I wonder if we will stretch his contract? We only have Nicholson on the cap for one more season after this one, so we need to get someone lined up to replace him.
Hard to know exactly until we see if Bledsoe was stretched and any unlikely incentives in Simons/Nurk contracts. There appears to be just about no cap space left, it may be hard to sign vet minimums or buyout guys during the season. The Blazers may send out assets to lower the current payroll and duck the tax. Trade opportunities are very limited due to the hard cap, as Dame and Hart are the only tradeable contracts. There will be less trade restrictions in December, but still many hard cap restrictions until July 2023.
Expirings don't seem to have as much value anymore. Not just with the Blazers. Teams are going to have to make sure, when they give out a nice contract, they really want that player to be a part of their future.
Yeah back in the day an expiring contract could've been a golden ticket.... But a part of the lesser value of expiring contracts now is the 2016 CBA change; previously EB contract could've been traded for a $15-25 million player then cut giving that team immediate cap relief. That loophole was eliminated. Now its much more difficult to trade the player, as the team acquiring needs to absorb his full salary, but the Blazers only get credit to match the guaranteed amount.
We have never taken advantage of one. There was the Raef LaFrentz contract. I think there was another one that was highly touted as being valuable as well. We never use them.
What do you think we could have got for him? The only thing I could think of is moving him into SA's capspace and offloading a second or something.
We always knew that if Simons and Nurk were re-signed there would only be room to use one of the TPE or Bledsoe’s contract. Obviously, the TPE was the easier to use.
You make a good point on Blazers history of expiring contracts. I looked at the Blazers cap the last 20 years, I don't see any example of a significant expiring contract used to acquire a player so the other team saves salary. Rasheed and Gerald Wallace were traded on expiring deals, but they were traded primarily for their worth as a player, not value as an expiring contract. People talked about the Meyers, Turner, Crabbe, Harkless contracts at the least one day having value as expiring deals. We flipped Turner for Bazemore, Crabbe for the still on the cap until 2024 Nicholson, Meyers and Harkless for Whiteside. So yes they were traded, but for a whole lot of irrelevancy. Expiring contracts have the most trade value at the trade deadline. But also as few teams now are using cap space to build a contender, the contracts have even less value than before.
No both could've been used even with Simons and Nurk. Yes the TPE was easier to use, but the Blazers could've easily given a small asset to Detroit to use Bledsoe contract, and used the TPE to add a starting forward. However the Blazers wouldn't have been able to give GP2 more than the tax MLE. The Blazers either don't believe those small assets needed to bring in another well paid forward was worth the cost, or they picked only using one of the TPE/Bledsoe deal simply to save cash. Recent history suggests its more of the latter.
I think the plan is to use Hart to obtain another big. Adding Payton and keeping Hart doesn’t make much sense.
Let's see....checks list....welp one thing people said to wait on ended up doing exactly what we thought it would. It was not a part of the Pistons deal. Thereby, making our current roster more and more likely what we will have with minor tweaks going into the season.
Was hoping we would at least squeeze him into the grant trade. I'm just frustrated after months of being told that Clipper deal was not that bad because we had the bledsoe contract
Maybe trading for massively overpaid players on the north side of 30, in their 13th or 14th year, isn't going to net you much in return, outside of cap relief.
A big like OG? Sounds like even giving up Sharpe with him isn't enough for Toronto. If this was going to happen it seems like it would've happened now. All the main players have agreed to deals. Hart can play SF, and people talk about Payton even slotting in at PF. So Cronin said he would prefer to move away from the 3 guard lineup, most of us just didn't expect that mean we are moving to a 4 guard lineup.
