It's because he's missed 2 whole seasons (basically), that I seem to forget just how good he's supposed to be. And what more, I watched the video and thought about just how big of an impact he could potentially make on this team, if he ever stays healthy. :/
With Travis getting 7 million a year, Tyrus Thomas jgetting 8 million a year, Greg has to be feeling optimistic about his contract. Even with his injuries ........he will get 10 million a year.
Is he going to get an extension this year? If he doesn't, is he a RFA next year and then a UFA the year after? I wonder what effect on both Greg's agent and whomever runs the Blazers right now the looming lockout is having.
My knowledge of NBA contracts and how they get constructed is pretty slim, but I've been wondering about how to handle Oden for awhile -- hopefully somebody with better knowledge than me can pipe up and clarify -- In the past I've been opposed to giving Oden an extension thinking that it would be better to see him stay healthy for a full year before locking ourselves into a long term commitment, but I think I may have come up with a great solution. Here's my proposal: I think I would try to offer him a massively front loaded contract extension (similar to the Millsap deal) if that's even possible to do with your own players. The beauty of such a thing would be that his extension could kick in during the lockout season, but Presumably he'd still get his giant bonus when the league resumed play. The upside of such a deal is that the team's long term liability on a year over year basis would be greatly diminished ... it also wouldn't hurt that his contract amount would be decreasing while Brandon and LMA's would be growing every year. Am I crazy?
