Except all teams have to do is wait for the situation to get worse until it gets to the point where the Blazers will be begging teams to take Rudy? Everyone seems to want to talk about all the leverage the Blazers have with Rudy here. Too bad it doesn't exist with the other teams in the league. No one is calling the Blazers at all hours of the day trying to give up good value for a player that says he'd rather sit out the next two years than play for the Blazers. Hopefully soon the Blazers stop trying to play the bully card and do the smart thing and take a 1st round pick for him since it's not likely Rudy's value will go up. Cho simply hasn't impressed me one bit so far.
Cho's doing the reasonable thing waiting until he gets something decent for Rudy. Who knows what he's been offered so far. Most likely what will happen is he'll be a throw in on another trade. The worse thing we could do is let him go for nothing or next to nothing. That just tells other players to get what they want is do the same type of thing as Rudy.
I think you're missing the big picture. Rudy's agent quietly asked for a trade. He knew Rudy's trade value wasn't much and Rudy expressed displeasure with the role he had. Fair enough. The team said they would accommodate Rudy abd then proceeded to turn down 1st round pics from 2 teams (acknowledged) and one other speculated. Two player trades were also turned down (acknowledged, but uncertain who the players were). That led to a lot of frustration with Rudy and his agent so they decided to make a stink about it. Maybe it is unprofessional, but what else can they do? Cho seems incapable of making a deal.
Why would they do that? I don't believe a player gets out of his contract by sitting out. A team loses their rights to a drafted player after a year, but a contract runs for a certain number of seasons, not a certain number of calendar years, and if a player is not participating with the team then it seems that the contract should be extended. That's how the NFL works, at least, and I'd guess that's how NBA contracts work, too. Ed O.
Interesting thought. That hadn't ever occurred to me, so I went looking for evidence. Didn't find it, but then I'm no lawyer and I didn't look really really hard. What I did find is that the Uniform Player Contract states the term of the contract in years, not in seasons, and there doesn't seem to be any provision for extending the term. barfo
Rudy's agent quietly asked for a trade back in December, the yapping started sometime in May. By the time Cho was brought on board Rudy and his agent were already poised to offer up ultimatums and a threatened holdout (the "drama" that Jason Quick alluded to in early July). After about 3 weeks with no trade Rudy and his agent went public making him almost impossible to move because of the public nature of his demands and the suggestion that he'd rather be back in Europe anyway. You say we turned down first round picks, given the fact that they are probably in the mid-twenties at best I can understand why Cho declined; Paul Allen shakes out his seat cushions to buy picks like that every year. Anyway, under those conditions just what kind of deal is Cho supposedly incapable of making? I'm not saying he's adept at making trades, but I'd hardly call this the best test of his abilities at roster building; the team is in full on fire-fighter mode trying to preserve their leverage with a petulant player who is attempting to exert leverage that he doesn't possess. I can appreciate Rudy wanting to be moved, but as a fan of this team first and foremost I'm perfectly happy to see them trumping Rudy's "nuclear" option with their own. My best guess is that Rudy's stance will soften sometime closer to training camp and he'll actually report instead of forfeiting his salary and incurring fines. He'll put on a happy face, say that he wants to play in the NBA and by about the third pre-season game he'll be moved.
Ya, I don't understand why some seem to think we have to do something right away with Rudy. I don't see his value going down from where it is now. Up maybe, but not down, so why this urgency some seem to feel to trade/cut whatever Rudy?
Let's be fair here. He's likely still running all offers through multiple spreadsheets and algorithms to see the most likely impact of each trade. These offers may not still be an option after this process, but one can never be too sure when trading a 3rd string SG who has no interest playing for your team!
Up because of the games going on now. That's why Cho is delaying, which so many in this thread don't seem to understand.. McMillan's system hasn't been mentioned in this thread, as the cause of the problem.
I don't see this "Rudy situation" as terribly consequential. He has his career to think about, whether in the NBA or in Europe. He's going to want to raise his value. I strongly doubt he will tank the coming season just to spite the Blazers. If Cho holds onto him, I think he'll be a useful though far from great piece off the bench. He'll knock down a few open shots per game and throw a few nice passes. Even as bad as he was last year, he was still a viable NBA player. There's no reason to try to jettison him as quickly as possible. If Cho gets a deal he likes, great. If not, big deal. The difference in value on the court between Rudy and a mid- to late-first round pick isn't going to be significant, in my opinion.
