It's alright neil will match, then trade him for a TPE he can tell us all about how great of a piece that is just to not be able to use it.
UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH We still have Nicholson's $2.844 million on the books for 4 more seasons after this one. Then we paid Chicago to take Noah Vonleh when Shabazz Napier and Ed Davis both had actual trade value. The reason that matters? We let both walk that summer. So the Blazers could've actually gotten something to help them in the future and possibly even re-signed Vonleh for cheap (he signed for the minimum that summer) all while still ducking the tax. The whole reasoning behind getting under the tax was knowing that the tax was going to be an issue the following couple years and preventing the repeater tax from coming a year earlier. Fast forward to this season, we still have Varejao and Nicholson counting against the cap. The ironic thing is if those two weren't still counting they'd be under the tax line right now. Much like Vonleh we give away Skal but this time it doesn't even get us under the tax line. Similarly we hold on to the vet center Whiteside instead of trading him to save money instead. If the Blazers don't make the playoffs or let Whiteside or Ariza walk in the off season then they will have once again paid to get rid of a young big and lessened their roster without anything to show for it. Just a complete mismanagement of the cap and assets.
You say Napier and Davis had value, but they both had to settle for one year deals that summer. So, maybe they didn’t? Same idea with Whiteside. Detroit got what in return for Drummond exactly?
just as long as you're ranting, another factor glossed over in the Skal trade: teams only have a set limit of cash to trade each year. IIRC it's around 5M. That means Portland spent 40% of their available cash leverage moving Skal, and we all know the best time to have that cash leverage is around the draft. Go to town HJ!
I think it's the first sign business-wise that PA is gone. This isn't a knock on Jody it's her business she can do what she wants, but I think PA would have pushed Neil to do things differently. I don't believe they are acting with future flexibility, or how do we put the best team on the court.
But that doesn't explain why this summer in both big trades they added a bunch of money to their payroll (they'd be under the tax right now without those and probably not much worse off). PA was around when we dumped Vonleh to get under the tax too. If they wanted to get under the tax this year I would've totally understood. I just don't like saving money but not getting out of the tax and then wanting to let this team see if they can compete for the playoffs but not really helping them do so and trading away one of the group of players that still had untapped potential. Pick a lane!
1) There were plenty of teams looking for PG and big man depth for the playoffs that year. Both of their contracts were at worse equal to their production. They could've at least gotten a 2nd round pick for Davis. 2) The opposite is true for big men making $27 million. No matter what their stats most teams don't value those contracts that way anymore. Whiteside's value was almost exclusively because his contract was expiring, not because of the stats he puts up. If Portland bought him out right now he'd have every playoff team interested in signing him because it would only cost the minimum and they wouldn't have the trouble of matching contracts. Drummond had minimal value because Detroit was unwilling to trade him for salary next year. If Portland was willing to trade him (along with Hezonja) to Charlotte for MKG and Zeller thus taking on a contract for next year they likely could've gotten the Cleveland 2nd round pick from Charlotte for doing so (currently 32nd). Then you flip MKG for a smaller contract, say Felicio from Chicago that still has a year left and maybe a future pick or something and all of a sudden you're out of the tax completely and picked up a 2nd round pick. This isn't even going into options that were actually on the table had they been willing to listen. This was the way to actually save money, not having to pay for Atlanta to take Skal. Now you could argue that it would ruin our chances at the playoffs this year, but that goes back to my point that they now HAVE to make the playoffs and HAVE to keep Whiteside because otherwise they are basically a tax team for nothing. Jody couldn't possibly be happy with that outcome.
So before someone tells me I'm spreading misinformation or whatever... this is my unsubstantiated opinion, I'm allowed to have that... I think Jody was willing to spend when they appeared to be winning. I think as this season went on though that she's not a passionate owner like PA was, she's not really a fan of the game and understands the ebbs and flows and patience and all that. I think she's not going to have any patience with paying top dollar for losing.
Simons was MUCH worse in January than in the other months: Simons Stats sans January (calculated "by hand"): FG: 147/337 = 43.6% (Jan: 35.1%, Season: 41.5%) edit: CJ: 44.6% 3FG: 54/145 = 37.2% (Jan: 23.3%, Season: 34.0%) edit: CJ: 38.3% FT: 45/56 = 80.3% (Jan: 86.4%, Season: 82.1%) edit: CJ: 75% Ast: 55 TOV: 44 TRB: 102 MPG: 857 Games Played: 40 AST/36 = 2.3 TOV/36: 1.3 Reb/36 = 4.3 APG: 1.4 (Jan. 1.9, Season: 1.5) TOPG: 0.8 (Jan. 1.27, Season: 1.0) RPG: 2.6 (Jan. 2.3, Season: 2.5) +/-PG: -4.7 (Jan. -12.4) Summary: His FG% was much worse in Jan. His 3FG% was much, much worse in Jan. He turned the ball over much more in Jan. His +/- was crazy bad in Jan, normal for our sucky bench otherwise. Does this matter? I think so, for a 2nd year 20 year old. Of course, I freely admit to being a homer. After all, lots of players would look much better if you took out their worst month, but, again I think it makes more sense for Simons considering his age. Don't Give Up on Simons! edit: Non-January SHOOTING numbers comparable to CJ What the h-e-c-k happened to Simons in January? Sick? Played Injured? Hung out with ZBO and Lovin'? sources: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/simonan01/splits/2020 https://www.espn.com/nba/player/stats/_/id/4351851/anfernee-simons
I think that's pretty reasonable, except for the fact they knew Nurk was going to be out most of the year and that they were taking their time with him. Obviously the Hood and Collins injuries weren't planned for. As long as we're making unsubstantiated claims that's why I think Olshey was told to get out of the tax and failed and had to spin it that they wanted to keep Whiteside. I bet Jody was pissed that he couldn't get it done. It's a good thing for Olshey's sake that he signed an extension and Jody probably doesn't want to pay him to go away. It just doesn't make sense that she'd only want to save a little bit but not all.
I think that’s probably right. The rumor of discussions with Cleveland involving Whiteside and Bazemore for Love (with undoubtedly other pieces) would fit with that narrative. Cleveland would have had to eat way too much salary and tax.
The last few years, every bandwagon I jump on ends with the wheels falling off, the axel exploding, and I find myself in a ditch full of filthy water with a dead horse on top of me!
I really don't understand why you keep banging this drum. Has "we didn't have any way to keep Curry" not been posted enough times for you to comprehend that it was never an option to have Curry instead of Simons?
