In my humble opinion this is the wrong year for a reload or a rebuild. It's next year that you want to have a lot of cap space for. GM's and owners are for the most part stupid, shortsighted and always in a win now mode. The realistic ramifications of the new CBA will not be felt until next year. There are much more drastic penalties for going over the luxury tax. Next year teams will be looking to unload a much higher caliber of player for little or nothing and that will also help to drive down the asking price of free agents. I think this off season will be the final year where you'll see a non all star like Nic Batum sign that huge of a contract that we've been hearing rumors that he'll be offered. (don't get me wrong, I like Nic just don't think he's worth $10-11 mill a year) I believe that next off season will be a buyers market so I would use this year's draft picks and try and get more for next season and try and keep far under the salary cap.
I couldn't agree more with your assessment, Portland won't attract a top-tier free agent, let Batum walk if some other team is stupid enough to sign him to a superstar price, play the rookies, assess the team, and complete the rebuild the right way. The only negative to this approach I see is the potential of pissing Aldridge off if the team looks like they aren't actively looking to improve his surrounding pieces, right when he is reaching his peak.
Yes, however all you have to do is look at Tim Duncan playing lights out at 36 years of age to know that the Blazers have plenty of time to execute a good plan around Aldridge. Furthermore, LMA is one of the coolest superstars out there with a longer term outlook that most, especially after all he went through with his Mom. Batum is of the same humble mold as Aldridge, but we'll see if he chooses big money over Blazer Mania. That is if anyone offers it.
It did help that Tim Duncan won a championship in what, his 5th season? But I agree that Aldridge seems like the patient type.
I really think we should look into trading Aldridge if we could snag a couple more picks from someone like New Orleans. If Batum would agree to it, I'd do a SnT to Toronto for their pick and a TPE. Hold onto the cap space until next year and put together a team of young guys to see who develops. #4 #6 #8 #10 #11 Put together the 4th and 6th to move up and grab Robinson. #2 Robinson #8 Lamb (or another shooting guard) #10 Marshall #11 Terrence Ross PG Marshall SG Lamb SF Ross PF Robinson C Okafor (in the Aldridge trade)
Building for now and with an eye on the future is something that Indiana has been doing. Morway, anyone?
I have no objection to trading Aldridge and S&T-ing Batum to acquire more assets (cheap assets at that!) but I would throw one note of caution out there; the last time the Blazers tore it down to bare earth the youngins had a helluva time without some old seasoned guys to show them the simple stuff like "how to be a pro" and I think it maybe cost them down the line in very few players assuming vocal leadership roles -- no one has ever had to be the bad guy and tell somebody off. Whatever they do, they need to make sure they keep a Kurt Thomas/ Juwan Howard/James Jones/ Ime Udoka type of guy or three around.
I think we should consider this strategy. If we can't use cap space on quality starters and Batum is offered 10+ mil I'd rather just wait until next year. Only sign or trade for one year deals. Instead of signing free agents we could look to assume one year contract for a luxury team. Get more draft picks out of the deal. We should just try to stockpile assets until the offseason we can make a big splash with free agents and trades. Teams rarely have the discipline for such a strategy, they normally always sign the best player possible. Even if the player is marginal and in a bloated long contract. It's like teams feel they have to use their cap space on something when they miss out on the stud free agent. Yes it may be better to wait for a future season but that is very difficult to sell to an impatient owner and fans. One big problem is not owning next years draft pick. Normally the draft provides some incentive to losing but we may as well get all the wins we can next year.
Something else that I'd like to point out is that when we signed LMA to his new contract his first year salary was $12mill a year. Even with him being an allstar I still think his contract is fair. He's not a max player. I'm asking all of you, if LMA coming off of his rookie contract was a $12mill a year player does Batum really feel like a $10mill a year player?
Honestly, as long as we get to spend our cap space first on someone decent, I really don't care what Batum gets at that point. We're going to be over the cap anyway and I'd rather spend PA's money before he kicks the bucket.
