We never knew how close Indiana was to letting HIbbert walk but his contract was considered "overpaid" when he got it and it sure seemed like Indaina wanted to force us into a S&T and when that didn't work they decided to make a great decision and keep him. Hickson also was out in FA for awhile and no other team really bit on wanting him and he came back to us on a 1 year deal because he seemed to want to start and a lot of money and no one was offering that to him. Going into last year we acquired Robinson and Lopez so quickly it left us with no caproom to sign Hickson with.
No there wasn't. Nor should they have. JJ and his agent did what they had to do for JJ. They tried to get as much money as possible. The Blazer's had bigger holes to fill than a back up PF and it would have been extremely ignorant to waste it on JJ. They agreed to the Trob trade on June 30th and Lopez on July 4th. They did what they had to do as quickly as possible as they still had other needs to fill. Back up PG was at the top of the list. Whether or not Mo was the right move is debatable. Shooter off the bench was next. Wright has disappointed a little bit, but none-the-less the need was there Next I would have gone for more size. At the time I wanted to go after Mozgov, but Denver would have matched. (7'1" 270 is still nice to have on your bench-) But with Joel on the team I saw no reason for paying JJ money for a bench role. And at that time who would have traded cap space for our bench players in order for us to clear more space to sign him? The priority for JJ just was not at the top of the list.
This shouldn't turn into a "Hate Hickson" thread as a defense simply because there are posters that wanted to keep him. If we could have made the money work and he would have been happy in his role, I would have loved to have kept JJ. He's Z-Bo with no outside game. He rebounds like a mofo, is crafty around the basket and doesn't play a lick of defense. That is a valuable skill set in this league. 1hf was right when he said for $1.6MM more, Hickson is vastly outproducing Robinson. Others were right when they said this wasn't about Robinson, but rather about Lopez. I don't think posters hate the guy, and I think it's bullshit when either side crows about a great game or a shit game. At this point in his career, he is what he is. Is it worth three years, $16MM? Probably not to us. I like JJ, I would have preferred to keep him, but I wasn't crestfallen when he left.
It's not obvious Hickson won't get both the $ and PT he wants. Since the offseason multple sources have suggested that Faried wants huge $ and that Denver does not want to give it to him, letting him walk. If that's the case, then Hickson could easily become the permanent starter. If they also make the playoffs, Hickson will get paid. Unlikely? Maybe, maybe not, but I think that's what Hickson is going for and it's not out of the realm of possibility.
I think Denver is going into full tank mode. They have lots of depth and no stars. They need a true franchise player. To do so, they're going to have to clear some salary and build through the draft.
Put yourself in Indiana's position. You have a 7'2 center who can play with his back to the basket in a traditional center role. He has made the all-star game and a guy who is better in the playoffs than in the regular season (IMO). He can stay relatively healthy and he anchors your defense. Oh, by the way he's also a restricted free agent so you (Indiana) can match any offer a team makes. Considering that Hibbert was a restricted free agent, any reasonable person would expect for you (Indiana) to match that offer. He could have had offers from all the teams and Indiana would have still matched any offer. IMO-Portland had zero (0%) shot at acquiring him nor did anyone else in the league besides Indiana.
My intention of coming back to this thread was to give credit where credit is due. Mike and Mike were spewing some major hate on Hickson during games and finally they let up on it and gave Hickson some credit during last nights game.
I believe that Allen over paid for Batum just so he didn't lose Batum as an asset. You can't let a guy like that just walk and not get something in return for him. I am interested to see what the blazers are going to do with Batum in the future. Will he improve and be an 11 million dollar player? Is Allen just doing to sit on that contract? Is Batum going to be involved in a trade that will bring Portland back more assets? I am not knocking on Batum himself, just his contract.
I think fans tend focus too much on contracts when evaluating their team's players. I get it if you sign a player for a lot of money and he hurts your team and your cap space. But players like Batum don't hurt your team. Sure it would be better if he made 8/yr instead of 11/yr, but he still makes the team better. I am always in favor of trading a player if he brings back better players. And if trading Nic accomplishes that then great. But I certainly would not trade him just because he is over paid by a 2-3 million a year. Again getting more talent for a player is great, but getting equal talent just to save a little cap space is too risky IMO. (and of course getting less talent for him is out of the question)
No..... you really didn't. You basically just ignored everyone's posts in this thread explaining why we could not have gotten Lopez if we kept JJ. Not sure why you can't comprehend that we needed a true center. Technically we needed two true centers. And as good as JJ is as a back up PF, he is not a true center. Did Olshey really blow it? I think our record compared to last year's pretty much vindicates his decision on this.
Lopez signed July 10 and Hickson signed July 11. Had Olshey not told Hickson to get the fuck out weeks earlier, Hickson would have waited a few days to sign with us. Your "timing defense" crumbles easily.
Hickson sucks cause he's not a blazer. This poster reserves the right not to apply the same logic to patty mills or zbo.
Here's the essence of Hickson, and why he was useful in some situations when Aldridge was failing. http://sportstwo.com/threads/116470-J.J-Hickson?p=1631612&viewfull=1#post1631612
Hickson NetRtg: 102-105 = -3 Dentver Team NetRtg: 105.1-107.7 = -2.6 I wish the sig figs were better on the player RtG, but it looks like Denver is worse when Hickson plays. Granted, he's been playing against starters a lot as I understand it.
Being over the cap doesn't mean he's paying the luxury tax, and PA isn't paying the tax this year. May he after next season? Probably, but that should be a title-contending team.
I find myself agreeing with you a lot these days. Who would trade RoLo for Evans straight-up right now as an even trade, let alone to trading for Evan's contract, which basically is Batum's contract with an extra year on it.
