We cannot sign anyone to a contract now. I don't have anything against signing experienced players in the free agency, that makes sense. It doesn't make sense to trade assets who are young players who could develop into something very good in 3-5 years, in order to get a more experienced average player NOW. Also, trading anything of value for Paul George now is a very bad idea too. Again, even if we have Lillard and George next season, we still won't win the championship, and George will leave at the end of season anyway to enter the free agency. A one-year rental in our situation is also bad. Let's face it, we should be looking at 3-5 years perspective, not the next season or two.
In 5 years Dame will be 31. His contract will have expired. Yes, let's start then. We have a great back court, and a very good center. We need the right pieces around those guys, now, and that includes not being the youngest team in the league.
He'll be 29 in 3 years and 31 is still not terribly old anyway. Curry is 29 now, LeBron is 32, nobody questions their ability to play very well. There's no chance we will win championship before those 3 years anyway. The only questions is whether we prefer to have no chance of winning but be mildly competitive (like Clippers are now for example) for the next 3 years, or prefer to still have no chance of winning now but have a reasonably realistic chance of becoming a solid contender in 3-4 years when Warriors are no longer the juggernaut they are now.
I'm likin Stanley Johnson. As an alternative idea we could draft men from the Eastern European leagues if all else fails.
Looks to me like the Blazers will start the summer ~$20M over the LT. Plus rookie scale for the draft picks. NO can cut Ezeli, Connaughton, and Quarterman and save about $11.5M. I think that's a given that these will be cuts made. They need to cut another $9M to get to $500K under, like this season. Ed Davis is $6.4M, and I think someone would take him for a 2nd, gladly. One of Turner, Crabbe, Leonard, Harkless, or Aminu has to go, even shedding Davis' deal. Or shedding one of Crabbe, Leonard or Mo basically gets us under the LT and we can keep Davis. We could trade Crabbe or ET for a player with a ~$8M salary and be under the LT. If we trade Crabbe for just cap space, we'll waste ~$8M in salary room, minus the room exception of $2.9. Stupid move to do that, IMO. There will be a market for Crabbe, that's a slam dunk. My numbers aren't precise. I could be off by $1M in some of them. I'm not counting on the draft picks to be kept, so factor in their salaries/holds.
I agree! It's time to start thinking veterans and not just about the draft. Utah didn't get lucky, They got smart!
Denny - weren't you one of the guys arguing that it was smart for NO to spend right up to the LT limit, because it gave Blazers the maximum salary flexibility?
Yes, that's why I said it would be stupid to trade Crabbe for just cap space. NO should use the $8M on a player instead of not being able to use most of it (MLE and Room might be available to use that space). I don't think the roster is cast in concrete. Each summer, NO is going to shuffle the roster to fit the CBA requirements. He's going to trade to get under the LT. Not unexpected, not a problem due to last year's salaries.
We'll probably still be building out of the draft while Dame will jump ship to the Worriers, Lakers or Clippers.
I would trade Crabbe for Holmes but Phila will not do that. With Crabbe's trade kicker it will be hard to get rid. Cap wise what you are suggesting would work just about perfectly if we traded Crabbe for Trevor Booker, right? Since Nets were ready to offer Crabbe that crazy deal, maybe they value him enough to do this. Even Crabbe plus Leonard/Davis/Aminu for Brook Lopez (who will be expiring next year) would reduce our wage bill. Richaun Holmes is the player to look for IMO. He is at the right age, can stretch the floor, is a good scorer around the rim and can defend and rebound. Also, he can play both power forward and center. Crabbe is definitely the player we ought to find a new home for. I am afraid with his deal it won't be very easy though.
Cutting guys like Quartermann don't help. You still have to fill a roster spot and someone like him is about as cheap as it gets. Connaughton is also pretty inexpensive although signed at late 1st round money so I supposed you could get a non-drafted FA though would be a cheaper towel waver. It's contracts like Turner/Crabbe/Aminu/Harkless/Leonard that are bench players or who hardly contribute that are killing us. 2nd highest payroll in the league....what a joke! That is all on Neil.
I know the Pistons were trying to get rid of Reggie Jackson since they were already regretting that signing. Are they "Alan Crabbe trade desperate" to get rid of him? I think the Blazers can only get garbage for garbage in terms of Crabbe, Meyers and Turner. Maybe Phonix would do Brandon Knight for Meyers and 2nd rounder?
