Blazers sign Fabricio Oberto to one year deal?

dude i agree but if and when camby gets hurt..... this guy is gonna play. hes no howard

 

On Courtside they said Pendergraph was going to be on a lot through the year. I wonder if that's still going to be the case.

 

Future in this case means next season at the earliest. He's out for the year. Waiving him now and signing Oberto to a one year contract has absolutely no impact on the Blazers re-signing Pendergraph next year - none at all. They do not hold his Bird rights, so waiving him is totally irrelevant. If they want to sign him, they can do so using part of the MLE, the bi-annual exception (assuming they didn't just use it on Oberto) or a minimum player salary exception. Simple as that.

BNM

 

Er ... Howard had one of the worst adjusted plus-minus numbers of any rotation big man in the NBA last year. Don't get me wrong, he could give you 6 hard fouls and hit that little 15 footer, but I think Oberto and Howard are closer (in terms of sucktastic-ness) than you might imagine. If and when Camby gets hurt, let's just hope Joel is back by then and actually able to play at decently high level.

Anyway, I get your premise; Oberto sucks and isn't likely to help us a ton, especially in the case of catastrophy, but until or unless Cho can put together some kind of deal to bring in a truly adequate or even good backup 4-5, there's no point in fretting over it. It is what it is.

 

I wish Pendy luck, but the Blazers did exactly what they should do. One of the reasons NBA players get paid huge guaranteed money, is so that if they get injured, which is an innate risk in sports, they are not out on their asses. He will make 762 thousand this year while he rehabs. If he is good enough to make a team in the future, be it with the Blazers or a different team, he will make gobs of money again.

But the Blazers have a responsibility to honor their contracts, which they are. Not to keep a guy who can't help the team just to make him feel good. His contract is up anyway after this season, and the Blazers don't hold bird rights so they if they kept him ,there would be zero benefit to the Blazers. They would have been paying him just to in the same situation at the end of the season.

As far as Oberto goes, I hope he doesn't have to play. And if he does, i think he can be a decent stopgap for spot minutes. i'm not excited about grabbing him. but this is mostly a signing to give a little help over the next two months, and after that, if things go somewhat as expected, Oberto should become invisible.

 

If all three of our starting-level centers are healthy, Camby can play the back-up 4. He played the 4 with the Clipps beside Kaman at the 5. For all the good things Camby does, he's not much of a low post offensive threat. He prefers to take that ugly looking top of the key jumper over posting up on the low block.

What he does bring to the back-up 4 is what we've needed there for years - defense and rebounding. I originally pictured a Paul Millsap or DeJuan Blair wide-body banger type in that role, but if Oden and Przybilla are both healthy and manning the 5, Camby can be used very effectively as a back-up 4 for 12 - 15 MPG. He'd certainly be better in that role than Pendergraph would have.

Now, we just need to get all three of our starting-level centers healthy. If that ever happens, we'll be more than fine at the 4 and 5 spots.

BNM

 

Not exactly right, but close. If he was under contract - offers from other teams next year would be limited per the Arenas provision - so it would be easier for the Blazers to match. Since he will be a full-free-agent next year, this provision no longer applies - so if the Bobcats decide to sign him to a max-contract next year - they are free to do it - where they would not have been had he remained under contract to Portland this year.

Of course, in the practical application of this situation - since no-one will give him a stupid contract after a year out and what he showed so far - the conclusion is correct - it really makes no difference about next year unless some team really loses it's head.

 

Jeff is 6'10" as well. At least according to the pre-draft meaurements, he was 6'10" in shoes and 6'8.75" barefoot.

 

Jeff Pendergraph ain't no Gilbert Arenas. Gil has a much greater variety of weapons, both on and off the court.

Yeah, I know you're just covering all the hypotheticals, but I ignored the Arenas provision because I knew it was a non-factor in this case. Pendegraph will always be a min. salary. or maybe partial MLE player, at best (if he even sticks in the league). I like his energy and toughness, but he lacks the talent and size to ever be anything more than a marginal back-up.

BNM

 

Same thing. She is dyno-mite.

 

Do we know if Oberto is 6'10" in shoes, he could be 6'8.75" without?

 

I'd assume so.. Players aren't usually listen by their barefoot height.

 

Players also don't have luscious locks like Oberto.

 

Greasy locks.