Stotts has benched Layman for any variety of reasons....most of them not making much sense. Who knows what he will do. I would like to see another move though and this gives them some flexibility to move Turner/Harkless.....even CJ if the price was right.
A solid move by Olshey. It gives the Blazers more options both in terms of flexibility to make other moves if available and in terms of experienced help going forward at the wing position.
The immediate roster upgrade in Portland will see the projected luxury tax increase from $12.6M to $13.3M. However, that number could to drop to $12.4M because of the $500K bonus of Maurice Harkless. The forward has an incentive for three-point % > 35 and attempts >100. Harkless is currently shooting 30% with 60 attempts. The Trail Blazers now have an open roster spot.
I was thinking Layman might be a trade piece but that really doesn't make any sense. He hasn't shown enough consistency with Terry benching him so much. And any team that gets him is going to have to pay a significant increase in salary regardless.
Rodney Hood is the offensive version of Moe. When Rodney feels like it, he's very good especially on offense. When he doesn't feel like it well you aren't getting much. I think it's a good move by NO though probably a good bench scorer for two guys who weren't playing anyways.
I'm not a huge Rodney Hood fan. I just think he's too inconsistent. BUT when I saw we got him for two end of the bench guys and a couple of 2nds in this market with a low supply of quality wings it's fine with me to give him a shot. I do think that Baldwin will eventually be a rotation level player if a team just gives him regular minutes to learn the NBA game on the floor but you gotta give up something to make a trade. The two parts I'm most happy about the trade are that we didn't give up a 1st round pick and we cleared a roster spot. Guys like Thon Maker, Bobby Portis, Skal Labissiere, Taurean Prince, etc. that fit into our trade exception just became an option as well.
Mike Richman: Nik Stauskas just walked out on practice court to dap hug all his Blazers teammates before he heads to Cleveland. The human element of trades is always strange.
This is a good addition. He can play. There's plenty of times where Zach is the only big on the floor with the 2nd unit. Hood would work nice next to Curry.
Its funny you bring up consistency as I was talking this morning with my son about many players now in the pros are, on/off and only a few on each team, that seem to be consistent at their strength. I think its probably because of the 3 point shooting.
Hoods ballhandling opens up the possibility. Package a first with Turner and see if you could get Mirotic (and Wesley Johnson for matching purposes) Jrue and Turner are boys. Dame CJ Layman Aminu Nurkic Curry Hood Harkless Mirotic Collins
