Actually we dealt him and took on a 9-10 mill contract back. It wasnt for nothing. We paid out the ass on that. You cant compare PattyC and Crabbes production unless you take into consideration their salary. Patty is way better if you consider what you get for what you pay for.
If Bazz was on another team doing what he's doing now we would wish WE had a guy like him coming off the bench with that kind of production. This season should be about seeing who's worth a crap and getting rid of the rest.
If you want some very depressing reading on next years payroll situation check out this post from another board (thx to "Wiz"): "just for debate's sake, Portland's scheduled payroll situation next season: Damian Lillard $27,977,689 C.J. McCollum $25,759,766 Evan Turner $17,868,852 Maurice Harkless $10,837,079 Meyers Leonard $10,595,506 Al-Farouq Aminu $6,957,105 Zach Collins $3,628,920 Caleb Swanigan $1,740,000 Jake Layman $1,544,951 Andrew Nicholson $2,844,429 Anderson Varejao $1,913,345 Festus Ezeli$333,333 $112,000,975 the latest projections I have seen put the salary cap in the 100-100M range and the tax line at 120-121M now, the only wiggle room there is with Layman; his salary is not guaranteed till June 30. But even counting Layman, the Blazers have only 9 players so they would be assessed roster charges, with the charge for each being about $830K. But that offset is for setting cap-space and determining some CBA triggers...at the beginning of free agency. For Portland, the critical numbers are luxury tax numbers and those are calculated at the end of the season, in April so, whether it's Layman or another player, there is not going to be much difference. that leaves Portland 8-9M below the tax line with 9 players. The minimum roster size is likely 13 (although it could be 14 if a CBA provision is triggered) Blazers would need to add at least 4 players, 5 if they waived Layman. Nurkic - Davis - Napier - Connaughton - Vonleh. There are 5 players. The big question is Nurkic. I know he has played poorly, at least on offense; but his defensive presence has been a major factor for Portland. I'd say unless he really turns around his peformance this season, soon, the odds of him getting a 25M/year deal seem extremely remote. However, I'm not convinced at all that he'll drop much below 20M a year. For the sake of argument, give him a 1st year salary of 18M. Blazers are now at 130M dollars, 9-10M over the tax line and they still need to add 3 more players. now, here's a problem with those 5 free agents Portland has: if you go by winshares, those 5 players have accounted for 7.2 of Portland's 18 wins. If the Blazers were to win 45 games this year, the math would be those 5 players accounted for 18 wins; and Nurkic would only have accounted for 2 of them how does Portland mitigate their tax problem without becoming a much worse team? Napier and Davis have accounted for 4 of Portland's win and that would be around 10 of Portland's hypothetical 45 wins. Say Davis gets 8M and Napier gets 7M. Portland is now approaching 25M over the tax line which is higher then where they were before the Crabbe trade. And of course that doesn't account for Connaughton and Vonleh. For giggles, say Portland re-signs one of them for 5M. so now, Portland has a full minimum roster and are 30M over the tax line. That's a 65M dollar tax bill.... How bad is it really?...try this one out: say that Portland can magically erase the Turner and Leonard contracts...gone, poof!...no return salary. Well, then, Portland would be 3M over the tax line, but they'd be at 11 players and would still have to add 2 more. Their draft pick would bump them up to 5M over the line and a minimum salary player would push them to 6M over the line...and it would be the 2nd year in the tax. And again, keep in mind that scenario is the fantasy scenario where portland gets out of the Turner and Leonard contracts scott-free. Does the term fat-chance-dream-on-fool-no-way-in-hell seem fitting? Looking at all that I guess the biggest question is how much stomach Paul Allen has for paying gobs and gobs of luxury tax for a team that's very likely around .500."
We're not going to see the same team next season...book it...we have 2 G league two way contracts to shore up the bench if needed and Swanigan and Collins on rookie deals....Chief and Ed will be inexpensive...Nurk cost himself a max deal already...he'll either take a cap friendly deal or get paid big elsewhere....I'd say Leonard, Layman, Connaughton and Turner will be history if not before the deadline, in the off season...I see Layman and PC going to Europe and playing..Turner I'd shop to Minnesota since Thibs loves him...the big question is will they pull the trigger on CJ for an elite 2 way wing...if so..you pay Napier and bring up Baldwin IV...
