This is what Emeka is owed: $11,500,375 $12,541,812 $13,543,250 $14,544,687 I like Collison but this is WAY too steep of a price. Emeka would be the most expensive backup in the NBA. Factor in that Oden and Batum are due for big extensions.
Oof, I hadn't looked at his contract. That's pretty bad. I wonder if NOLA would do a swap of Rudy or Bayless and Joel's expiring for Collison and Posey?
His huge salary is why a team might be able to get two good players for little more than expirings. Okafor is an asset on the floor, but he's being treated as a liability in trade that makes Collison available cheaply (in terms of talent sent back). If Allen can and is willing to absorb that contract, it's a major opportunity. Of course, if Allen isn't willing to pay Okafor's contract and still extend Batum and Oden (and presumably Collison), then yes, it's not worth it.
I don't see Okafor as a good fit for us, mainly because I can't see him playing alongside Oden at all. Meaning, he'd strictly backup one position, C. At least with Camby, he can play the high post, and play alongside both Oden AND Aldridge, giving us flexibility in our rotations.
That's certainly a valid critique ... I guess it would boil down to this: Are the Blazers serious about keeping Oden around? If he gets shelved for an extended period of time this coming season I suspect his days as a Blazers are going to be coming to an end. In any case, Camby is already 36 so counting on him to deliver top end performance for the next two years is probably not outside the realm of possibility, but what then when he's done? I tend to think getting Okafor now would signal the end of Oden in Portland -- for my money I'd like to see Greg get at least one more chance to show he isn't a bust -- So with that in mind, I'd be much more inclined to offer Joel's expiring contract, Rudy (or maybe Bayless?) for Collison and Posey and see if the Hornets bite.
Okafor could also back up Aldridge while keeping Camby healthy during the season. A four man rotation of Aldridge, Oden, Camby and Okafor would be nice especially when you consider Camby's age. He could easily slide into that role of a banger super sub.
playing devil's advocate on the merits of obtaining EO... certainly at this point Greg's less then a cornerstone of the franchise. Dude has had his injury issues and he hasn't been extended yet... what if he suffers yet another serious injury? Emeka would project reasonably well with LA right? If Greg stays healthy and Emeka plays well in his limited minutes, wouldn't he still likely hold at least as much value as he has now? If healthy dude should be able to fetch decent value on the trade market... he'd be pretty great insurance on Greg not working out STOMP
I look at it another way--If Oden's healthy, then Okafor and Camby are both backups, and they can play together just fine. If Oden's not healthy, then Okafor play's 4/5 with LA and Camby. The only scenario where he'd need to play with Oden would be if LA or Camby went down, but Oden was still healthy. I see that as the least likely of the three possibilities (unfortunately).
Yay! $12 million/per over four years for a back-up to get Collison, who will be extended at a huge contract in three years, and who won't see the ball near as much on a good team! At times, I fell like I'm the only sane person in Oz, and I mean the prison.
Sure, he doesn't have to play with Oden, he can JUST play with Camby. So we pay Camby 10 a year as backup PF, and Okafor 11 a year as backup C. So Camby gets, what, 13 minutes a night? And Okfaor maybe 20. Really? We pay that much as backups? No chance. Look, if you grab him thinking Oden's never going to be healthy, then you just trade Oden now, instead of another year or two of injuries later. No sense in waiting around. If not, that's some spendy ass insurance. It doesn't make sense, to me, to pay someone that much as a backup that is confined to one position. It'd be similar, IMO, to resigning a healthy Joel right now for 8 or 9 a year. When all he can do is play C. So you can never really play small ball, with Aldridge at C, and Cunningham or another pickup at the 4. Or else you cut into those very expensive backup minutes even more. Just very unlikely to happen.
Not my money. As long as it doesn't preclude us from keeping our core players, I don't care how much the backups make. If PA's willing to shell out, let him. If he's not, then he wouldn't OK the trade in the first place. If DC requires a huge extension in three years, then that means he's doing a very good job at a position we've been trying for 20 years to find a legitimate long-term starting solution. Tell me again why that's a bad thing? I'm more concerned with his ability to distribute and defend than scoring. Simply knowing that he's capable of going for 18/night if necessary is sufficient. You do know that questioning one's sanity is generally considered to be a sure sign of sanity. You seem awfully confident in yours, as though you'd never question it. Just sayin...
$12 million/per over four years for our 4th front-court player after Camby, LA, and Oden? I'm confident in my sanity. Thanks!
If the Paul trade is dead, lets get Collison. I know he isn't a sexy blockbuster pick, but we may get up and coming PG who is buried behind a top 5 player. A lot easier to pull off, and may end up as a steal in the future.
He doesn't have to be sexy, he's just quick, can shoot really well and is polished playing in the halfcourt after 4 years under Ben Howland at UCLA ... I think this team would certainly be short that second star player to play alongside Roy, but maybe you think Nic becomes that or maybe you get lucky and Oden stays healthy long enough to develop some consistency and achieve some of the ceiling he was drafted for.
Thinking about this some more, if it really is about the Hornets wanting to save money it seems like we could pretty easily pull off a trade of Okafor, Posey and Collison in exchange for Miller, Przybilla and Webster. That would save NOH about $40 mil over the life of those contracts. (Chris Paul would probably be enraged, though. It takes them in the exact opposite direction of building for the future.) Our roster: PG: Collison, Roy, Bayless SG: Roy, Fernandez, Bayless SF: Batum, Posey PF: Aldridge, Camby C: Oden, Okafor Maybe then you try to trade Camby for a better backup PG. That's a big crowd at the 4/5 if they are all healthy and you don't deal Camby. But then all of those guys have had a checkered injury history, so maybe it works. The big question is what do you do with Okafor if Oden explodes like we all hope he will. I guess that's a chance you take. I wish I'd seen Collison play more. As a starter he put up 19 points, 9 assists, 43% 3FG, and 48%FG in 37 games. Those are insanely good numbers. If you think he could produce even close to that as a starter for the Blazers (even if it means fewer points and assists, but similar FG%), the deal is a no-brainer for us.
While I think Collison would be a great acquisition, it's a bit silly to think he would have the same numbers as a Blazer. We all know the current offensive game plan kills any strengths any of our players actually have. Hopefully with a new coaching staff this would all change, but I'm not holding my breath.
Well consider that they might do a retroactive revamp of the contracts with the new CBA, so it might not actually end up that way.
He was talking about Nick Collison, who is (as an aside) a significantly better player than Pendergraph. Ed O.
Did Kingspeed hijack your account? Collison is an actual point guard. JP is a shooting guard in a point guard's body. No contest, Collison is significantly better then JP.
