I think when making the trade, you have to evaluate the team as a whole, and look at what is worth something and what is not. Here are the facts that need to be addressed. A huge part of the Blazers salary cap for the next few years will be taken up by Roy's contract. If Oden ends up staying he will end up taking up a chunk, and then along with Lamarcus/Wesley's contracts, you will have over half of the salary cap (actually probably much more) taken up by players who for the most part, haven't been available to help the team, and may never be able to do so. Miller and Camby are coming to end of career. They are also some of the few pieces out of the rest of the team, that actually has trade value. Out of the whole team, the following guys have trade value: Miller, Camby, Aldridge, Batum, Mathews, Joel and possibly Rudy. Babbit still might have value because nobody has seen him play. All the rest of the guys, are simple throw in's at best, and none of them are going to bring you talent in return. So say we get to the point where Camby and Miller leave. Then our pool of players we can bring in talent left with shrinks even more. Since most of Portland's salary cap is tied up, that leaves free agency out the door. That means after they leave, we have to draft or trade to get players to come in. That would leave a scenario where you have to trade some of your talent base to get talent, which usually ends up with the team treading water, exchanging one strength for another. So that leaves the only way to build as through the draft, which is where we would be if we rebuilt anyhow. The difference being, getting something for Camby and Miller before the inevitable happening.
How is that standing up for himself? NBA players sign contracts and get traded. It's part of the game. If you don't like the game, don't sign the paper. It's like I feel really sorry for this guy and his 10 million plus dollars per year to have to "suffer" through such situations.
He's hurting his own trade value right now, and is coming out looking pretty petty. Dre, who is much more valuable to this team, and is actually fighting through his injuries, was the ultimate professional with the media dissing him from his start here. He has much more to gripe about, but he's keeping his mouth shut.
I don't get why people are seeing this as a negative. He wants to be here. He wants to stay badly enough that he is considering retirement if traded. He loves our team, our city, and our fans. He doesn't want to be a trade piece; he wants to be part of our team. I love his attitude.
It's positive that he likes it here. I guess the negative is that his implication is that he feels betrayed, which I think would be a rather unfair characterization. If that isn't what he's implying, then this doesn't apply.
He wants to be an NBA player with a no-trade clause. If his attitude (whether or not it's a positive in terms of the city) hurts his trade value, then I see it as a negative. I think Camby will be desired by teams that want him as a player, and not just a contract, so I believe him making this kind of noise is a negative. I think it is poor form for a team to criticize a player for leaving as a free agent, and I think it is poor form for a player to criticize a team that trades him. Ed O.
I'm not sure why people are so upset with Camby, he has a right to express his dissatisfaction ... just as much right as the team has of trading him. This is a non-issue as far as I'm concerned (even though it probably does put a small dent in his trade value).
I understand the whole "they get millions to play a game thing". He has been amazing for us on one hand, on another he has like 3 young kids and is getting tired of yanking them in and out of different schools. I was just looking at it from the personal side, not the business.
We've got Camby saying he really wants to be here and would rather retire than play elsewhere, and we've got Miller who says he doesn't care one way or the other. Personally, I prefer to have players who really want to be part of the team rather than disinterested mercenaries. Of course, the most important thing is that they can play well, which is why I like them both.
If he's tired of moving, he could always retire. It's not a matter of precisely how much he makes (or the fact that it's a "game," since I'm sure he works as hard as anyone else in most other jobs). It's that this is part of his job. It would be like a computer programmer continually taking programming jobs and then saying around the office, "You know, I wouldn't have taken this job if I knew I'd have to switch programming projects I'm assigned to." That's what the job entails.
He also would be ending up at a team that's at least at the level of the Blazers... a team like the Wizards, for example, don't need him. I'd guess, if he's moved, it'll be in concert with other moves, where the Blazers send value we receive (from a good team) to a worse team for expensive young veterans. Ed O.
I don't think he's criticizing the team at all. He's not saying the team is doing anything wrong, per se. All he's saying is that when he signed his extension, he did so with the intention of playing here for the full two years, and had he known that he would not be able to, he would not have made that choice. To me, it's nothing more than an honest hindsight-based evaluation of a prior decision.
Hopefully they do him a solid and trade him to Houston so he can at least go home. Maybe a deal with somebody like Patrick Patterson or Jordan Hill paired with Jared Jeffries and a first round pick for Camby and a second rounder?
How many times has this worked in the past? I can't think of many teams that have drafted a player that was largely responsible for winning a championship... can you?
BlazerFreeman Camby cont: "All this great stuff and (were) trying to woo us to stay here. That’s what I took it as. They really wanted me to be here..." 1 minute ago via web BlazerFreeman Camby cont:"It’s kind of funny how last year they were courting me to stay. (They) brought my wife out here, set her up to go to the spa.." 2 minutes ago via web
