There is no way they can clear space for Gasol without losing at least two and probably three guys. Some combination of Leonard, Crabbe, Harkless, Aminu, Plumlee, or Davis. All of them are young, movable players. That is a lot to sacrifice for the sake of adding one 36 year old player who doesn't really address your biggest weakness (defense). It'd be one thing if they still had the cap space to sign him to that deal outright, but they don't.
Do you think that's they way they'd prefer to play for the long run, or is that more of a stopgap solution because of personnel limitations?
Who on this team besides Aminu and Ed Davis did you have fun watching defense again? Once you guys realize that unless you get lucky roster building like GSW did or has the consistent infrastructure of SAS, it is very hard to build a team that is top in the NBA in both offense and defense. As long as Stotts and Olshey are leading this franchise we will be a top offensive team and will depend on cohesiveness and chemistry to be a middle of the pack defensive team. Team defense will be more important than individual defense with us and it's not like Gasol would be logging 35+ mpg...Davis will be out there when he's not. I consider it a compliment to be compared to the runner up for GMOY. It means I'm not one of the morons stomping their feet about losing out on FA's. It's the same people who were crying about our additions last offseason and it'll be the same people every season. There will always be the few who bring out the pitchforks and torches to rile up the fanbase. There's so much more that goes on behind the scenes that many of us will NEVER here about. Parsons has great relationships with both Conley and Bickerstaff in MEM. The Blazers knew two hours before it came out Parsons was not choosing them. Did anyone else know of his relationships to Memphis? Stop acting every average joe's tweet is gospel and wait until ASB before calling for Olshey's resignation. Which was hilarious for even being brought up on this board by the way
Then why was everyone so surprised? Because he listed Dame as a top 3 PG in one tweet posted on here? My point is that even know we have more access then ever with Twitter, it's impossible to know a lot of what goes into decisions any franchise makes. Let's give the Blazers more than the first 3 or 4 days of FA people.
Dame and chandler parsons are close too. They became close at team usa workouts. And people felt our team was finally ready to sign a bigger name free agent. Parsons was at least on the tier of best free agents to sign in portland. I think the thing that stung the most, was not that we couldnt pull parsons, that hurt sure, but that immediately after hearing we lost parsons, the turner news came out of nowhere and the sticker shock was hard to accept. Then other fans from other boards were touting it as the worst signing of free agency so far, which made it sting even more.
Haha what a pussy. Is Golden State even that much better by trading out glue guys like Barnes and Bogut for an iso scorer like Durant?
And I was shocked too at how fast it happened. But after digesting it a little, the move makes sense and salary wise it's not as bad when it was first announced. It's the people that are still freaking out and calling for Olshey's head that are just out of their mind.