Agreed. Howard is looking better and better. With Miller, and Batum's inevitable improvement on offense, we don't need him to go in and take a bunch of shots, which is all he is good for.
This time last year we could have had Conley in a packaged deal involving Outlaw. Now, Memphis would hang up on KP if he offered the same package. Outlaw is one of KP's unhealthy man crushes, along with Blake, and it'll take a miracle to see Outlaw traded.
It's obvious to everyone. . . , So McMuffin will find a way to reduce other players court time to fit him in. . .
There's gotta be some type of future prospect that Bayless/Outlaw could offer us you would think? Even something like Bayless/Outlaw for Blount/Rubio would be real nice (if they wanted some immediate contributors), or Bayless/Outlaw/Blake for Conley/Jaric/pick, though I'm not sure that's great value for what we're giving up. The team just flows so much better with a real PG out there (to feed the bigs and spread the ball around - Roy is closer than Blake), and a real PF (notice how much the centers get abused on an island when travis is at 4). I'd be totally fine rolling with: Miller/Blake Roy/Fernandez Batum/Webster Aldridge/Howard Oden/Pryz with spot minutes for Cunningham...and Claver/Koponen/Freeland waiting in the wings. for this year. What future prospects would we want/should we target, or do our players hold much value at all at this point?
for the few bills fans on here (and i mean few lol) outlaw on the blazers = parrish on the bills now... ive said all last year and all pre season... outlaw is the weak link on this team. he is a deer in headlights. for as many good plays he makes... he makes more bad. outlaw will literally "shoot you out of a game" AND if thats not bad enough, his defense is at a d league level. theres really no role for outlaw on this team with howard. i mean i want webster and batum at SF any day of teh week over outlaw and howad is better at pf.... get whatever you cna for outlaw cause he is awful. maybe KP can still fool some gm out there.
This team needs a consolidation trade, even it is for what we perceive as unfair value. We don't need more pieces, or even more talent. PG is still an issue it seems, but what this team needs is chemistry. I think you wait to see what Miller can do the first 10 games into the regular season before you decide what direction to go. I have little doubt that Outlaw will be part of the deal for salary reasons as well as need. Frankly, Outlaw should WANT to get traded. He is in a contract year and with good minutes he could potentially earn a decent contract depending on the CBA. I would kind of like to see him on the Jazz for my own amusement. Could you imagine Jerry Sloan coaching Outlaw?? LoL!
Counting last season and the playoffs, you have to go back 13 games to find a good (not great) scoring night for him--18 points in game 81 of last year. He's supposed to play a "microwave" role by coming in off the bench and torching teams for 15-20 every two or three games. When he's not doing that, he's pretty much useless. The real problem for him is that going forward there's no real need for him to play that microwave role anymore. Rudy can do it, while also contributing with passing and creating confusion in the defense with all his running off picks. Oden and Miller also project to pick up much more of the scoring load. And then there's always Webster and maybe even Bayless (at least from some of the preseason highlights I've seen). Outlaw's a classic one-trick-pony, and that one trick is becoming less valuable by the day. It's getting to the point where I almost wish he'd revert back to his early ugly years, where he'd focus just on blocking shots. There was a time where he was the best 19 year old weak side shot blocker in the game. He skied for everything--you just knew he was going to get some insane rejection at least once a game, even if he couldn't do anything else right. Hard to imagine anymore. Unfortunately, we developed him in a time where getting points on the board were the biggest priority because we had so few scoring options. He's got the "chucker" mindset, and he'll never go back. I'd like to see Howard take his minutes at backup 4. But it's not realistic to expect an old guy like Howard to play 82 games and (hopefully) a deep playoff run. I'd settle for a trade Outlaw for something like this, Chuck Hayes and Jermaine Taylor. Yeah, it kind of sucks for us in that we're giving up the best player by far. But it puts a younger guy in there at backup PF who can work hard and do the little things and not take many shots. He's really undersized, but playing next to Aldridge, Oden and Przybilla it probably wouldn't matter as much.
