deng actually plays defense, but still.... Thibs needs just one lock down wing guy for his scheme. The question was also kind of posed with "if we got Love" to be completely fair. If we were thinking going D over O at one spot I think you'd actually have a better argument to chose Melo over Love and keep Taj for D reasons. But Melo/Love still wins. Melo/Love>Melo/Taj>Deng/Love. IMO Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Need to sell Dunleavy for cap space ASAP to give us decent leverage. That'd put us in the $14M range offer which may be enough to call NY bluff and then go the S&T route (and presumably then actually give him more like 17-18). Needs to be wrapped up by July 16 to do a S&T so Boozer can still be involved, otherwise we use the amnesty and go the cap space route. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Taking whatever similarities you want between Vogelbach and Schwarber, a lot of Vogelbachs skill set was based on projection and BP power whereas Schwarber has actual in game, college success and power. Quite a bit different track-record wise. Vogelbach had yet to live up to any power hype. Even when he was "shredding" leagues, I think the power results always lagged behind the power projection. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Man, that's a lot of typing and accurate spelling for a phone post. Well done. Practice. I almost never post from an actual computer anymore, either a phone or tablet. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

In this instance you are either above the cap or below the cap and to facilitate Love and Melo you pretty much have to operate above the cap. When you operate above the cap, only exceptions allow you to add a player. In this case the salary difference of Deng and Melo is almost guaranteed not to make a difference with the only possible factor being the apron. But the apron won't come I to play here. So I can work out a scenario where I retain just Rose, Butler, Noah, Snell, 2 2014 picks, and Greg Smith, and trade for Kevin Love and his 17Mish salary, that allows me to sign Melo to a deal starting around 17M also (in a S&T) and still have my Bi-Annual exception and Mid Level exception to use, allowing me to sign guys over the cap. (You could also swap Gibson in for Noah or drop one of your picks, etc but this is kind of bare bones salary wise- anything else basically helps with the apron room, but doesn't gain us any further exceptions). So on this scenario if I were to S&T for Deng (has to be S&T), I've opened up no other exceptions. And since I need to be sending out salary, probably lose many of the same pieces as a Melo S&T, so you don't retain anything extra. Now we can also look at the even less realistic scenario where we try to fit Love and Melo operate under the cap. It requires the Boozer amnesty obviously. And whether in the Love trade or salary dumps getting rid of almost everyone. Lining it up, you look like this. Over the cap- Rose, Love, Butler, Snell, pick 16, pick 19, Smith, MLE ($5M), BAE (~$2M), (Noah or Gibson), (Melo or Deng, either in S&T, with enough apron room to get either*) *Possibly you need to choose Gibson over Noah in a Love trade to be able to fit Melo (4.7M cap difference), but that's more realistic anyways. Under the cap Rose, Love, Butler, Snell, pick 16, pick 19, Smith, Room MLE ($2.7M), and $19M (presumably all for Melo or Deng and this other piece). Now of course we can get into semantics of what it will actually cost trade wise to get Melo and Love, but I think the over the cap scenario basically works around Taj or Noah and whatever picks we have for Love and Boozer and some other picks for Melo (hey it's unrealistic, just playing with the hypothetical). But the bottom line is to draw up dream scenarios where we get Melo and Love, to then substitute Deng for Melo doesn't give that cap saving. And in the scenario where you kind of do see that 1:1 cap room is the scenario where you have to operate as a under the cap team- a clearly less favorable option to operating as an above the cap team. Will line up the actual salary figures if I ever post from my computer and not my phone. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Because that would make a better team. You can save what, $3-5 million with Deng as opposed to Melo and use that on someone else. You don't understand how the NBA salary cap works. But even if it did work like that Melo is better than Deng and a $3M player. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk