LJ + oldtimer,
I respect the both of you guys and your knowledge of the CBA, but I don't think your looking at this situation logically based on past and current events.
Let us remember Paul will control his destiny similarly to the way we saw Melo operate this season, weaseling and working his way to our squad. Let us also remember CP3 has the same people managing him.
Lets say the NOH front office wants to trade him to another team because what we'd have to offer isn't enough. Well Paul can simply say he won't sign a long term deal with anyone else the way Melo did. That should prevent NOH from being able to find a team that's willing to accept him as a rental. Remember they'd have to give up pieces to get him for only a portion of a season. No team worth their salt would do this IMO. So..... even if our deal isn't enough, NOH will still either have to take what we offer, or lose him as FA. And there will be no CBA to worry about in the summer 2012, no reason for Paul or Donnie not to wait if that's what's needed.
Funny, these exact same words were said about Melo only 8 months ago. Everybody argued that we could get Melo for Curry + Chandler because Denver HAD to deal with us. I said it was going to cost us Chandler + Gallo + Randolph. Everybody said I was wrong and that we should never give up that much for Melo who was a free agent in a year............My oh my, how things changed over the course of this year.
And nowhere in that article or anywhere has Donnie ever said we have enough cap space for another max contract level player (CP3 or Howard). Donnie is a politician if I've ever seen one. He's very coy and purposeful with his words when he talks to the media.
All Donnie says is we have cap space for next summer. Which we all know. He never says anything about how much space we'll have. Donnie knows, and I know, we do not have enough space to sign CP3 and build a team around those guys, unless CP3 agrees to take $10 mil/year. Amare and Melo make too much. Donnie won't say it to the media. He never tells the media anything.
As I said before we will have $44.15 mil in team salary with only 2 players on the roster. They can't restructure their deals. Your only hopes are the cap goes up about $10 mil, or CP3 takes a massive pay cut.
I know CP3 is one of your favorite players, he's one of mine too, but building a TEAM is much more important than getting CP3. I would have preferred we never traded for Melo and had gone straight after CP3. We would have a much better team. CP3 and Amare is a much better tandem than Melo and Amare.
We need to stop with the flashy names and build a solid team. CP3 + Melo + Amare + 12 minimum salary scrubs is not going to win anything. That is a shell of a team. The only reason everybody is talking about getting a 3rd superstar is because Miami did it. Last I checked, they haven't won anything yet. Let's get a solid big man and a SG (if we can, as I've expressed my doubts about our ability to even do that) before we dump everything for CP3. People have greatly underestimated the need for solid role players. Our bench was seriously exposed. Another star is not what we need.