Chicken Soup For The Blazer Fan's Soul (Blazers Edge)

Good, sound recaps.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/7/11/945656/an-analysis-of-todays-events-roy

 

Interesting theory about the Roy negotiations. If something isn't done by the end of the month, I will be getting very nervous.

 

Sorry, despite the fluff and reasons, there is no reason at all that Roy and Aldridge shouldn't be signed already. Most teams would cream their pants if a star of Roy caliber WANTED to sing long term. Players like Bosh, Wade, Paul, Williams, James all signed short deals with their teams trying to get them to go long term. It's like Portland is ass backwards on this whole contract situation.

If I were Roy and Aldridge's agent I would give Portland a deadline and say if it's not done we will play out the year and sign a QO next season.

Message to KP.....THEY WANT TO BE HERE.

 

I still don't know why KP (who I have been critical of in the past) is getting so much heat. Does Roy have the balls to go to the press and say something like

"I know that me taking a max contract will hurt the team's ability to sign our own players like Bayless and Batum down the road - I don't care, I deserve a max contract."

Roy is saying it without saying it - so much for Roy the Angel.

Shrug, it's still standard negotiations, which admittedly aren't a pretty thing. Let's wait a few weeks to see what happens.

p.s. Roy does have a family to feed

 

Lest we forget that memorable Patrick Ewing remark:

 

Fact is, Roy DOES deserve a max deal. And fact is he WILL get it somewhere else if he wants it. Despite the best efforts from out current President, we live in a capitalistic society. Roy should get paid what he is worth.

 

LMA doesn't have the same agent as Roy. The author got that fact wrong. Same agency, but not the same person negotiating.

 

Despite appearances to the contrary, professional sports is still a business and this is Roy's livelihood. He's got maybe 10-12 years to earn as much money as he can using this particular set of skills and after that his earning potential becomes quite a bit more uncertain. If you have the opportunity to guarantee you and your children (and your mother and your father and your cousins, uncles, aunts ...) a chance to have close to 100 million dollars of guaranteed money or nearly 20 million dollars less guaranteed you'd be a fucking fool to take the lesser offer, especially with the beating the Roy endures and the little nagging injuries he seems to be accumulating.

On the other hand, the Blazers certainly have the right to play hard-ball and get the best deal for them (which is less guaranteed money for less time) but they have literally no leverage in this situation: It's a PR nightmare which potentially hurts ticket sales, season ticket renewals and makes you less marketable (possibly). Sure, they could get all the way to next year where Roy goes into restricted free agency and they could match some other max offer (which some team would definitely give him) and they'd be pretty much right back in the same situation they are right now, but there's considerable risk of bad blood between Roy and the team and that precious chemistry KP always talks about could evaporate in a puff of smoke.

Bottom line to KP, PA and the Vulcans: Pay the fucking man, he deserves it. The team would still be wallowing in mediocrity or worse without him, they wouldn't be selling out every night which means less revenue, They wouldn't be selling his jerseys which means even less revenue and they wouldn't be going to the playoffs which is even more revenue lost.

 

No way man. If the team is rolling, Paul Allen will not give a shit and go over the cap to retain who he has to.

I guess what I am saying is, do you want to base the team off of the possibility of Bayless and Batum or do you want to base it off of the certainty of Brandon Roy. Because this should be a no brainer. The team goes as Roy goes. If those guys pan out (which most likely one of them won't.) Then Paul Allen has big bucks and can go over the cap to keep the team together. That being said though, there is no logic in my mind that you can say "Were going to let Brandon walk, and hope one of these guys turn out as good."

 

Maybe its all a publicity stunt.

 

Again, shrug. The current MAX contract size is something randomly agreed upon by the league and the player's union. The union just wants it as large as possible, the league wants it the other way around. The notion that he deserves the exact amount of this max contract size is silly - especially since we've gone into a depression of sorts since the arrangement was made.

 

PA wants the blazers to be a profitable business again, that's why he brought in the Vulcans. Yes, he is willing to pay the luxury tax if the team is a championship contender.

 

With Roy's modest upbringing, there is no way for him to spend more than $5 Mil using any logic he finds reasonable. He'll earn more than double that in the 1st year.

My total guess is that it's about RESPECT. That's fine, but then Roy shouldn't sell himself as a good guy when he really has an Allen Iverson mindset.

 

So because Roy comes from a modest background and modest means and might want to help secure the financial security of his immediate and extended family he's being greedy and selfish? What a load of fucking horseshit.

Every player in the in any sport wants to get paid what they're "worth" and worth is pretty easy to correlate with the unspoken pecking order of talent and production that exists in the NBA; Roy is a top ten player he needs to be paid like one. For Brandon to be nickel and dimed over what technically amounts to a fraction of PA's net worth is not only insulting it's sends a terrible message to the rest of the team that even if you give your all and do everything the team asks of you and more and sacrifice your body you're not going to be taken care of. People that want to put this on Brandon for being selfish need to take the blinders off, this team wouldn't be even close to breaking even if not for the efforts of Brandon Roy, pay the man.

 

If Roy doesn't need the extra $20 million or whatever it is, then surely Paul Allen won't be hurt by giving up that money to the player who saved his franchise and made it close to profitable.

Now Roy is the bad guy. Incredible. Dumbest defense yet I've seen of the Vulcans.

 

...or the infamous Spreewell quote(s)

 

Roy deserves the money. Why is that even debatable?

 

Because he's selfish! Paul Allen isn't selfish. He needs the "loose change"!

 

I don't see why not. He's done as much off the court as he has done on the court for the franchise. He single-handedly brought respectability back to Portland.

On top of that of his PR work, he's arguably the third best SG in the game after Kobe and Wade.

Why is he not worth the max over five years? When his contract ends he will still be in his early prime.