OT Free Agency Round The League

and he's a serious injury risk.

 

Second year is a team option. For an essentially one year deal where they have to use that $ anyway, it's a great contract. I can't believe Milwaukee rescinded their QO, allowing Chicago to get such a good deal.

 

He averaged 20ppg and 6rpg in 2016. He has proven more than evan Turner and still has potential. The injury risk is there, but it's essentially a 1 year deal to see where he is at. I like the move for the bulls.

 

Man what a strange and disappointing draft 2014 was.

Wiggins sucks now. The Bucks didn't want to keep Parker. Embiid and Saric might be the two best lottery picks but neither played for two years. Gordon has been okay I guess. Exum has been a disappointment. Smart hasn't signed yet. The Lakers let Randle go. Stauskas signed with us for a minimum one year deal, his 4th team. Vonleh is a free agent still. Elfrid Payton signed a one year prove it deal for what I think was the minimum or close to it. McDermott hasn't done much of anything. That is everyone in the top 12.

That is one of the reasons I don't think you can just say all the teams in the West got better just because of draft picks.

 

This is crazy.



Guys like Okafor/Monroe can average 10-15 ppg in their sleep. They're slow footed on defense, but they get buckets when you throw them the ball down low. Can't believe all these big men are being phased out in the NBA.

 

Frickin’ Warriors have every GM in the league wanting to model what they have done.

 

And we won 8 more games and got a top 3 seed...

 

Easier schedule with all the injuries and really nothing to do with the default rotation players.

 

Wow, that really puts into perspective how bad ET's contract was and is. The salary cap is higher now and a far superior talent is criticized for being overpaid on a much shorter contract at a similar dollar amount.

 

Because you said so... I disagree.

 

Back then almost no one made $25 mil. Now 21 players make $25 mil or more. In fact, 8 players make $30 or more. The top players are squeezing out everyone else.

Fun thought experiment. If ET was an UFA right now, how much would he be signing for? $6 mil/year? maybe?

 

The improvement last year was mainly because we had Nurkic the whole season and Lillard made defense an emphasis, which had a trickle down affect on the majority of the rotation.

But lets take a look at the guy that got a spot in the rotation by default;

Connaughton had literally the worst DRTG on the team, along with the second worst PER.

Hardly a master stroke by Olshey, and I’m expecting the same kind of non production if/when Biggie or Layman get handed a spot.

 

how about baldwin, curry, trent .....

 

Curry was the playoff tested veteran Olshey preached all offseason about? I’m ok with the addition, its just funny how it (along with the Stauskas signing) went against everything Neil blabbed about.

If Baldwin or Trent get minutes, its because they earned it. Neither one is going to get handed anything. That’s reserved for the marginally talented third year guys.

 

I know you mean this as a criticism of Olshey, but it sounds like a massive compliment. I will now put words in your mouth, please feel free to correct any missteps:

 

in fairness biggie is in his second season, though summer league doesn't instill a great deal of confidence at this point
edit - this however is baldwin's third year in the league.

 

Good Deal? He hasn't proven anything yet to be worth 20 mil. per.

 

Can you imagine if we had all that cap space this summer instead of 2016? The deals we could have had.....

 

They had to use much of that space to get to the minimum. Why not use it on a guy who put up 20 a game for a yr instead of on mediocre role players. It's a terrific deal.

 

That was never an option. The cap space was literally a use it or lose it situation. Once CJ signed his contract extension the cap space would have been gone even if Olshey hadn't signed any free agent. Signing ET was supposed to be like putting the cap space into the bank in that his $17 million would either work for the Blazers or he could be traded for other assets. Unfortunately, he was a bad fit with Stotts' system and his contract became somewhat toxic, particularly in the light of the fact that NBA spending inevitably died off once the big hit of the TV contract passed. Spending the money wasn't the problem; the problem was who the money was spent on.