I wonder if we should go after him? Either way, this should weaken Denver. http://basketball.realgm.com/src_wi...00826/report_nuggets_preparing_to_trade_melo/
wojo's piece on the subject: http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=Ai73H_tujop9vMfwahQtaOe8vLYF?slug=aw-anthonynuggets082610
If they are really wanting to start over....go for Chauncey. I would put it at about 5% max that Melo and his wife would re-sign in Portland. Hopefully he goes to NJ
Wojo's article says he wants to sign the extension now, presumably before the CBA expires. So, in the unlikely event that Portland trades for him, they would probably be doing so with Melo's consent to sign an extension. I know he's good....but he's also a punk. I hope he goes to the Clippers and makes the NW division title a little easier to obtain.
The WC is really opening up for the Blazers to make a run next season. For some reason I actually have a good feeling going into next season. Just a feeling.
We keep hearing that they are ready to trade Melo, Smith, and Martin...but they never talk about Billups. Given his age, it would make no sense to keep him if they are actually going to blow the team up.
I don't really care for Melo either... but if we could get him without giving up too much, he would give us a scoring dynamic that would be hard to rival. I'd give up Aldridge, Batum, and Joel for Melo. Kenyon Martin on the other hand I could not stand to have on this team. I think he is one of the biggest tools in the league.
If it were a sign-and-trade, or the Nuggets gave Portland permission to negotiate an extension with Melo prior to making the trade, I'd be interested in him...it would then depend on the price in trade.
I dislike Melo because I think he's an idiot, it has nothing to do with his playing. There's some guys around the league that I hate the thought of me having to root for chance that player became a Blazer. Melo is one of them.
Why? So we could trade too many good players for 1 player and pretty much be in the same boat we are now? Trading for Anthony doesn't solve anything, nor make things better (due to the cost). Let someone else dilute themselves into thinking he's going to lead them to a title with Amare' Stoudemire.
Normally I'm all for going after elite superstar talent. But the new era where superstars get to dictate when they leave really gives me pause, especially with a guy like Melo. What happens if a year after we trade for him he decides he hates Portland and wants out? If he goes public with a trade demand a year after signing his huge contract, we'll either have to live with him bitching to the media for years, or we unload him for less value (because the next team will be even less eager to give up real value for him). Hopefully we'd be competitive enough that he wouldn't demand a trade, but I think you have to consider it a distinct possibility. Besides, I still think our best hope of beating the Lakers and Miami is for Oden to become a dominant center. I'd rather see a more "glue" type player at SF who hits three pointers with extremely high efficiency.
Agreed. I wonder if the change in ownership and Melo's bridge-burning makes a Billups trade less unlikely. If they're blowing everything up, though, they'll want expirings and valuable picks. Which we don't have. But if we sent Rudy to Boston as part of the trade, they could send a pick to Denver... The team that gets Anthony must also be prepared to take on bad Denver contracts (like Kenyon Martin) and also JR Smith. Charlotte has a great chip in Erick Dampier's disappearing contract.
This ground has already been coverered. Twice I think. To recap: Melo is unlikely to have any interest in Portland. That pretty much ends everything right there. But we will trudge on anyway. Denver will trade Melo to the East. Only way a West team gets him is to vastly overpay for him. Portland would be stupid ten times over to pay a whole lot to Denver to get him as that won't improve the team, just change it. Portland already has a good first-option scorer who doesn't play much defense. The talents of Roy and Melo overlap too much to add big value in wins produced. Thus, Blazer fans that say we should "make a run" at Melo, are in the end advocating trading Roy for Melo, and that idea is nuts.
