I offered it. You laughed it off. Your choice not to listen to reason and be delusional about the situation. Just tiring of point out the obvious to someone who needs help from captain obvious. Yes, I sensationalized it because your opening opposition was hilarious. The reasons are glaring and have been glaring. If you chose to ignore them... that's your choice. Again. The reasoning is there, you just failed to see the obvious that others didn't think needed to be pointed out (or at least I thought it was too obvious to have to innitially point out). So I pointed them out and you laughed them off. Come on . Your smarter than this, even if you try to rationalize it with your above statement. LMAO
There us a subtle little myth about teams having the "Max" Salary Slots. Teams only have that much if they renounce their bird rights to their own free agents. Portland is a fantastic example. $46 mill in cap space if they renounce and let walk Leonard, Henderson, Harkless, Crabbe, Roberts and Kaman. So while it's awesome to say there are 32 max slots available to free agents this summer we have to remember that in order for most those teams to have the "max" salary available they will have to cut ties with their own free agents.
And you have been irrational, not acknowledging the reasoning...that usually brings out the ridiculousness in others... Now back to the topic at hand... Batum hasn't done any better this year than his replacements have. So basically we got younger and have more assets. Not a bad trade. Great trade... no. Batum wore out his welcome here with inconsistent play and lack of loyalty to the team that paid him. There is very real evidence that Nic may not want to be here and simply thanked us for PR reasons.
How are my above posts.. my initial posts to this, ridiculous? .........................................................
except had the trade not been made, Batum's minutes would have come 1-3 & he's played much better then Crabbe & Henderson. He's a better and more versatile defender and as many have noted would have brought another much needed ball handler/playmaker to the team's attack so wrong again STOMP
Signing an offer sheet isn't a hint about anything. Players sign offer sheets with other teams ALL THE TIME. This is not something unique to Nic. Nic's agent definitely didn't handle the negotiation well. I chalk that up to Nic's agent, and not Nic shitting on Portland. I could be wrong, but I believe Nic's agent only had one NBA client (Nic), and was French. I can see how an agent who isn't familiar with the NBA, and whose first language isn't English, could mishandle the negotiation or where things are misconstrued due to cultural/language differences. The statements that were supposedly made by Nic sounded very much like what a blustering agent in a David v Goliath negotiation would tell his client to say, and not at all like anything Nic has ever said before or after those negotiations. Perhaps it could have been done more tactfully, but in the end Nic's agent did a great job for his client.
I'm glad we traded Batum and his many exasperating errors, caused by his insistence on incessantly dribbling and passing, slowing down the Stotts offense and preventing the guards from playmaking. If Henderson doesn't leave this summer, it was a great trade. If he leaves, it was a necessary trade.
Yeah, to me it always felt to me that Batum was the most genuine when he says he loved everything about Portland. I believe that Wes loved the fans, but it probably wasn't his favorite city. Lopez's personality fit the city, but he never connected on an individual level. Aldridge....well let's not even go there. Batum really adopted Portland as a second home. Probably has something to do with it being the first US city he really lived in. He pretty much grew up here.
OKay, wow, so if i'm wrong, can someone please explain how consistently putting the summer games bball for your country ahead of the team that pays you is evidence he wants to stay here? I saw it as a slap in the face and many others posted the same feeling. Again, yes his agent did a great job for him, but if Nic really wanted to be here he would have put his agent in check, no? These, to me, are big signs he has no loyalty to Portland any more than a business arrangement.
If the Euro league was the world's best league and all of the USA's best players played over there we would lose our minds if the Lebrons and Durants didn't play for Team USA.
