The Bulls have Rose, and Hinrich is a backup PG forever, with a $10 million salary. He is on the block, one way or another. The Blazers love Blake and Outlaw, but lack the time to play Outlaw, who does not fit. Blake is at the top of his market value, while Hinrich is at the bottom. Buy low, sell high. Blake and Outlaw for Hinrich works. http://games.espn.go.com/nba/features/traderesult?players=1994~2015~1981&teams=4~4~22&te=&cash= I am FAR from in love with Hinrich, but I think his career average is better than Blake. He is a MUCH better defender than Blake or Sergio. Blazers give up quantity for quality. Would you do this deal? iWatas
Maybe closer to the trade deadline after we have seen how the Captain is playing. On the other hand - who knows if Kirk is available - for all we know someone might introduce Derrick Rose to a Banana and he will be out for the season.
Ultimately, if that's the best we could get, I wouldn't be disappointed. But I think it's too early in the game to pull that trigger. Between now and the end of the off-season, there will be more opportunities to trade pieces like Outlaw (or Webster, Sergio, Frye) along with either RLEC or the cap space when he does expire. I would rather not close the door on those opportunities right now, especially when Portland is doing fine with Blake.
One of my problems is that there are actually quite a small number of PGs that actually would make our team better now, and 5 years from now. Think Rose, DW, Devin Harris, Chris Paul, Mayo, Westbrook (for his defense), Rondo, Hinrich, maybe a Stuckey.... Anyone else? And of the above, we are not going to be able to trade players not named Roy/Oden/Aldridge/Rudy/Pryz to acquire *any* of them, methinks, except possibly Westbrook, Hinrich, and Stuckey. If this is right, and we want to upgrade the PG this year .... iWatas
Jesus fucking Christ, let Hinrich go. The Bulls have a harder time of trading him than the Knicks did with Randolph. He makes too much money and doesn't do anything well besides play man to man D. Both Blake and Bayless are better than Kirk.
If you count Westbrook, then Portland has a similar player in Bayless. Also a strong defensive prospect, and both played as scoring guards last year. Obviously, I'd love to get a Paul/Williams/Harris/Rose, but those players won't be available. I'm content to stick with Blake's and Rodriguez's brand of adequacy and wait for Bayless.
Seconded. If you're going to suggest messing with obvious progress and success (which is idotic IMO), at least find a decent player to make it tempting. Hinrich flat out sucks and would be our 6th or 7th best guard, (whichever would be our last guard). To suggest trading TO for a routine stiff, or even more, is .
To me this is a typical scenario where it is a trade just to make a trade. From a short term perspective it hurts us even if you take Outlaw out of the equation. Blake is not the long term solution, but he is still playing very well right now. So we would suffer short term where every game counts. Long term I would rather have a guy like Bayless over Hinrich. And to throw in Outlaw? In the last year, only the Devin Harris ideas have been difference makers. The rest IMO are trades just to make trades. Why
OK, I was just checking. The consensus here is that since DH, DW, CP, Rose, etc. are NOT available, the Blazers will NOT be upgrading at PG this year. That is fine with me, since I am a huge Sergio fan. iWatas
