On his Hoop Collective podcast, Windhorst mentions that Portland may be in play for Lavine? 3 guard line up with Dame, Ant and Zach?
Why? Are we not interested in size or defense? Is that really where we would want to use our "flexibility"? I don't buy it for a second.
I would assume, like with bridges, that this is similar to how we always saw Dallas come up as a suitor for big free agents. Agents find another team with cap space to leak as a destination to increase the offer from their home team. And listing portland, with lillard and an obvious desire to compete, sounds better than saying Detroit.
Yeah, we won't get him. But I would if we could. Unlike some all-stars, this guy actually is a legitimate one. Why not take him? Haven't we been arguing that BPA is needed?
Is that what we've been arguing? It seems like a lot of us had been railing on Olshey for a decade about not understanding fit being important at all. You can't just have a bunch of great scoring small guards who can't play great defense and even if they could at their position are getting destroyed because they're forced to play out of position. I don't think LaVine would be a good player for us to get unless we were looking at a really good deal on a sign and trade of Ant... or if Ant is only looking for money that would make bringing him off of the bench a good idea. The fact that we have Dame, Ant, Hart and Nas if he could ever get healthy should make us very lukewarm on LaVine because it would take a lot of moves to maximize the value that we do have on the roster and integrate LaVine in a way that makes any kind of sense. LaVine would be a signing that Olshey would tout as something that puts us over the edge as a contender even though we would still have no forward play and be dominated by the size of our opponents night in and night out.
oh.Lavine just changed his representation last year. He is now a Klutch client too. As is Bridges. Move on.
Exactly! Every agent can see how desperate Portland is this summer and with their "perceived" cap space we're gonna see a bunch of big time players use Portland as leverage.
LOL: LaVine is eligible for a five-year, $200 million deal this summer if he re-signs with the Bulls. He wants to GET PAID, whether he gets a full max or not he ain't coming here, like some of you said just agents doin their thing
In the last 26 years, since 1996 the Blazers have only added 3 all stars; Roy, Aldridge and Dame. Getting a possible star in LaVine is most importantly what the Blazers need to do. Agreed this is likely agent driven to ensure max/super max contracts. But in theory if the Blazers could sign him I'd jump on the deal. He'd be the most talented teammate Dame has played with outside LaMarcus or myself. The Blazers desperately need talent and LaVine has that. If we bring him in the team could explore Ant sign & trades. But I'd be fine with a Dame/LaVine/Ant trio. With that lineup we actually might get some solid veteran minimum PF/SF types who see the possibility of a key starting role on a playoff winning team. Sort of how the Warriors got Otto Porter. Or if the guards with Nurk look good during the start of the season the team could send out draft equity to get a starting level forward. The Blazers don't have to complete their starting lineup right away in July.
So here's my rough attempt at how the Blazers get LaVine: 2022-23 Salary Cap - 122 million Dame - 42.5 Bledsoe - 19 - if cut before 6/25/22, only owed 3.9 Hart - 12 Little - 4.1 Winslow - 4.1 Johnson - 2.7 Louzada - 1.9 Brown - 1.6 Watford - 1.6 Holds Nurk - 18 Simons - 12 Dead Nicholson - 2.8 Draft Pick #6 - around 6 Total - 126.7 Move Bledsoe to another team by 6/25 and they can decide to cut him before 6/25 to save money. May have to throw in a 2nd rounder to entice the other team. Trade Winslow, Johnson and Louzada for possible 2nd rounders down the road. Those moves reduce the money by 27.7 Total now - 99 The Blazers recruit LaVine starting on 7/1 If he agrees to a deal, they can release Hart by 7/4, saving another 12 mill Total now - 87 122-87=35 Sign LaVine after Hart is cut They would have their current trade exceptions to add other players. Probably not gonna happen.
Using cap space renounces all trade exceptions. There's also minimum roster holds, even if you somehow found enough teams to take on those guys for nothing. Lavine's first year is $36.6 million. Unless he takes a discount to come here (doubtful), that still isn't enough money.
Probably not, but I have little doubt that Cronin will be a lot more creative than we were used to Olshey being. Olshey's moves were pretty predictable. I think Cronin will be a lot harder to figure out. He's a cap guy those dudes can get crazy. We'll see if its a good thing or not, but I'll be surprised if anyone gets close to predicting his moves this offseason.
Right, so you suggest we pay a THREE guard Dame/Ant/Lavine trio roughly 105-110 mil (Dame 42/Ant 20, Lavine 33-37) next season and more thereafter? LOL so its right back to a 3 guard offense with lousy D and little to no money left for anything else - did we learn ANYTHING from the last 5 years? If I was Chauncy I'd quit! and there is IMO NO chance of this happening
I'll take a shot: Trading for Jerami Grant will be the obvious big move (uncomfortable thinking about Cronin giving up a lot) Re-signing Nurk, Ant, and Ingles (Bonus for amounts Nurk-$16 million, Ant-$24 million, Ingles-$8 million) MLE will be used on one of Kyle Anderson, TJ Warren, or Otto Porter Jr Draft pick(s) will be updated when we know what pick we have.
This sounds like an Olshey offseason, straight forward with no surprises. Shit, the Grant idea might've started out from Olshey.