Are we allowed to re-acquire Harkless? We'd need to waive a player, but we'd get comfortably below the tax
My nightmare scenario: 1) Blazers decide to ride and die with Whiteside/Melo/Ariza. 2) Blazers finish 9th or 10th in the West. No play-offs and crap drafting position. 3) Whiteside and Melo leave as FA and Blazers drop Ariza to save money.
Only a small part of his salary for next year is guaranteed. The team can save money just by cutting him.
Again, we'll be around 114 mil for our cap number with Melo and HW gone, a new draft pick signed, and all our exceptions forfeited (and minimum roster charges) . That leaves about 1 mil in capspace. Letting Ariza walk, would open up about 10 mil more with his 1.8 mil guarantee. The absolute maximium we could open up is about 11 mil of space. The non-taxpayer MLE is about 9.5 mil. The Bazemore TPE is about 7 mil. It makes more sense to keep Ariza next year and his contract around to throw in trades next deadline than to waive him. My numbers might be slightly off but the general premise remains. It makes no sense to simply open up minimal capspace while losing all our exceptions and losing tradeable contracts in the process.
The Warriors traded two firsts for D'Angelo in the first place (although one is going to turn into a second). Not sure they want to just flip him for a single first unless it's a really good one.
Feels like the timing is right for Aldridge to return. I don’t see how San Antonio is going to make any sort of jump in the next year. DeRozan will probably opt out in the summer. Aldridge only has one year left. I know the Spurs don’t really make moves during the season, but our best chance to acquire him would be now while we have Whitesides expiring. Dame CJ Ariza Aldridge Nurkic if that isn’t a contender idk what is
What else are you willing to give up for Aldridge? Collins? Ant? I don't want to do anything more than future protected picks.
I generally agree, with one minor quibble. If Ariza play warrants less than $6m, then it makes more sense to cut him instead of keeping him around. In no case should Portland be trying to get cap space. Even if they cut Ariza, they can choose to keep the MLE & Baze TPE instead of opening cap space.
You're right. He returns Thursday night. Fortunately, it is only for 1 game. That's not a contender in any way, shape, or form. It's better than what we currently have, but still not a contender.
Yep. To open up 'cap space' you have to waive all your exceptions (MLE, BAE, TPE, etc). Usually if the aggregate of all the exceptions is more than the potential cap space, it's more advantageous to keep the exceptions.
that seems just about guaranteed at this point Portland is in a battle for 8th with several teams, I guess, but the main competition are the Spurs and Memphis. Portland has the 24th most difficult remaining SOS while Memphis has the most difficult (and Blazer schedule will be really easy after the all-star game). I think the Grizz will fade and it will be between the Spurs and Blazers, and I'd look for Portland to get the 8th seed (I think OKC and the 7th seed are probably out of reach) so yeah, mediocre drafting position and another likely 1st round exit I don't think Portland will drop Ariza. He makes a lot of sense as the starting SF next season, and he's a trade-able contract that can bring back up to 18M in salary. Whiteside? I just don't know what will happen. He's saying all the 'right' things now, but talk is cheap. And no matter how much you try and picture him and Nurkic existing on the same team, it just seems really awkward as for Melo, if he walks, I'd be fine. He's high usage and bad efficiency. He has about the same TS% as Turner did and only 1/3rd of the assist rate. He's another excuse to go iso with bad results
All the more reason to keep Ariza then, no? We'd be allowed to take 1.25x + 100k in salary in return in a trade.
