Who will be out there in free agency for backup PF/C?

Not having summer league sucks for this. There usually are a few guys out there that have worked hard to improve. At this point Barron and Cjohnson may be options for the end of the bench. Pendergraph is an option. Sure he looked bad in summer league when they asked him to be an offensive weapon, but that would never happen in the real season. I know he is working out hard.

 

Jordan Hill anyone? They have Patterson developing as their PFOTF behind Scola and now have Montiejunas behind Chuck Hayes and Thabeet. He's only 23, athletic, decent role player potential.

 

I've said this before a long time ago, but I would do a toxic offer to Marc Gasol, if only just to piss off the Grizzlies.

 

Jeff Foster has always been a rebounding and fouling machine. He's an even clumsier Przybilla, without the injuries.

By the way, this is an endorsement.

 

That would be another bridge we burn but it's worth a shot. He'd vault Portland back into contention again.

 

I like Turiaf, Hayes and Mohammed from that list.

 

I would take anyone from that list. Dalembert and Wilcox would be my favorite's though.

 

Those bastards fucked us with the Darius Miles deal. I'm all for screwing them over.

 

So you were expecting Faried to be covering Howard?

 

The elite teams have a three-bigman rotation. Even when Greg is able to play it's going to be a while before he gets into the flow of things considering he hasn't played since 2009. Speaking of toxic offers, what about Nene? The Blazers have already been linked to him in this article below. A future three-man rotation of LMA/Nene/Oden would put Portland back into contention. Would you give up Wallace or Batum for Nene?

The SI article from May: LINK

 

I've been posting for months that I would mostly like to see us go after A) Marc Gasol B) Nene C) DeAndre Jordan... I would also like Kenyon Martin, he could give Greg a lot of advice about injuries and surgeries. Give him some confidence too. I think he's one of the few players to ever make the comeback after micro-fracture surgery. We really need to make another free agency splash this offseason. I'm tired of seeing Wallace not playing his true position. He may flourish as a 3 in portland, but until we get another backup PF we'll never know.

 

I think DeAndre Jordan would be great, but I don't know that the Blazers are going to be able to attract him. Outbidding the Clippers shouldn't be too hard - it's the rest of the NBA I'd be worried about!

 

I still think we should make a move for Millsap. His defense is sub-par, but the move by nature is a gamble that Greg can come back. If Oden comes back then Millsap will always be playing with two of Wallace/Batum and Aldridge/Oden/Camby, I think it's fine to have one weak link if they bring scoring and rebounding.

For this season we get by for the first half(?) without him and rely on Camby and/or re-signed Joel, we're just really screwed if camby goes down and then aldridge has to play center a ton. But say at the end of the season, camby retires, if greg's back it's Millsap/Aldridge/Oden. Obviously Aldridge plays some 4 and 5, but he's always next to an elite rebounder and can leak out for the break. Millsap would be perfect next to Oden with his mid-range jumper and energy, and I think he can defend the lesser of the 4/5 perfectly adequately most of the time, it just is tough when he's currently with Okur, Jefferson, and Favors because none of them are adequate defenders either.

As far as saying he couldn't be had, I just don't buy it. The Utah boards (not that they matter that much) really seem to think he could be had and want a shooting guard really badly. They'd like to have Wes back, and I don't think it's that unrealistic to shoot for Wes + our first rounder next year, Babbit, and filler for Millsap might work. It's a gamble on Roy's knees, but we could always try to get Raja Bell thrown in, which would make it less so.

Felton/Smith/Johnson
Roy/Bell
Wallace/Batum
Aldridge/Millsap
Camby/Aldridge/Johnson (Oden when healthy)

I like that 9 man rotation, if nate allows them to run. I think there's plenty of rebounding (Millsap, Camby) and defense (Felton, Wallace, Oden) to set up the running game too.

 

Just a Denver Fan's take: LINK​

 

gasol should get a bigger deal than the mle anyways

 

A name that was being thrown around a lot on draft day was Robin Lopez. He seems like a younger Joel to me, and fits what I envision us looking for in a 4th or 5th big man option...

Off of ESPN's list, the other names that stick out to me are Jeff Green (pipedream as a stretch 4, I know), Big Baby, Troy Murphy, Tyson Chandler, Nene, Jerebko, Wilcox, Lou Amondson, Chuck Hayes, McRoberts, DeAndre Jordan, Marc Gasol, Kris Humphries, Aaron Gray, DJ Mbenga, Earl Clark, Dalembert, Joey Dorsey, and AK47...

Obviously much of this is subject to change pending a new CBA, but these are the guys that stick out to me. On the positive side of things, I see Chris Johnson as having a real chance to stick for us as a backup big. LOVED what we saw from him in the playoffs.

 

Some names you haven't mentioned (probably because you didn't think them worth it):

Andrei Kirilenko: I wonder if he'd agree to the MLE after so many years of being outrageously overpaid. At this stage he's made the Robert Horry transition from SF to PF. This would mean more minutes for Aldridge at the 5, obviously, but with Wallace at the 3 it might balance out.
Dante Cunningham: Seriously. Obviously can't play C, but is probably bigger than Faried.
Shelden Williams: maybe we can get a Duke thing going here...
Brian Cardinal: Hey - they took Rudy, and playing Cardinal over Peja was the turning point in the finals...
Hamed Haddadi: serious rebounder... feet of lead.
Dan Gadzuric: has stuck in the NBA for surprisingly long.
Francisco Elson: didn't he start for the Spurs once? And are both he and Gadzuric Dutch?
Kyrylo Fesenko: funny guy and actually not untalented.

 

Supposedly he has already put on (the semi-mythical) 15lbs of muscle since the playoffs...

And hey, what about Babbitt as that "stretch 4"? If he and Johnson can just be force-fed creatine for a few months and forced to wrestle alligators or something...

 

how do we out bid anyone when we have no capspace? and who knows what the new CBA will bring in terms of an MLE

 

If POR ends up with someone from that list then they really have screwed up in the FA market....

They need a solid 4, preferably one who can score...

Target New Orleans, they are strapped for cash and if West opts out (rumours are he will) then target him or go after Landry with a toxic offer, best case for POR is that New Orleans will likely have to choose b\t the two and chances are they will not resign both....

After that, I would go after a big man, either DeAndre Jordan a RFA from the Clips or Marc Gasol an RFA from MEM....I thnk MEM will resign Gasol at any cost, but it would be great brinksmanship by POR to leverage a MEM owner (Heisley) who already has Gay and Zach signed to BIG long term contracts and now you add Gasol, and he has to resign Mayo.

Or go after Jordan, LA Clips owner (Donald Sterling) is a notorious tightwad, sign Jordan to a toxic heavily cash front loaded contract and force Sterling to part with his cash, he has claimed that he will resign Jordan no matter what, he has siad similiar before and then let a player walk. Force his hand again....
I think Eric Gordon is coming up for a new contract soom too? Or maybe you threaten to sign Jordan and then negotiate a deal to pickup Kaman on the chaep...that is probably why they are shopping him in the first place (to cut salary)...