Deng to Portland? This Oregon-Live forum rumor has caught fire. I just hope it's not true. $11,355,850 $12,341,275 $13,326,700 $14,312,125
Deng to Portland imminent? Could be, according to this report out of Chicago about an hour or so ago. http://www.csnchicago.com/ Don't shoot the messenger
Re: Deng to Portland? As discussed previously, it makes no sense unless Nicolas is on the move and I just don't see any major moves like this being made while the team is in negotiations with prospective GM candidates -- they're going to want to make their own assessments about what needs to be done and having the ground shifting under their feet before they've taken the job would likely scare them off. I get the feeling this is being generated all from the Bulls' side of the equation.
Re: Deng to Portland? Doubt it very much. Does not fit, is not all that much of an upgrade over Batum and on top of that, his salary sucks and he has been injury prone (the last thing we need from incoming players).
Taking on Deng would be helping the Bulls possibly build a dynasty by taking on their worst contract. It's a losing scenario for the Blazers unless it's part of a 3-way to land another player.
Just throwing this out there. Or Aldridge with Deng playing the 4 in a more uptempo system. Or better yet, Roy and Batum in the back court?
As others have said obviously this makes some sense if Batum is being shipped out in a separate deal. But if Paul Allen is fine with the SPAM philosophy again then I love this deal even by itself. Sure we take on extra salary, sure Deng is overpaid, yes we would be helping Chicago get another free agent, but that is the whole point of how you get value from an expiring contract. You trade it to a team that has a very useful but very overpaid player. Deng was one of the top young SF’s in the game 2 years ago, injuries have hurt his value but he is still a good player and would dramatically improve our team’s performance on the court. Deng/Batum/Roy is a lethal swing rotation which I would love to see.
I'm assuming you have Aldridge playing the 5? Not only out of position, that eliminates time for Oden and Camby, the teams best rebounders and defenders, really. Batum/Roy back court? Why move Batum out of position when he's not even more than good at SF? Not only that, it eliminates the teams only real PG, Andre Miller. At best Deng would play the Outlaw role off the bench.
No, I had Aldridge traded in my brain. Andre Miller will not be here on opening day. Brandon doesn't want him here, and he doesn't fit well into Nate's need for a shooting PG. Look at the rumors Paul Harris Ellis Parker We drafted two PG's They certainly seem to be looking for someone different
(sorry if this was said already, I'm not reading through this crap to find out. Plus, HCP told me no one wrote anything about it) So, if we trade Bayless, and have traded Webster, and Rudy wants to go away...just who in the hell is the backup SF and SG now?
I'm not really sure replacing Alridge with Deng accomplishes anything. I know your reasoning was running, but Aldridge has shown he's pretty capable of running the floor well, which is why I originally thought you had Aldridge playing the 5. I see Elliot Williams as a straight SG, but that's besides the point. I know the team would like to upgrade at the point(I would as well), but options are limited.
