Lets assume dipping the tax isn’t a priority (because if it were he’d be gone for sure) Next question would be A) his market in the summer and B) his interest in staying as a backup. I could see his market going either way. As a competitor and where he’s at in his career, I’d assume he’d prefer to start. But it also wouldn’t surprise me if he was ok with a reduced role, because he seems happy in Portland. I’m probably leaning towards trading him, but I’d be surprised if Olshey actually did. There’s an 80% chance he’s here after the deadline imo.
Let’s be honest, Whiteside is the best Center we have had since Sabonis and I’d place him at 3rd best in team history. He’s better than Nurk (when healthy) and it’s my guess that Nurk may never play at last year’s level again. That said, trade Nurkic this Summer once everyone sees that he has recovered and sign Whiteside. don’t get me wrong, I love Nurk and his attitude et al, but find a PF to compliment Whiteside and we will have a very good team next year.
His stats are better than Nurk's, I'll give you that... But stats are very misleading... Much like Kevin Love in Minnesota, Whiteside puts up guady numbers because nobody else on this team can...the boards are there just for him. I will concede the ONLY thing he does better than Nurk is blocking shots. He (Hasaan) has a wonderful instinct for that, but Nurk has an instinct for making "winning plays" that Whiteside severely lacks.
A tip in or a blocked shot can be a winning play and Whiteside can do both very well. He makes it look easy and effortless which is why he doesn't get as much credit as nurk does for his fancy passing (which I do value).
Hmm. So we get the 3 best players in the trade and save over 5 mil as well? I also don't see Dallas interested in acquiring Dieng and his contract as they just picked up Willy Cauley Stein and they have Boban as well as Porzingis.
Nurk is injury prone. I seriously love Nurk, but what do you do with a guy that has missed a lot of games? Now the calf strain, what next?
This i Any logical GM would shift long term plans with how injury events unfolded... only a stubborn egomaniac like Neil would still stay the course. You cannot depend on Nurk. Neil will waste Dame’s prime.
