Henry Abbott gives his take on the speculation that GMs might chose to shut Portland out. http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-38-104/Taking-Your-Toys-and-Going-Home--Really-.html?post=true Excerpt More good stuff inside.
I dont think any GM can take things like the email POR sent out personal. Just like they say in the article, you would only be hurting your own team. GM's gotta swallow their pride and make the deal they think is right when they ignore the biases. Either that or get fired.
Owner: So let me get this right, you could have saved me 12 million dollars, but you didn't want to deal with their GM because of the previous letter? GM: Yes sir. Owner: Your fired.
Good to hear that RAEF's contract looks as atttractive to others as we have been saying on this board.
That 80% insured contract makes him awfully appealing ... depending on when a trade is consummated he could end up costing a team a fairly paltry 1.5-2 million real dollars for the remainder of the season.
Less than that, even; he could actually cost less than $1M. Let's say we trade him to Washington for Butler (dreaming, I know), and the deal goes down 2/18. They'll have 28 games left at that point 12,722,500 * 28/82 * 20% = $868,853. That's some cheap cap space.
I think it is interesting how the GMs and the team owners can be at cross purposes. As a GM, you may dislike another colleague and not want to see him succeed. As an owner, you look at your bottom line. If you're not winning and you have a contract you believe to be inflated that is pushing you either over the cap or into the luxury tax, you take this deal and run to the hills, no matter with whom you're negotiating. At some point, PA gets involved and makes some phone calls if a GM is being obstinate.
Someone had stated in another forum \thread that any GM who woudln't deal with POR b\c of "the letter"....is not a good GM.... and that is 100% correct...at the end of the day, you do what is best for your team, letters be dammed....
I would also assume PA will pick up the difference so the team we trade to won't pay one dollar of his contract.
dealing for RLEC gets you several things that you likely don't get elsewhere all in combination, that can end up to a boatload of savings. 1) 12 mil off the books at the end of the season (here are other teams that have similar to offer). plus, the Blazers can take back up to 125% of the contract, so the other team could actually save 3 mil this year and have 15mil effectively come off their books next year. 2) savings of about 4mil as a direct result of Raef being injured and insurance covering %80 of his salary. (this one is unique to the Blazers) 3) PA is rich rich rich, and would have no problem adding 3mil in cash to get a deal done. So right there, you get an imediate (4+3) 7mil this year in addition to the savings of the future. Then you get into what the Blazers have to offer outside of financial benefits, and there are even more reasons to trade with the Blazers. The Blazers still own all their 1t round picks, a hefty load of second round picks, young and decent players like Outlaw, Sergio, Frye and more. You add that together and weigh it against an email that teams must understand (it cost us 18mil to have miles back on the books) came out of a very frustrating situation, and if a team did not deal with us cause of the email, then they are fucking dumb as can be.
That makes no sense. Any team we trade with will be trading a player's contract that roughly matches Lafrentz's salary so they stop having to pay their original player's salary and instead pick up the 80% insured contract saving them anywhere from 4-5 million dollars for the rest of the season -- that's generous enough.
