"Stifled in the Blazers' offense" LOL Batum only had a zillion chances to assert himself offensively. The stifling is between his ears.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't Chris and Dame have an odd couple like friendship? It's bothered Lillard in the past that each year his best buds get traded. Keeping Chris may be to keep Lillard happy and the locker room upbeat.
I also think they are keeping Kaman to mentor the young bigs and I would not be surprised if Portland needed to terminate Kaman to get additional cap space then they would hire Kaman as a coach for the young bigs.
Lets just id rather have meyers and Vonleh get all his minutes and win 28 games rather than win 30 giving those minutes to kaman. My view is EXACTLY like neil olsheys. We arent good enough to compete, so rebuild. Or recalibrate
Problem with Kamen mentoring the bigs he has has shown attitude problems in a few organizations that he has played with. In the words of Kamen himself, Stotts is the first coach he didn't hate by season's end (something like that). I'm afraid what kind of mentoring he will give the young bigs. He is an expiring contract and could be used in a trade . . . also I like the point about him and Lillard being close as being a reason to keep him . . . because Kamen doesn't seem to have much value as a player this year and isn't exactly a "company" guy. Seems like releasing him and taking another chance on a young player would have fit what the Blazers are doing this year.
Play Kaman = lose. Play Leonard and Vonleh = lose, but develop them into players who might win in the future. Seems like an easy choice to me!
Seriously?? Okay so the thread topic is valid and I was wondering myself, but the reasons for keeping Kaman? This is asked of forum vets that post in so many other threads where this has been gone over and dissected with a fine tooth comb, and yet it takes a brand new member with his 17th post who basically repeated what was said in so many other threads, to have the answer? How does this get two pages of debate on why the fuck would you keep Kaman? Whether you agree with it or not, the guy has been a big influence on Meyers and has the potential to continue to do so to the rest of the new young bigs. There are a couple reasons to keep him. Potential trade, and mentoring/coaching. Are we really this short of memory that we beat the same thing over in every other thread as if it was never discussed before? Id understand if it were just a bunch of newbies like myself, lol, but vets? Come on, lets get more creative than this for everyone's sake please? I'd like to know this. If you don't want to keep Kaman, who would you replace him with that can provide what he can provide? And don't say he doesn't provide anything or your just blind. Kaman is big man insurance in case we have more injuries, and given Portland's history... that's not completely out of the realm of possibilities, is it? He will provide a great "In Game" leadership to the young bigs, constantly getting in their ear, keeping them positive, steering them in the right direction while on the court. Off the court and in practice, he is essentially another coach who can help split the bigs up for more one on one type of work. Plumlee and Meyers going up against Kaman in practice wont help them improve speed, but it will absolutely help them continue to learn positioning and so many other little things that Kaman does know well. If the Blazers are to exceed the public's expectations, like I believe them to, Kaman is an intricate part of that. Because it will be Meyers and Vonleh and Plumlee that will need to improve for the bigs, and I see Kaman helping to make that happen. Can we give the guy a break? He fits in well locker room wise , Dame likes him, Meyers idolizes him, we can always use an end of bench backup center with vet knowledge and in today's nba, he really isn't that expensive. He is now the oldest vet leader on the team, and with his drive, I don't see that as a bad thing at all. Those are the reasons why the fuck we would keep him and I think NO feels the same.
Last season, Kaman gave 100% and played very well, he was doing it all, until about the first of the year. Then his production dropped off and did not rebound. The same thing happened to his production the season before playing for the Lakers. Also, the last two seasons, his stats show he plays much better at home than on the road. My thought is, he wears down about mid-season due to his age, size, minutes played, traveling, and the amount of effort he puts out at the beginning of the season. The answer maybe to give the young bigs “some” of Kaman’s minutes to keep him fresh all season. Also, giving Kaman more rest on long road trips would help him be more productive all season. Kaman was a big part of last season’s fast start. He still has a lot of game left, but Stotts needs to watch his minutes and give him a few games off during the season to rest.
I think the problem is, once he gets some DNP-Coaches Decisions, will his old attitude resurface? Will he finally hate Stotts like he hated everyone else? Will he still want to help the bigs get minutes over him?
go for it. One of the reasons to keep him has been well documented. For potential trade.... Unfair assessment of last year. He wasn't brought in to be a starter, but when Rolo went down he had his minutes increase. We all watched the same games and know what happened. Why is this all of a sudden forgotten like it didn't exist? NO ONE that I know of is saying he is going to be a contributor on the stats sheet., but he holds more value than that alone.
I believe Kaman will start the season off very strong, and make a positive impact on the stat sheets, just like he made a strong positive impact start the past two seasons. However, depending on how he is used, will dictate how long into the season he will make a positive impact. There is a well documented two season pattern here that Stotts can learn from, and use to the teams advantage. Kaman can be both a mentor and a productive savy vet for a few minutes per game.
If the plan is to trade Kaman (did Olshey tell you something?)? Then play him at the start of the season. He will start the season strong like he always does and make a positive impact, which will increase his trade value. Then trade him before he wears out around mid-season and his trade value drops. However, this roster is in great need of savy veteran leadership. He will help to settle down the nursery.
Olshey's mysterious plan must be brilliant, so I see I am needed to decipher it. My calculations show that Vonleh has things to learn, and will not see many minutes until midseason. In contrast, Kaman's metrics are such that he excels in the first half of the season. Therefore, it follows that Kaman and Vonleh complement each other. By the Midseason Deadline our winning will be unstoppable. Olshey will trade Kaman for some inevitable great like Montero, the perfect NBA player because he won't take minutes in his first 4 seasons from stars like Leonard, Plumlee, Davis, and Farouq.
