Exclusive Ayton is agreeing to buyout

Wow… good for us!

 

Question. Once this is final, can we then sign Walker?

 

We could have anyways.

 

Kemba Walker?

If you mean Jabari Walker - that has nothing to do with Ayton.

Jabari qualifying offer was only about $3 million I believe so Blazers either plan to not bring him back (my guess) or think they can sign him for less.

 

I thought we were full on roster spots?

If that's the case, I think after waiving Ayton, they bring Walker back. Especially if they believe they will be also moving Grant. I thought Walker played well with Clingan at the end of the season last year and we are light on PG’s right now.

 

Pretty surprising it was such a large salary forfeit. This makes it pretty clearly a smart decision.

What if Ayton signs for full MLE of 14 million - then we'd save about $16 million off the cap or so?

 

The 15 man roster limit isn't until October.

Qualifying offer that Blazers didn't give to Walker has nothing to do with roster limit either.

 

In the offseason you can go over the 15 roster spot limit, just need to be down by the regular season or thereabouts

 

Gotcha. Thanks guys!

id def bring him back at 3 mill then.

 

Fischer just said the Blazers are gonna take the full MLE into the season to use as a TPE. So presumably we’re not going to use it now.

 

Fischer said Ayton to the Bucks maybe

 

Agreed. It is pretty unusual for someone to give up that money.

Wish we would have done the same with Simons.

 

What a joke. Imaginary cap space.

 

Ayton approached the Blazers to do this. Doesn't sound like Simons did.

Ayton also had a much larger contract and was more difficult to trade. Perhaps that was communicated to Ayton agent and led to the offer.

Also not clear that Simons would have large MLE offers available for him. So perhaps it wouldn't have made sense for him to give back as much.

 

Sources say sources are sources

… source: source, bro

 

I'd much prefer this to handing out another stupid vet contract - which is about all that Cronin has done as GM in free agency.

 

Come on Nate...who in this FA period right now is worth throwing the $14M at that fits a need? Kennard MAYBE? We have young guys at every spot we've finally opened up all the playing time for. Why not keep that in our pocket to use during the season. We need to see what JG brings back to the roster and then use the MLE to address any weaknesses from there (if we need to use it at all).

 

We have heard this song and dance before. They won't use the money.