Which of the following (if any) would you be sad about if they just failed to appear on next season's roster? (And no, not because we traded them for anything - they're just let go.)
I picked the same 3 that everyone else picked. Cheap backups with size and some potential to grow into rotation players are important.
these kind of choices are somewhat to mostly informed by contract and cap status of the team * Knox isn't very good; more like a 10th-12th man. But the Blazers have a TO on him for 3M next season. That's not a minimum deal, but it's close enough and he'd be decent smaller filler in a bigger trade * Reddish is wildly inconsistent. He seems to play better...a lot better....when he's on the floor with Portland's better players. That's pretty normal fro a low-level role player. Reddish at 3-5M/year on a 2-3 year team-friendly contract would be acceptable. Anything above 5M wouldn't be * Eubanks has earned another couple of seasons at more than a minimum deal. Like in that 3-5M range. In several ways, Eubanks has been on a similar level as Nurkic at a fraction of the cost need to keep in mind that Portland only has 7 guaranteed contracts next season. They need 7 more for a roster and for trade assets. The two first round picks may fill two of those slots, and perhaps Grant will fill another. And maybe Thybulle. Still need more (by the way, it's a minor thing, but we should be rooting for Atlanta losses since Portland owns their 2nd round pick this season. Right now Atlanta is in a 5-way tie that would yield a 41st-45th pick)
I’m cool with Eubanks as a backup PF/C…… Watford as a 8th man……. Cam as a quality practice player 12th man. Thats about it.
I only selected Trendon because I think of a "keeper" as a guy who is in the rotation. I guess we could keep any of them to be third stringers. I don't think Drew or any of the other guys on that list should be the primary back up for any position, let alone a starter. As far as filling out the roster goes I'm cool with Keon and Jabari being on the roster next season and if he's an energy guy that makes the minimum I don't have a problem with Drew getting a roster spot. I'd also be cool with giving Cam a small contract (smaller than his qualifying offer) to see if shit starts to click with him in practice and during the PT he would get if we are a winning team, at the end of blowouts.
* Watford -> Best of the bunch & can be a good rotational player (6-7th man type). * Reddish -> Has shown a lot of flashes (both positively & negatively). I'm fine with giving him 1 more year and <$5M to prove he can contribute positively. * Eubanks -> Gives a lot of effort (good), but is really a 3rd string talent. Keep him on a contract <$3M and hope he never sees the court. _____________________________________________ * Walker -> He might stick around the league for a few years as a bench player. I can't see him being better than a 8-9th man in a rotation. All things being equal, would rather move on from him. * Johnson -> Shown a lot of improvement, but he's a massive ball-hog. I don't like his offensive game at all. Would like to move on from him. * Knox -> He seems a half-step slow. I can't tell if the issue is the athleticism or the recognition/processing speed. Either way, it's time to move on. * Buttler -> Not an NBA talent. Time to move on. * Arcidiacono -> Not an NBA athlete. Time to move on.
I would still pick up his option. His 8 million ending contract is needed for trades when combined with say.....Ant. We don't have a lot of other options for matching 30 million dollar contracts. Nurk's might be harder to include because of it's length.
We don't have an team option on Cam. There's a qualifying offer we can choose to give him or not but if we extend the QO he doesn't have to accept it until like the end of the off season and can try to get other deals that we would have to match or not during the entire off season. I mean, I think Joe could probably bully him into taking the one year at 7.7M but I'm not positive Cam would do that. If I was Cam I would rather have more guaranteed money over more seasons even if it meant my salary next year was half of the 7.7M QO.
Watford is easily becoming one of my favorite players. I love guys who know their role are unselfish and have high Bb IQ. He’s someone who make difference in a playoff game where teams double Fame he Watford is in middle as outlet.
I picked Knox, just because of size and strength. The team has too many squishy soft players to be competitive against stronger NBA opponents.
I only picked Jabari. Everyone else is meh. Watford is the best from the bunch, but still has gaping holes in his game that I don't think he'll be able to improve. He's good for ~15 minutes a game on a normal NBA team, but I don't think he should be part of the rotation of a Championship level team. I love him as much as the next fan, but let's be realistic and not let fandom cloud our judgment.
I like Reddish and I like Walker, but fuck them if it brings back something of more value. That literally goes for anyone on the roster
Watford is a good bench guy. Maybe Jabari can become that some day but I'd wager more likely he doesn't. The rest are all scrubs.
Keon is under contract next year, so waiving him would mean we have more dead money on the books, so it would make me sad that our GM gives us another example of incompetence. Jabari has a partial guarantee of $400,00, and his contract is only $1.7 million so it would again be foolish to waive him for no reason. Watford is non-guaranteed but is only making $1.8 million, so much like Jabari it makes no sense not to just keep him at a bargain price. Since Thybulle and Badji weren't listed, everyone else listed is expendable in my opinion.
I hope someone starts a vote off the island poll at some point. Maybe one victim every two days or something.
