This off-season just got even worse with the loss of Gerald Henderson, in my opinion. I agree that Turner is a little better player, but not by a whole lot. So instead of adding Turner to our existing roster, we are using him to replace Henderson, which means we are sort of back to square one. Lots of teams are making quantum leaps forward right now, while we are just holding our own. Not too thrilling.
One way to look at it is that through a number of moves we effectively gave up Nic Batum so we could have Evan Turner and Noah Vonleh . . . Hmmmm? I'll get back to you later when i figure out what that means exactly.
Yeah it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. There have been ample oppurtunities to add needle moving players, which have each passed us by, none coming. Our own players are starting to leave. We are waiting with our restricteds in tow for now...it's a little unnerving, a little bit of a kick to the gut. Other teams can offer Crabbe, Meyers, and Harkless, poison contracts and make things even harder on us. Meanehile, Neil seems to be tip toeing through the ruins of free agency, looking for deals, but in the end when the smoke clears, we will probably just resign our restricteds, sign Layman, a player from summer league, and a vet minimum point guard to finish it off
Sad to see Hendo go. I've long been a fan. He had these moments where he'd do something big that kinda came outta nowhere and put some juice in his teammates. That being said, I think it was a foregone conclusion that Hendo was gone. Assuming we retain Harkless, Crabbe, and MeLo, coupled with the acquisition of Turner, there were no minutes remaining for Hendo. He wanted to be a starter. Maybe he'd have settled for long bench minutes, but it's not looking like we could have offered him that.
I still think Turner is more than a little better if he makes other players better. Which was not Henderson's role. But by helping with ball handling duties on occasion, so Dame and CJ can do what they do best, (score) than we got a lot more efficient. Especially against good defensive teams like GS and the Clippers. I liked Hendo, but to me he was more of a Mo Williams type of player. His role was to score off the bench. Turner can score AND facilitate. There is the possibility that ET and Dame/CJ won't mesh, but I think by the end of season they will. ET was Neil's 3rd FA choice for a reason. We will see if he was right.
Enough of these fucking threads... Henderson was an inefficient midrange shooter that added little else. Evan Turner is a way better than him! I can't believe some of you guys are crying about losing Henderson. I guess Blazer fans will cry about pretty much anything though.
I couldn't care less about Henderson one way or another, it's the loss of players with zero compensation coming back. We effectively traded Nic Batum for Noah Vonleh . . . let that marinate in your brain pan for a bit.
If we didn't trade Batum, fans would be bitching about paying him $20M+ Without having to pay Batum, we were able to get Turner. Batum for Turner & Vonleh is a fine trade off.
I'm fine with Batum being gone. Extremely inconsistent and now that he's been paid, remember what he was like for Portland after he got his first big check? I don't think it's a coincidence that Charlotte played much better in the playoffs after he got hurt.
Oh well, it wasn't a great trade but it hasn't even been long enough to see if it was worth it. For all we know the 20 year old kid we got for Nic could still blossom, maybe if in 2 years Vonleh still isn't contributing you can chalk it up to be an L. Also, Nic was expiring and the Hornets did take a risk trading for him, idk how many teams were offering a one year removed top 10 pick and solid wing vet for Batum.
I'm OK with him being moved, I'm just not so sure we came out even let alone ahead on that deal. Like trading a quarter for two dimes.
Trading a quarter for two dimes then spending another quarter to get 15 cents leaves you with more than spending 50 cents just to keep the quarter.
Not if one of those dimes is specially minted and will become worth far more than the quarter you shelled out to begin with, and will make the other 15 cents worth it
Regardless, all of those quarters dimes and nickels are worth a hell of a lot more than any of our two cents.
