Consider it the same as paying for the rights to some extra cap space ... I'm guessing it's needed in order to pull off a trade that will be announced after next year's salaries kick in, when we can do a lopsided deal. Call me crazy, but I think we're trading Cunningham, Claver, Blake and Outlaw for Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich.
Did the Blazers work out Pendergraph? I don't remember if we did or not.. and the same with Cunningham. Was Cunningham ever here? Just wondering.
That would be crazy. Hinrich/Bayless Roy/Rudy/Webster Deng/Batum/Webster LMA/Pendergraph (possibly Deng in a small lineup?) Oden/Przybilla. I like it a lot.
It's a gamble. If he's healthy and hasn't lost anything to injuries, he was a tremendously promising young player. A very good all-around talent who played defense. Portland would be adding an impact talent for pennies on the dollar in terms of talent sent to Chicago. If he's permanently declined then Portland loses. It all depends on the medical evaluations and scouting evaluations.
Deng is overpaid by Chicago even if he comes back as good as he was before the injuries... He is not a player you want to be paying $14m in 3 years from now.
He's overpaid if he only comes back to what he was in 2006-07 and stays there for the rest of his career. By return to form, I meant he fully regains his abilities which, IMO, suggested superior performance than he showed in his age-21 season. Even if he only returned to his 2006-07 numbers and didn't improve at all over them, I don't think overpaying him to add a young 19 PER small forward with good defense would be a terribly bad thing. That would basically be a younger Caron Butler.
Deng looks like Iggy with less offense to me. Nice player to have at $8-10m per, ugly at $14m. If we get him - I promise to love him and sing his praises around the interweb!
To me he seems like a larger version of Iguodala. A near 19 PER at age 21 speaks to pretty high level talent, and PER doesn't consider most of a player's defense and Deng's defense seemed pretty strong to me when I watched him play. Of course, if he's regressed permanently then acquiring his contract would be pretty ugly. To me, getting Deng should be a last resort...if Portland can't use their cap space to get someone like Sessions or another good player, I wouldn't mind using it on a gamble like Deng.
Re: Claver is Portland's Pick (MERGED) Cost dollars, saved cap space. Since it's not my money, I'm satisfied with that swap since the cap space could help the team's chances to acquire a free agent or make a financially lopsided deal.
