Very Interesting, could be a, how committed are you to me Portland especially with RCov onboard and situation with Melo.
I think that's right, tho I'm confused by the requirements. He hasn't played for Portland for 2 years, but apparently he still qualifies?
The year he was traded to us counts as a season, it's not based on a time or number of games requirement. Also FWIW, Hood followed Covington on Instagram last night immediately after the trade. I don't think he expects to be somewhere else next season, but things can always change in free agency if someone comes in with a crazy offer.
The emergence of Trent is a factor in my mind. Essentially they are the same size. (same weight and wingspan) I think Trent is a more willing defender while Hood gets to the paint better. Both shoot the 3 ball well. I would prefer to keep Hood (if healthy) but we would have Trent to fill the void if not.
In todays game, the team needs as many 6'4" -6'8" guys as possible, and having them be able to shoot 3's and defend is a huge bonus. So far, it appears that that's what they're potentially aiming towards. Hood , Trent and Covington are a good trio of wings.
Blazers have Hood's early bird rights, so they can re-sign him up to 175% of his current deal - from 6 mill to 10 mill and increase the number of years to 4 years (no player option after 2 years). So, they can re-sign him for something like a 4 year, 45 mill deal with a player option after year 3. They can do all of this without using their MLE or Biannual and they still have their TPE from the Bazemore trade. More moves coming.
First Blazers should use their full MLE on other free agents and stay well outside the hard cap. After that they could give Rodney whatever money is left as an early bird free agent... but I would not go beyond one year.
I could see Hood signing an early bird deal which gives him a bump over what he opted out of with a player option for next season. We would then have full bird rights next year and Hood would have insurance plus more money this year. If he is healthy, he would be in probably the best spot to succeed and raise his value. Having Hood, Trent, and Roco is a very nice luxury.
Hood was showing signs of being an elite post player this year, albeit with the small sample size. And his 3pt shot from the corner was Seth Curry esque. I would hate to lose him-- think he and Trent are different kinds of players.
I think I'm starting to become okay with giving him like a 3/30 year deal with the third year being a team option. One thing we're missing if any big deals come around is salary filler, since after Dame/CJ, the next two largest contracts we have to deal are Nurk and RoCo, and they're both bargains at 12 million a year. Don't think they would want to include them. Having Hood at 10 million + another guy at the full MLE would give us around 25 million in salary we could match for a star if a deal presented itself. More if we add some of the young guys and Mario.
Yup, we want to keep more tradeable contracts. Think the MLE will be useful in that respect to, so I really hope we don't just pass on that.
Other thing this does is open up lob sided trading. Portland would be 11k under cap, add Collins to get to almost 17k. Makes a good sign and trade deal for one of the better players in this class. Danilo or Grant anyone?
Rodney is a 2 guard, more than a 3 , IMO. With the emergence of Gary Trent, and Covington's arrival, maybe he feels the writing is on the wall. Love to have Hoody back though.
