Are Lopez and Matthews restricted free agents?

If someone offers Wes the MAX then so be it. I just don't see that happening. If you have that much cap space available, is Wes really the guy you want to use it all on? He is valuable to us, but I doubt he will get more than 12 million from someone else.

 

Nah I see him getting Batum type salary if he plays at this level from here on out

 

If it comes down to Lopez or Matthews, I vote to keep both and trade away Batum in order to do so. Matthews and Batum bring fairly similar goods to the court except Wes is much more consistent. The only thing Batum has over Wes is his playmaking ability, but I think we seriously overrate how good that ability is. He has maybe 5 "wow that was sweet" plays that are offset by 3 "wow that was bone-headed" plays each game.

Replacing Batum with Wright or someone new like Jared Dudley sounds much better than replacing Matthews with CJ or someone new like Anthony Morrow.

 

Wes and Lopez are unrestricted FA but we have bird rights on both of them.
Meaning we can go over the cap to keep them both.
And when Lillard's contract is up the Blazers will have bird rights on him too.
Same with Batum.
Same with Aldridge.


Perhaps the most well-known of the NBA's salary cap exceptions is the Larry Bird exception, so named because the Boston Celtics were the first team permitted to exceed the salary cap to re-sign one of their own players (in that case, Larry Bird). Free agents who qualify for this exception are called "qualifying veteran free agents" or "Bird Free Agents" in the CBA, and this exception falls under the terms of the Veteran Free Agent exception. In essence, the Larry Bird exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, at an amount up to the maximum salary. To qualify as a Bird free agent, a player must have played three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent. Players claimed after being amnestied have their Bird rights transferred to their new team. Other players claimed off waivers are not eligible for the full Bird exception, but may qualify for the early Bird exception. Prior to an arbitrator ruling in June 2012, all players that were waived and changed teams lost their Bird rights.[26][27] This means a player can obtain "Bird rights" by playing under three one-year contracts, a single contract of at least three years, or any combination thereof. It also means that when a player is traded, his Bird rights are traded with him, and his new team can use the Bird exception to re-sign him. Under the 2011 CBA, Bird-exception contracts can be up to five years in length, down from six under the 2005 CBA.[6]

 

I think he's going to get paid. At least what Chandler Parsons got.

He plays defense. He plays hard all the time. He can shoot the three. He's still relatively young and only now really coming into his prime.