Personally, I think people are too hung up on the notion that we might make the "wrong" move. You can find some risk in almost any deal. Paralysis by analysis.
Oden + being able to use the cap space from the ZBO trade (which I was essentially right about, he was tradeable...granted it was for cap space but he was moveable) to secure a player to put us "over the top". That doesn't appear to be happening. It wasn't just me, many people were disappointed in what was received...and people justified those worries with the myth of cap flexibility making us much better. If you told those people we would be turned down by Hedo Turk or whatever mystery move we're not doing or don't appear to be doing...then yeah, the melt down was totally justified because it was calling Pritch out for a BAD TRADE. The "sky is falling" is not losing an "also-ran" like Hedo in FA...the "sky is falling" is having to resort to blowing $10 million on Hedo because everything else sucks. Its getting rejected on that Hedo trade. Its keeping an excellent trading piece in RLEC to "save money for summer 09"...which basically was met with a resounding THUD. Summer ain't over, the cap space is still here. No one is proposing ANYTHING that makes us significantly better whatsoever. I would rather have had ZBO as a backup the last two years and then trade him for Quentin Richardson. At least we'd have some rebounding and not have to deal with Frye's game and Steve Francis' contract on our books.
True, however the Blazers are looking at this cap space as an opportunity. The goal is to maximize the benefit from this opportunity. Even w/out adding anything w/ this cap space this team will compete for the next 5-8 years and may even win a ring or two, but this is a chance at greater things... When Chicago missed out on Tim Duncan and Tracy McGrady they signed Ron Mercer to a max deal. I think it's safe to say that this wasn't maximizing their opportunity. While they certainly enjoyed SOME benefits, it's likely they could have done better. Mercer wasn't the WRONGest signing they could have made, so in that sense I suppose it wasn't the "wrong" move as you say, but it's pretty obvious that he wasn't the RIGHTest signing either, so he clearly wasn't the "right" move either. With hindsight being 20/20, it's pretty clear that that decision was more wrong and rushed than right and thought-out. All we as fans can do is demand that our front office make the best educated decisions available to them. The "wrongness" or "rightness" of those decisions can't be established until well after the fact.
yeah, with or without the cap space, we're going to compete. people were hyping this up for the past 2 years though. and its turned out to suck.
So far. But again... there's plenty of time for it to change! I could see reactions like this coming up to the deadline, but now? Seriously? there's a good 8 months before our hands are tied. Yes it's not as exciting. Yes it's frustrating. But summer leagues haven't even started yet, let alone camp. A wrong decision tomorow or a better deal in a few months won't have any impact on the team, yet may have a HUGE impact on our outcome. What happens if, say... We end up w/ Hinrich and Salmons for Blake and Outlaw w/ this space. Decent improvement, but not great... UNTIL a Caron Butler, Rudy Gay, shit... the way things are going, maybe even a Devin Harris or Chris Paul goes for next to nothing at the trade deadline... Then people will want KP's head for not waiting for a better deal! It's a guessing game. Us fans are guessing w/ MUCH less information than KP is.
yes. its a guessing game, which is why I said it was fucking stupid to plan for cap space 2 years from now if you aren't targeting a TOP player and there is some interest there.
you don't know its worth until the market presents itself. also, big ticket free agents will sign for big market teams and contenders while small market teams will overpay for mediocre talent.
The negative is that it's not necessarily worth anything. When the Randolph trade was made, the "future cap space" argument was used as a reason for why the deal was done. Some of us have never been fans of the trade, and part of it was because of doubt of the present value (at the time) of future cap space. There were too many variables, we argued, to count "future cap space" as a valuable asset. Time is ticking on the once-future cap space and whether it will bring the Blazers any value. I'm not as extreme as Eric about the uselessness of future cap space, but I understand why, after a couple of years of hearing about how great it would be, he's feeling slightly (if slightly prematurely) justified in consistently questioning those who lauded it. Ed O.
I have to think that it's a little tough to "target" a potential free agent 2+ years ahead of time. Alot can change in that amount of time. The point was never to get a specific player. The point was to allow ourselves the opportunity and flexibility to add a piece or two w/out giving up much if anything... As I've been trying to beat into peoples heads... there's still plenty of time and ample opportunity to acquire a damn good player in a salary dump. With as stacked as our team is in young talent, one move will create a small domino effect that will ultimately improve our team... Even if we simply took a player or two from a hurting team... Say James Posey, MoPete or even Julian Wright from Nawlens or a guy like Randy Foye from DC. We'd then be able to move other players to fill other slots... WE WILL MAKE A MOVE. That I can promise you.
I for one am starting to ask myself - what single player can we add that would indeed "make a difference" in 09-10? I think that addion is G. Wallace. I think the ONLY way to get him will be found through a 3-way deal that involves Utah (Boozer dump); Rights to Claver and 2010 1st Round pick from Portland to Utah; Travis to Cats; Boozer to Bobcats, along with Utah's 2011 1st Round pick; G.Wallace to Portland. Bobcats get Boozer + Outlaw + Utah's 2011 #1 pick; Utah dumps Boozer salary and gets Rights to Claver + Portland's 2010 #1 pick; Portland gets our man = G. Wallace IF this can happen via "trade" - I might stay put with cap space and begin the season. Blake/Bayless/Mills Roy/Rudy Wallace/Batum/Webs LMA/Pendergraph Oden/Pryz good summer (we moved Travis and said goodbye to Sergio) AND kept serious cap space for 6.30.10 - where we nab our PG if Bayless isn't showing us anything. If Bayless is our pleasant surprise - then we look for a Baner PF for the play-off run.
I think those of us, at least me, that keep bashing on Portland not doing anything is affraid of this....... KP has shown he does not like to make trades during the season, and doesn't want to let "his guys" go in a trade. He tends to shoot too high, like when he didn't want to trade for Devin Harris because they wanted Travis.
I would not promise that. Portland would have had to take back some ugly salary, but only would have needed to give up Travis and Sergio off of their playing rotation. This ugly salary would have been off of the books a lot sooner than Hedo would have been, and we would have had Harris. KP didn't do it because he thought he was doing someone too big of a favor in saving NJ a bunch of money.
There is no such thing as making the wrong deal. Every deal has an equal chance of being successful and of being a total failure. Portland could trade Steve Blake for Lebron James, and in the first game of the year James could go down with a career ending injury. We already know that there are better people in the same possitions as Outlaw, Blake, Joel, Rudy, so why not use those to strengthen a possition of need? Rudy and Travis for Harris let's say hypothetically. If Harris doesn;t work and Rudy becomes a star does that mean it was the wrong trade? No.
Put another way... Free Agency Cap Space Christmas only comes along every 5 or so years in Blazerville. We've made some questionable moves because we've been told "We're saving $ for a great Christmas!" So, we've waited. Well, Christmas Eve (RLEC) came and went, no presents. "It's early!" we were told. Christmas day came "I tried to buy you an expensive SF, but it didn't work out, and there's nothing left in the mall worth buying. I'll buy you something Christmas night." So, it's Christmas night and we didn't get anything and Christmas isn't coming for another 5 years. Sure, we could still get something tonight (by training camp) or by new year's eve (midseason trade deadline), but it is most certainly TIME TO FREAK OUT!
This really isn't true. The Pau deal WAS the wrong deal for Memphis. It really didn't have any upside, other then Memphis turning Pau Gasol into cap space which they then used on Z-Bo. Pau for Z-Bo? That IS making the wrong deal.
