I think you are wrong here Maxie, I think our bountiful young talent on great contracts will trump any efforts by other teams to "take advantage of us". And really what is there to take advantage of? We have low expectations this year so we can sit back and entertain offers, I see us more in the drivers seat than most other teams.
That very well may be the case, but we still have very attractive assets IF we decide to make a move.
I hope he doesn't because I like our guys, and I think we should let the cake bake. We will know when it is time for a trade, and now is not that time. Plus if he did, what would MIXUM have to talk about?
It's time to officially retire the "cake baking" metaphor. It's beyond tired. I hope he makes a trade for a legit C like Biedrins or Haywood. This team can't go another season held hostage by the "wait till next year when Oden is back mentality." The Oden pick is turning into a curse since we are building around him too heavily.
you mean blazer fans might get tired of hearing next year lol? you mean the blazers might wanna find a healthy center to back up the gimp? you mean kpee might have to make..... gasp..... a trade? MERCY ME
I'm not sure whether KP will make a trade or not by the deadline (history would lead me to believe he wont) but I am starting to grow a little frustrated with how this team is constructed, managed and handled from the upper-management on down. Here is what I mean by this. Last year all we heard from KP is that we had the biggest trading chip in NBA history, an almost fully paid by medical insurance contract that expires, 2 other player contracts that expire (Blake and Outlaw) and other assets that we could use at the deadline to make a blockbuster deal. Whether you want to admit it or not Kp failed miserably in that scenario. I am not saying the offers were good (ie: Carter and Jefferson), but I am sure there were other offers that we never knew about and if there wasn't then KP should of kept his mouth shut instead of bragging to the whole world how valuable Raef's contract was. By letting it expire I feel he made himself look too attached to his players and scared to make a deal. I'm also getting frustrated hearing people like Quick saying that KP is the most aggressive GM in Dalla, trying to get things done etc. Again, history says otherwise. I look at teams like Dallas who ALWAYS seem to get things done when they are rumored to be in the market for trades. I think KP at times uses the media to make it look like he is out there doing something when in reality he is likely sitting on his hands waiting for the can't miss deal to fall in his lap (or he is out there proposing redicilous trades in our favor and his getting hung up on amid laughter by other GM's). Whether he wants to wait and see this team completely healthy before he makes decisions is I think a bit irrelevant at this point. Miller, Blake, Roy, Bayless, and Rudy all play either PG or SG. You can also toss Webster in at the 2 if you like. You don't need to wait to make a decision here IMO. Take a risk, make a move. We need to thin this area of our team out. Blake is an expiring, package him with another guard (Rudy or Bayless) with Outlaw and go get something. We can not play 5 players at 2 spots big minutes. Once Roy comes back he will get at least 35, Miller has earned roughly the same (he'll probably play around 28 or so). That woud leave 33 minutes for 3 guys, not enough. And think long term. Rudy is going to bolt from us the 1st chance he gets. He will not stay on our team behind Roy being a super sub, I think he has bigger aspirations. Something has to give at some point. I say make something happen now vs waiting till its too late. Again, just a rant on my part but I'm tired of hearing one thing and seeing the complete opposite. IMO, KP is too attached to his players and he is scared to make a move. At some point that will need to change or we will become the Bulls who showed all that promise only to be stuck in mediocrity for years (good enough to make the playoffs but bad enough to not be a threat once there).
After all your rantings, I have yet to see one reasonable trade idea from you. One of my bosses once told me, "I don't want to receive a single complaint from you without at least two potential solutions." Same applies here, I'd say.
um did you just not see what the mavs did? something for nothing? expiring contracts? we have 2 of those. outlaw is howard. both are bench players. earlier this year fools asked how can i expect a trade for a good player without giving anything up? well fools... look no further then this recent dallas trade.' the key to it? a good gm for dallas who sold the wizard gm. its selling and not being scared.
Congratulations, MIXUM. I don't know if you've ever shown so much ignorance in a single post before. What? Get involved in trade discussions? Nothing's been finalized yet. I don't think that many would say that Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, and most likely Quinton Ross constitute "nothing". The contracts for Butler, Haywood, and Stevenson add up to just under $20M. Our two expiring contracts, Blake and Outlaw, add up to $7.6 M. Gooden, Howard, and Ross add up to about $17.3 M. The Blazers don't have enough expiring contracts to match what the Mavs are able to offer. And once again, you show that you're all talk and have no understanding of the realities involved in making a deal, should this one actually get completed. It's about two teams having the assets to make a deal that both feel are mutually beneficial. The Blazers don't have enough high dollar contracts or enough expiring contracts to make a play for big dollar players without gutting the team. I know I'm wasting my time trying to explain this to you, but perhaps some others on here will get something out of this post.
The realitie is that you need to give up something to make a deal. KP has shown that he seems to think other teams are going to do us a favor by trading veterans for mediocre players with expiring contracts. He needs to take risks and move a player like Rudy or Bayless if we want to be competitive in the West during the next few seasons. Cuban takes risks and they have been a very successful franchise because of it. I'd like to see KP take a page from his book and stop sitting on his hands praying that all of our young players miraculously pan out.
All I'm saying is that you have to look at the dollar values of the players on the Blazers' roster when you start dreaming of trading for guys who are making $ 11-$16 mil per year. Bashing KP for not having the contracts necessary to make a deal for those kinds of players work is pretty dumb.
Josh Howard is almost exactly the same player as Caron Butler...similar career productivity, same age, similarly bad season this year. So, Dallas is swapping cap space for Brendan Haywood and doing a "challenge" swap of small forwards...your "problem" (talented small foward who's struggling) for mine and we'll see who gets luckier with a revived player. The idea that Dallas is pulling off some kind of steal is ridiculous. I think swapping cap space for a pretty legitimate center is a good move, but Haywood is merely a servicable journeyman type. Not an impact player being stolen. And, of coruse, swapping identical players (Howard/Butler) is not a steal.
