So a different Paul may not re-sign with his team (via Bill Simmons twitter)

[indeedproceed]

Paul/Dirk/Dwight is the Mavs goal I believe. After they allow all the team options to expire and OJ Mayo declines his player option, they'll have 37.2 million tied up in salaries, and some cap holds I don't understand.

So I wonder what they'll manage. Is there anyone out there with a large trade exception still? They might be willing to take Marion on in his past year if Dallas throws in their lottery pick this season.

Marion bleeds blue. Mav for life.

What gave you that idea? Marion has an early termination offer on a contract he absolutely cannot hope to match. If he has a buyout agreement for the full value of his ETO, why wouldn't he take it? He wants to play 2 more years atleast (according to his own comments) and he'll potentially get paid considerably more if he negotiates a deal this year, after a solid performance, than he might next year if his production is limited or he has an injury hobbled campaign.

Here is a scenario involving Pierce that I talked about earlier:

http://forums.celticsblog.com/index.php?topic=64698.msg1464609#msg1464609

[action781]

Somebody do the math and just quickly reassure me that the Lakers can't sign Paul if they amnesty Bryant, and trade Gasol.

  If you look at the Clips with Blake, Jordan, Crawford, Butler and Bledsoe, how many realistic landing spots are in better shape than that? The Lakers with Dwight/Artest/Nash/garbage? The Mavs with Dirk/not much else?

Rockets with Harden/Parsons/Asik is very  solid.  Depending on which team options they don't exercise, it appears that they could have up to $10M to spend on a PF also (David West?  Milsap?  Big Al?)

[ejk3489]

Somebody do the math and just quickly reassure me that the Lakers can't sign Paul if they amnesty Bryant, and trade Gasol.

  If you look at the Clips with Blake, Jordan, Crawford, Butler and Bledsoe, how many realistic landing spots are in better shape than that? The Lakers with Dwight/Artest/Nash/garbage? The Mavs with Dirk/not much else?

Rockets with Harden/Parsons/Asik is very  solid.  Depending on which team options they don't exercise, it appears that they could have up to $10M to spend on a PF also (David West?  Milsap?  Big Al?)

Not sure Paul and Harden would be a good fit in the back-court together, both are most effective when the ball is in their hands. If they don't sign Dwight, I could see Houston targeting CP though.

Unlikely scenario, but does Atlanta have enough cap space to sign both Paul and Howard? A DH/Horford/CP core would be pretty good.