Make the choice (Re: cap space)

Do you call the bluff of Batum's agent or do you let him walk and focus your attention on stealing away Eric Gordon from the Hornets?

 

Eric is a restricted. Would be nice but like Hibbert. Will probably be matched.

 

Depends on the price ... Under 9 million I'd match, over 11 I'd let him walk ... between 9 and 11 million I'd have to think about it.

 

doesn't have to be one or the other. We just need Gordon to sign our offer sheet a minute or so before Batum signs his. I can get behind Gordon, but the injuries scare me, and I think it's not worth it, ultimately.

 

I think a 4year/$44m offer will be enough for the new owner of the Hornets to let him bolt.

 

Tom Benson will spend what he has to spend (within reason) to make the team competitive

 

He supposedly turned down 4/51. No way he finds the best offer to be 4/44, IMO.

 

He was unhappy with the trade (being lied to by the Clippers; Hornets in early stages of rebuilding) had a lot to do with that. Early reports when the trade happen was that he and Kaman were absolutely miserable being in New Orleans.

But I was unaware of the exact offer -- To get him you're going to have to overpay.

 

Gordon is injury prone. I would take Batum over him every day

 

If we draft Beal or Lamb then I doubt we go after Gordon. Instead they would focus on a PG free agent.

I doubt his agent is bluffing. He is going to take the first GOOD offer. Batum is not worth over 10 mill a year though.

 

Again I say, Nico may not get a 'good' offer, as his angry agent defines it. We'll see.

I kind of doubt Batum is in the first tier of free agents, those who will receive big offers on day one. Is he? The posters here certainly don't think he is worth it. Since we all know more than player agents and NBA general managers....

 

I don't see any way Nic doesn't get a good offer. By stats and by PER he is one of the top SF in the NBA. 7th in scoring and 8th in PER. I don't want the team to overspend on Nic because I personally don't feel SF is a very important position for this particular team. However, he is far and away one of the top tier FA's on the market this summer.

 

I'v been trying to talk myself out of overspending on Nic but I keep coming back to several key issues. 1) His age 2) His ability to defend/play multiple positions 3) the fact he has never been used correctly in all his time here.
Even if we overspend on him some team will take him off our hands in a trade later. There is no way Barnes will have close to the impact defensively that Batum has, offensively they will be a wash unless Batum suddenly starts attacking the rim consistently. Letting Batum walk for nothing so we can attempt to pry a RFA away from another team is imo a horrendous act that will leave us without a starting SF and our best defender, a move that screams we don't want to win but would rather waste LMA prime rebuilding through the crap shoot that is the draft. Yet if we overpay him and he stops developing we have a huge paycheck hanging over our heads for the next 4 years.
I'm really torn on this one.

 

What does Nico's angry agent think is a 'good offer' again? Posters here think Nico's angry agent wants him to be 'overpaid'. By inference, 'good offer' = 'overpaid'. Is some team really going to come out on day one and 'overpay' Nicolas Batum?

I have been and continue to be a big Batum fan. I want the Blazers to keep him. I don't give a rip if Paul Allen 'overpays' him (as defined by posters on this board) -- so long as the team has an opportunity to take care of other signings first.

So yeah, I'm a little worried about how this could play out. The idea that his angry agent would take the "first" "good" offer without shopping around still seems like a poor way to represent Nico's best interests to me.

 

With season ticket sales down Larry Miller said that they are "dreaming big" this off-season.

As in, sleeping on the job.

 

My thoughts exactly. I was listening to the radio and some GM stated Batum has a worth of $8-9 million.

 

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Oops, I mean, sounds like a 'good offer' to me. But I'm not his angry agent. Oops, I mean someone tell his angry agent that offer is ridiculously low. Hopefully his angry agent rejects that offer, giving us time to take care of business.

 

His worth is 8-9 million due to potential, but his actual performance is more like 6-7.

 

Was it? If you look at the players surrounding him in stats and PER, they are all 10+ guys.