I thought they changed it so you can only buy a pick every other year, or not two years in a row, or something like that? He's not getting a lottery pick for $3m of pocket money.
The change was that you can only spend 3 MIL in a year now (including trades - so if you buy one pick for 2 MIL and 1 MIL to offset a deadline trade then you are done). Before you could buy as many as you want for up to 3 MIL each. But ya, I don't think there has ever been a lottery pick just sold. Earliest pick I remember sold for just cash was around pick 18-19.
I miss the days when the Blazers paid the Cavs $50K to pick Austin Carr and leave Sid Wicks for the Blazers at #2. The current NBA has this weird phobia against thinking outside the box.
16-11 at home and 11-16 on the road. More even than I thought it would be at this point in the season
Which is why I just don't feel excited. Ill give them this. Damian is playing his ass off and Stotts has found a way to generate offense and everybody is playing hard. Win, win, win right? Short term for sure. In the long run it feels like the kind of preliminary moves in a game of chess that locks you into a stalemate and hinders the ultimate goal of a championship. Yeah, yeah. I can already hear the wing of the forum that thinks we're set and just needs to let it ride. But as good as it feels to watch a team move from "shitty" to "OK" just think about what a championship caliber team actaully looks like. We haven't seen one here in Portland since the Drexler days and even they were never good enough.
We all understand that we need a couple more pieces. Where we all disagree........ is how we obtain those pieces. We have cap space, we have good young players, we are winning, and technically we could still end up with our draft pick. Considering where we were in July.......it's not that bad. If we can't add a piece this summer, then yeah I would let it ride....until the right opportunity comes along. It could take a couple of years, but I don't see a better alternative.
I'm on team motherfuck the tank. But for real. We have enough young players. Not going to win a championship with a bunch of 25 year olds, no matter how ideal it sounds.
I will thoroughly enjoy Games 3, 4 and 6 against the Spurs, watching LMA choke away a 2/7 matchup in the playoffs. The chess player in me hates giving up a lotto pick in literally the best year for the foreseeable future to have a lotto pick, but damn it would be sweet. 3 of POR, HOU, DAL and UTH will make the playoffs. MEM is iffy if Gasol's out for any extended period. As for me and my house, I'm down like a clown for beating SAS and OKC, only to get swept by GSW in the WCF on their way to the best season in history.
I think Memphis will make the playoffs even without Gasol. To make the playoffs (let's say 44 wins), all they have to do is win 13 more out of 29 remaining (.448).
I wouldn't be surprised if Memphis played better without gasol. Jamychal green is a nice breakout candidate.
