I'll defer to you then because I'm not an interstate tax expert. Let's say for the sake of argument that this isn't a factor at all, there's still multiple reasons why Portland is in the second and third tier.
I think you're underestimating how much money he's going to get this summer. Most of the top free agents are restricted, and practically every team will have cap space burning a hole in their pockets. Whiteside is going to get maxed, and I suspect there will be a significant courting process, not unlike what happened with LMA. It's not often that a 26 year old center of his caliber is an unrestricted free agent.
Spare me your sanctimonious bullshit. You didn't address what I said directly because you probably lack the mental acuity.
I'm not underestimating anything. I just recognize a horrible argument when I see one. And his argument.... was horrible.
How so? He has history on his side. When was the last time we signed a marquee free agent while competing head to head against other teams? Nik said the following: Point #1 He'd make the same here as anywhere else - this is true. Portland can't offer any more money than a lot of other teams this summer, and if you count local endorsements, it might be less. Point #2 The Blazers are sub .500 - this is also true. Right now we're not even in the playoff picture, so it's not like we can offer a chance to play on a contender. Point #3 Tiny market - According to this website, we are the 22nd ranked television market. 18 of those 21 cities above us have NBA teams. http://www.stationindex.com/tv/tv-markets Point #4 Dreary weather - This is also true. According to this list of cities, Portland has 164 days of rain per year. The only cities with more on this list are Buffalo, NY and Rochester, NY. https://www.currentresults.com/Weather/US/average-annual-precipitation-by-city.php Point #5 Few marketing opportunities - this is in regards to local endorsements, not something like Adidas. I guess you can count that one Wilsonville Toyota commercial........ or Standard TV and Appliance, but are you going to compare local endorsements to a place like NY or LA? Point #6 - Half your games when the rest of the country is asleep - this is a point that's constantly brought up by the media.... Hell, Stephen A Smith was lamenting the fact that Oden and Durant were both going to be banished to the NBA version of Sibera.
Chandler Parsons is probably the best we can hope for this offseason in signing a guy to the team through free agencym. Just hope really hard lillard and him because as good of buddies as it was alluded to during team USA tryouts
Interesting points but I'd throw in that teams over the luxury tax that are strapped re-signing multiple max contract guys in fact do not have as much money to spend as the Blazers.
http://www.basketballinsiders.com/nba-am-who-should-have-serious-2016-cap-space/ We aren't even the team with the most cap space this summer.
no, we're not but we have 30mil over the best teams in the league and if some of those teams extend players, we're in really good shape with no toxic contracts
My $.02 The league has changed a lot recently. Guys like LeBron take their talents to South Beach and then he took his talents back to Cleveland. In between, Cleveland did the kind of things that the Blazers have done - built a good young core with a couple of superstars to complement him. The Blazers have Dame and CJ and boatloads of cap space. In the Miami and Blazers' situations, the superstar FA can basically craft his own team.
Since you put some time in to this, I'll repond. 1- no one is arguing the fact that we can't offer him more money (He only pointed that out in his edited version). 2- that's the most one sided, pessimistic view on our teams record. I don't think I need to paint the whole picture. Our team is clearly moving in the right direction way faster than anyone thought possible. Maybe whiteside thinks he could be the missing piece? He plays with a chip on his shoulder, and it's growing bigger, especially as his role in Miami gets smaller. 3-so by that math, we're the 19th smallest market out of nba cities? "Tiny" was way off for describing that. 4- he grew up between the Carolinas, and New Jersey. I doubt he's too concerned with a little rain in portland (they travel a lot for work in the nba). And just to refresh your memory, greg Monroe chose Milwaukee because he thought he had a good chance to win. 5- that is an outdated argument, and its becoming more irrelevent as time goes on. It's 2016. Internet. Social media. Billionaire owner. Damian lillard. And one important factor. What makes you think hassan whiteside is so concerned about his marketing opportunities in portland, that it would make him not sign here? 6- Half the NBA is in the western conference..... then you brought up that soap opera star Stephen Smith.
Monroe also chose Milwaukee because it was closer to his hometown on the east coast. Which is a common theme with some guys. West coast guys we have a higher chance with, but then they'd still choose gs, lac or Lal over us.
What caliber is Whiteside in your opinion? He hasn't seemed to have offensive skills the few times I've seen him play, and all the stats I've seen seem to say that he doesn't even make a positive impact on defense or rebounding.
There's no chance of him going to gs, or lac. If he was trying to argue that LAL have a better chance of signing him? Ok, I'll buy that.
What? I'm not talking about Monroe signing on the west coast. I made reference to Monroe choosing mikwaukie too, because he is an east coast guy abs it's closer to his home. I'm saying west coast guys would likely choose Lal, lac, or gs if they could over Portland. Like derozan this summer. Id see him likely wanting lal if he wanted to go home to Cali, not us. Same with spencer hawes, he chose lac, instead of us.
I mis-read that second part. I thought you were talking about west coast teams, as possible destinations for whiteside. I agree with what you said about hometowns though. But since he grew up on the east coast, I was confused about the references to gs, lac, and lal.
I think we could have a chance signing Whiteside. But I'm not a Whiteside fan. Portland will never sign a LeBron James or Kevin Durant to join us. But I don't see it out of the realm of possibility to sign a Hassan Whiteside or Chandler Parsons tier player. We kind of have in the past, like Andre miller, Brian grant, even Derek Anderson when he signed for less than he could have gotten elsewhere. Even though he ended up sucking ass.
Who was the last 1st tier FA that signed here? Jamal Crawford? Andre Miller? Those guys aren't max players or first tier. Wes? Wasn't a coveted player or first tier when signed, signed inexpensive deal that turned out to be a bargain contract. Brian Grant? Most likely the last real good FA signing we had. And Of course Rod Strickland. Not a real good history. We've had good teams with great young players before and weren't able to attract top free agents, I see no reason for that to change. And not that I don't want it to change, I'd love a change! But it's one of those things where I'm going to have to see it to believe it.
Here is a list of FAs last summer and where they ended up. Almost none of the elite players signed elsewhere.