Dame is clicking with Melo...CJ loves Melo...Melo will be a Blazer as long as we'll have him...that's my take...for Melo money isn't the deciding factor....Chief and Ed Davis played here for 7-8 mill a season...that's what I see Ariza and Melo doing..if anybody is gone next year it'll be Hassan....if he goes I'd consider bringing back Ed Davis as a backup
IMO both will be back. HW is only guy I’m pretty positive will be gone. Dame/Simons CJ/Trent Ariza/Hood Melo/Little Nurk/Collins Barring a trade that’s what I see. Hood will be a huge question mark. Another Vet big will need to be added.
near as I can tell: Damian Lillard $31,626,953 CJ McCollum $29,354,152 Jusuf Nurkić $12,000,000 Zach Collins $5,406,255 Anfernee Simons $2,252,040 Nassir Little $2,210,640 Mario Hezonja $1,882,867 (player option - assume he opts in) Gary Trent $1,663,861 Andrew Nicholson $2,844,429 Anderson Varejão $1,913,345 Rodney Hood $6,003,900 (player option, assumes he opts in) about 97M with a 115M salary cap; 139M tax line; 145M apron 2020 1st round pick $3,300,000 (estimate) so, 100M with pick Trevor Ariza $12,800,000 with only 1.8M guaranteed so then, about 113M with Ariza and 102M if Ariza is waived free agents: Hassan Whiteside ($34,800,00 cap-hold) Carmelo Anthony ($1,707,576 cap-hold) Wenyen Gabriel ($1,922,425 cap-hold) if Blazers do not renounce Melo, Ariza & Whiteside, they are over the apron and can only use the tax-MLE (not 100% positive) if Portland keeps Ariza and re-signs Whiteside for 10M, they are at 123M leaving 16M in margin to tax line and 21M margin to apron. And sice they are below the apron, they could use the full-MLE of 9.2M. And if my math is right, they'd be at 10 player with the draft pick; 11 players with Ariza and 12 with Whiteside; 13 with Gabriel. So then, what's left is the MLE and Melo. And theoretically the 3.6M BAE (be hard-capped if used) I Blazers can keep Melo for the non-bird or BAE, they'd be able to get a fairly decent player for the MLE (and again, the disclaimer I'm not a CBA guru)
Dame believes in Melo. That's good enough for me. I honestly think Carmelo is a championship piece. He aint what he once was, for sure. But he will usually make that baseline turnaround, and seems to have the veteran presence in crunchtime. Besides, I have always loved Carmelo's game, and never much liked Ariza.
I would like to see us go after Harry Giles and have him and Collins battle for backup center minutes. He seems like an Olshey type deal.
The first half you made a good point. But I gotta ask you this do you rather have Melo take a tough midrange fade-away than having him pass to a open 3 point shooter? Cause what you’re telling me is that you rather have him take that tough midrange shot. And here’s the other thing, we all know that with Dame we will always be a top 10 offense. Our problem has always been our defense, Melo can’t play defense anymore. And lastly, yes he has been a great teammate, been kind to everyone. You can tell me that Stotts is the one that started Melo and given him minutes, but here’s another fact Melo was only gonna come back to the NBA if he became a starter. He only was gonna come back to the bubble if he remain a starter. The coaches couldn’t convince him to take a bench role, a role where he would truly thrive. What make y’all think he wanna come back next year as a backup 4, he’s too prideful to take that
Playoffs will dictate ariza's future. The team goes deep without him - why bother, the team is bounced early - his value is clear.
I wasn't saying that we keep Melo, maybe we would for the right price and if he were willing to take a different role but I sincerely doubt that happens. I was just saying the criticism of his role on the team was misplaced, that's all. Melo was good for us to have this year and I'm glad we have him going into the playoffs... I'd probably rather have Ariza though if I had to choose between the two.
Ariza does give us that back court/swing tall defender of which has been a weakness imo. Trent and Ariza would make formidable defenders. Blazers have to get better defensively and soon.
Gotcha! Yeah I appreciate what Melo did for us this year but I really don’t think he’s coming back next year. Much rather have Ariza too. People forget that a Dame/Trent/Ariza/Little/Whiteside was so much fun to watch this year. Just replace Whiteside with Nurkic then that lineup become so much better
The only cap hold that is concerning is Whitesides as the other two are so minimal and not much of an impact. That's an easy one. If we decide we have no interest in Whiteside then we just renounce his rights.
Ariza is going to be needed next season if we don’t use any of the MLE on another wing defender. And I wouldn’t spend anymore than the vet min for Melo. I feel like you almost have to try to re-sign Whiteside for the most reasonable two year deal with a team option in year 2 possible. Having an Ariza $13m expiring and a Hassan $10-15m (is the most I would go up to) team option plus all of our picks and young assets we can essentially run it back with the situation from this year and be in the hunt for any disgruntled star. Drafting an NBA ready 3-D wing like Vassell or Bey would really help too. Having Trent, Ariza, Little, and one of Bey or Vassell will really help with the wing defense. Next year, if Melo is back, I prefer him to be only a backup SF/PF. I wouldn’t bring him back if he wants to start.
Then let him sign with a contender (which we probably aren't). I would be happy for Melo to have used us as a stepping stone to an LA team.
On the contrary, the gsw series proved how much we needed him. The barometer is not the length of the run, but how hard it was and where the failures were. If there is something that was clear last year from the regular season it was that few really did not anyone that could negate nurk.
I wouldn’t assume Mario opts in. He might, but he could (should) just go to Europe and make great money for more than a one year deal.
The only thing you might be leaving out is that like a 1 mil cap hold is put on every open roster spot. Other than that, I don't know if any of this is going to matter. The owners are definitely going to tear up the CBA using the force majeaure clause (I don't care what anyone says, they'd be fools not too) and who knows what the new CBA will look like. What exceptions, what cap, what luxury tax... who knows.
