Kobe on our team = championships. If it happened I would be basking in our success while others "couldn't stand to be Portland fans because of one guy."
I don't know...the reason I think most talk about K*be (and I'll lump myself in this one), is that KP's been targeting 2009 cap space since before the Zach trade. He's known who has ETOs, who's going to be UFA's, and who the RFAs are. There really isn't an ETO option for us other than maybe Boozer aside from K*be. I'm not saying there's more than a 10% chance, or that we won't have better trade options than that, but you kind of have to like POR's chances if we can keep the team together and sign a max player.
Uh...why would Kobe leave LA? Does anyone have a good explanation why Kobe would leave the best team in the NBA right now?
Best hurry up and get Butler before the asking price goes up. In tonight's 24-point win over Golden State, Butler put up the following stat line: C.Butler 37:49 MIN 13-19 FG 3-4 3FG 6-7 FT 8 REB 6 AST 3 STL 2 TO 35 PTS BNM
really? I think they'd go for the "troubled past, overcame difficulty" sort of fluff piece. Loving the Blazers is "in", with or without Butler the Oregonian will want to work with the Blazers. Maybe in a few years if things go south Chicago style on the Baby Blazers we'll see them revert to their Jail Blazer reporting, but not yet.
We had a bunch of douchebags on our team in 2000, but nobody cared because we were winning. If Caron Butler helps us win, nobody will care about how many times he got arrested 15 years ago.
I don't know about that... Butler doesn't have that kind of rep like if the Blazers were to bring in an Artest, or a Ruben-type player. The O piled on the team back in the day because the team was losing, and it was losing with hooligans like Ruben and Bonzi. Getting Butler here would be awesome though if KP made that happen. He could play a little point forward, and take pressure off Roy on ballhandling duties. He's certainly 100x better at dribbling than Martell or Travis are.
Vince Carter might be an interesting option, the Nets aren't going anywhere and he has longer term salary (they want to get rid of). But it's actually only two more years (with the last a TO). I'm not sure he'd fit great on the blazers (neither him or Roy have learned how to play w/o ball at all), but in a three way we could get in on his value somehow (by sending cap relief in the form of Raef). Nets fans are loving him though and think Vinsanity is back, and he's been playing hard for the better part of two years now... Shaq's been on record as wanting to play with him bad before... POR IN: Nash, Diaw POR OUT: Lafrentz, Blake, Outlaw, Frye, Bayless PHX IN: Blake, Frye, Bayless, Carter PHX OUT: Nash, Diaw NJ IN: Outlaw, Lafrentz NJ OUT: Carter
it would take more than just Raef's contract, Outlaw and a mid/late 1st round pick....If Butler is to be traded...they are obviously looking to rebuild...which means better draft picks and young top talent in return....so unless the talk include Bayless, Batum or Rudy in a combination with Raef's contract along with a COUPLE 1st round picks....I think Butler will go elsewhere
Ok, let me say that I'm a fan of Caron Butler. As for the talk of character, he is a great example of a person who was able to change his life. He's been clean and a solid character person for many, many years. As far as his talent level is concerned, let's not think GM's will undervalue him. Look at the numbers he put up last year as the leader in Washington with Arenas sidelined. For fantasy purposes, he rates out to a FIRST ROUNDER pretty much any way that you slice it. He's the real deal on both the offensive and defensive ends. The bigger question is what Washington is going to do. They just committed $100+ million for Arenas this off-season and a bunch more to Jamison. They need to get fans in the seats and win now. Regardless of their current record, it's hard to imagine them shipping out arguably their best player for prospects and to save money. They want to win playoff series, and now! But maybe this does have legs to it. If they dump a lot of salary and get back some valuable prospects, then maybe they tank this season and do it (although there is seemingly no difference-maker player available in the next draft). If the Blazers are going to upgrade though, it will be through the draft in my opinion. At least for a player of the caliber of a Caron Butler or Danny Granger. If all we need is one more piece, then I guess Portland has to make this trade and figure that using bird rights to resign our players will be enough.
This works in the Trade Checker at ESPN: Raef, Rudy, Outlaw, Sergio (or Bayless) for Butler, Songalia, and Pecherov The problem is that I don't see Washington trading some of their guys like Daniels or Stevenson away (and they make decent money) nor would they send a younger prospect like Young, Blatche (we wouldn't want him anyways...character), or McGee. I don't know...maybe we give them Ike Diagu or something too. Anyways, Butler is an all-star caliber player right now and we'd need to trade something like this (at least) to get him. I'd probably do it just for the issue of consolidating our roster. And Butler is a leading steal man in the league.
I kind of like that. But where does Diaw play on your roster? He could play 3, 4 or 5 IMO. I like this a lot. But Nate would HAVE to let them run. I don't really want to give up Bayless. Maybe throw in pics instead?
Yeah right. All true Blazer fans hate Kobe. But if we got him and didn't have to give up Roy, Rudy, LMA or Oden... you would still be a fan. The only problem here is... I think we would absolutely have to get rid of Roy or Rudy to get him. And I do not want that to happen.
Are you serious? Throw Rudy in? I would rather not even make the deal. Caron only scores that much because he is on a crap team. He wont get numbers like that here.
There probably isn't a better year to have a player like Raef as a trade asset. With attendence down, and few teams actually making money, Raef's insurance paid contract probably looks delightful to a lot of owners.
the O was piling on the Blazers on a daily basis when they were a perennially 50 game winner... seasons before the losing started. STOMP
Did they happen to give any specifics as to what teams were calling about Raef? Was Washington one of them?
I think people misunderstood his Fez's post. He said teams are calling about Raefs contract. Then he mentioned Washington as a team HE thinks could be a good trading partner. This doesn't mean they called. I had mentioned this same deal a couple of weeks ago. Butler is a great fit and they have money tied up with Arenas (untradable because of injuries) and Jamison (big contract and older). Just not sure with the coaching change that Butler will be traded any time soon. If the deal like this happens it will be closer to the deadline. Hopefully Washington continues to struggle and Washington ownership decides they need to save some money.
