We’re four days into training camp, so it seems about the right time for the first Rip City Report of the 2014-15 season with Joe Freeman of The Oregonian and your humble blogger, Casey Holdahl. In this season premiere edition, we discuss the top story lines from the first few days of camp, including Wesley Matthews missing practice due to an irregular heartbeat, the additions of Chris Kaman and Steve Blake, rookie contract extensions and answers some Twitter-submitted questions. Good to be back. You can find the Rip City Report on iTunes and Soundcloud and Stitcher! http://forwardcenter.net/podcast-rip-city-report-episode-20/
Really interesting point being made at about the 11 minute mark, how training camp feels almost like mid-January because Blake and Kaman are the only new guys, so everyone's very familiar with everything (offensive/defensive sets, team chemistry, etc). We could have a decent shot at getting off to a fast start this year, because there's so much continuity from last year.
Holy S#!*--27 min mark, they think the Blazers will pick up Meyers Leonard's option, but NOT Thomas Robinson's! They think that Truck's $4.7M will be more than his market value, that a backup PF is not worth that in Portland, and that other teams are more interested in Meyers' potential than in Robinson's production. Simply wow.
So they think they can just sign TRob for less, in the open market? Or maybe it's psychological to keep TRob's fire burning like the coals of hell. Mostly just a financial decision to be sure.
They are regurgitating what was said here: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/t...s-pelicans-maurice-harkless-andrew-nicholson/
I'm not sure I get why we/the Blazers care if Meyers is worth more than TRob to other teams unless...Deal Coming Soon?
So it's a strategy. Nothing for us soccer mom's to get our panties all bunched up over. But that won't stop us!
The implied but unsaid question is: Are you willing to trade RoLo, Matthews, and TRob for Marc Gasol.
I don't see Gasol forcing Memphis to trade him. I think if we're getting Gasol it will be in free agency, as we'll have a ton of free agents this summer when he's a UFA. I love Gasol, but Rolo and Matthews is a steep price in chemistry. Maybe if they gave us Tony Allen as well...
What's I'm saying is that to have the cap space to sign a max-level FA (which is what the article presumes we're trying to do), then we have to not sign those 3. If we do that, Gasol is the one in free agency we'd look at. Any other max FA worth looking at that might sign in PDX?
