And I love how some think every giant IF the blazers have, will pan out perfectly. Rolling eyes now at 11 times.
I'm not saying we can't look at singing him for the vet minimum, but theres posters here talking about blowing the entire MLE on him, and talking about Pryz again being a great reserve NBA big man in this league. Some of us believe we have more realistic expectations. All the comparable NBA players who've had similar injuries were shells of themselves when they came back. Damon, Ceballos, McDyess. Yes there are unknowns with any discussion on this board about how a player is going to perform in the future, but I feel very confident in my projection that Pryzbilla will never return to his glory years since it's never ever happened before to anybody in basketball.
What's your alternative? Who do you want? Chris Johnson? Joel for vet's min. sounds OK to me if he is anywhere near his old form. I don't think vet's min. is a big risk.
I don't think Joel will be anywhere near his old form. Time to move away from the past and look towards the future. JoPa was a nice story before the sex scandal broke, but did anyone outside University Park really believe he could guide them to a title in the last 20 years? Sometimes it's just time to move forward, and that's what time it is for this team. You have to try to catch lightning in a bottle, and you won't do that with Prz or Roy
Chris Johnson is a string bean, but he can leap, he's long and can block shots and he's agile enough to slide his feet and play defense. It's sad to say it, but Johnson is probably a better player at this point than Joel.
I know, you should just put me on ignore, so you don't have to sort through optimism. You do know how to put a poster on ignore right?
I would agree with this. I never thought it was a CJ or Joel, I always assumed it was a CJ and Joel. They will be adding two big men for sure.
I'm not very excited about the prospect of either getting rotational minutes, but for a minimum salary player a team could do worse. Hopefully they can be adequate stopgaps. If either could contribute similar to Juwan Howard 2 years ago that would be awesome.
2 criteria for a back-up big man. A) Younger and healthier than Camby. B) Has a higher ceiling than Johnson/Barron. Freeland would meet those. So would quite a few guys in Europe, or even the D league. Pryz, Chris Dudley and Dale Schluter do not.
How many roster spots are open? In any case I'd much rather see the Blazers pursue a legitimate backup 4
That's probably the role he's best suited to playing, but we can't afford him this year even if he was amenable.
Didn't ask if that was his best role. I was asking do you think he would be fine being the back up PF? And yeah I do agree we really didn't have a shot on him anyways.
With Chris and Armon Johnson on the roster we have two spots available. I'd like to see us add two big men, one of which can play the 4 and the other the 5, or one guy who can play either. We need someone to man the middle if Camby is out but we also need someone to spell LaMarcus for a few minutes. If we want to add a third free agent I'd be fine cutting Armon. With Felton, Smith, Elliot, Roy, it isn't critical to have him on the roster.
I wouldn't mind Przy just to help CJ learn the ropes of post defense. CJ can jump out of the gym and can block a few shots, but he's one of those help defenders that's nigh-on useless against a post player (of any size, since even Andre Miller outweighs him). But Joel could teach him some tricks: pulling the chair, blocking against the post, taking a charge. CJ could be a charge-taking machine since he's so slight. Refs would eat it up if he got good at it.
