I've seen passes bounced off of Lopez' hands, too. The guards need to stop with the bounce passes in traffic. Eliminate those and the 2 or 3 lazy pass turnovers each game, and you cut out a handful of unforced turnovers.
Pretty stupid move by Olshey. Wouldn't have just taken an extra year (player option) to give us those rights? It costs both Mo and us money and flexibility.
I'm pretty sure Mo wanted the 2nd year option, since he knew he was being underpaid this season (which he is). I'm not sure how stupid it was, because Mo is clearly the 6th Man, and without him the bench would have been a disaster with McCollum and/or Watson playing heavy minutes.
It seems to me that he may have gotten over MLE money and that extra year in any deal. Now, that opportunity is likely gone.
A player has to play three years on a contract to get full Bird rights. They can get Early Bird rights with a 2-year contract, but then the new contract would be limited to no more than 175% of the previous contract, IIRC. I wouldn't be surprised if it was all agreed to going in that Mo would take less money this season, opt out, and then get paid using the MLE next summer.
John Henson backing up LMA and Lopez. Also, I'd like to see Neil trade into the first round to land Patric Young.
I don't see how he gets anything over the MLE. Next year's team may look a lot like this year's team, with the exception of no Watson and a vet minimum big being brought in, barring a trade. I do think it would be interesting to see what a package of Wes/Freeland might be worth, and what would be available. That depends a lot on one of Crabbe/Barton/McCollum being able to produce consistently, though.
Patric Young is already on the team under a rookie contract. He's using the name Thomas Robinson, though.
I think you'll find out that plenty of teams are going to want to give him the MLE. He's a proven scorer and ballhandler off the bench, and he's only 31. He won't get a 4 year contract, but I don't see how he doesn't get at least the MLE for 2 years from a competitive team.
I don't know.... so much has been made about this new CBA. I don't think he's going to get MLE money. I think teams are going to save that kind of cash for someone younger. I guess we'll revisit this in a few months.
I agree. And I think someone will give him four years. It's a way of paying him more within the CBA knowing he won't earn his contract when he's 35.
I think a lot of it will be riding on how he does in the playoffs. If he has a really good post season, he could find some nice offers on the table. If he has a poor post season, it could leave a lasting impression.
So....lets say we make it out of 1st round and are at minimum 'competitive' in the 2nd round. Mo is a 'solid' factor in our success during this run. Now we get to the summer/draft and talk money and moves: Develop current young talent or trade out and up to fill holes for the next year? If we want to retain Mo for max money...who is hands down cuttable? Meyers/Crabbe/Victor/Joel/Will/CJ? I've seen our club over the years dish people who I thought were worthy of retaining a few times and just am no long surprised to see people let go. If one of the prior Centers in this thread are a legit option WHILE offering Mo top money...(Hawes/Okafor/Gortot/Pau...likely not Pau)...do you think the office _doesn't_ package a couple young bigs and maybe a guard out to make it happen? Is this even possible money-wise (You all know more about the MLE and CBA that I do)
I think we're forgetting how good Joel was and how important he was to our early season success. Another factor is age, we did the Camby, Jared Jeffries, Kurt Thomas thing without stellar results. Perfect example of a mistake was trading a young Jermaine O'Neal (at the time looked at like a Meyers Leonard) to Indy for an old Dale Davis. O'Neal went on to become an allstar right after the trade and Dale Davis just looked....old. I just don't see a great pressing need to spend the bank on an aging center. If you could trade Meyers for a Vucevic...hell yeah! Spencer Hawes has skills but isn't cheap anymore and has never impacted a franchise in his career in the win column.Bring in an elite defensive asst coach and big man coach to address the young guys development. That's where I'd start
Do you mean max contract, or full MLE? If it's full MLE, I already think Mo is coming back to Portland, unless he's offered more elsewhere. I wouldn't pay him more than the MLE, though.
