How did Roy screw the team over by signing with MIN? We amnestied him. He didn't count against our cap space, regardless of what happened in MIN. If he screwed anyone over, it was MIN. He cost them $5.1 million in salary and cap space and then played in only 5 games before he re-retired. I think you must be thinking of Darius Miles. When he signed a couple 10-day contracts with MEM and appeared in 10 games, it invalidated his medical retirement and his salary went back on our books for both that year and the next. BNM
You guys are right and wrong. He didnt screw the team over because we did amnesty him. But we could only partially insure his contract, so by him playing, paul allen ended up shelling out more money. http://www.csnnw.com/article/brandon-roys-return-nba-would-cost-trail-blazers-17-million
So, he partially screwed over Paul Allen and put a minor divot in his net worth, but he didn't screw the team over. That $17 million did not count against the cap or the luxury tax and Roy wasn't taking up a roster spot. So, nothing he did with MIN cost the team a chance to sign or trade for other players. That's the whole point of the amnesty provision. And I do wonder if insurance still ended up paying that $17 million. I suppose we'll never know, but it be hard to argue that Roy wasn't permanently disabled after again being forced to retire just five games into a 2-year contract. It's not like Roy had a healthy and successful comeback. The exact same medical disability that forced him to retire in the first place was still there. Playing 20 MPG for 5 games didn't change that. BNM
This was talked about over and over years ago in this very forum. http://www.sportstwo.com/threads/our-hero-brandon-roy-cost-pa-17-mill.243741/
Yeah just read through all five pages of that and no clear answer to how much insurance did, or didn't pay. Bottom line, Paul new the risk when he gave Roy that contract. He knew there were serious problems with Roy's knees, serious enough the bulk of the contract was uninsurable. If that's not a huge red flag, I don't know what it. But, Paul elected to sign the contract anyway. He knew the risks and chose to accept the risks. It cost him (maybe) $17 million of his his many billions. He's made worse investments. But again, because Roy was amnestied, it didn't hurt the team, only Paul Allen's bottom line. BNM
Yes, that is what I also had said. It could theoretically have hurt the team because Paul Allen may not have wanted to shell out additonal money on things. But never in the salary cap sense. We were going to let him retire medically, then decided to amnesty him so we would not have had the same thing happen to us as the Miles fiasco. I believe Allen was one of the biggest proponents in the 2011 cba agreement pushing for another amnesty rule.
That's why I commented on the Roy/Lillard comparison. PA took the unwise risk for the same reason there's so little chance of moving Lillard to improve the roster. Portland fans are too emotional. As a group, we cannot accept the idea of getting a player's best years and then making a lateral move when the time is ripe. It would be one thing if we got lucky occasionally like Dirk or Duncan, but we ride that decrepit horse into the ground.
We're not a free-agent destination, so we haven't seen any significant team upgrades there. We don't have many valuable pieces to trade outside of Dame and CJ. (And I'm not a fan of trading either of them.) We're all hoping we can trade multiple mediocre talented players for an established star. Not much of a chance of that happening. Our best way of controlling our future is to draft smart and build for the long term. At least we have 2 first round draft choices for this year. Let's hope we don't panic and make another Afflalo type trade and mortgage our future for minimal current gain. I say let it continue to bake even if it is a bit burnt. Patience. Although this team is grossly over-paid, we've got a lot of young talent that has quite a bit of upside.
Well, depending on how much you think of Harkless, you either deserved to be put on blast or else you were completely right. Actually, both could be true.
In retrospect extra cap-space proved to be mostly an illusory asset that summer. Didn't we go after Hedon't? Who did we miss out on in free agency?