it has already been said that powell will be one the most coveted free agents neil olshey knows he cant afford to lose powell, so we can expect him to overpay powell in order to keep him (luxury blazers have that other teams dont have)
Waiting for CJ to be traded. Neil has about one and one half days to do it; cuz if I am Powell I am not relying on Neil's promise to trade CJ.
how much have you heard about Lonzo Ball, Mike Conley, Demar Derozan, Dennis Schroeder, Oladipo, Tim Hardaway, Spenser Dinwiddie, Evan Fournier, Richaun Holmes, Derrick Rose, Goran Dragic, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Portis, Nic Batum, TJ McConnell....? all we have heard about any of them is stuff like their teams want to re-sign them or other teams may have interest. That's mainly because teams can not talk to other team's free agents yet...and the league office has been cracking down on any perceived interference. A lack of chatter up to now doesn't mean anything IMO....about any of these players. we'll start hearing lots of stuff Monday afternoon
You will find a ton of stuff regarding most of the players on those list, by reputable folks and guys in the know like Fischer. There are even numbers reported for some folks like Lonzo, Conley, Dinwiddie, Holmes, etc. etc.. Usually when their names are involved it includes multiple teams that are "interested". This seems to suggest that these guys are still on the market and haven't decided yet. Even though 6PM ET is the official time teams can start negotiating with free agents, everyone knows that free agency has already started. The lack of literally ANY news regarding Powell makes me believe he's already agreed to a deal. I don't know if it's the Blazers, all the reporting from the Blazers side are that Powell is their number 1 priority. But we have heard literally crickets in terms of rumors of any other team with interest in Powell or have Powell high on their list. You listing these players who have all been in the rumor mill just basically proves my point. I think the lack of chatter is definitely indicative. We'll see who is right on Monday.
Portland wouldn’t even be discussing a McCollum deal unless they knew they were signing Powell anyway.
I agree. Neil is super conservative. I do not think he would risk sending out McCollum if Powell wasn't already in hand. I think the Lowry domino needs to fall first before any McCollum deal is made as CJ is a backup plan for many teams.
but all you're seeing is speculation by bloggers and media types. Or GM's saying they want to re-sign their own free agents. Boiler plate pre-moratorium shit. I mean, we've seen speculation about Powell in NY or Dallas too. About how Thibs really likes Powell...and the Knicks have mucho cap-space. And for sure we've seen speculation that Powell will be one of the most coveted free agents. I've seen that nugget a dozen times. And we know that full-time SF or being CJ's backup is not a good situation for Powell by the way, I distrust Olshey so much I'm half-convinced that any rumor you see about Portland shopping CJ is just Olshey trying to convince Powell he'll end up the starting SG in Portland. And the other half is trying to convince Dame he's trying
Woj and Shams are not going to jeopardize their position by announcing deals that are completed already before the start of FA. Their role is to break the news when the teams/agents want the news to be broken. If you're following some of these "bloggers and media types", I think you'll see that some of them are clearly in the know and some are not. Their job is not to report deals, it's to propagate information. We're not talking about Stephen A. Smith here. By the way, with as cynical of a personality as you have, do you honestly believe teams are waiting until 3PM on Monday before they start talking to free agents? Literally each year there are contracts that are announced a minute after free agency has started. You think teams and players finished negotiating a contract in one minute? Get real.
LOL...ok. I'm "cynical", "naive", and need to "get real"...thanks for the instruction. I'm sure you have more labels in your label machine. Ironically, all those things mean I should just agree with you that Portland apparently has Powell all locked up by the way, what has Fisher said about Powell?
My reference to you being cynical was you implying that teams can't talk to free agents until free agency officially starts. I think that was fairly obvious. I don't care that you don't agree with me about Powell. I never said Portland had Powell locked up anyways, I said he may be off the table, and it may not be Portland.
you obviously are paying closer attention than I am. I mainly just check this forum. but again, I made a list of other free agents asking is there had been more chatter about them than Powell. If there hasn't been. wouldn't that indicate that they are as off the table as Powell?
Fischer has been on top of literally every thing he has reported this summer. Even called the Barnes to Toronto thing a week ago when everyone was saying that's Suggs' spot to lose. He's earned that credibility from me.
But there has been. That's the point. You can either read the following articles or just take my word for it. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...-on-cp3-the-lowry-domino-emerging-pg-carousel https://bleacherreport.com/articles...mmons-bradley-beal-andshai-gilgeous-alexander https://bleacherreport.com/articles...rgency-to-trade-talks-latest-ben-simmons-buzz https://marcstein.substack.com/p/point-guard-roulette https://marcstein.substack.com/p/talking-trades-and-the-cp3-blueprint
Stein and Fischer are on substack right now live talking FA/trade rumors. They think the Knicks are still waiting on Lillard but don't have enough.
https://dknation.draftkings.com/202...l-contract-player-option-trail-blazers-lakers https://www.nbaanalysis.net/2021/07...vericks-interested-norman-powell-free-agency/ https://nypost.com/2021/07/21/knick...medium=site buttons&utm_campaign=site buttons https://www.sportskeeda.com/basketb...cks-expected-pursue-norman-powell-free-agency this isn't intended to start a URL duel. Just googled to see if there was any chatter about Powell. There has been but maybe it's gone dark the last few days. I don't know and to be honest, I don't care because it doesn't mean much, IMO I hope you are right...that Powell has mad up his mind and it's Portland. I just don't put as much stock in the twitter/blogging tea leaves as you...but again, I don't really drink that tea
I'm mostly following Fischer and Stein. They have earned the credibility. The others have not. https://bleacherreport.com/articles...mmons-bradley-beal-andshai-gilgeous-alexander This article two days before the draft had: Utah shopping Favors and a first to get off his contract. Dallas wants to move Richardson. Pacers want to move Aaron Holiday Brooklyn trying to move Landry Shamet And literally all 4 were moved in the last two days.
