Nurk and RoCo made available in trade talks

Porter was rumored to be celtics' 1a for the mid level exemption with rudy gay 1b. they struck out on both.

 

Reading between the lines, so was Chauncey

 

you might be right on Porter. I am a little skeptical that any team was actually offering the maximum tax-MLE for him, but maybe.

I'd imagine you'd make the same argument for why Portland used the max-MLE in 2020 on Derrick Jones one week before the Suns signed Jae Crowder?

still, if Portland is not going to sign the most attractive free agents, that means they have to do even more to maximize the cap-space/Exception capital they have and sign decent players. They can't waste it because they need to have the added leverage of tradable contracts

besides that, I'm extremely skeptical that Portland was seriously after any of the more attractive free agents considering who Olshey actually did target with cap-space and MLE: Roy Hibbert (max), Enes Kanter (max), Spenser Hawes (max MLE), Greg Monroe (max), Chandler Parsons (max), Whiteside (max), Evan Turner, Jones (max-MLE). Good lord that's a sad resume

 

Yeah, I'm not arguing in favor of anything Olshey did. Simply saying that a guy going someplace other than here isn't a good indication of our level of interest.

 

yeah, Im sure Olshey ran into agents that simply said my guy doesn't want to play there as long as there are options. I just dont think Portland is a destination for most top line players. Not even like it maybe once was back in the 70's, 80 's.

 

Agreed. Even in the 90s, before the salary cap.

 

Honestly, Portland was probably more appealing before Paul Allen died. Allen had a reputation for loving basketball, loving the Blazers and doing everything first-class for the players. Even if Portland isn't a "destination city," that kind of thing matters a lot, especially when combined with a famously invested fanbase. I don't know anything about Jody Allen and I'm not trying to disparage her, but she's not "known" for anything--so I think that edge, slight as it may have been, expired with Paul Allen. The Blazers are now just a generic team like any other, but lacking the glamor city, franchise cache, coaching or star players that could tempt sought-after free agents.

 

The day of social media has provided so much information about destinations versus back in the day when word of mouth, feature stories & pr campaigns sort of portrayed Portland as laid back mystical city ear the woods and ocean. A nice place to raise our kid.

 

Fischer just said Utah and GS might be bidding for Roco. Value anywhere between a first and 2 seconds.

 

I'm confused how the Warriors will come up with the salary for Roco unless they are trading one of their young players (Kuminga/Wiseman/Moody), and then why would they do that?

 

hard to figure a GS trade that could work. I love the idea of buying low on Wiseman if they think Roco is their final piece to a title. Prolly dreaming there.

 

And just a couple years ago, we had to pay our best 1-on-1 defender plus 2 firsts for RoCo. Neil....

 

They currently have too many players (when not dealing with Covid protocols) for their rotation, an issue which only gets "worse" when Klay Thompson gets back. Useful role-players like Juan Toscano-Anderson and Damien Lee are struggling to get minutes. Kerr has talked about the difficulty in finding minutes for everyone. I think it's unlikely they are offering much to get Covington. Especially since A. they still love Wiseman's long-term potential and B. Wiseman is more of a fit for them this year than Covington, as he's the only big-bodied center they have.

 

Passing along a rumor...

and one more...

 

Rumor or blog post from December 26th?

 

Jusuf has been more consistent since coming back from protocols.

putting up 16/13/4 with 2 stls and a blk a game on decent efficiency.

 

It's interesting that he is doing well without Lillard. His turnovers were down until last night.

 

well he's effectively been our go to guy. Hard to hide when the ball is thrown to you on every possession.

 

If we keep Nurk you need find a good rim protector to play beside him in Billups system. Right Nurk might block a shot here and there but he really not a person that can raise up and protect the rim very well.

 

I actually think that Nurk is a great rim protector even though he's not a great shot blocker. Guys as huge as Nurk create a lot of space defensively so they are more likely to alter shots than to block them. I still want Nurk traded because in this system his lack of mobility is a huge liability. His lack of a consistent jumper is also a big problem. When you mix those things with his mercurial attitude and the fact that he still refuses to finish strong every time (I know he's been better about that but it's still too inconsistent) and I want the guy gone, not someone to cover for what he doesn't have.

I guess if you could guarantee Nurk wasn't going to walk for nothing, then get an extremely mobile big that shot the three well and new how to share the paint with Nurk and could guarantee that this new big wouldn't threaten Nurk's extremely fragile ego rendering him useless... then I'd think keeping Nurk was a good idea.