Paul Allen dropped a serious chunk o' change on Matthews, a guy who plays the same position as Roy, and so will forever be a backup. He did that knowing full well we are likely going to be paying whopping deals to Batum and Oden, and already are paying through the nose for Aldridge and Roy. I see that signing (and also a pretty hefty signing for Camby--again a backup this year) and I look at an owner with cancer, and I hear him saying in my head, "Fuck it. What else am I going to do with all this money?" I have very little doubt right now that Allen is fully committed to paying whatever it takes to field the best team possible. It's 1999 all over again, and the purse strings are wide open. Let's hope this time we get a little more bang for our buck.
Interesting theory, but a blow to the theory is simply that it was Matthews who was signed. You did see the list of FA's this year, right?
Was there somebody else on that list who: 1. offered a significant upgrade to our perimeter defense 2. could back up the 2 and 3 3. provided perimeter shooting 4. was somebody we could acquire for the MLE or less 5. was willing to come to Portland and almost certainly come off the bench Those were five pretty important qualities I was hoping to get in a free agent this summer. Particularly #1. That we found that guy, and he was only 24 and playing for a division rival, made him a nice bench upgrade. That our owner was willing to drop a stupid amount of money to do so bodes well for the team's future.
MLE for a 23 year-old rookie with a sub-12.5 PER. Plus, Matthews' agent had put out the sentiment that Wesley wanted to start, and that Portland said he could compete to start. Matthews had better be Bruce Bowen this season in a reserve role and like it.
I remember reading something about being able to compete for the starting spot but I think that was more hype while we were waiting to see if Utah would match. We did spend a huge chunk of change on a second year player, hopefully he is worth it.
""Fuck it. What else am I going to do with all this money?" I have very little doubt right now that Allen is fully committed to paying whatever it takes to field the best team possible. It's 1999 all over again, and the purse strings are wide open. " Don't get me wrong. I like Matthews, a lot. I can't wait to watch his game develop. From what I hear, he's a great fit - team player and great work ethic. I also like your theory. But, I don't think PA is opening the checkbook. If that were the case, we'd be adding MORE than just WM to the roster.
I don't think so. I think the lack of other major acquisitions is less about Paul Allen being cheap, and more about just wanting to see how the existing talent fits together. I think management is smart enough to think the same way I do and sees this as a 62 win as currently constructed, if it can stay healthy. If you have a team that you think is going to be that good, you don't start changing major components. You tweak around the edges. Get some more youngsters in the pipeline (Babbit, Johnson). Replace less efficient role players (Rudy, Webster, Outlaw, Blake) with more efficient role players (Camby, Matthews). Of course, if you get a chance at a superstar you swing for that fence, like we did with Chris Paul. But those often fall through. Last summer Portland set out to make a major splash in free agency with Hedo Turkoglu. I suspect management feels pretty damned lucky that fell through. So we went with the much less drastic deal for Miller, and that was obviously a pretty good one. I think they went into this summer with the lesson learned. Either make small tweaks for incremental improvement, or go for a real home run. The home runs are hard to come by, so we are left with the Matthews deal.
There's no amount of money that would get LeBron to play in PDX. Dude's ego is bigger than this whole city.
