I have been watching over the last couple of months, and it seems to me that one failure after another is plaguing KP in his search for talent. Missed trades. Missed free agents. Stalled contract talks. I have seen articles which talk about how he looks panicked, like he lacks sleep, and even appears grumpy at times, especially during interviews. The facts are, that being in such a state cannot be good for contract negotiations with current players. So what KP needs to do is to take a step back, take a short break, and realize that many of these failure to bring free agents, to get his coach to committ to a longer period of time are all related to one thing. Signing Brandon Roy. Everything in this franchise turned when Roy showed up. Not when Nate showed up. Not when KP showed up. When Brandon Roy showed up. If Brandon Roy was signed and was here to show leadership and greet Hedo Turkoglu, like Chris Bosh was, how do you think things would have differed? How are you supposed to negotiate an extension for Aldridge if you haven't bracketed his pay area by signing Roy. You have Bargiani's value. You have Roys value. Aldridge is between somewhere. Would we even been looking at Milsap had Turk been signed? Nope. Sign Brandon Roy. Bad Ju-Ju happens in bunches I have found. Sometimes you need something good to happen to end it. Make it happen.
Agreed we need to sign Roy to max ASAP. Not sure I follow your logic that it's because of Roy being unsigned that impacted Hedo's decision (or his wife's).
He just popped out of the ether, sort of an immaculate conception, eh? No one drafted or traded for him to add him to the roster? Everything turned around when Pritchard traded for Roy and Aldridge. I suspect, then, that Pritchard is aware of Roy's ability. The "failures" are a bunch of fans griping because they have short attention spans and figure that unless a GM is making a big splash every year, he's failing. he irony, of course, is that Millsap would be a much bigger splash than a broken-down Richard Jefferson or an end-of-prime Vince Carter, and Pritchard has a decent (not guaranteed) chance of acquiring him.
The stick is the player option in the fifth year. Imagine four years down the road Portland is in the same situation as Cleveland. Cleveland is on the cusp of making a finals and hasn't. Nobody is sure what LBJ is going to do. I think that what KP is doing is trying to protect the best interest of the franchise. Worse yet, if he gives Roy the Player option without a fight, what do you think LMA is going to want? You think this year is bad, imagine rumors swirling that we are going to lose Roy and LMA in the same year. Now, I think Roy will probably get his player option, but it isn't in the best interest of Blazer fans, that's for sure. Personally, I don't believe that LMA deserves to hold a player option, so I hope that they can get his deal done without caving. BTW, I believe that the player possessing the option, means that they have the right to opt out and be an unrestricted free agent. I am just going by memory, if someone has better info, let's hear it.
I posted this in the other thread, but it bears mentioning here. Whenever Roy's next contract is over, whether through completion, ETO, declined player option or team option, whatever, he is an UFA. Nothing KP can write into the contract can change that.
