OT: Thompson signed by Cavs 5 years $82 million

Meanwhile, Robin Lopez is averaging 7 points on 41% shooting, and under 5 rpg with the Knicks for his 13 million dollar per year contract. This Blazer team has no over-paid players.

 

And Batum is shooting 29% from 3 and 38% overall, while averaging 2.6 assists and 2.4 turnovers. But his wrist is feeling better and he's finally able to be more aggressive in this new system.

 

Omari Johnson is on the training camp roster.

 

RoLo was a dumpster fire last season

 

But but but, batums divorce and wrist were solely to blame. It couldn't be that nic just isn't nearly as good as blazer fans made him out to be could it?

 

If all our former starters from last year suck it could ward off teams bidding on Meyers, Crabbe, Harkless in restricted free agency. Other teams might attribute decent numbers from our new young players to being in Stotts system.

 

That's possible, but I think if Meyers has a killer season somebody is going to give him close to a MAX. He's got too unique of a game, which fits very well into today's NBA. I know some people still hound Meyers, and some have come around. However most still likely would not want to give him a MAX contract, some probably wouldn't want to give him close to that. But I assume that some/most(?) of those people would come around should he have a season where he averages ?/? (whatever it is for you). I know there would be teams in the league that would be willing to MAX him out, if not close to it - maybe even after a season of 18/8 averages if he can post a fair amount of double doubles, have multiple games in the high 20's, and continue to shoot the 3 ball at a high percentage.

Harkless and Crabbe are a different story. I'd think Crabbe would have to show it on defense in order to garner serious attention from other teams, which as we know is definitely a possibility. Pretty much the same for Harkless. There are a ton of wing players in the league, just not a lot that can do it really well on the defensive end and not be a liability at the other end.

 

John Henson, who was drafted 3 spots behind Leonard, got an extension of 4 yrs, $44M.
John Henson:
Pts: 7.0
FG%: 56.6%
Reb: 4.7
Ast: 0.9
Blks: 2.0
Meyers Leonard:
Pts: 5.9
FG%: 51.0%
Reb: 4.5
Ast: 0.6
Blks: 0.3
Tristan Thompson:
Pts: 8.5
FG%: 54.7%
Reb: 8.0
Ast: 0.5
Blks: 0.7

My guess is that the Blazers are trying to get Leonard somewhere in the $11M - $12M range. If Leonard is hoping to be in the Tristan Thompson range of 5 yrs, $82M ($16.4M/yr), he'll be waiting until next summer as a restricted free agent.

If the CAP goes up to around $90M as expected next year, the max salary for a 0-6 year player will be around $21M/yr.

 

But but but we've lost so much "talent!" We're going to suck this year!!!

The fact is we have massively upgraded at SF and C.

 

We didn't. We downgraded. But the pieces we replaced them with make sense for rebooting.

And Nic looks good with his new squad out here in NC. Last night he put up 18/10/6.

 

Well, there's his one good game for a couple months.

 

Totally agree that we've greatly upgraded at SF and C

 

The same person that told me about LA going to SAS this offseason mentioned that there have been whispers of a max contract and Meyers, this of course is based on him building on what he showed in last year's playoffs.

In my opinion, if he steps in an averages somewhere near 14-5/7-8 with near 50/40/90 splits he will undoubtedly get it...either from PDX or another team via offer sheet.

 

Man.... we haven't seen nearly enough from him to justify that. I hate the new salary cap. The money is flowing freely and we're seeing bums like Thompson getting paid way more than they're worth.

 

Yeah, another lock-out is looming - these contracts are stupid.

 

I think if we can get him for 4 years 40 million you have to jump on it. He might hold out for 4 years 44 mil (which is what Henson got) and I might still give it to him. Even if he doesn't blow up, say he gets 13 pts per game and 7.5 rebounds, I could see him getting much more than that from some other team. Of course we could match but we still are going to be paying more if the dude doesn't get hurt or bomb this year. (knock on wood by the way)

 

Complete agreement over here. I love Meyers and he definitely brings some uniqueness to how our offense operates on the court, but even if he averages that I can't fathom taking that big of a leap of faith based on one season of production. But like you said, this new salary cap and the influx of cash coming in is going to drive up the price of not only solid big men, but really ANY player that has a specific trait that is unique and at 7 foot, above average passing ability and legitimate three point range? It's definitely plausible.

 

I don't think any poster that has decent knowledge of the free agent market would disagree with you...but I don't envision any world in which his agent is letting him sign an extension. This is his first true crack at extensive playing time and I think even if he came in and only averaged like 8/6 and 50/40/90 a team is still throwing that kind of money at him. It's going to be a ridiculous market and throw in the fact that the NBA has ALWAYS given overpriced contracts to big men...it's going to be pretty fun some teams realllllly fuck themselves over this summer.

 

Yup. The time for signing Meyers to that kind of contract has passed, ESPECIALLY after what just happened with Thompson. If we wanted to sign him to that kind of deal, we needed to have done it a year ago. Rolo had a really shitty year and he got 13 million per.

 

If Meyers produces the same per minute stats in 30+ minutes and plays good defense he probably will get the max. Hell Kanter and Wes got max contracts. It also depends how good the Blazers perform; if we have one of the worst records it'll be different than him starting for a near .500 team. I am concerned the Meyers hype is going overboard and if we give him a 8 figure per year contract it could really bite us next summer. What if we sign him for $11 million per year but Mo Harkless outplays him next summer and we want to keep Mo? Then we're stuck with Dames max contract, Meyers as a backup at $11 million per year, Mo wanting to be paid more than his backup, CJ eligible for an extension and expecting to be paid more than a less proven Meyers who got $11 million. The Blazers would still have multiple other needs on the roster.

We have far more roster flexibility and options if we wait until next summer to sign Meyers. Of course the downside is we'd potentially have to pay him more.

I'd much rather missed the chance to lock up a player for a discount than the bad outcome of having handed out a big overpaid contract.