Me too. A much better team, IMO. My reply was more so to point out that even though Hibbert would be getting the basic rookie RFA offer, that he would not be expected to "lead" the team, as a Shaq or a Dwight Howard have done.
Is rebounding, blocking shots, and playing defense a "role" player, though? Sounds more like a core player, IMO. The only way to get Hibbert is to overpay for him, and he's an All-Star center who was 25 last season.
And not to mention.... another big on the block that can rebound, play D, score around the bucket..... Makes LA better because you have to play him honest. And he's also not the one counted on to rebound (which is not his strong suit anyway). And on D.... having two bigs that can play D and alter shots helps to keep teams from driving through the lane, which happened a lot this year.
Today, perhaps. Was Rondo on the championship Celts team? You definitely have Magic and Isaiah Thomas, though. Russell Westbrook has co-lead the Thunder to the finals, but no title yet.
I understand the argument, but the reality is if Portland (or any other team other than Indy) offered Hibbert his true market value, Indy would match it, no problem. The only way to really get a solid RFA is to try and price the original team out of matching the contract. I like that Olshey went right up to the ceiling, and KP/Walsh are probably freaking out a bit right now wondering what they should do.
Sports Biz Radio @SBRadio Pacers beat writer @MikeWellsNBA just told me on the radio that he thinks that @Hoya2aPacer will be wearing a Blazers uni next season. Wow.
I hope so, its hard to not get all geeked up over this. I dont want to start believing it will happen just to have them match.
Fuck, same here. Spent my days leading up to the draft all over this board and the various NBA sites looking for updates. The next 12 days are going to be way worse. IF we get Hibbert..... Olshey was legit when he said we're going to re-tool. Color me surprised.
I'll repeat what I posted in the other thread (about Batum). When they calculate the Blazers' cap space for FA period, they use Batum's QO amount, period. If Minny offers Batum $12M, then he's a $12M cap hold for Minny (QO for Blazers) for the 3 day period.
yes, we all know that. But if we match, then the 12 million is on our cap. If we had to match before hibbert's 3 days were up, we would not have space for him