Houston Rockets: LeBron James (Player Option)

Surprise!

Not really.

LeBron James-to-Houston chatter has permeated the rumor mill all year. cheap nfl nike jerseys from china In case you were wondering, it won’t stop now.

Sources told Rockets Wire’s Kelly Iko that Houston will give chase to both James and Paul George (player option) this summer. And Chris Paul may already be recruiting his co-captain of banana boats everywhere, according to the New York Times’ Marc Stein.

Don’t go muting the phrase “Eastern Conference” in your Twitter timeline just yet. Houston has a long way to go before James Harden is teaching LeBron the secret of (regular-season) step-back threes.cheap nike nfl jerseys free shipping

Flat-out signing James is off the table. Paul needs to accept a massive discount after the Rockets clear the decks for that to make any sense. Even then, the salary-cap gymnastics aren’t in their favor.

Negotiating a sign-and-trade is equally implausible. Houston would be hard-capped after the transaction, which means its payroll cannot exceed the luxury-tax apron—set for $6 million above the initial tax line. Good luck doing that while nfl cheap jerseys nike paying Harden, James, Paul and Clint Capela (restricted) market value.

Opt-in-and-trade scenarios are the Rockets’ bread and butter nfl nike jerseys for cheap . If James picks up his player option, which pays him a smidgeon more than his actual max salary, he can force Cleveland to make nice with Houston.

That gives way to a different set of hurdles—mainly the Rockets’ sweetening the deal enough for the Cavaliers or a third-party helper to take back Ryan Anderson (two years, $41.7 million), Nene (two years, $7.5 million) and filler. But James, nike nfl jerseys wholesale cheap as always, will have the leverage necessary to wish it into existence. And if any front-office executive has the workarounds in place to get this done, it would be Houston’s ever-active Daryl Morey.

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