There is one trade that could work, and wouldn't mess with our chemistry, that I can think of. Channing Frye. He is a guy that I really don't think would mess with our chemistry. He always struck me as a really good guy, he's played here before, he loves the city, and he knows LMA. He can play both positions, he can spread the floor, and he's capable of playing in the paint. The problem is that he's making a little over 6 million, so we would have to send out at least three guys to match his contract.
Jermaine O'Neal is injured and hasn't played I still vote for Jason Collins, and he's an FA so won't cost a player.
Collins was horrible. He's done as a player in the NBA, and it has nothing to do with his announcement.
That kind of scuttles that deal right there imo. I also don't think Channing Frye provides any inside presence which is what we need. We have plenty of 3 point shooters which is Frye's forte' now.
Oh, well you just said "effective," and Channing is effective There's a couple other names out there... guys like Bass, Hawes maybe, or I bet you could get Reggie Evans from the Nets.
We need Leonard to develop asap. That said, I don't think this is our year to contend anyway, despite how good we're playing. I see us getting some extremely valuable playoff experience, and then making moves over the summer with an eye on next year or the year after for contention.
I think we can be patient with Leonard because of the emergence of Freeland. If Joel had not taken a step forward, and played the same as last season, I think we would be in a much bigger rush to bring along Leonard. Still, I'm not very encouraged by Leonard. He has barely seen the court this year and he doesn't seem to be even remotely bothered by it. He's our 11th pick from a year ago and we have almost no faith that he'll turn into something special. Also, it's very discouraging that he's spending so much time working on his outside shot. That's probably the most maddening part of the whole thing.
This has been my assessment so far this season and I think it is what Olshey had planned as well. If the Blazers keep playing the way that they have so far this season though, I think that he might decide to accelerate things even more and look for a trade that would push the team into true contention this season. It would probably mean giving up a young talent like CJ and maybe Joel Freeland to look for a deal that would bring back a better big man. Then again, if Joel can keep improving his game, there may not be a need to make a move.
Perfect! Vet leadership and mentoring without upsetting the apple cart or taking minutes away from our developing young bigs.
A cinderella season is in the back of all our minds, but your scenario is more realistic and very necessary. Every championship team needs some playoff seasoning (the 1977 Blazers notwithstanding). Bringing in a single long-in-the-tooth vet with playoff experience isn't going to translate to the whole team through osmosis. There is no substitute for experience. This year, we gonna get some!
Sending out TRob is much too much. I'm down with sending out Leonard, Crabbe, Barton, or Claver, but giving up CJ or Robinson seems like a huge gamble for a bench vet.
I don't totally dismiss MM's take that the Blazers are an injury to Lopez away from being in pretty bad trouble. Freeland is doing a good job, but he doesn't have the bulk to bang with starting centers. If Leonard ever learned how to play "D", this wouldn't even be a point of discussion, but then if he could do that Freeland wouldn't be getting any minutes. The Blazers have a glut of guys who can play the 2G spot, so it would probably be wise to look to make a move that would add some strength at the C spot. Asik? I don't think that the Rockets would be willing to move him to a team in the West even if the Blazers had a package that they'd be interested in. Probably going shopping for somebody off of a team in the tanking mode would be the likely route. Varejao, Hawes, maybe Andray Blatche?
Take your pick, centers sorted by RBND% but you can also see defensive rating and played at least 10 games Or here is just bench players
Good luck with that. The rest of your post seems reasonable, but I'm not sure where the needed extra firepower is coming from. Trades I guess?
It's just not realistic. Varejao makes 9 million. Hawes makes 6 million. Blatche is cheap but I doubt New Jersey trades him.
