Ayton options

I really don't care about any of that. Again, he can take the season off for all I care.

Either he's worth a first rounder or he's not. If he's not then I don't care about him.

Hopefully he'll change his tune when nobody offers him a contract and he has to sign an MLE deal... Then if that motivates him we might have some value on our hands.

 

You would think that....

 

Love of the game? Thrill of competition? That's why i played competitive soccer into my 50's.

 

Love of the game takes a hit when you play with chuckers who don't play defense. And when you know everyone is trying to lose. Especially after you've had a lot of success early in your career.

I'm not making excuses for him. I'm simply saying I don't care one way or another.

 

I think Portland would be very happy to take that trade even without getting the pick.

 

No chance ATL offers up a FRP in this deal.

From Portland end I'd happily do the deal without a pick, doubt Atlanta would be interested in that either.

 

what would you do if you were gm of the blazers? going after players vs. picks?

 

The former.

 

I'd see in the offseason, if we can't trade him anywhere, if he'd take a buyout. Maybe we can save a few bucks off of his deal. Would he take 30 instead of his 35 owed? Probably not, knowing him, but worth a shot. Stretched, at 30, he'd count 10 million against the cap for 3 seasons. But would save us an immediate 25 million dollars. If we were somehow able to ditch Grant this year for an expiring, I believe we'd be able to have a bit of cap space this offseason to try to gather assets and start to properly build.

Now, I absolutely hate the idea of dead cap space sitting there for 3 years. I'm just so tired of having him on my team at this point.

 

I don't see a reason to handcuff us for more years with him. In one year he is a big expiring. Maybe he could helps us get a FRP from a team wanting to unload a contract. That should be the way. In the meantime, make him a 15th guy on the rotation. If he behaves badly, start the punishment and get a few bucks back.

 

No question get picks but the problem is none of these worthless vets the Blazers have are worth any.

I'd just try to flip the vets for other teams worthless vets or other teams injured players and then the new guys at least wouldn't feel entitled to shots or minutes like Ayton Ant Grant.

 

Strategically the Blazers should certainly wait to the summer as maybe there is a trade possibility.

If we do a buyout, which I'm fine with, there is no need to stretch it. Just let it all sit on next year cap and then be gone for good. Stretching makes no sense as the Blazers are so far from competing now.

 

under the old CBA there would be a set-off if Ayton is bought out and signs with another team

he's owed 35.5M next season. Say the Blazer buy him out for 33M. And then say another team signs him for 7M. That 7M would be deducted from Portland's cap charge of 33M. So, the total hit on the cap would be 26M. But I'm not sure if this provision was contnued in the new CBA; probably, but it looks like Larry Coon is not going to udate his CBA FAQ....at least not on the link I have for his 2017 update

 

I'll have to look it up, but the offset isn't a 1 for 1 offset, unfortunately. There's some math involved, where it's a percentage of it, basically. X % + something or other

 

just looked at the 2017 CBA:



that minimum this season, is $1,862,265. Assuming around a 10% bump in the minimum next season, that would be around 2M. The way I'm reading that is if he signed for 7M, the difference would be 5M, and 50% would be 2.5M. So, if he was bought out for 33M; signed for 7M, the Blazers could deduct 2.5M more and save about 5M over his scheduled salary

that's if I'm reading the provision correctly and it didn't get modified in the new CBA

 

I don't believe it's been changed.
The other part with the set-off is if he is stretched, it only counts for the 1st season.

 

got it, so sell in the near-term, and don't get too fussy about pick return.