Count me as one who thinks 15th guy on a rebuilding roster isn't worth very much. Have the guy play D League if you think he's got the potential, which costs the roster spot as well. Likely, he doesn't have the potential. In fact, if Neil does a 1 for 2 trade, or takes on a guy for salary alone (any time this season), the 15th guy is going to be cut.
Yup good post. I'll follow that up with reports from people close to the team. Casey Holdahl said Montero has a long ways to go and he has never seen anything close to this level of competition. Gunderson wrote an article about how raw the kid was. We've seen reports of how Cliff Alexander tore up practice and had admiration from coaches, players, and the media. Cliff is still unlikely to play meaningful minutes at all this year but there is a glimpse of a legit NBA skill. There are none of these reports with Montero.
Guys I have a friend. He's 6'6 240 and played high school ball fairly well. Check yourself bruh. I've said I don't care if we keep him as a 15th man. But there will be better players cut by teams that are better than Montero I'd rather have
The thing that is being overlooked here in regards to Montero is he has played a total of 2 years of organized ball, 1 year in High School and 1 year of community college. Prior to that he was in the Dominican Republic. Of course he is going to look lost at times... but he also showed our management enough in summer league to give him a contract for fall.
This is where I come down. Pointing out that he's 22 intimates that he is likely as close to his ceiling as an average 22 year old NBA player. Thing is, most NBA 22-year-olds have had, by that point, at least six combined years of AAU coaching, D1 college coaching, and NBA coaching. Montero has basically had as much real coaching as a high school senior. IMO, he should be thought of like one.
Only I got say is 4 players that didn't play better be holding there breaths. For simple reason there will cuts in two days and none expect to be in the rotation so is there possibility that all 4 players get cut and Neil find some off the waiver wire.
While we might take a salary dump player, any trades we make will have us sending out more players than we're receiving. Nobody on the roster (aside from Dame/CJ) have enough individual trade value to get anything significant in return. Thus we will have to build a package of multiple players in order to get a meaningful player in return.
We have cap space. He can trade 1 guy for 5 guys as long as those 5 guys fit in our cap space picture.
I understand that it's technically possible, but it doesn't make sense so it's not probable. We're stacked with "potential" and cheap contracts, so if we're making trades we'll be sending out more players than we're taking back. We're not going to be making lateral trades, we're not going to make "restocking" trades, with our new roster we're looking at talent consolidating trades.
I think we'll be making trades that relieve the other team from luxury tax bills. If those teams need a minimum salary player, they might take one of the Blazers' end of bench guys. In fact, it would not shock me if the Bulls try to dump either Noah or Taj Gibson to avoid the LT. They're not going to want anything in return, but if they have a roster spot they must fill, they might consider taking back a vet minimum salary.
Right, which would still be a 1:1 player swap (and I did say I agree we MIGHT take a salary dump player). But when it comes to "real" trades we don't have the players or the contracts to take more players back than we're sending out.
I agree with Denny; with our massive salary cap space its more likely we have additional players coming in with a trade than going out. Of course either could happen. But it could be a small factor of cutting the roster to 14 now.
