Felton played well on the back half of the season. The trade you mentioned were New York giving us picks and players. We would give them Felton + our 11th pick.
How exactly could the Blazers have drafted Drummond? Also, as good as he is on the boards, he is a 38% FT shooter, and can't be on the court late in games as an offensive option. The two FTs he missed against the Blazers basically cost Detroit the game.
No, Hickson could not have been resigned because no way was Portland going to offer him a 3 year contract to play back up PF. Either no Wright or no Mo, no TReb, and definitely no CJ. It's CBA stuff. Is that worth Hibbert for Lopez? Up for debate, but what isn't a debate is that our bench would be lacking more than it is now. It's not about the money, money, money... [video=youtube;dRgs2Cgn7I0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRgs2Cgn7I0[/video] Wait... yes it is.
The money wouldn't have been an issue since we had bird rights for Hickson and would have already had Hibbert so we didn't need much money last summer for two of our bigger pickups. Mo Williams signed a vet minimum deal, he is joining under either scenario. Hickson is making ~$5 million a year, which is a very fair deal for his skillset and for a good backup big. I already discounted T Rob but he is worse than JJ so win in that dept. For me the argument comes down to if we get hibbert then we can bring in/resign JJ, Mo & Dorell vs Lose JJ and sign/trade for Lopez, T Rob, Mo, CJ, Dorell
The reason I brought up the trade was because it showed Felton's value to a team that was in desperate need for a PG, much like Toronto was. If all Ray brought back from NY was a 2nd round pick, some euro stash guys and a couple of washed up bigs then how could Ray have moved us up in the lottery by 3 spots? I think it would have taken at least Wes + #11 to get up to #8. People don't give up 3 spots in the lottery for this kind of production: Year G MPG PPG RPG APG SPG BPG TOPG FG% 3P% FT% 09-10 CHA 80 33.0 12.1 3.6 5.6 1.5 0.3 2.1 .459 .385 .763 10-11 NYK/DEN 75 36.5 15.5 3.6 8.3 1.7 0.1 2.9 .425 .353 .805 11-12 POR 60 31.8 11.4 2.5 6.5 1.3 0.2 2.8 .407 .305 .806 Career 534 34.8 13.4 3.3 6.7 1.4 0.2 2.6 .412 .330 .787
Wright signed for 3 million, Mo for 2.56. If they signed Hibbert, they would have a $5 million MLE and a $1.9 million bi-annual exception. They can't be combined, but I'm confident they could have signed both Wright and Mo, with some money leftover for someone else. Obviously no TRob because they can't absorb his contract. No CJ because the Blazers would have been a better team. Our pick would have went to Charlotte. We would still have Crabbe and possibly Withey. (Both might be able to play) Hibbert is a lot better than Lopez though, especially defensively. Hibbert is arguably the best center in the league if you consider defensive impact and would make us instant contenders. The team is 21-4 right now, with TRob as the 9th man and CJ not even playing. I shudder to think how good we would be with Hibbert instead of Lopez. (And that's not a knock on Robin)
I meant that Drummond was picked two players ahead of Leanord and that we should have attempted to get him. Also Drummond makes LESS money than Hibbert. That was my point.
The Blazers had to renounce Hickson in order to offer Hibbert the max contract. There is a rule where a team can renounce a guy to remove his cap hold so they can use their cap space to make an offer to another player, and if they don't get the guy they are after, they can get the Bird rights back on the player they had to renounce. Signing Hibbert would have meant no JJ.
But signing hibbert would have meant we would have been over the cap and had the mid level to start this season, so MO and Dorell could have still been signed. So no JJ, TRob Or CJ cause we'd have been too good to keep the pick last year. I'm happy how things worked out.
We'd be the leading title contender. Lopez is good, but imagine this team with a real lock down interior defender. Our bench would be like Williams, Freeland and Babbit... The Pacers didn't seem to be gung-ho about matching either. The Blazers history is one of near misses and woulda coulda shouldas.....
Mo signed for the Room exception of $2.652 mil. TRob, Lopez, Mo or Wright, and CJ would not have happened under your scenario. Portland would have, in your scenario, only picked up Mo or Wright. Mo and Wright's current combine salaries are more than the Non-Tax Payer Exception. Still leaving Portland pretty thin. Portland could not go over the cap with Hickson without paying him his cap hold at the least. His cap hold was something like $7.5 mil. As Baracuda correctly stated, the Blazers had to renounce JJ to provide the cap space (and extra $7.5 mil) to sign Hibbert
