Nate (your favorite coach) came out at the end of the year and said he believes "LA has a huge window of growth". I don't think Blazers view him as "not effective" or "can't be the #2 guy." I think the mentality of the Blazers is to build around Roy, LA and hopefully Oden . . . if that is the case, i don't see them trading LA for a drat pick.
I agree completely. What we do know, is that the current Blazer roster isn't nearly good enough to contend. How do they improve without taking chances?
Don't misunderstand me...I think there are plenty worse coaches than Nate. But it's ironic that you bring him up....I feel almost the same way about Nate as I do about LMA. Neither has shown the ability to take the next step...both are still considered "young" with "upside", though LMA's basically plateaued at the sub-All-Star, 18/8 level and Nate's been shown to be a get-to-the-playoffs-and-lose kind of coach. You could definitely do worse than both, and if you kept both the conventional wisdom would say you're doing ok. But you're probably not going to be winning "cookies" (I learn something everyday, K*be!) with either in the roles they're in.
No, "we" don't know that. It's your opinion that's the case. It's my opinion that if it weren't for the injuries this season, the Blazers would be playing in the WCF right now. Whether they could beat the Lakers this year, I doubt, but I'd say that playing in the WCF would be considered "contending".
I don't see Portland trading Greg, I don't see Minnesota wanting anything that we'd be willing to give up for the 4th, and I don't see the Nets taking on LMA's contract and eating up capspace for the 3rd pick. Even though Favors does look interesting.
What am I missing here? How do we package up Aldridge, his BYC status, and Rudy for the #3 pick and make it work under the cap? I now clearly know that Thorn was telling Woj tall tales about Pritchard balking on a Carter deal. Anyhow, again, how could this possibly work under the cap? NJ would have to send a shitload back in salary to match the numbers, wouldn't they?
It says Favors OR Harris. That doesn't make sense to me. It would have to be both. That, I could do, but nik's post says either/or, which I don't at all understand. Read the post I was replying to again and tell me what I'm missing, because I don't see it. Nik's talking about adding Roy as well, which still makes no sense to me.
I'm not even sure how Harris fits on this team, but who knows. This is probably all for nothing anyways and won't happen.
Minny and NJ have boatloads of cap room, so they can absorb the difference between LMA's trade value and his contract value (about 5 or so million)
Why would it be Aldridge? If we pick 3rd or 4th, we'd be picking a center, right? So...Oden, Favors/Cousins, Camby, Przybilla. Sure, Przybilla will leave soon enough and Camby is old. but wouldn't... Oden, Fernandez and our pick for Harris and #3 pick make more sense? We get a solid borderline all-star level PG the potential of an all star level C for the potential of a hall of fame center and a potential strong starter. Or Oden and Bayless for Rubio's draft rights and the #4 pick. They're under the cap enough to make that happen. We'd keep Fernandez with the hopes we could lure Rubio over and make both happy, plus we get a center replacement for Oden who might pan out. They get a potential hall of fame center and a solid scorer. Oden seems more likely than Aldridge to me, especially with the poison pill contract. I guess it depends on whether Favors or Cousins can play PF though?
The BYC hurts if you're sending him to a team over the cap. NJN doesn't need a traded player exception to get LMA, they can just assume his salary under the cap. So we're sending out last year's salary (2009-10 salary > 1/2 of the 10,744,000M for 2010-11) value in trade, and NJN is accepting 10.744M. If they weren't under the cap, it wouldn't meet the 125% +100k rule (in this case 7.406M) for a TPE. In this case, taking the 10.744M keeps them under the cap, so as long as we only take back less than that b/w 4.675 and 7.406M. By adding Rudy, it goes to 5.57M-8.89M range that needs to come back. If you wait until after the 3rd pick is signed, it'll be for 4.138M (120% of the rookie scale). If not, it has no value, except the 3.444M cap hold going into FA. So potentially the pick could be signed, and then traded with Kris Humphries 3.2M for a 7.38M package coming back. Which works. (here, question 75, for more on BYC)
PPP status through the draft, and BYC after the Moratorium, and neither is a problem for a team under the cap (like MIN and NJN are). In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the reasons we're targeting NJN and MIN.)
I cannot imagine any scenario where NJ even considers that trade.. In my opinion, Favors is strictly a PF in the NBA. Not a center.
