A prospective team will probably wait until FA to pick up Hickson. Why trade for him when you can go after him during FA? Besides, they wouldn't have to give up something valuable in the process.
"Should" Hickson be traded? Yes, for the welfare of our team. However, that wasn't the question. "Will" Olshey make a trade by the deadline? I don't think it's likely to happen.
I think the Blazers a fools if the do not trade JJ. If you don't trade him you don't get anything for him and in my opinion that's not a good move. I would think that you would get more for him if you did some 3 way trade in a package deal. I will say this again.....If Neil Olshey is gun shy then I will question Paul Allen as Allen did say Olshey is a GM with the golden gut. To me when someone says your a guy with the 'Golden Gut' that tells me that your a guy that's not afraid to take a big risk even if it means trading a fan favorite....Wesley Mathews?????? The Blazers already have there core in place so to say so we shall see what happens and if Olshey really has a golden gut.
It takes two to tango and I get the feeling the market on Hickson is probably pretty soft; his defensive woes are pretty plain to see, he can veto a trade, he's a pending free agent with no transferable bird rights ... If somebody really wants him they'll just wait until the summer when they don't have to surrender anything of value, and there's no way Olshey is going to take on a bad contract to ship him out and get a pick or a prospect in return. Olshey's gut could be platinum and wouldn't matter a tinker's damn, he doesn't have much leverage (or many assets) to use this deadline. At worst he'll be able to let JJ go out and test the market and get the cap room his departure provides, it isn't much, but it's "something"
I just looked at this thread and am surprised that you guys didn't begin with the best indicator, Olshey's history on Midseason Trade Deadline Day. Does he use the day or not? Asst. GM On 2/16/10, he and Dunleavy traded Marcus Camby to Portland for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw. On 2/17/10, they traded, with the Cavs and Wizards, Sebastian Telfair and Al Thornton to get Drew Gooden. GM On 2/24/11, he traded Baron Davis and a first round pick (#1-Kyrie Irving) to Cleveland for Mo Williams and Jamario Moon. On 3/15/12, he traded Brian Cook and a 2015 #2 to Washington for Nick Young. Conclusion: He uses the day. He will make a trade.
In fairness to Olshey, that has been reported multiple times that was at the request of Donald Sterling to save money
Yup, pure salary dump and their shot at the number one overall pick was super slim, since I think they were slotted somewhere around 9th or 10th in the order.
The only reasons i can think of is: 1) a chance to win it all this year 2) Maybe by trading for him it opens up cap space that they would not of previously had this summer. Can we offer an unbalanced trade scenario? If so how much. That of course would eliminate us from the free agency market, but if the player was worth it........ Plus we would still have the mid-level exception. (Or what ever it is called now)
Point 1. Do you really think there's some championship contender out there dying for a backup 4 who doesn't play defense to push them over the top? Point 2. If a team gets him as a cap space clearing plan, that means that the Blazers are taking back a player (or players) with guaranteed money left on their deal, which hurts our cap-space. Maybe Neil can find a guy that he wants for the long-term, but I really doubt it (given Hickson's presumed value around the league).
For Part 2, there may be a way. There are a couple of teams (one fewer now that MEM got under) that are really close to lux tax or apron. We can do an unbalanced (for ~2M or so) trade using JJ, or package up all of our expirings for a player making 10M or so. The first would still be less than JJ's cap hold and leave us ~8M to play with. The second, well, we'd have a 10M player and about 3-4M to spend under the cap, and another ~2.5M "room" exception.
1. Is a great point, but maybe that team has interior defense from the center position, and needs rebounding and a scoring puinch? (Not sure who?) 2. Taking back salary isn't the worst thing, as long as it's the right salary. For example, taking back Jones from Houston would be great, even though he has guaranteed money
No I don't. We would have to get really lucky. A team would have to suffer a season ending injury to their PF. (I.e Blake Griffin going down and the Clips trading Bledsoe for JJ) So yes the chances are small for us moving JJ.
