Hickson played quite a few good games for the Cavs in his career. He's a proven commodity that fills a huge need on this team (scoring at PF spot with LMA on the bench). I don't think he'll command a huge paycheck in the off season either.
I want them both, so I'm wondering what's happening with the buyout on Shawne Williams's contract. We don't need that guy sucking up $3 M in cap space.
He can opt in for next year. I thought Chad said he was working on a buyout (with the presumption that he would waive his player option for next season).
Storyteller lists Williams as having a player option for next season at $3,125,000. Hopefully, the buyout comes off without a hitch.
Did you hear what Snapper was saying about Nic last night? About how he has this talent but doesn't really think the team wants him to have a bigger role (or something of the sort). If Nic thinks that, it's absolutely false. The organization pretty much gave him full reign after the trades at the deadline, and even LA endorsed him as the #2. It's so freakin frustrating because when he does try to be aggressive, he's unstoppable. [video=youtube;bwdWQ30j3xU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwdWQ30j3xU&feature=g-u-u&context=G2198be0FUAAAAAAAAAA[/video]
When Batum shoots immediately without thinking first, he is money. When he hesitates, not so much. Good riddance Nate. I think Snapper was right on. It's going to take a while for Nico to fully embrace his new role, and he needs others to let him know what that role is. I prefer Batum's attitude and approach to team basketball to Crawford's.
Although I'll add, this organization is so inept, and repeatedly makes the same blunders, that I won't be surprised if they give Hickson 4 years/$24 million or so as soon as the FA period begins. It's a tough call, but re-signing J.J. Hickson doesn't put the team one step closer to being a title contender, at least in terms of top shelf talent. I think you have to make the big move and get LMA another superstar, with that being the primary focus, re-sign Batum, and the nice thing about this is that the Blazers will know the lottery draft pick/picks well in advance. If money is left over for Hickson, great, but if his cap hold at all makes the true rebuild goal of getting better immediately more difficult, you have to cut ties with him. He's part of my secondary plan at this point, at least if I was the GM and the plan to get another All-NBA player who compliments LMA doesn't look likely. B-Roy had some great thoughts on this in another thread, and how Hickson could be rescinded if need be to clear cap space by eliminating his cap hold. Kudos to B-Roy for adding value without writing a book trying to do so!
i dont really care who it is as long as they bring it every night, nic has been a disappointment so far vs. what his apparent potential is - although, that could be the thing.... maybe it was never as high as we had hoped it to be - wouldnt be anything new to us....
Batum has a QO next year, doesn't he? So we could retain him for one year by paying 3.5 million. We've seen many Blazer players that had "potential", but just didn't bring it every night. Their "potential" never manifested. And you can't compare Batum to Jermaine O'Neal, because Batum has gotten lots of playing time to show what he's worth. I agree with Steve Jones, when he scoffed at the idea of giving Batum 10 million. If someone wants to give him that...see ya! We can't be so scared of losing players that we way over-pay based on what some idiot team wants to pay.
No wayy batum gives up the money he willd be offered this year to sign the QO play next year and become a ufa next summer Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk
We offer the QO to make him a restricted free agent. Other teams will offer more than 3 mil; which we can match since we offered the QO.
Huckson is getting better looks with us then with sac. Hickson has a horrible 15 foot jumper and that was the shot he was being given in sac. Hickson isnt a great one on one player and needs to get the ball deep in the post, there wasnt someone on sac to set him up like that. Sac is full of selfish one on one players (except for isiah) Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk
I don't think so. I am not sure where you get this idea. In order to offer a MAX contract to Deron we would have to renounce the rights to Flynn, Hickson, Claver, hope Crawford opts out, hope Batum sits on his hands while this is going on, and we would still be a little short. Maybe have to give away Babbitt. Then, if Deron signs with us, we would have bird rights on Batum and could pay him. But we would be out of cap space to sign Flynn or Hickson for more than small deals. Or, if Deron doesn't sign, we could use our cap space on Flynn and Hickson. Can't have them all.
We would have to WAIVE those rights in order to clear the Hickson cap hold in order to clear the $17mil in cap room we need to offer Deron his deal. Like I said, we can't sign Deron and keep all the (many) free agents we have.
Theo was never the player Hickson is. Hickson is a beast. Batum is a softy. If DWill states that he'll do a sign and trade to come to Ptown - - Keep LA, Hickson, Matthews and Flynn. And select the best possilbe scoring SF in the draft.
