I understand Milsap (and/or Lee) is a great player.. young, tough and talented. On paper - adding a player like Milsap makes a lot of sense. You have 96 minutes to divide up at the 4 and 5 spots.. and certainly a 3 player combination of Oden, LMA and Milsap would be great each getting 30 + minutes a night, but...... None of those guys can play SF.. so you cannot have all three of them on the court during crunch time. Are we really going to blow our load on a guy who has to sit on the bench for the last 8 minutes of every game? It just does not make sense.
Missap is not going to be a Blazer. Either Utah folds, and does the 3-way Boozer that nets us a SF, or they match - and then still may do the 3-way. The whole reason this leaked is to make sure Utah sees the logic. They are cornered. The only way they can avoid helping a division rival is to take a major financial hit. iWatas
Ridiculous. We need an upgrade at starting SF and Starting PG... backup PF is way down on the list of things we need this off season.
Way wrong like some many other nincompoops in here. We have SF's galore with Batum, Webster, and Outlaw. PG is set with Blake and Bayless. Backup PF is where we get hurt. It's not rocket science.
I don't agree we need a upgrade at SF. We do at PG. I like blake but he doesn't put enough pressure on the defense. Batum is more needed than many realize. We need a player who can pressure the best players at SG/SF on the other team. Batum is our stopper and I believe he helps to keep our bigs from worse foul trouble. Add a PG who can defend well and we get bonus scoring with GO playing more.
I think backup PF is very important. We need a banger/rebounder PF more then anythning except maybe a upgrade at pg. I would be happy with Bass but Millsap is great. I'm worried about how we are going to get him enough minutes though.
We need a new SG, our guys is going to holdout next season according to Quick. At least, rumor has it...
We tried to get Hedo because he is a playmaker, not because we need a small forward. We can sign Milsap which is great, but we still need another playmaker. Sergio is gone and BRoy is all we have that can even come close to being called a distributor. After picking up Milsap, the brilliant KP move would be to trade for Rubio. With his skillset, he'd be a starter in a year. Give Minny any combination of Joel, Blake, Martel, Travis, draft picks, money, whatever....except Rudy and the core players, to get Rubio here. We need to get all the main pieces for a championship NOW. In the long run it's the wisest choice.
Or Nate can unleash that guy in your avatar, and let him be the playmaker that some think he can be. I really think he can do it or at least show a little more diversity in his game than just a 3-point shooter.
Joel Pryzbilla is likely to opt out of his contract after this season. 2010-11 for him is player option. If he walks, we get nothing for him. Pretty clear the Blazers will not be able to afford Joel Pryzbilla after paying Milsap, and then resigning Brandon and LA. Obviously we don't want to let him walk away for nothing, and trading him after the best season of his career does make some sense. It would be nice to know NOW whether or not Joel will be opting out. Another factor in deciding what to do with our frontline depends on the development of Greg Oden.As Dave at Blazers Edge mentioned this morning, summer reports of player progress almost always paint rosy pictures. The Blazers might choose to wait until they see what we really have in Greg Oden before moving Joel. A big man of Joels caliber is a rare commodity in the NBA. He could be a valuable bargaining chip. With the front line we have assembled I would prefer to see the next position upgraded be point guard. None of the PGs on our roster have proven ability to effectively pass the ball inside on a consistant basis. Milsap is a banger, who will provide us with a versatile front line, and someone who can also play backup center. And to pay him 10 million a year to play fifteen minutes a game doesn't make sense. Maybe his arrival makes Joel expendable.
