Game Thread NBA PLAY-IN - PELICANS @ CLIPPERS - APRIL 15, 2022 - FRIDAY - 7:00 PM (PDT) TNT

Yes. Yes, this dumb, old fart did.... LOL. I was gonna hit you up. Nice to hear from you again! It's nice to see the place is still in shambles..... (Lmao). Break time is over for me, if that is ok...

 

The same way you trade a guy who you just traded Gary Trent Jr. for, who was the sixth man on a championship team and who signed a very long but not bad contract with a guy on an expiring deal that will make less money than he currently is during his next deal but has bird rights, who can contribute in a contending rotation as a 7th or 8th guy. Well you trade them for Justise, Keon and a second round pick.

 

I think the fitting way this plays out now is the Blazers move up in the lottery ... to the fourth pick. Subsequently, they watch the first three picks be Smith, Banchero and Holmgren and are left to either draft another guard or try to trade down. And then the Blazers somehow flub up the trade down and don't wind up with Murray and Sochan or Eason. Board implodes. Chaos reigns. Everyone chooses violence. Peace was never an option.

 

Next thing you know that C3P0 guy will be coming back to the board ....

 

Thanks much. I appreciate it. I'll DM you about the password. Actually, it doesn't really matter. Whatever.

 

We'll trade it this year, In 2024-25, Giannis will get injured and miss the season. The Bucks pick have a terrible year like the Spurs without the Admiral or the Warriors without Curry and will wind up fifth.

That is the Blazer way.

 

Wonder what the market is for Blevins if we throw in his cousin.

 

Thanks, Chris! Yeah, I've missed this hellhole too! A lot. I needed a break. Season is over. On to a new, and better one....

 

You are very gracious. I was expecting it to be $500, for me....

 

I agree pointing to one off night as the reason he's not worth $30m/year would be wrong. Luckily, we have a 7 year sample size of him being a starter that would backup he's not worth $30m/year.

So he'll have Game 7's vs Denver where he is worth $40m/year and nights like tonight where he's worth $15m/year and when it comes out in the wash, he's probably make $5m/year too much. Therefore, he's a net negative asset in my opinion. A top 30 salary, never an all-star, never proven he can be a #1, let alone a #1 on a winner, yet he's making #1 money.

I'm not trying to hate on CJs game either. I like him. KD said he would be a great 6th man. However, at max salary, he's going to cause a franchise to miss out on other talent or for an owner to go deep into the tax.

 

I really think we could be interviewing good candidates like Hankins said. I really think there are dozens of great candidates out there that are dying to have any NBA roster to be in charge of. So as long as there's no connection to Seattle, Vulcan or the recent past of this team, I don't see why we can't hire someone that's really good and takes us in a great direction. We have a top 15 player in the league who put up alright numbers while playing through an injury early this season and was one of if not the best offensive weapon in the game the season before. We have Ant as an RFA. We have a mid lotto pick that could be an early lotto pick. We have an early second round pick. We have Nas who if he can possibly stay healthy is a great prospect. We have a bunch of young players on really cheap contracts. We have Justise on a fairly cheap contract for next year. We have Nurk's bird rights if we want them. We have Hart for just 13M if we want him. There are some things for an ambitious new GM to work with but we've already seen Cronin fail terribly so he's not that new GM.

 

We have Bledsoe's contract. What do we have as far as trade exceptions and the MLE?

I think one thing the Blazers would do if they were smart is to bring in someone who appreciates the Pacific Northwest and can market the community to free agents. I think that was one of Olshey's biggest shortcomings. He never appreciated Portland or it's fans. He was a big city guy and he liked the glitz and glamor and never could relate that there were things about Portland the playing for the Blazers that would appeal to players. Consequently, he always overpaid because it was like he felt that was the only way to get players to Portland.

How many players come through Portland and years later talk about how good the experience was. Seems like a lot. You need a front person to market that to free agents, someone who can market that, someone who wants to market that because they see the advantages and the charm in the community.

 

I guess you are not getting as old, as everyone says. Your memory is still sharp! How about some #1 copper???

 

We have one of if not the largest trade exception in the league at ~2o.86M, we have another at ~6.52M and one more at ~3.26M. For those unaware those can't be combined with anything, not players salaries or with the other TPEs. As far as the MLE goes, it all depends on what we do in free agency and what contracts we pick up. If we are keeping Dame and do the sensible thing we will re-sign Ant who will likely cost at least 25M next season, re-sign Nurk who will likely cost at least 15M next season and pick up the option on Hart who comes in just under 13M. Our draft pick assuming we keep it will cost us between 5-10M next season. Our second rounder would be another about 1M if we keep it. That's 14 players at 134M, maybe we cut someone and use the TPE but if we use any more than the TPMLE we'll be hard capped and not be able to use the TPEs. I don't think we have the draft capital to get someone with Bledsoe's ~19M expiring contract, we might not even be able to use the TPEs, so I just counted his 3.9M remaining guaranteed money into our cap figure of 134M.