I have reservations about Whiteside's brain, and his offense, and the negatives that go along with a single-minded focus on blocking shots, but I recognize that considering the alternatives and possibilities, signing Whiteside would be a major coup and would improve the team. Go get him Neil! (Unless you can get Horford, of course)
42NBounce: Crabbe and Harkless at 7.5M?? I guarantee they both get 15+ million. But i still want to keep both.
Yeah.... no way Crabbe gets less than 13 a year. I have already seen multiple reports that he is one of the guys that teams are looking at. New York being one example of a team that's targeting him.
The optimist in me hopes they make a run at Festus or Biyombo, the realist suspects it's someone we haven't considered much if at all or fallback to Leonard. I'd be shocked and disappointed if they go after Howard while Whiteside seems destined for the brighter lights of a bigger market STOMP
Only 3 starting level, really good players have ever signed with us via Free Agency....... Rod Strickland '92 Kenny Anderson '96 Brian Grant '97 Who was best is debatable. This is our best opportunity since then, because of careful cap planning, to land a big name FA. Hoping we do it.
All I can think of is Charlie Brown and Lucy holding that damned football. This time it's gonna happen, this time it's gonna be great, this time . . . I guess we find out once and for all just how much pull Damian has, just how much of a salesman Neil is (either towards us or free agents), and we finally learn if their combined forces of will can actually transform Portland into any kind of free agent destination.
You have to add andre miller to that list. Dude has to be one of the best players to ever not make one all star game.
Salaries should be looked at as percent of CAP. Last year, the cap was at $70M. A fringe starter was paid around $5.5M. That's about 7.8% of the CAP. For next year, we have to take into account the expected rise in the CAP (for 2017 and 2018). In 2018, the CAP is expected to be around $110M. 7.8% of that is $8.6M. If a team pays a fringe starter more than $8.6M, then they have less money available to go after top tier starters. Will Crabbe be a top 3 player on a team? If a team believes so, then I can see them making offers in the $15M range. If a team believes he's a fringe starter (which is where I believe he is), then he will probably be paid in the $7M - $12M range. If a team is willing to pay Crabbe $12M+, I say they can have him. That's tying up money that could be spent productivity elsewhere. But it only takes one dumb GM....
Probably the greatest analogy ever on this site. Until it happens, and I hope it's this year, that's exactly what it's like.
I disagree on Crabbe. If he gets paid 13 by someone he still doesn't really tie up space as his cap hold is still 2.7 MIL until we decide to match which is 3 days after league offices open on July 7th. If we haven't spent our money by then or traded to fill our spaces by that time then it is our fault imo. We can talk to teams and players July 1st and have an agreement in principal. I can't see any scenario (except for striking out in everything - free agency and trading) where we would need to worry about Crabbe and his contract from another team. However, if someone wants to pay both Harkless or Leonard over 12 then I think we have to let one of them go (which is sad if it is Mo as he is probably my #1 of our 3 RFA's) because I don't think we can have all 3 of our guys make 13 each and not pay a huge luxury tax bill into the future.
I got the impression that he was talking about tying up the cap going forward, not this offseason. Having a guy like crabbe tying up more than 8% of the cap is bad for the team. While I see where he's coming from, I think it's worse to let assets walk out the door for nothing. We can sign him and trade him mid season if we are uncomfortable having his contract on the books, or try to get someone like philly to bite on a crabbe for Noel sign and trade.
That may be the case with all three of the players they made the QO to. Sign them now and trade them latter. There is no way they could sign a big time FA, keep all three at $12-15M+ and then sign CJ next summer. They would be well over the cap. Dame --- 25 CJ --------23 FA--------23 Crabbe---13 Harkless-13 Leonard--13 --------------- That's $109 million right there on 6 players. Someone would have to go.
No. As @Natebishop3 and @TBpup pointed out above, it may not be a problem this year, but moving forward it ties up too much space.
Aww hell no to these two making that much. Crabbe is a guy you need to resign. He's an asset that we will likely trade in the next few seasons since I don't see him being happy coming off the bench long term. He'll get a contract for 4 years $45 mil.
I think you basically pick the two cheapest offers and match on those guys and let the guy who got the biggest offer go if you are POR. Everyone has an order of how they rate the 3 guys but in reality they are all pretty close and most people would have a different order they list them. Let the money talk.
As pointed out in my earlier post, my percentages take into account the rise in CAP thru the 2018 year. Percentages are percentages. If a fringe starter gets paid $15M long term (13% of the 2018 CAP), that leaves less money to attract top tier starters.
I agree. I think crabbe is a must to retain though. I think its apparent he has value around the league and could be traded at a later date fairly easily
I don't know baseball because it's boring Adonal Foyle, but Biyombo would be a foul ball, followed by the manager rushing the ump and getting ejected.