A Travis that isn't hitting his shots is a pretty useless Travis, and on this particular iteration of the Blazers I'm not so sure "Gunner Trav" has a home anymore. That said, I get the feeling that he's going out on the court and doing what he's always been tasked with doing for the past 6 seasons (well maybe more like the past 3) and that is to go out there and play his game, which mostly consists of creating offense for himself and at times really stretching a defense when he's hot and hitting. Put Travis on a team that is devoid of shooters and many big men who can score and I think he has a chance of being a much more productive player than he has shown so far in preseason and is likely to be able to demonstrate on a stacked team. Unlike many around here I don't dislike Travis so much as I don't get Travis and just see him as a bad fit for this roster. He makes me think of Sesame Street where they do the "one of these things is not like the others" bit; Travis is like the pineapple with the screwdriver, hammer and the wrench -- pineapple is great by itself, but doesn't exactly help you build a house. As for his trade value, I guess it all depends on beauty being in the eye of the beholder. Guys like Daryl Morey and Rod Thorn probably wouldn't trade a busted down Ford Pinto for Travis, but Robert Heisley or the idiots running the warriors might see something in Travis that they really like and might be willing to part with good rotation quality players, odds are Travis wouldn't be the focal point of any trade and would be seen as a nice ancillary piece to go along with another nice prospect/player. My vote is for trying to leverage Conley away from Memphis by dangling Rudy, Blake and Travis and be willing to take on a deadweight contract like Jaric. This lets Jerryd slide over to backup two gaurd (where let's face it he's probably going to be most effective) gives somebody that can replace Blake's three point shooting and also can become the heir apparent to Miller when he's done in a couple of years. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ygxbmnf Of course, I have zero faith that KP would even try to do a deal like this and I'm not even sure Memphis would go for it, but you never know
Very interesting honestly. There is a part of me that loves having that "Big man" other than Aldridge spreading the floor from weakside help. Then there is the other that sees him walking around like he has no clue what play is running. Regardless, if there was ever a trade involving Outlaw, I would hope it's for either a defensive minded, banger at PF. Even if it means possibly giving up a couple other players as well. The final piece, IMO is the banger down low that has a post game coming off the bench. To me, that would be the perfect compliment for Aldridge.
If we're getting a future PG, I'd rather see Bayless go instead of Rudy. Bayless would be a serious liability defending 2s, and I think by the time Rudy's contract is up, Miller is gone and we can give him close to 30 minutes in a 3 guard rotation of Roy, Conley and Rudy. I keep telling myself that maybe KP will try to do something like that before or early into the season, since he's reluctant to mess with the team midseason... but then again, he could be saying to himself let's see how this current roster looks. If someone in the 1-2-3 rotation suffered a serious injury (knock on wood), the minutes crunch would look a lot different, so for that reason I'd rather hold onto our depth if we're gonna just dump talent for chemistry, but if we could get a blue chipper out of it at the 1 or 3, I say do it.
IMO, except in special circumstances relating to cap issues or a player who is just bad news, trades should be made based upon players you want to ADD to the roster, not who you want to get rid of. Once you figure out who you're looking to get, then you negotiate which players you have to give up to make the deal happen. The Blazers have a lot of interchangeable pieces that could be moved, and obviously Travis heads the list, but it's kind of pointless to think about moving him until there's a target trade and it's determined what players are necessary to make it happen.
Well personally I think it's a two edged sword. Yes, you want to wait so you have the best available trade value for a player, but sometimes, you have to play that player to showcase him to other teams. If he is still scoring well, then it's "all good", but if he's "struggling" then the value drops drastically. I think the best case scenario, would shop him. Don't be desperate, obviously, but let other teams know they are interested in any offers sent their way.
My premise in trading Rudy is that you have to give value to get value and after Bayless' disastrous rookie season how much trade value do you really think he has as an undersized two guard or even as a score first point guard? Conley has the potential to be a top ten player at his position (though could fall well short of those lofty heights) and Rudy is probably a starting quality two guard on a lot of teams; in the trade I constructed we are giving up probably more value than we are getting back, but it would also have to be awfully tempting for Memphis to get their hands on a player they've coveted in the past in Outlaw, a veteran "decent" point guard in Blake and and the real sweetener is Rudy who would be the obvious linchpin in the deal. Would anybody really think we are that terribly bad off if we ended up with this: Miller/Conley/Jaric Roy/Jerryd Batum/Martell/Ime? LMA/Howard/Cunningham Oden/Przy/Pendergraph/Collins? I'd be plenty happy with that roster and I think it gives you a lot of balanced depth and a lot better shot at creating a rotation that maximizes talent without sacrificing depth.
I think you can be certain that other GMs know that the Blazers have pieces that could help fill out their rosters and that KP fields calls from them every day.
If you were MIke Conley, how excited would you be about coming into this situation? Andre here. Steve here. Even if it was just Andre. How excited would you be? You prob wont start. You wont receive the majority minutes. You would be leaving a situation in which you are starting to a team in which you would be a back up. I just can't see if you are young promising point guard, you would be that thrilled to land in this siutation.
