I really liked him as a basketball player but I always knew he wouldn't really fit in here. It's too bad he wasn't a bit taller... or had a better passing game, I suppose. I'm still on the fence because it really does depend on what we end up doing with the pick and future roster moves. This is one of the few polls I've seen that has a fairly even distribution of opinions.
I certainly would not, but I am not willing to say this trade was bad until we know what happened with it - including the pick/future trades. I liked JB a lot - but it seems that they think he is not a good enough backup PG or they are really happy with Armon or they have something else in the pipeline or they just did the right thing by him - allowing him to find a better place for his career.
We're on the same wavelength Ed. I really hate the "addition by subtraction" theory, and it's a fallacy to think that moving Bayless for peanuts equals getting Matthews. I'm also wondering why people think that Rudy suddenly wants to be here. What leads anyone to believe that? His play? That could just as easily mean that Rudy is trying to play his way out of town. Cho and his agent probably explained to him that sulking and poor play will keep his value low, which means he will be stuck in Portland longer.
My guess is as soon as Bayless found out he was the 5th guard off the bench he let management know he would like to be traded. Unlike Rudy he did it the right way plus Bayless was more expendable than Rudy. Rudy has something every team in the NBA needs which is obviously the ability to spread the floor. The acquisition of Mathews made Bayless expendable. Mathews does everything Bayless does but better and on top of that he has a better outside shot. Mathews gives us so many more options with his ability to play 3 positions.
What good is it going to do if we have a 22 year old player trying to figure out his game sulking on the bench behind players who deserve to be out there more?
What? What indicates he would have been sitting on the bench? And even if he is: he's 22. He might not help this year, but next year or the next. He was still on his rookie deal, after all. Cheap help. Ed O.
Fair enough. I think we agree here. The post you were quoting was me questioning whether it was "addition by subtraction" or not. Ed O.
The announcement that Johnson had moved ahead of him in the rotation. I think Quicky boy reported it.
I think I'd need to see a link for that. I remember something that said he was making progress, but I must have missed where anything said he was the backup PG ahead of Bayless. Ed O.
It was never anything formal. Jay Allen simply reported that Armon was wearing a black jersey and was exclusively practicing with the second unit during a practice and a lot of inferring ensued.
Bayless was moved for fair value, the pick and 2.3 mil trade exception could easily be nice pieces in another trade. I think there were not many teams who valued Jerryd's skill set, I think the majority of NBA teams in a trade would easily value the N.O pick over Jerryd.
This is basically the trade the Blazers have been trying to make with Rudy. Since I consider his worth roughly equal to JB's, I'm glad to see they got decent value for one of them at least. Should any good PG trades become available, a lottery pick is even easier to include than JB was.
This is wrong thinking. We didn't just have Matthews and Bayless - we had (before the Matthews signing) Bayless + Bayless Contract + some cap space/flexibility then we + Matthews +Matthews Contract giving us Bayless + Bayless Contract + Matthews + Matthews Contract (not a lot of cap flexibility) Now, we have Matthews + Matthews Contract + 1st rounder + $2.3 Mil Trade Exception (i.e. some cap flexibility) Basically, it's a trade of Bayless + Cap Space for Matthews + 1st rounder + Trade Exemption. To say it wasn't really a trade of Bayless for Matthews completely ignores all of the cap ramifications and the 1st rounder, which is not a good way to look at it.
