I get up from my nap, and all Hell has broken loose. Not happy, at all, right now like most of you, but i've got to believe this is leading to bigger moves by the deadline. At least i'm sure as heck hoping so. Good luck to RoCo & Norm. Really liked & appreciated both of them.
I think he took the first deal he could and got taken to the cleaners at the negotiating table. Recall he WAS in LA this week, so this likely happened in person.
Except it doesn't appear that they saved much and they also didn't get anything back that helps fill in the pieces around Dame, Nurk, Ant and a couple of others. There's no point in bringing someone like Nurk back if you've essentially got a team of five decent players and 10 Trendon Watfords.
Portland’s real issue: Next year’s tax. Yes, Portland got out of the tax by making this trade. The Blazers were $3 million over the luxury-tax line Friday morning; after this trade, Portland will be $1 million under, because it traded $28.5 million in contracts for $24.5 million. Financially, the rest of the league should send Portland a fruitcake (or a similar gesture but with something edible); merely by executing this trade, the Blazers likely added nearly $1 million to the payout for every other team below the tax line. More on that in a minute. Perhaps just as importantly, the Blazers avoid a pickle regarding next year’s tax. Because Bledsoe is only guaranteed $3.9 million of his $19.3 million salary for 2022-23 and presumably would be waived before that guarantee hit, the Blazers shaved $6 million off next year’s tax number; they now have $17 million below the tax line and will need more money than that if they wish to re-sign Jusuf Nurkic and Anfernee Simons. Did I mention they also need to sign five more players after that? Yeah, the long-term cap situation here still isn’t great. Speaking of which … Does this foretell a CJ McCollum move? Powell being gone seemingly clears the way for a Lillard-McCollum backcourt with Simons as a high-minutes third guard. Or not. One way for Portland to clear a lot more room is to deal McCollum, who is owed $69 million over the next two seasons; one rumor making the rounds, for instance, is that the Pelicans would send them Tomas Satoransky, Josh Hart and another contract to bring in McCollum. (Draft picks may also be involved.) A move like that would give the Blazers about $16 million more in contractual wiggle room for next year (or $29 million if they waived Hart, who is good but has a weird contract that is non-guaranteed each of the next two seasons) added to the amount above, which obviously would make it far easier to reconstruct a decent roster around Lillard, Simons and Nurkic.
I do think there has to be more to it and maybe it makes some sense in the end but nothing will change the fact that the Clippers got over on us in a very major way. At the end of the day we might be in a better position after more moves but yeah this one on it's face really sucks.
I’d be ok with tank strategy just mad we didn’t even get one 1st rounder back, I assumed that’s the least you’d get for each of them not 3 scrubs and a 2nd rounder. I’m still in shock, should have known Cronin was preparing this with his comments earlier this week
Very unlikely. It just feels like if this is all that is offered, maybe wait 6 more days to the deadline, and see if someone else gets desperate, or someone has an injury or something.
Ive yet to see a rational explanation for this one. There were so many other avenues to accomplish the minor current and future tax savings. This wasnt it. At least wait until the deadline by canvassing the league. This was extremely shortsighted.
This is like Biden and Ukraine. The military-industrial complex and generals are pushing for more presence in Ukraine for absolutely no reason according to the Ukrainians. This was Jody and Vulcan using Cronin to do their dirty work and will discard him in the summer. Nobody with basketball or NBA experience could think this was a reasonable deal. This is the worst deal I've ever seen. No exaggeration. Simply awful and unfortunate because we are limited to how we can get better now.
LOL. ok? You are one of my favorite contributors here man so not gonna argue. I posted after that i am willing tos ee how all of this shakes out in the next week before i implode.
It's the worst deal because it does nothing to help us get out of the tank we are obviously going towards. How is it that hard to understand? This is all so simple.
LOL. ok? You are one of my favorite contributors here man so not gonna argue. I posted after that i am willing tos ee how all of this shakes out in the next week before i implode.
I understand giving up talent for lesser players. But if you’re tanking then you need to get draft picks in return! They’re valuable. We got fleeced in that deal.
