Notice Melo or Ariza?

Ideally neither is the starter next year.

Between Melo or Ariza I'd take Ariza as a stopgap for one year.

Melo is a below average starter this year. I don't think he will get better. He was much better than Anthony Tolliver or Hezonja as a starter. I don't think Melo would be happy as a limited minute backup which should be his role if we had decent starter/backup options at the forward positions. I wouldn't sign Melo beyond a one year deal. I would not give him the MLE.

I'm a huge Melo fan this season but Neil needs to leave the emotions out of this and make the smart decision.

 

Apparently Barca wants him.

 

While Ariza brings a defensive presence that Melo cannot, I cannot imagine Ariza consistently making those clutch shots that Melo did the past few games.

Then again, perhaps with better defense we may not have needed those shots but the fact remains, Melo has been clutch for us and I for one am grateful to have him on our team.

I will admit to be dead-set against signing him and at times he as brought things to a halt offensively but I think with Nurk back and the offense flowing better, he is better settling into a highly valued role-player position and not being the 1st/2nd scorer.

I think he has adjusted his game and I appreciate having him.

Thanks Melo.

 

He wasn’t coming off an Achilles injury, I’m sure Melo was at least working out and playing basketball in his time off, completely different situation.

 

I'm a little confused. That clause does seem to have a shelf life after a cataclysmic event:

* "The NBA has 60 days from the beginning of a cataclysmic event to notify the union that it will declare force majeure. The start date of the relevant event—the COVID-19 pandemic—isn’t automatically clear. However, a sensible start date would be either March 11, when the league suspended the 2019-20 season, or March 13, when President Donald Trump proclaimed a national emergency. In either case, and absent other agreement by the league and the players’ association, the NBA would have until the second week of May to inform the NBPA that it intends to invoke the clause." *

https://www.si.com/nba/2020/04/17/nba-nbapa-pay-cut-agreement-coronavirus

that implies that the deadline for invoking the clause is long past. I don't know everything that was in the agreement between the owners and players that paved the way to the bubble. Maybe there was some language in there punting force majeure down the road. Or maybe, the agreement of the bubble was the clause itself although I sure think we'd be hearing about it if that was the case

 

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ree-extend-cba-termination-deadline-september

This is the best info we have. The only thing that is solid is that the deadline was significantly extended and hasn't come yet.

 

thanks for that link

so I guessed right that there was an agreement to punt force majeure down the road

if the NBA does kill the current CBA, I'd bet there will be a long stoppage. especially if next season looks like a disaster

I'm trying to translate this paragraph:

* "For example, the CBA has a projected 2020-21 salary cap of $115 million, with a luxury tax threshold of $139 million. With the reality of lost revenues coming, some teams fear that cap and tax could fall as far as $25 million to $30 million. Without the league and union negotiating a new mechanism for the cap in the coming months, the league could be facing 25 of its 30 teams trapped in luxury tax payments based on projected payrolls -- something that would paralyze free agency and many organizations' ability to operate financially." *

are they saying that the projections of a 115M cap and 139M tax line could actually be 25-30M dollars high? Is that for next season? In other words, could the cap next year actually be 85-90M? If so, a 110-115M tax line would clobber a lot of teams, including Portland

 

I think you are getting this right but I don't know if Woj is, he is really piecemealing this thing together from different things he's heard and doesn't have any real hard reporting to do. Also we haven't heard anything about any of this stuff since May 11th and you know that so much more has to have been discussed since then. I think both the league and the NBAPA are keeping a lid on things because they are likely catastrophic. Obviously they will have to rip up the current CBA to make things work they can't just base everything off of the existing skeleton. As the article says, teams would be paralyzed. The whole thing will likely have to be renegotiated for the next two seasons and then negotiated again after that for a long term deal that makes sense. I am sure that next season is going to be really weird if there's a season at all.

 

yeah...any time there is no CBA, the lockouts/strikes last quite a while. Except for last time when both sides were eager to get their giant slice of TV pie

but even when revenues were increasing, it sometimes took months to get sorted. If revenues are cratering, I think negotiations could get real contentious and possibly stalemate. The players always threaten to decertify the union. It may be that owners will finally call their bluff

 

I'd take Ariza. Over the past few years, Ariza has been the consistently better player. It's great that Melo has had a great bubble season, but winning a low-percentage bet doesn't mean you push all-in on replicating it.

 

if you combine the two of them, Ariza and Melo are 71 years old. That's 497 in dog years, Sly

 

thats exactly how i read it.

 

What we need is depth on this team with quality players. Both Ariza and Melo still have something in them. You keep Ariza for sure and Melo isn't hurting for money so probably won't offer much. Plus I don't see a lot going after him. The rumor is he wants to go back to NY to finish his career but I don't see NY doings that. I see him signing back with us. Whiteside will flirt with the FA market but again I don't many takers and if someone sign him he probably will come off the bench just like if he stay in Portland. What he needs to do is accept a role off the bench and since he been in the bubble he only show that for 2 games.

 

Can't we have neither?

 

Melo needs to move on so he can complete the set:

 

Is it absolutely set in stone that the league isn't gonna let Ariza into the bubble?

 

Yes otherwise he would be here already

 

This was from Haynes two weeks ago: https://sports.yahoo.com/report-trail-blazers-tried-persuade-190456369.html

With Rondo suddenly landing in the bubble, Lou Williams going in and out, and Mike Conley doing the same, it's kinda annoying that the league isn't giving our request a consideration

 

more than kinda. But then who do you think they want in the second round? Us or the lakers?