Houston vs. Chicago: Who Can Offer More?

that is his cap hold prior to re-signing

 

look at the ny tax, la is worse, it's not overused as much as its really only an issue is states where it's high, and illinois at 5% isn't high.

 

I think the Rockets would do this also.

 

They would be unrestricted though correct? No guarantee we get them back

I doubt melo would prefer that 1 mil extra as opposed to having good cheap teammates

SNT is most likely scenario

 

The difference between potential salaries in Chicago and Houston are dwarfed by what he'd be giving up leaving New York. $140k... may as well say the money is the same. If he's willing to give up $5m a year, he should pick whichever team he thinks will get him the championship.

And maybe that's what he does. But, I think what the 2 teams can offer in S&T is the linchpin. If he S&Ts, he gets to keep all his money. Assuming both destinations are good for him, which one is NY willing to play ball with. Would you rather have Boozer plus sweeteners, or Asik/Lin plus sweeteners?

 

why does everyone assume Rose will be healthy again? He's had 2 surgeries not 1. When will we finally start talking about him as if he's TMac or Roy? If he was a big man he would have already been taken out back and shot. If you're a superstar looking to join up with another superstar, DRose is not on the top 5 of guys to join right now.

 

We can create a couple more million than that easily. If we're assuming Chicago can fill out the rotation from 8 players to 12 players using just the veteran minimum, then we can do that too.

The game is really $19m HOU vs $17m CHI and we still have the better roster. Plus we can deal a pick this year and multiple picks in the future. Sucks to lose D-Mo for nothing, but we can do that and I'm sure Philly takes that deal.

 

And if you trade off DMo for a 2nd rounder, you have a nice 19+ million to offer. No state tax on 1/2 his games. That sounds so much better than the Bulls 17.5 offer.

Though I'd still prefer a SnT so that we can use our MLE. I'm not sure if Asik, Lin, DMo and 25 and a 2nd would do it for Phil. Remember that not only would NY be eating the balloon on Lin that they didn't want to pay coming off Linsanity, but they'd eat Asik's balloon too. And pay Luxury Tax on all that (edit: though they "only" have to pay the LT on the 17 million instead of the 30 million they'd be paying on their salary). I do think if we take back Felton too, then you might have PJ's attention.

 

People keep mentioning this. Everyone needs to understand that this decision has absolutely nothing to do with what Phil Jackson and the Knicks want. Carmelo Anthony will first make his decision on what team he wants to join, then a S&T will be discussed. Whether or not Phil likes the players in a potential S&T will affect Melo's final salary but this will not dictate a decision.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Even if Bulls stripped themselves down to only Rose, Noah, Gibson, Afflalo &amp; Butler, w/no other salary, could only pay Melo about $11M.</p>&mdash; David Weiner (@BimaThug) <a href="https://twitter.com/BimaThug/statuses/480768569030868994">June 22, 2014</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Meanwhile, <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Rockets&amp;src=hash">#Rockets</a> could hypothetically keep entire regular season starting lineup from last year and still offer Melo *at least* $17-19M.</p>&mdash; David Weiner (@BimaThug) <a href="https://twitter.com/BimaThug/statuses/480771740314775552">June 22, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Why are the Federal Tax numbers different in different states when the salary is the same?

 

Carmelo is opting out so these trades with phil don't matter at all

 

knicks can still facilitate a s&t

 

You clearly put a lot of work into this. Would rep if I could.

 

The state income tax is deductible, so no federal tax is paid on that amount.

 

Depends on Anthony's commitment to jump. If he's willing to take a paycut to $17m, then he can certainly just pick his team unilaterally (among the crop discussed here). But, if he still wants his max salary then what the Knicks want does in fact matter. Is he willing to surrender $20-$30m to cut NY out? If Chicago is willing to pay a reasonable S&T price to NY so Melo can get his money but Houston is not willing to pay, is he going to take the lower paying job? Both HOU and CHI would prefer an S&T anyway so they can keep the MLE. So, I think you have to be willing to pay a reasonable amount of compensation to NY to facilitate, and that's going to give NY some power to choose.

That said, I think NY would rather send him to Houston than Chicago. We're in the other conference, so no worries about blocking themselves from the Finals. And, Lin and Asik give you more options at the end of next season than Boozer does.

 

I agree that the amount of money lost by leaving NYC is larger than any minuscule difference in salary between Chicago and Houston in regards to state taxes.

However, as a resident of illinois I would like to point out that the state tax is 6.25%.

 

Yeah it comes down to what Melo wants in terms of money and teammates. Then, if he wants the max, it comes down to NY being willing to do a s&t with the team Melo chooses.

It is a lot closer than I thought in salaries, the Parsons situation is still confusing to me. I also think Moti would probably be gone to make a little more room.

So the question is basically: does Melo prefer Rose (if healthy maybe better than Harden), Noah and Gibson or does he prefer Harden, Howard and Parsons. I still believe that the rest of Houstons supporting cast is better than Chicagos, but that won't be the deciding factor.

So, Rose or Harden? If healthy Rose may be a tad better - but it is pretty even. The thing is, Rose wasn't healthy in over two years and his game depends so much on speed and change of direction. I think you have to be scared as hell of injuries with him, but if Melo doesn't agree, this should be a draw.

Howard or Noah? Pretty close as well. Howard is more imposing, Noah does more of the little things. Noah is a better passer and doesn't need the ball in his hands as much as Howard - and he is younger. This might go slightly in favor of Chicago.

Gibson or Parsons. Gibson is the better defender, Parsons has the better offense. Both do basically all the little things well. Parsons has more of an x-factor, while Gibson is more the model role-player. I would say draw.

So in the end it is close - if you consider Rose's injuries a non factor. And you could very well understand him chosing Chicago. But after his former shot at a title got cut short by injuries to Amare, I really wonder if he wants to bet his career on a guy that hasn't played a good game in over 2 years.