Just gonna throw this out there.... Spencer Hawes...... a NW native...... a WHITE guy....... spurned us to sign with the Clippers to be a bench player.
Portland does not have a reputation for having a strong black community. When, for all intents and purposes, a local white kid doesn't even pick Portland..... well...... that's not a good sign. AND we had the better team at the time..... AND he would have fit Stotts' system perfectly.
Interesting question, actually. Where is a "destination" for marquee free agents? Not LAL. Not Boston. Chicago, mayyyyybe?!?!? Maybe, there is no such thing any more? And, if everyone's special, then no one is!
There's always a certain amount of benefit of the doubt for warm weather markets, with low state taxes and/or teams on the cusp of being a contender or who already are. Texas and Florida stands out, and I wouldn't count out the Lakers for long.
Interesting. LAL fans have pointed out that they haven't signed a signed a significant FA in a very long time (yes, they're salty). The conventional wisdom now appears to be that players don't have to sign in LA to live in LA. Like LMA, they'll just buy a house there and visit when they want.
It's always going to be difficult for us to sign top tier free agents. If there wasn't a salary cap, I'm willing to bet Paul would go nuts, but there is..... so his wealth has been diminished as a factor.
The state tax thing is always blown out of proportion because these guys have to pay taxes on the income made in the states they play in. So a Lakers player pays tax on income made playing against the blazers at the moda
I think a lot of that was Kobe being a piece of work, and on the cusp of retirement. If they can clear enough space to sign two marquee players AND draft someone like Simmons, I suspect they'll be back on top.
The Texas and Florida teams have an advantage, no doubt. Enough to not even consider PDX? IDK. I have gone on record as saying Minny will never win a championship, just for the reasons you suggest (but that was before the crazy Love trade and the drafting of Towns).
Again that is also blown out of proportion. It would be taxed to whatever their residence is. Just make your residence texas. You don't have to play for a texas team to make you residence texas.
That still doesn't let Portland off the hook as a generally unattractive free agency landing spot. Sure there are always multiple factors at play, but being small, extremely white, and tucked away in the far reaches of the country all make it tougher to sell playing here for the big name guys that can basically pick and choose where they want to go. We'll always have a shot at some of the sloppy seconds, but that's not what's being discussed here.
Not at all, I'm just not going to entertain half baked "arguments". He clearly didn't (and probably has yet to) look at his argument through an objective lens before he posted it. It's not my job to hold your hand, and help you realize why your argument had no substance. Especially about hassan whiteside of all people... you act like I was talking about lebron james.