Frye is a better prospect. He may be soft but he is a very good shooter at 6'11". Warrick is a 6'8" tweener with a mediocre post game and no jump shot. So yes, Frye > Warrick.
Warrick is a great offensive player, he just doesn't get much playing time because he can't play defense. He was averging 18 and 8 after Gasol was traded.
I wouldn't do this deal in 100 years. Bayless > Conley (now and as a prospect) Frye > Warrick (now and as a prospect) I prefer Frye to Warrick (and I'm not a huge fan of Channing). Frye is younger and has a defined position. Conley is more of a pass-first guard than Bayless, which I tend to favor, but ... ? That's like shining a turd. This deal stinks. No offense to anyone, of course Ed O.
Y'all aren't reading the road signs: KP reportedly spent twenty minutes talking to Bayless last night. Yeah, I know, they were just talking about the weather. Hell, KP reportedly only spent 15 minutes talking to Sergio a few weeks ago when Sergio's agent was demanding more playing time or a trade. Is there any doubt that Bayless is not happy at all about his playing time? Also note, Bayless' projected skill set is not that much different than Rudy. Bayless is a probably a better pg defender, Rudy has much better floor vision skills. I think if Bayless had any pg skills, Nate would be at least giving him some minutes. I suspect that Bayless has privately asked for a trade. KP is not a knee jerk kind of guy. He and his scouts create a portfolio on all players that interest him. He was very interested in Conley when we drafted Oden and I doubt that has changed much. KP has said that their evaluations are so thorough that one poor performance or even series won't sway their opinion. Also, KP is smart enough to know that young players need time to develop to reach their potential. Sooo.... We know that KP has had heated talks with Memphis recently. Who do you think they were centered around? Our biggest need is at point guard, Memphis biggest need is PF. Now follow me with this one... When Martel comes back soon the consensus is that Travis will slide over to be our back up PF. Channing Fry will go to the bench. That makes Channing our 3rd string center and PF, with virtually no minutes. Is he going to be happy with that, hell no. Especially when you consider that we have Joel Freeland better suited for that role with a lot cheaper price tag.... Channing is a gonner folks. He won't sign with us under those circustances. He's better than a 3rd string and would clearly start for Memphis. Warrick is just trade fodder that we would let walk when his contract expires. Sergio stays the pg of the second team. Conley eventually beats out Blake for the starting job. We have our pg of the future. A real point guard!
It's not meaningless. 18/8 is impressive no matter how bad the team is. The "good numbers on bad team" argument is really overrated because if it was true, than any player should be able to put up big numbers on bad teams right? No, only certain players do, and those players are usually ones who thrive in most any situation. Under that definition, Kevin Durant is worthless, as is Rudy Gay, but I highly doubt you'd say those two players are bad. Warrick is what he is, a good offensive player, but not a great defensive one, and he's not been able to get good consistent minutes this year, which contributes to his drop in numbers. What consensus? Has Nate, KP, or anyone even hinted that Frye would be left out in place of Outlaw? They're both playing at about the same level right now imo. As for Joel Freeland, he's still got a couple of years left on his contract in Europe, and how do you know Freeland is any better than Frye? Just because he's doing well right now doesn't mean he's a perfect fit for the Blazers in a few years.
I don't think Freeland will be better skill wise than Channing, but better suited for a 3rd stringer big man at a much cheaper price than Frye.
I highly doubt that. For one, Travis isn't a good rebounder. He is when he WANTS to be, but I havn't seen a motivated Outlaw except for a few spurts this year. What makes you think that moving to Memphis team that is unlikely to win many games will change that? He's averaging just 4.4 in 28 mins this year btw. Secondly, Warrick is mainly a post player, and has a career field goal percentage of 50.1%, whereas Travis's is 44%. This is because Outlaw mainly shoots contested jumpers off the dribble. This is another aspect of his game that simply won't change. This year, Outlaw is hitting only 42% of his shots, and 20 points on 42% shooting isn't that efficient. (Don't even know if Outlaw will get enough shots to score 20, since Mayo and Gay eat up a lot of shots.)
Well, we do have Diogu, so Freeland isn't necessary. I have two questions though: 1)Why does Frye get pushed out instead of Outlaw? Frye may not be the greatest defender, but he's a better PF defender than Outlaw. 2)Won't Travis's minutes go down regardless of who gets the backup minutes? Aldridge is still going to get 30+ a night, and Webster will play more minutes than Frye is playing atm. (16.1 mpg) Also, I don't think you can't afford not to play Batum 20+ minutes a night anymore. Then it just makes more sense that Outlaw gets traded, since his value isn't going to go any higher with his minutes dropping.
Good question. I think Outlaw is more versatile and clutch, but not by a whole bunch. It's a tough call. If two of our bigs went down with injury we'd sure miss Frye. But I'd rather see a routine 2nd unit of Sergio, Rudy, Martel, Outlaw, and Joel on the floor than have Frye instead of Outlaw. The 2nd unit is a tempo changer.. Outlaw is better than Frye for that. Also, I think that Frye could be replaced easier with Joel Freeland. I don't think either Martel or Outlaw is going to replace Batum in the starting line up. If Martel does, I doubt it will be for very long. Martel freely admits that Batum is on a completely different level on defense.
