highly unlikely Hickson will be granted a $4.4 million qualifying offer

From Quick

"Blazers GM Neil Olshey says team will not issue qualifying offer to JJ Hickson but will be open to negotiating on July 1"

From Tokito

"No Q offer on Hickson means #Blazers won't be at mercy of other teams' offers, timing-wise, and can re-sign him after other needs done."

"That's crucial because teams only have three days under new CBA to decide on matching offer sheets."

Seems smart to me.

 

Me too

 

^Really? Don't you like what Hickson brings to our team? He's only 24 and hustles his ass off. Seems like we would be able to sit back and match waterer weak off is thrown his way. Now we might lose a good young player.

 

Hickson was our best player after he joined us. Hid PER with us was 20. I found it refreshing to watch him instead of boring, predictable Aldridge. Olshey missed all this.

His 4-year career PER is 15, but that includes his rookie year and the bad half-season in Sacramento. He was the starter on the LeBron teams. In other words, this guy isn't chopped liver. One of our so-called big FA signings will probably be a worse player.

How much will he get in the open market? How much could we have had him for? And why the hell are we wasting some of that on Claver?

 

He would have been a nice backup but he's going to get paid more than he's worth.

 

I'm hoping this doesn't mean we're closing the door on Hickson - I'd like him back - especially on the cheap. Hopefully no one else wants him.

 

I take it as a less impressive but similar situation to Darius Miles a few years ago. Player who didn't fit in on his last team comes in, busts his ass for two months before his first free agency.

I was a big Miles fan, and again I'd be interested in having Hickson on the roster, but not on a long term contract. He should not be one of our primary focus' at the start of free agency; after we get a starting center and a veteran guard we can look at retaining Hickson to round out our bench for next season.

 

A half season with the crumby Kings is irrelevant. He's a starter on most teams. As I predicted, one of Olshey's big FA signings will suck compared to Hickson. How much do you think he'll get on the open market?

 

I don't think this closes the door on Hickson as a Blazer. It just gives the Blazers more cap room and flexibility to make other deals first. I would like the Blazers to resign him, but as usual, I don't think they should overpay. If he gets a better offer somewhere else, sayonara JJ.

 

He's actually only 23.

 

I'd happily resign him at 4 million or so a year to be a nice backup 4/5 who can hustle and bring energy off the bench, but you have to think there was a legitimate reason the King's waived him no? And the way he played in those final weeks was a couple of standard deviations above his career norms for mid-range shooting and the like -- his post-waiver performance screams "outlier" in my humble, uninformed opinion.

 

WHO is the MORON who's going to get rid of Hickson tomorrow, my FAVORITE player?

 

He's only 3 months older than Batum, he's better, he plays a position harder to find, and he costs half as much. Not ruined by McMillan, he plays much livelier than Batum or Aldridge. He'll be whisked up fast as a FA--no second chance. Batum sounds like he'd like to leave. Here we have a motivated buyer in Hickson who likes us, so we throw him into the trash.

 

I'm with you on this one. I was very impressed with JJ and consider him to be our second best player, but only second best by a hair! If LMA played with JJ's hustle, he'd be in the top three players in this league - but let's face it, LMA is a softy. When LMA played with JJ, I was excited.

JJ needs to be a Blazer.

Lillard
Gordon
Batum
LMA
Hibbert / Hickson

Get it done! LOL

 

I would favor Hickson over Freeland even if he is a little more expensive (and I have my doubts as to whether he will be more expensive)

 

I agree with all that. He's exciting and sells tickets.

Like Gerald Wallace a year earlier, Hickson was our best player, for the partial season we had him. If only Aldridge played like that. Even if Hickson slows down, he'll have Gerald Wallace's value if we trade him.

 

Yes, it's ironic that Olshey will spend as much combined on Freeland and Claver, yet get 10% the results as from Hickson.

 

There are certain players who seem to bounce around, putting up good stats wherever they go, but never sticking. Reggie Evans, for example, always leads the league (or is in the top 3) in rebounding per minute, but can't stick. Fans love him. Same used to be true of Jerome "Junk Yard Dog" Williams (or was it Jermaine?). Pops Mensah-Bonsu, too (is this a Raptors thing?) Hickson seems to be that. He was one of the only reasons to watch the Blazers in the second half of the season - highlight reel dunks, huge offensive rebounds - he was an animal! So why aren't we trying desperately to keep him? My suggestions:
1. He got a lot of minutes because we only had Joel at C. If we have anything like a decent C, he doesn't get minutes.
2. We're going after Hibbert?
3. We need minutes for Freeland (who will be cheaper)
4. We ARE keeping him, but we have to release him because of the cap hold. Then we sign him as a UFA (after we fail to get Hibbert)
5. His defense is awful and he can't remember any plays - he just goes after the ball (my suspicion is that this is true of a lot of the "big stats" guys, who get cut in favor of savvy players like Joel or Brian Cardinal or Matt Bonner who put up minimal stats but do the little things like stand in the right place and set good picks)

I think 5 is probably the biggest reason. Having played a lot of pickup ball, it really is incredibly annoying to play with a person who just has no concept of team play.

 

Career PER
11.5 Evans - not a starter
12.4 Pops - hardly played
15.9 Williams
15.0 Hickson

Williams' career has spanned many years, but Hickson only 4, with his prime years ahead of him.

What evidence do you have for your wild guess #5? Freeland will cost about $3M per. He plus Claver almost equal Hickson.

 

tbh, I stopped reading after this. you could have had the cure for cancer followed up right after this and I wouldn't know it because that is just false. At no point has JJ HICKSON sold a meaningful amount of tickets.