Z More than likely he'll never be able to play above the rim again...he'll have to develop a Zbo or Enes Kanter game ..some bigs can't take the pounding on the ankles, knees or feet dropping onto hardwood from a dunk over and over again.....he's had too many surgeries to come back and pound his ankles into dust again dropping from 11 or 12 ft down to the floor...personally I wouldn't waste a roster spot on him at this point...it's as if Festus Ezeli is still getting paid to sit on our bench and get surgeries on our dime...cut your losses....if that means sign and trade at the deadline...ok then
He’ll get that from another team. If he doesn’t get the QO, he’s a UFA and has 30 teams from which to choose. Someone else will pay him it.
I think he'll have to actually play his way back into the league from the G league...he hasn't played much for years
Really bad how bad the break is. Some stress fracture your out 6-8 weeks some are longer. Remember his last operation what January and he was supposed be ready maybe the 2nd round of the playoffs. 6-7 month he should be out so that puts end December or January.
this isn't just a stress fracture. It's a surgical revision of a previous surgical revision correcting an even earlier surgical correction for a fracture. The 3rd surgery for the same problem in a year. It seems far-fetched to think he'd be playing by March, let alone December. It seems just as likely there's something so wrong with that ankle it might be career-ending
Yes, well said. An injured Zach on a 7 million dollar contract doesn't have trade value. We will have guys like DJJ, Kanter, MLE signing if we need to match a few million. If we need more salary we likely have to throw in more talent which would be one of our starters on a larger comtract. Not signung Zach could help in trades as we can have less luxury tax. You don't have to match salaries 100%
Maybe, or maybe teams wont offer him a contract until he has a good work out. It's not like when he's healthy he can finally jump right into a productive role. The guy has missed years of development. The NBA is the highest level of basketball that thousands of elite healthy players fall short. He wasn't an all star and there have been hundreds off Allstars careers cut short by injuries.
Kanter is a free agent. We're in a situation pretty similar to, I believe, like 2 years ago, where we had a bunch of high salaries, anda bunch of low, but no good tradeable contracts. We signed Hood to inflated deal knowing he was gonna be traded. You need those middle sized deals to have trade flexibility. We have DJJ and...? If we don't move a core piece of Nurk or Covington? Giving the qualifying offer at ~7 mil. to Zach makes sense as a trade asset. He's an expiring deal, needed to match salary. Otherwise, we have 40, 30, 12, 12, 3,3,3,ish sort of deals to play with. I extend the Q.O., and let his agent know, he's not worth that to us at all. So we're extending that as a benefit to him to make a bunch of money when he can't play, and he is a trade asset, nothing more. Nobody is giving him more than that on the open market. It's, again, the Hood deal all over. You need $$ to make trades. We need his expiring$ to swing a deal.
No this is a stupid idea. If the Blazers give Zach the qualifying offer he would have a no trade clause. It is better to give Kanter a one year contract for ~$7million with a team option the following year, then he could be traded, similar to Hood. Kanter can actually play as well. http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q101
I know he'd have a no trade clause, but you work that out with his agent beforehand. Is he going to get 7 million this year in free agency? No. So why woudn't he accept being a trade chip and hitting free agency next season? Plus, he'd be trade eligible immediately. If we sign re-sign Kanter, we can't trade him until mid Decemeber.
