re: Time line for deals related to Asik trade

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when does FA period officially begin.

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Midnight ET on July 1st, so basically late Monday night. Last year's thread of the year was the FA thread about Tyreke that lasted for 3 days straight, literally, updates on rumors would happen all night long 24/7 for about 3 days.

As far as when the deals need to be completed, we have plenty of time. The Rockets probably aren't even going to trade Lin before getting a commitment from the big FA they target. So events can happen where by July 4th the Rockets have a commitment from Melo, and the trades that need to happen (Lin, Asik) may not even go through for several days after that. The only potential problem is if there aren't any actual deals in place to clear the necessary cap space. I would imagine Houston has several Lin deals lined up. As far as the Pelicans go, Demps is probably hoping after a few days of FA and teams with cap space missing out, he can get a better deal than he currently has. But if worse comes to worse, surely Orlando or Philly would take Rivers for free, which is all we really need to do to make the Asik deal work.

If you're concerned that the deal might fall apart, it won't, the real unanswered question is what we have to give up to make it happen, and we may not start getting a clearer picture of that until we are several days or more into the FA signing period. Again, I think Demps is waiting for some other moves to happen hoping they open up some opportunities that may not currently be available, like a Rondo trade (there were draft night rumors of us being part of a Rondo to Sac 3 team deal with Gordon and Rivers going to Boston).