We still have our RFA guys. I can't imagine Leonard is going to get a huge offer at this point. There's no money left for a big guy. Can he afford to punt it to next season though? The guy isn't healthy. I'd be more concerned with locking it up long term as an insurance policy if I was in his shoes. Crabbe and Harkless are priorities to me. Gotta sign them. We need a trade. Especially if Meyers is retained. There simply aren't enough minutes to go around.
Trading either plumlee or Davis. I can't see us paying our third string center $7m. Plumlee is expandable. Turner is now our third playmaker and Ezeli is a better defender. Not to mention the unlikelihood of paying him $15m+ next summer.
The lower (less higher?) cap next summer means fewer competitors for Plumlee, so you keep him instead of trading for a pick, and see if you can get away with matching a less awful offer. There's a serious logjam at the wing; but I think Neil just breaks a pool cue in half and lets them figure things out between them. I think Alexander gets renounced as the odd man out, because we need shooting in desperate situations more than burly forwards.
Man.... I think we've got to do some kind of consolidation. How are we going to find minutes for all these guys?
Hate to say this, but let it bake. We have more depth now than we've had in over a decade, and you're already talking about consolidation? Let the players and coaches figure it out and consolidate as needed.
Yep exactly. We will know by the trade deadline who is going to be most valuable to us in the playoffs.
It doesn't have to be done right away. Olshey can wait until it's time to trade near the deadline. That'll be the time when teams are desperate for help in making their playoff run.
Portland has till July 25th to decide on Alexander's contract. I'm not sure about Montero's. I suspect Neil from this point will tidy up the RFA situation and start looking at consolidation trade opportunities, but more than anything likely planning on cutting Alexander due to Role and pushing for trades closer to the deadline.
The minutes just don't work... PG - Dame (35) / CJ (13) SG - CJ (22) / Crabbe (26) SF - Turner (35) / Harkless (13) PF - Aminu (30) / Harkless (18) C - Ezeli (30) / Plumlee (18) It's reasonable to assume that the starters will play between 30-35 minutes per game. That leaves only 18 to 13 minutes per position. Realistically we should be giving Crabbe anywhere between 25-30 minutes per game so he can continue to develop. Similarly, I would like to see Harkless get 25-30 minutes per game. Where do we find minutes for Vonleh? Where do we find minutes for Leonard (if we retain him)? Davis and Plumlee I would be fine giving 20ish minutes per game, but it's going to be difficult to find floor time for them.
I don't think trading Plumlee or Davis is such a hot idea unless you are getting a legit big time upgrade. The fact that they put a TO on Ezeli's contract after one season make the knees a question and you don't want to have walked away from a solid Plumlee.
I think we still need a starting power forward. I like Aminu, but he's not someone that I would want starting all 82 games at PF. Was there any other word on Millsap?
