From Ben on Blazers Edge: Who needs a GM when you can land your 7th choice free agent (maybe). To be honest I don't even care. I'm still buzzing we got rid of the terrible man who does the radio interviews too much.
I think Matthews will prove to be better then many of those listed there. His ability to defend and shoot the 3 is nice. The only two I may take over Matthews would be Morrow or Korver for there great 3 point shooting.
I agree. Maybe Felton also, but not sure. Overall, I think that the WM signing will work out well, but it depends on what the Blazers next move is.
Well if Matthews does well, it would seem we are in fine hands. I would rather overpay for someone like a young Matthews than someone like Farmar or Ridinour. I do wonder, though, as we were never really linked to Korver, Felton, or Morrow as a destination I don't think. I remember we were linked to Farmar, but perhaps I just missed a headline on the others.
I'm unconvinced that we were actually after all of those guys and would have preferred each of them over Matthews. barfo
What is the point? That Ben Golliver is making assumptions that don't quite fit your free agency expecations, while also falling into range of your "boo hoo KP is gone" wheel house?
I'm assuming he was their #1 target because of a combination of youth, athleticism, desire to improve, tough attitude, defense and three point shooting. I don't think any of the others have all that.
I think Felton does. He's the only FA I've been disappointed that we didn't pursue. He signed with NY for all of $15M over 2 years. Perhaps he's expecting his value to skyrocket under D'antoni, but I have difficulty believing that the guaranteed $34M we offered Matthews wouldn't have at least gotten his attention.
Well, maybe you are right; I just read a Draft Express scouting report on Felton and he seems to have a lot going for him, although his 38% three point shooting (his best by far in 5 years) was on only 2 attempts a game. It troubles me that Larry Brown doesn't seem to like him. Anyway, I think I agree with speculation from Dwight James that the Blazers are targeting a higher level PG, and with Matthews they are looking to replace Rudy and/or Bayless.
The point of Dave's article was that they only had one target left. It makes sense that we went with the full MLE, because there was nonstandard left. What do you think KP would have done?
East coast guy + a starting role in the biggest market... the same PDX offer probably wouldn't have been enough. On top of that, like LBrown I'm not a big fan of Felton's game. to the OP, while it wouldn't surprise me that Portland looked in to acquiring each of the listed guys and probably a lot more. They've always claimed (especially during KP's time) to make a lot of inquiries... leave no stone unturned. I think it's silly to assume making inquiries = thats their guy as Ben seems to have done. STOMP
Paul Allens pathetic attempt at getting a GM, who could've gotten us a top notch player via free agency this summer, is just proof that the team is...MOVING TO SEATTLE!!!! We didn't sign a backup PF who is worthy of starting! We didn't sign a shitty PG who the Lakers would rather have Steve Blake over! We didn't land Ridnour, who "Nate" loved (although I swear that I heard Ridnour wasn't terribly pleased with playing under Nate). We didn't get 34 year old Raja Bell! And not Kyle Korver! He signed elsewhere! Overpaid a bit for Wesley? Sure. But not by a lot. As Sug said, what would KP have done? Probably re-signed Steve Blake. A new GM wouldn't have made a big splash in the free agency market. It might make a difference in a trade, but that's assuming the team is going to trade for a PG who is worth anything. Nate loves PG's who aren't exactly speed demons and can just camp out at the 3 point line for the 3 players the team plays.
Yeah there is a fine line between offering a FA a reasonable contract and a contract his current team won't match. Not sure what that line would have been. They could not have offered Matthews a contract based on worth. If they wanted him, then they had to go all in. Only time will tell if he is a good fit for the Blazers. Obviously the Blazers think so as he was their main target. Or at least their main target of those they tought they could get.
If you want to make up your mind on a player like Felton film is your best friend. You can spew all the stat lines you want, but unless you have seen him play, you really don't know what he is all about. Felton is one of those trade off PG. You are going to get good defense from him, but on offense his decision making leaves a lot to be desired. I could give a rats ass what he shoots. Many of the problems he has have nothing to do with shooting. They have to do with decision making.
I haven't seenenough of him, but I always seemed to hear this criticism of him from Bobcat fans. Seemed to be compared to Jarrett Jack quite often.
As for the article, Bell is still not signed, Farmar signed with NJ after we put in an offer for Matthews, Ridnour just signed as well, and Morrow and Korver both signed for less than Matthews. It seems a rather poorly thought out whining post to think Matthews was behind any of those targets. How would Ridnour and Farmar be behind Matthews, when we offered a deal to him before them? That's just stupid. I usually like a lot of Ben's stuff. Maybe he wrote this late in the evening, or early without coffee? Why would we rush to sign someone when all of our targets were basically still available. Dumb.
Portland's thinking IMO is that they have NO current SG behind Roy. Yes they have a decent combo guard in Bayless. But no true back up SG. (Rudy is flat out gone) They wanted to fill that need with the MLE, and they did not want to take any chances of coming away empty handed. They think Wes was the best option. I don't think any of the other FA' s discussd factored into it as they were not SG that Portland wanted. Morrow maybe, but talk about system players........
Why are people that down on Matthews contract? He's a 23 year old kid who just started over half his games in his rookie season (and 10 playoff games where he played 30+ minutes against Kobe and Carmello) for coach Sloan, a guy who is basically the coach Nate wants to be. Defense-first, grind-it-out, mistake-free, playoff basketball. On top of that, he was a much better player after the All-Star break and getting the starting job than he was before that point. (Do people realize that after the AS break he was a .500/.400/90% guy?) That he showed so much growth in a single rookie season speaks well about his upside. While other rookies were hitting the wall, he was vaulting over it. Yeah, it's a lot of money, but it's also front-loaded ($9 mil the first year). Big contracts suck when you are two or three years into them and the money gets bigger as the player leaves his prime. This is the exact opposite. As he enters his prime he actually gets cheaper. He projects to be a reasonably tradeable commodity whenever we want to unload him ($6.5 mil/year in the final four years of his deal). So he's young, he's shown rapid growth, he's a perimeter defender who can hit threes, and he's had experience as a starter in the NBA playoffs on a team that plays very much like us (except his team actually got out of the first round!) We paid a premium for him, but he's the kind of guy I have absolutely no problem paying a premium for. He's the Anti-Turkoglu.
