We can pay him more. And if we trade CJ, we've got a spot next to an MVP caliber player for him. That's it.
Yep. At $18-$20/yr, he will be worth it. If it's a contract that's $28+, then you may have a point. And that is a surprise to you? That is one hell of a lofty goal for a mid-tier starter. In a vacuum, CJ is the better player. For the Blazers (playing next to Dame), Norm is the better FIT. CJ is the better dribbler & passer (when he chooses to be), but I don't see a significant difference in shooting (their TS% is nearly identical). Norm's defense isn't lock-down level, but it's a significant upgrade from CJ's. You're probably correct here. Olshey most likely is not going to trade CJ. I also don't see Toronto wanting CJ... Correct. Norm is not a SF... and that's the issue. The drop-off between CJ -> Norm is less than the drop off between Norm -> Little/Ant. If we can trade CJ for a legit PF, we can field a better team. Which team would you rather have? Team A) Dame, CJ, (unknown SF - using the MLE), RoCo, Nurk Team B) Dame, Norm, RoCo, Wood, Nurk (assuming we trade CJ to NYK for assets that get routed to HOU for Wood). What realistic options do you anticipate this year? What teams out there would be willing to give something of value to S&T Norm to a $20M contract? I'd expect most of the ones who would be interested could just sign him outright.
valid reason, money is the leverage blazers have over other teams but if the blazers dont offer him much more than the other teams, hes likely gone, cause if you remember that interview he gave, he said that a lot of it will depend on how the season ends and it ended terribly... blazers are not a contender and he will likely get offers from other playoff teams, so no leverage for the blazers there and if he gets offer to play somewhere close to his home or in a big market... other thing to consider is his role on the team, we dont know if hes happy to play small forward, surely hed like to play shooting guard odds are against the blazers, but who knows, nurk found his second home in pdx, maybe powell likes it there too
That's all we can really hope for. And hopefully Olshey makes some convincing progress in the meantime...
1. Wood isn't a PF 2. We can't get Wood 3. I don't like Wood that much 4. So, to be honest, Team A. I disagree. Norm is a below-average SG, I betcha. He's just not skilled enough. As I said before: he's a SF in a PG's body, which doesn't work out to being a SG. And there's no way in hell he can play any backup PG minutes. I think hoping that CJ can recapture his pre-injury form is much more reasonable than hoping that he can be traded and that Norm can replace him.
It's really important to note that Norm was the only player that Olshey was talking up during his press conference. It would be a disaster to give up Gary, who we had as a RFA, then talk about how great Norm fits here and then let him walk for nothing. I honestly think Olshey is planning on trading CJ and keeping Norm for around 20M per season.
his pre-injury form was a PER of 17.5, a league average TS%, a winshare/48 of .107, and a BPM of 1.2....oh! and crappy defense. So yeah, he can probably recapture that and Gary Trent replaced CJ and Portland did as well with Trent as they did with CJ. Powell can accomplish what Trent did
Obviously we disagree.... That's fine. However, I don't want Norm playing ANY backup PG minutes. I don't even want CJ playing backup PG.... I would LOVE to have a real backup PG on the team for once. Who was the last one -> Tim Frazier? Also, this last season was could statistically be considered CJ's best season ever. So I don't understand your sentiment about 'recapturing his pre-injury form'. CJ is who he is (and has been for the last 5+ seasons).
Same as at the time of the trade, I'm pretty indifferent on Norm. Good player and I think he added an needed dynamic to the team, but I wouldn't overpay for him (which in my mind would be anything over 14-15m per year). Think he's a bench player on a championship level team, besides in the most perfect of contexts alongside an elite big wing creator and 1-2 other high level guys.
I think Olshey knows his jobs on the line and that CJ is our most tradeable asset. The Lillard/CJ combo has ran its course and it’s not rocket science to see that combination won’t ever win anything
