He improved immensely. His defense is now respectable, his offensive game was always very good, not many bigs with his inside out (or outside in) game. I like his energy level, I like that he works for others on offense setting screens, but mostly it's the defense that has been his achilles heel but is almost a strength now. Very encouraging
Probably could find some interest for him now on the trade market. But given that our bigs are one of our strengths, why screw with team depth? The most we might get is a whole lot of nothing. Just sayin.' Depends on the trade.
Why not trade Meyers? Really? If we could trade him for any sort of expiring, I'd do that in a heartbeat.
I could see him as part of a deal. But it would depend who else with and what we got in return. As Neil likes to point out, he likes deals that work out for both teams.
Plumlee didn't really work out for Denver. He knew it was a steal. I'm just thinking: if we could shed Meyers and Harkless for free, you absolutely do it because: You could try and set up a contingency where we attach a 1st to Turner to a team with space if we're able to sign valuable enough free agent(s) for up to $18M (which is how much space we'd have if we shed ET, ML, & MH). We could also likely sign Cousins by trading Nurkic for a couple 1sts and space for Cousins if we wanted to be really aggressive. Wed have very few players, but we'd have 4 starters (Dame, CJ, Zach, Cousins) along with the Room-MLE and at least a full stock of firsts (-1 from ET, +1/+2 from Nurkic). If we kept ET (And probably if we kept one of Moe/Meyers), we'd have our full MLE and BAE, instead of just a tax-payer MLE. We could also conduct sign-and-trades while probably keeping the Full - MLE (Ex. Moe to MIL, ET and a pick to 3rd team, Middleton to POR - Apprently Middleton is unhappy with coaching). We could create a lot of flexibility for next summer if we could shed Meyers without attaching value to him.
It's just funny anytime someone mention that quote. Like Olshey could ever say "What I really like in a trade is when I can fuck another team over and get a steal !"
Olshey I think wants to make it look on the outside he's at least interested in doing beneficial business with his partners. I don't think he's going cultivate an image like Ainge. Who is rather proud that you'd think he'd drop his fellow GM's in a vat of lemon juice after giving them too many paper cuts. A couple of years after the trade, Olshey probably doesn't give a shit what people think.
Fuck. Denver just wanted to get rid of Nurkic. He was being a total pain. Almost every Denver fan I've talked to are like are happy he's doing well, but weren't too sad to see him go. And any contingency plan to get rid of Turner I am for....
It saves us tax money but we would not be able to do anything with that cap space anyway in the market. We are not going to have cap flexibility any time in the near future, the only difference whether we will be able to use a small MLE ($4.5million or so) or full MLE ($9million) to acquire players via free agency. It does make a difference (see New Orleans and Randle) but not a huge one. Definitely would not attach any picks whatsoever if I were to get rid of Meyers at this point. He's going to be an expiring himself next year and could be used to acquire good talent then.
His defense is NOT respectable. His feet are slow, and he gets lost on the pick and roll. He has the basketball instincts of a tree.
That's a huge difference when your talking about free agent money, and Randle is a perfect example. It also opens up our BAE and the ability to do sign-and-trades. Meyers can be used to acquire talent? He has no value. Having zero value is an upgrade compared to past years. I'm also talking about if we can dump him with no strings attached.
Look.... IDGAF... How well Meyers does this season. It is only on offense and he is a horrible defensive liability. The very moment Neil's biggest mistake is off of my favorite team will be one of my happiest days. I want him to play, just for another team.
The problem with his offensive game is that after 6 years he still waits to be wide wide wide open before he takes a three point shot. It's ridiculous. His inside game has improved but he's just not there often enough. Great rebounder. Very good free throw shooter. He's careful with the ball.
Meyers has his flaws, the tree comparison is true, but I think right now he's at least our 2nd best option behind Aminu. He's no longer a liability on defense, he makes a positive impact on the game, he's a threat on offense and he's big for a 4, which gives us 2 real bigs, to set screens and control the paint.
Meyers doesn't really play PF though. You are what you can defend and Stotts has been pretty careful to play Meyers only when he can favorably matchup with another team's big man, almost always the slowest. If you look at the Blazers 20 most used 5 man lineups, there isn't one that Meyers appears in that doesn't have Aminu or Zach in as well, and they are the ones defending 4's and stretch-4's it's why Meyers hardly played last season. When he did, it required Nurkic or Davis to be out on the perimeter chasing after the mobile bigs while Meyers camped in the paint defensively scowling, slow, and stupid Olshey is such an ass as a GM...he cleared away players and 'designed' a 2nd unit that forced Stotts to use Turner and Meyers. That was the accomplishment of Olshey's off-season. Isn't it great? When the only thing done in an off-season is to try and maximize the opportunities for players the caliber of Turner and Meyers; this coming after a humiliating sweep in the playoffs. Yeah, that's some world class management; meanwhile, the clock of Dame's prime is ticking away
What.....? He is a bigger liability at the 4 than the 5, because he has zero lateral quickness! You think he can handle the Kuzmas, Morrises, Barnses, Sarics, and Millsaps of the league? Control the paint? Meyers has 1 block in like his last 500 minutes...