Exclusive The OFFICIAL 2019 NBA Offseason Thread

It's unprecedented for a team to hold a press conference for a guy they traded and them move him a week later. Only thing I can think of is Rasheed Wallace midseason trade to the Hawks and then to Detroit.

But then again, the whole PG/Kawhi situation was something that no one probably envisioned so the fact that it happened probably changes things. I don't know if Olshey would do the deal even if it was on the table....he really values his relationship with players and agents and even if Bazemore's agent doesn't represent anyone else, the fact that the Blazers would do this to Bazemore would probably not look very good in the eyes of other players/agents around the league.

I kind of like Bazemore's fit on this team anyhow, he's a good defender, especially on rangy players like Paul George or James Harden.

Also, the Blazers pay an extra $4 million in the deal, which probably turns to about an extra ~$10 million in the luxury tax. I know Jody is willing to spend, but that $4 million difference is basically Layman's salary who we just let go.

 

Dame
CJ
Hood
Gallinari
Whiteside

Simons
Shumpert/Sefolosha/Carter/Holiday/J. Simmons/Trent
Hezonja
Tolliver/Skal
Collins

Yeah I like that.

 

The press conference thing is raising my eyebrows about why we haven't had one for Hassan yet. It is however official on the transactions page.

https://stats.nba.com/transactions/#!?TeamID=1610612757

Same with Skal mysteriously not playing in summer league.

 

Yeah but it’s only for one year.

As for agent relationships or whatever, it’s a fair question, but if OKC bought out Bazemore he might end up making even more money while having his pick of teams. I doubt Bazemore and his agent would hold it against Olshey as long as he was up front with them. It’s a situation/opportunity that wasn’t there a week ago, and it’s his job to explore it if it makes his team better.

 

Whiteside is in Portland already. It's in all his stories. I think Neil and Stotts are currently at SL in Vegas. That may be why they haven't had a conference yet.

 

The main thing for me is, if they weren't willing to pay Layman $3M per year, would they really wanna pick up $4M to upgrade from Baze to Gallo? Gallo is a better offensive player for sure, but probably worse on defense. We would win more regular season games with Gallo but I don't know if we'll be significantly better in the post season. Gallo's usage is going to drop like a rock here and unless you make him a primary option on offense, you're not really going to use him that well.

Also, we talk about injury history, but good god. Gallo is truly made of glass. Even in a relatively healthy year last year he only played 68 games. He's only broke 70 games twice in his career.

 

fun fact about Gallo: he and Dame have played exactly the same number of regular season games even if Gallo was drafted 4 yrs prior. And Dame has played 2000 more minutes.

 

Barf, why? He's not that good and has a terrible contract.

 

Well Layman was a luxury, and I’m not convinced Stotts actually liked him that much. Benched him when the games really mattered and definitely didn’t trust him at the four as he played 95% of his minutes elsewhere. Stotts has been dying for a proper four that could space the floor imo, so much so that he stuck with Aminu all those years as he was the closest thing he had. I think he would love Galo and I’ve yet to see anything that suggests Jody is against adding money.

 

I'm probably the only one but I think Bazemore is going to be really good in this system. I wouldn't trade him for Gallo.

Edit: That being said I'd rather have Gallinari than Kevin Love considering their contract situations.

 

Gallo has only played more than 68 games in a season once. I would question his ability to stay healthy to help in the playoffs.

 

Jimmy Butler and Russ on the same team lmao please let it happen.

 

So, are the people who are currently going cray cray to bring Gallinari to Portland but shot down Blake Griffin the same?

Because, that would be weird.

 

Gallo has PF height and put up 20/6/3 last year on 46-43-90 splits in only 30 mpg last year. He shot nearly 6 threes and FTs a game.

Bazemore isn't even close talent wise on the offensive end. And Gallo is passable as a defender.

 

Look at their contracts.

 

But can Gallo defend power forwards?

 

If Miami wants Westbrook maybe we can sneak in there and take James Johnson off their hands, sending Bazemores expiring to OKC. Johnson is a solid two way player and playmaker with a player option for 2020. Also, guess who his agent is?

 

I know his stats, but no I don't consider him a passable defender. He's a terrible rebounder for a PF too. One thing about his stats last year is he had a career high usage rate which wouldn't be the case with Dame and CJ.

 

Too lazy to include picks, but Miami would probably send some OKCs way.

 

Oh hell no! We're going to ruin our flexibility in the last year before Dame's Super Max kicks in on James Johnson?

That would seriously ruin everything good that's happened this summer in my opinion.