A mid season trade "this year" won't hurt. There is really no downside. On the flip side it won't help for this season so when it is done really does not matter. It just needs to be done. To be honest thought I think Neil's plan last summer was solid. Not perfect but it made sense. He swung for the fences on our biggest need. (Whiteside) after that it was about gathering assets. It's not like having cap space helps us get difference makers so in theory he did what he had to do.....for now. I don't believe the contracts that were signed blocked us from making deals this summer. I think assets only help. We can argue all day on whether or not he has movable pieces. If the rumored deals for "prominent young players" involved CJ then it is hard to discuss/debate unless we know who the other party is. If it did not involve CJ then it just goes to show you that we do have movable pieces and we will again this summer. (or at the trade deadline)
Not sure who would disagree wit that. The problem is we would have to send Meyers out and get a player back who is an expiring contract. Not an easy task. It might take a first rounder of ours going out for another team to go for that. Now, I not one of those that thinks Meyers has no trade value (I think we could get plenty of players for him but they would be overpaid players too). But expiring contracts are valuable and teams don't give them away much anymore.
Oh I agree on Plums' value to the team. Not sure 14 mil is realistic for a legit starting big. Guys like Biyombo, Mozgov, and Ian Mahinmi got 16-18 mil last year. If you climb up to that range for Plums (and don't clear space), you're gonna be in cap/lux tax hell for the near future and even fewer opportunities to right the ship.
I do believe they need figure out what they want to do with Plum. But if you figure you want to keep him then you just might have someone else throw a Crabbe type offer at him and we will be really bad shape then. We could not match another contract like that again. First it be bad business and second it would screw our flex ability next 4 years. Want I think even he is good hustle guy I would trade him for expire contract and late 1st. Or trade him for young center that on there rookie contract.
I agree we must keep Plumlee. But how? My guess is, some GM is going to make RFA Plumlee a toxic offer the same way the Nets did with Crabbe. Even if we keep Plumlee, he is going to be expensive. Add in a 15% trade kicker and we have an expensive asset that will be very difficult to trade. GMs are paying Olshey back for his past sins.
The Miles Plumlee deal was a revelation. He's worse than Meyers on a worse contract, and he brought back an expiring contract (Hibbert) + a guy with a < MLE option for next season (Hawes), and MIL didn't even throw in incentives.
I'm hearing that not everyone is in agreement on how to proceed as well but that is not uncommon. Ultimately it will come down to Paul and Neil and whoever wins out. Paul is very much a fan an has opinions but has been convinced before to go against those opinions. Case in point, he preferred Durant of Oden from the beginning of that summer. Everyone else in the 'room' convinced him that Oden was a once in a lifetime big that you just couldn't pass on (which most other people believed as well). Who knows what would have happened if not for the injuries. But I can't imagine in this case that Paul is overly impressed with what his money has become this season in terms of results.
Agree, if you are trying to seduce a woman. But if you are running a business, you better have a long range plan to work with. Or the competition will kick your butt.
Hopefully they're at least past the point of thinking an old ass player like Tyson Chandler is going to be worth going after at this point.
This trade deadline to me feels like a time we really need to go 1 step forward, 2 steps back. So hopefully they're thinking or looking at the same. Similar- ish to the year we traded Wallace for Damian pick. Move guys like Davis or turner or aminu or whoever to contenders looking for a push, slip backwards, and then combine assets in the offseason. Go from there.
I agree. Things change in a hurry. No one knows that more than Blazer fans. (See Walton, Roy, and Oden) 2-3 years is about has far ahead as you can plan. But the basics are there....keep your draft picks.... at least until draft day.
My bet is they trade for a couple draft picks and expiring contracts while unloading some bad contracts. Trying AGAIN for a fast rebuild around Dame and CJ.
You are confusing two types of assets. Revenue/expense vs personnel. Revenue/expenses needs to be a long range budget plan so personnel assets can be acquired in a timely fashion. Personnel emergencies can happen at any time. But it is proper long term budget planning that fixes those emergencies. Right now, due to lack of long term planning, the Blazers budget is bankrupt, and will be for a few more seasons.
The only way it would be worth it to pay Plumlee and go into LT is to go after win now guys and make this team a contender next year. If you are going to go over the tax, it better be to win.
Thing is as a GM you really have to take advantage of the opportunity you have when you have it. Waiting for the draft and offseason may payoff big time, depending on where we end up at the end of this season. If we don't make any trades now, Olshey will be hedging his bets that he will be able to deliver some killer deals and possibly draft some players if we keep our picks. But, a alot of the guys the Blazers have been looking at and decide not to go after now, might not be there come the end of the season. We may see them all or at least many of them traded before the deadline, then we will be stuck in the mud again. I hope Neil really knows what he is doing. I used to think he was a genius before he clogged the toilet.
Like a lot of folks, I think Dame CJ and Mason are our best players but as much hustle and effort Mason is putting in I constantly remind myself that he's putting up stats in losses.....JJ Hickson style except he's not selfish about it. We won't win counting on Mason to score in the end game that often....he wants a payday no matter how much we get attached to him.....we need a scoring big man worse than an assist heavy big
I think we're going to see a decrease from the spending orgy we saw last offseason. Do the teams with the cap space to give Plumlee a $16-18mill offer even need or want him?
