Correct. Portland can get him to re-sign a contract here, but there's no way they can get him to choose Portland over other destinations as a UFA. It's much easier for people to accept and extend what they are familiar with versus choosing the unknown that has less-favorable reviews in NBA circles.
I love the idea of becoming a cap space team and absorbing bad salaries and collecting picks from other teams. Is that really a sound strategy in year 3 (yes, 3) of a rebuild? That strikes me more as a year 1-2 type of thing.
If we didn't have Scoot Sharpe it would be fine. We should try to get them better players, even if we still lose.
Why reward villainy on the part of Goodwin and by extension Lillard? OG is far superior to Jovic and it's really not remotely close. Those picks are OK, but late in the rebuild for us with a year 8 Sharpe and a year 7 Scoot. We could reroute OG if necessary to get more picks and get Dick and picks from Toronto. I mean that trade is actually pretty much garbage and lets Miami give us a really crap package for Lillard. Seems you just want to give Lillard his way and give us inferior assets? Why if the Toronto OG package is on the table? The only reason I can think is you want to do what Lillard wants which is, IMO an absolutely horrible idea with far reaching and devastating consequences for us and the rest of the undesirables in the NBA.
I think Joe wants to jump the line and slide next to Orlando in his team's rebuild vs. behind Houston/Detroit.
the value of cap-space is limited anymore. The CBA changed the rules for minimum team salary (90% of cap) making it such that teams will be penalized if they are under the minimum team salary on opening night. And the amount a team is below the floor is added to the team salary as an exception. Teams below the threshold will not be eligible for any luxury tax distributions (50% this year as the restriction is eased in) meaning that the maximum cap-space a team can carry into a season is 10% of the cap. That would be 13.6M this year, but it will be a difficult needle to thread to create that maximum space in other words, team can still use cap-space in the off-season, but they can't really defer much of it past the season opener
well, yes and no. i think it's more penalizing teams holding cap space in the medium and long term. teams can still spike into cap space at given times—it's just harder to plan for and harder to be perma-flexible.
Jokic is lightning in a bottle. Out of how many countless players that had those attributes.... You think Jovic has a chance to repeat? I still wouldn't bet on it.
That's why Murray and Jabari slot in more as solid role players where Jovic has some intriguing offensive skills for a guy his size where if they can be developed, could make him an extremely lethal offensive weapon that'd be more unique than a run of the mill 3 & D power forward. The hope is that Scoot and Shae can be good enough defensively where the Blazers could be effective on both ends of the court even when they have a frontcourt player like that in the game.
Seems contradictory to what you've said in the past. Grady Dick is a more highly regarded prospect. A more solid role player who knows his role and can hold his own has a greater path to success than a slow on his feet 4 who shoots well but can't play defense or rebound much. Adding OG and Ayton solidifies 2 starters in the near future.
Getting deals done with Phoenix and Toronto is a big ask — but I’m asking. Ayton, Boucher, Reath Grant, Walker, Murray OG, Thybulle, Dick, Rupert Simons, Sharpe Scoot, Simons (without naming the others signed) Out: Lillard, Nurkic, Little A playoff team? In a year? Two? I don’t know when, but that’s a fun team to watch … … there’s good reason for hope. Again, a BIG ask.
This is a playoff team in year 1 of Scoot imo. I'd be shocked if Cronin doesn't send Lillard to Miami.
Gonna see a lot of Scoot/Ayton alley oops this year. Their games do look like they may compliment each other very well.
