32 year old FA to be Mike Conley? So they’re going to trade Tatum and whatever for AD, and their remaining assets for Conley? What would they be left with? I can’t see that. Don’t think it’s even financially possible. Boston doesn’t have big enough contracts.
Im watching the full press conference from yesterday for the first time here on lunch, and Olshey talks about continuity playing a factor in other smaller market teams model for sustained success. San Antonio was one specific example. He also mentioned that when you have limited tools (aka cap space) you take a longer view (meaning you don’t set your roster on July 1, you play the buyout markets later etc) That suggests to me that they’re not going to be making any big changes this summer and will stay the course. The majority of their work will involve Hood, Curry, Kanter, and Aminu; whether it’s bringing them back or replacing them if they end up walking. Could also mean they hold onto their expirings and see where they’re at when the trade deadline rolls around. Or they use them to replace any of the above mentioned players. Either way, I expect a more active summer than last year, just because of the number of unrestricted players they’ll have to deal with. Won’t expect any blockbusters though, my bad.
It will be interesting to see what the market is for Kanter, Hood, and Curry. As has been said previously, there are a lot of free agents available this summer. That should drive the price down for big men especially. I would be very surprised if we can't afford Kanter at least.
Simmons brought it up a few weeks back. Suggest Hayward and picks for Conley after dealing Tatum/Brown/Smart/etc for AD. Essentially forming a core of Conley-AD-Horford. Not sure that core is really better than what AD has in New Orleans now.
God that's terrible for the Celtics. A team with 2 soon to be 32-33 year olds and a guy that will be a FA next summer. No way man.
I cannot compare KG, Pierce, Allen with Conley, Horford, AD and they happened to be the first "superteam" as well. Now many have followed and having 3 stars (2 of them are not even All Stars now) doesn't mean much.
Here's my keepers for next year. I'd trade/let walk the rest of our roster, maybe keep Aminu/Harkless for backups(s). C: Jusuf Nurkic, Enes Kanter PF: Meyers Leonard, Zach Collins SF: NEED A STARTER HERE SG: CJ McCollum, Rodney Hood PG: Damian Lillard*, Seth Curry
Im not sure... I am scared that its in CJ’s / Dame’s heads at this point that they simply cant beat them, I mean that was partially just heat of the moment. I think that a lot of sports is mental though, every single player is an elite athlete (with few exceptions), but when a team so clearly has your number, that can really quickly get in your head. Seemed like once GS came back in game 2, that in 3 and 4 the Blazers as a group just knew... Edit: Id feel better about it if it was the 1st or 2nd time losing like that in the playoffs to GS, the fact it was there third time... Definitely gives me pause, and a lot of it...
I agree with it being mental, but I don't think its in their head they cant beat them I think they are smart enough to know things may changer and to not give up. However I think at this level, what separates the great form elite, is confidence in themselves.
I think Dames got elite confidence but even his body language at times was like, he just could not figure out the GS puzzle. I dunno it was brutal to give up those leads.
See.....Your a realist. I wanted at least the home games against GS. The three point and this OT loss were benchmarks for team failure.
Wow according to holdahl and freeman in their latest podcast the blazers were discussing a deal to land Otto Porter at the deadline and they were close until Washington pulled out last minute (aka found something better aka expirings) Freeman is of the opinion that the blazers could package the pick with Harkless for a player in the $10-12m range. They also think Hood gets more than the tax MLE.
