Ok, so outside of the talk that Crawford may want to come to Portland, who else realistically will Portland be able to go after? Would Jamal be it?
I'd say that a backup PF is the biggest need. Landry would be fine by me. Will he sign for MLE money?
I think we need to be careful in free agency especially depending on whether we can/do amnesty Roy, and whether we can wait awhile to do it - if we can be free of Roy's contract, even 75% of it, we'd have an amazing salary situation next year heading into the prime of LaMarcus' career. That is something we need to be aware of and take advantage.
Really depends on GO as much as Roy. If we don't sign him to a different deal or he doesn't sign with a different team forcing us to match then we would have some money to throw around right before we extend a few players.
We have 3 players capable of playing PF and north (not considering Oden): Camby, Lamarcus and Wallace. We could use some strengthening there. idealy someone who's willing to play 15-20 MPG and good enough to play closer to 30 if/when Camby gets injured. Another question mark is in the backcourt. If Roy's healthy (a big if, isn't it?) we're very set with Felton, Nolan, Armon, Roy and Wesley. Another possible scenario is Williams becoming a depandable player and then we don't even need Roy and could use a Wesley/Williams rotation at 2-guard alongside our strong PG rotation. Not as good as a healthy Roy but nothing is. If Roy isn't able to contribute and Williams is still raw (probably the most likely scenario) we need a Jamal Crawford type addition to the backcourt.
I think we can use Nic at SG if Roy is waived, gives him the extra minutes he needs and he can backup both Wallace and Wes and get at least 30-35 MPG.
From reading various twitter accounts, should the Blazers use the amnesty clause on Brandon Roy, the chances of Jamal Crawford or Carl Landry become very likely. Taking into consideration most teams will play 4 games in 5 nights this season more often then not, you will need more depth then ever. Just my 2 cents.
the depth aspect is a good point, if we have a nice 2nd unit, the blazers could steal a few games from beat up or tired teams
IMO we need bigs much more than guards, Nic can play some SG behind Wes and we'll see how E Williams develops.
I think we need both. A guard like Jamal who can hit threes and a backup PF for Aldridge to take pressure off. With so many back to backs coming, it is very likely LA could miss a game here and there. If getting both Crawford and Landry meant dropping Roy then I'm on board at the moment. However if they have no intent on getting Crawford then they need to keep Roy for just this season.
The idea of playing Batum as backup 2-guard is interesting minutes-wise but I'm wondering if it wouldn't be too big a lineup If you look at the situation just minutes-wise I would like to see 35-38 LMA, Nico, Wallace 30-35 Wesley, Felton 20-25 Camby 15-20 Free Agent 8 - Nolan Smith 8 - Armon Johnson 8 - ? If Roy is healthy he can take the 15-20 Free Agent minutes plus the 8 question mark minutes plus maybe some of Wesley's. If Roy isn't healthy the free-agent should probably be a SG and I'm thinking maybe a Juwan-Howard-of-2-years-ago type big man for the minimum.
