What would it take for Neil to completely blow up the team?

Even with our reduced tax bill, our salary cap + tax for the year is about 144 million.

The added cost of signing a player now would be < 1% of that.

It's peanuts. Not signing a player (if we do basketball wise) for that financial saving is just bad business. Then again, Neil could be lying out of his ass as he has known to do. But he did throw Jody under the bus repeatedly in his interviews.

 

That sounds pretty close to correct, except for the March 1 date. I believe that's the last date for a player to be WAIVED and still qualify for the playoffs. As I understand it after a quick search with my friends at Google, players are eligible to be on a team's playoff roster provided they were on the team for at least one regular season game, and were not on another NBA team's roster after March 1.

 

I know we've talked about this already but this is exactly why I don't believe that he was told to just cut "a little bit" of salary.

 

Jody Allen only has a fraction of the wealth that her brother had because of dedicated trusts, his will, and inheritance taxes

besides that, if she's worth something like 5-10B right now, burning thru 1.25M would be the equivalent of taking a 100 dollar bill out of your wallet and tearing it into little pieces. You'd need a good reason for it and adding maybe an extra win to an 8th seed team is not a good reason. I mean, right now would you pay 100 dollars for the Blazers to end up at 44 wins instead of 43, knowing there was no guarantee you'd even see that extra win?

 

Depends on when the player signs. Kanter signed on Feb. 21st last year. There was about 1/3 of the season left. If Olshey signs someone in March, the LT implications are significantly less.

 

Yes, that would be correct. So they could sign Hoard or Brown or one of the China guys.

Did you listen to the video @illmatic99 posted though? They aren't signing someone no matter how you try to make the math look less significant.

 

They didn't even sign someone to a 10-day or a non-guaranteed contract when there were games they literally had no center on the roster and played Anthony Tolliver as the back up center for an extended stretch. That would've been cheaper than what you are suggesting.

 

ALL I am trying to suggest is that things MAY change if the Blazers make the playoffs and Olshey sees a chance to add a good player at not too much cost. Adding a player late in the season would not add much LT.

 

You still haven't listened to the interview, huh? There is no chance of this happening unless they have more (knock on wood this doesn't happen) injuries that put them below the minimum active lineup requirements.

 

I didn't see the link to the interview. When did he post it?

 

We have some on the roster already. I'd be interested in converting Hoard's two way into a 2-3 year cheap deal. I think he has a real shot to be a role player in this league. Count it as basically using second round pick this year even though we don't have one.

 

We do have a 2nd round pick this year.

Edit: It's currently pick 45.

 

Sorry, I just assume we never have a second rounder because Neil slings them like crazy. Didn't we give up 4 in the Thomas Robinson deal? I never check because all the guys on our roster who were second round picks were either bought for cash or two future seconds.

 

This one was the one traded for Harkless with 31-55 protection. There is no chance of getting into the top-5 records so it will be ours.

 

I'm wondering if you watched the video yet? Asked about a buyout, Olshey doesn't just say "no"; he says NO, NO, NOOO!

 

Someone quoted me (was it you?) awhile back saying we never conveyed the pick we traded to Orlando in the Jake Layman deal. Did you get that pick confused with this one? Both were top 55 protected.

 

Portland traded their 2019 2nd to get the draft rights to Layman. It was conveyed last year and had no protections.

Edit: I do remember talking about this a couple weeks ago with someone but it was who I was talking with that was confused, not me.

 

This is completely unrelated to the topic at hand but I went back and looked at the picks we ended up trading for Thomas Robinson. Now, it's unlikely the picks would have been the same had we kept those picks but DAMN:

Dillon Brooks and Richaun Holmes. Both solid/starter level players in this league.