Afflalo's stats were much better when he was on a better team. I'd deal a 1st for him, banking on the idea that our 1st rounder would be a mid-20s pick. And we've already got young talent on the bench. Late 1st rounders usually don't amount to anything, but Afflalo is just the kind of player we need right now. He was a lights out 3pt shooter for several years in Orlando.
I'm a little torn on if they will or won't. On one hand with the free agent situation the team is pretty well set to go all in on a trade to make a big push in the playoffs. or with a pretty well established core for next year (Starters + Blake, McCollum?, Freeland and Leonard) I could also see them sit tight and not try to change much.... Or they can look at the core and realize that Wright, Robinson, Claver and Barton have no real future here and do what they can for now and the future with those pieces. I lean towards now is the right time to solidify the depth for now and the future, but I have my doubts anything will happen.
Neil said last offseason we were building from within. That kind of stuck with me. I think we'll stand pat and save the pick, tweaking the roster in the upcoming offseason after the core is resigned and the bench is better defined. The Blazers can let some guys walk in the summer that are not rotation players and use the pick in the draft or trade it then for a good bench wing.
You don't seem to understand how TS% is calculated. The formula is very simple: Total Points/2 * (FGA + .44 * FTA) As FTA is part of the equation, Martin (or anyone else) is not rewarded disproportionately for taking "few" FTs. Of course, the fact that he makes most of the FTs he attempts increases his Total Points and therefore increases his TS%, as it should. Same for 3-pointers, if you make a lot of 3-pointers at a good percentage, it will increase your Total Points and give you a higher TS%, but then that's the point of the stat - to measure how efficiently you score points. BTW, 4.2 FTA/G in the playoffs is not an insignificant amount. Yes, it's less than what Martin averages during the regular season, but it would have been 3rd best on our team behind only Aldridge and Lillard, who both averaged over 40 MPG, in last year's playoffs. By comparison, in last years playoffs, Batum averaged only 1.4 FTA per game in 41.7 MPG and Wes only shot 2.9 FTA/G in 38.7 MPG. In terms of FTA/36, here's how Martin's career post season numbers stack up compared to our guys numbers for last years playoffs and Arron Afflalo's career playoff numbers: LaMarcus Aldridge: 6.1 FTA/36, .800 FT% = 4.9 FT Made/36 Kevin Martin: 5.0 FTA/36, .944 FT% = 4.7 FT Made/36 Damian Lillard: 5.1 FTA/36, .894 FT% = 4.6 FT Made/36 Wesley Matthews: 2.7 FTA/36, .813 FT% = 2.2 FT Made/36 Arron Afflalo: 2.4 FTA/36, .795 FT% = 1.9 FT Made/36 Nicolas Batum: 1.2 FTA/36, .800 FT% = 0.9 FT Made/36 Getting to the line, and making your FTs is HUGE in the post season. Martin does that better than anyone on our team, other than Aldridge and does it WAY better than Afflalo (over 2.5x better). In addition to making his own FTs at an insanely high percentage, those extra fouls Martin draws means potential foul problems for our opponents and more importantly means we will be in the bonus sooner - a VERY good thing considering all of our starters are very good FT shooters. The sample size for both players is small. But, they are both veterans who are not going to be star struck playing in the playoffs. So, I prefer to look at the much larger sample size of recent regular season performance - especially when playing similar roles on similar teams - and that's where Martin wins by a substantial margin. He's just flat out a more prolific, more efficient scorer than Afflalo. To me, that's what we need - more bench scoring. Our bench does most everything else pretty well, but gets outscored by about 5 points per game. We can't afford that kind of deficit in the playoffs where most games are decided by 5 points or less. BNM
There is no reason to hold onto guys like wright, trob, Barton and claver. Also, that 1st round pick has minimal value to the blazers if they keep it. Allen Crabbe was picked in the same range as our pick next year will be and he doesn't even play. Do we really need another guy to warm the bench? The way we get maximum value on that pick is to trade it for an established player.
I've seen some rumors that Gary Neal might seek a buyout from Minnesota. That would be a legit pick up since we could waive one player for him, such as Claver or Barton.
Yup, Allen could easily buy one of Philly's FIVE second rounders this coming draft. I said it before on here we should draft LeBryan Nash, I really believe he is this years Draymond Green. They have similar body types (Nash is more trim though) and skill sets. Thing is Green had Izzo and Nash has Travis Ford.
Considering it's the NBA, more smoke than fire. I bet they really only want to trade him to a lottery team. Think the Lakers, they'll trade him to LA in exchange for full rights to the pick (since they already technically own it).
my guess is at least currently they're asking for more than just a 1st or they likely would have gotten it by now.
Man, you and your Ray Allen. First, the Blazers aren't on his list. Second, if he wants to wait until late in the season to go ring shopping let him mess up someone else's chemistry. Third, he's old as dirt. Fourth, he isn't worth losing an asset over. Really I'm not remotely interested in geriatric Ray Allen and I seriously doubt the Blazers are either.