We can't let Shabazz go! I was chatting with my co-worker about his performance last night against Philly and she pointed out how much he reminds her of Patty Mills and it was spot on. Look at how vital Pat Stacks is to the Spurs! Not only is Bazz an elite backup but he has the ability to play at a high level when forced into starting action. Overall, I'd be pretty pissed if we let Bazz go because of previous signings fucking up the tax bill. I don't recall who mentioned it earlier in this thread, but a poster hit the nail on the head stating that Bazz is a player, if he were on another team, we as fans would be clamoring to acquire. Well, we have him! Thankfully, the PG position is stacked and not many teams have a huge hole at that position, so hopefully his price tag won't be too expensive.
well my friend that is the box the summer of 16 has put us in, awful player/contract mgmt and some very touch choices need to be made this deadline/next summer
The only real issue here is Turner - all the other salaries are market-value or less with the exception of Meyers. But Meyers' contract is only bad BECAUSE of Turner's contract - I'd venture a guess that 2/3rds of the teams have a player making as much more more than Meyers that they wish they could cut. We could easily live with Meyers' bad contract if Turner didn't exist. It's really Turner and the dead $5M to Nicholson/Varejao/Ezeli that are weighing us down.
More. Shabazz is this years Plumlee. Like Plumlee, hes playing the best ball of his career and should get more than Portland would be comfortable paying. Prime trade piece. I know everyone would love to keep him, but this is an opportunity to really start balancing out the roster, or adding a desirable asset (first round pick) If we were a contender I’d find a way to keep him, but we’re not, so take advantage of this.
Olshey's biggest mistake wasn't Turner or Crabbe. It was McCollum, who contributes half as much as he makes. No other GM gives the maximum to every single good player on his team. Next, pay Nurkic the max. Olshey is inflexible and has no imagination.
Is there really a market for PGs? Especially a guy who would probably be the 25th or so best starting PG? Just going through the teams: ATL- Schroeder BOS- Irving BKN- Russel/Dinwiddie CHA- Walker CHI- Dunn is developing CLE- Thomas DAL- Drafted Dennis Smith DEN- Murray is developing DET- Jackson is paid GSW- Curry HOU- Paul IND- Collison is pretty average, which is where is see Napier slotting. This might be a target LAC- Beverley and Williams LAL- Ball MEM- Conley MIA- Dragic MIL- Bledsoe MIN- Teague NOP- Rondo, clearly another target team NYK- Drafted Ntilikina OKC- Westbrook ORL- Payton, but Napier is possibly better than him, but they gave him up to us for nothing. No way they take him back PHI- Simmons, drafted Fultz PHX- ??? They need a PG SAC- Drafted Fox SAS- Mills/Parker, developing Murray TOR- Lowry UTA- Rubio WAS- Wall So teams who might actually want Napier to be more than a quality backup are IND/NOP/PHX. And they'd probably throw money at him this summer, but nothing exorbitant. Is there anything we can extract from these teams in exchange for Napier in a trade?
My list for Napier is Phoenix- obvious one Pelicans- obvious one Detroit- Pretty sure Van Gundy hates Jackson Clippers- Especially if they ever start their rebuild. Beverley is best off the ball anyway. Utah- Rubio isn’t very good and only has one year left on his contract after this season. Pacers- Collison is just a placeholder Nuggets- Murray is more of a shooting guard(think CJ.) This would be my target team considering their depth on the wing and the relationship between Olshey and Connelly.
Napier is a legit starter in the league. There's no way we're gonna get his full value in return if we trade him which is why I want to keep him The annoying thing is that even if we keep him he's gonna be underutilized, so it's kind of a lose-lose situation.
Napier for Exum. Fits for both teams. Exum has a long injury history, but I think next year will be the breakout year for him.
Evan Turner $17,868,852 Maurice Harkless $10,837,079 Meyers Leonard $10,595,506 That should be enough to get Olshey fired right there.
But hey, I still think we have a chance this year. The team appears to be starting to gel. We just need consistent play from our forwards and we'll be in the mix. Oh, and Collins needs to play more.
This is an assumption, not a fact. We are currently less than $3 million over the tax threshold. I believe Olshey will make a move before the trade deadline that get's us below the tax threshold. That would postpone any repeater penalties for another year. He talks about how important it is to keep guys like Davis and Napier to win 45 games this year and assumes none of our players will improve and we backslide to 41 wins. We may not be a 60 win team, but I do think if we just kept this same basic roster together for another year and a half, we would be a 50+ win team. We've had a disappointing first half., but are still on pace to win 45 games. Our defense is vastly improved, like night and day difference. Our offense has struggled, but that's started to turn around - and we're doing it without our best player. Zach Collins has barely scratched the surface of how good he can be, and at barely 23, Nurk still has LOTS of room for improvement on the offensive end. This team hasn't reached it's peak and won't for at least a couple more years. 41 wins is not their ceiling. Yeah, it sucks that Neil overpaid some guys. Shit happens... BNM
I think EVERYONE overpaid that summer. Chandler Parsons is making $23 million this year. He's averaging 8.8 ppg, 2.8 rebounds, and 2 assists.
