I have an idea to fix the Blazers. It is a very crazy idea, it probably will not happen, and most of you, if not all, will hate it. But it would make the Blazers a contender, eventually. But first we need to agree there is little to no chance this team will be a contender in the next 2-3 years. It will be 3-4 seasons before this team can be a contender. This is not a full on tanking plan. It is a delayed reloading plan. The goal of my plan. First: we need to cut the team salary to make room to re-sign Plumlee, and if possible sign an UFA player such as Ibaka. For next season, we do not have a starting caliber center or a true PF under contract. Also we need to cut salary to stay out of luxury tax hell. Second: we want to increase the trade value of our players. Which is the difficult part. There is a way to accomplish both goals, it is called the sell now, and get paid later plan. Basically what we do is put just about our entire roster up for trade (minus Dame & CJ). But we ony trade enough players to get out of cap trouble. If a player is coming back in a trade it must be an expiring contract. What we really want is draft picks for our players. And we will take future draft picks so teams can improve now, but pay us later. Example. Trade Meyers for an expiring contract and a 2019 first round pick, top 15 protected. Trade Harkless for an expiring, a 2017 second round pick and a 2020 first round pick, top 10 protected. We lower our team's salaries, accumulate an arsenal of future draft picks, while using our own draft picks to fill in the holes. We may still be a playoff caliber team, this is not a tanking. But we will be accumulating future draft picks that will help make a future trade possible for a quality player, or two.
The only issue I see is that you've got the trade value all wrong on Meyers and Harkless. In all likelihood we'd have to send out picks with those players to sweeten the pot. Asking for picks and an expiring in return just isn't likely to happen. The only way teams generally give up first round picks is if they are getting a player they actually want.
So to understand, You have us Signing an UFA Trading Leonard for a player AND a 1st Trading Harkless for a player a 1st and a 2nd All the while accumulating cap space for all the UFA we will sign? This plan is genius. Now we just need a deaf dumb and blind GM to trade with us for that
Yeah, even Billy King likely wouldn't have been dumb enough to give up an expiring and a first for the Biebs.
Trade a pick with Harkless to get a team to take him? You're very wrong on that. Some team like the Nets would take Meyers for free, but they wouldn't give up a pick for him.
I think that we need to package solid players with bad contracts to get rid of them. Olshey needs to be extremely creative to fix this mess. So here's a drastic, creative idea. I think Brooklyn would trade Brook Lopez for Harkless, Leonard, Turner, and Plumlee. However, we don't want Lopez, because if we're trading out that much talent, we're likely tanking. Therefore, we would try to get a late lottery pick from a team like the Knicks, Bucks, Hornets, or Mavs, who need a C. So: BKN Gets: Turner, Harkless, Leonard, Plumlee, CLE 2017 1st, Justin Anderson DAL Gets: Brook Lopez We Get: Unprotected 2017 DAL 1st Andrew Bogut, Devin Harris Now we're stuck with Crabbes contract as the only monstrosity. Here's another creative trade to get rid of it. ORL Gets: Allen Crabbe, Al-Farouq Aminu POR Gets: J.Green, CJ Watson, Right to Swap Best 1st Round Pick with ORL's 2017 1st Crabbe is a great fit for Orlando, and Green has been awful there, and is expiring. Watson only has $1M guaranteed next year. Crabbe is good value for Green, and the pick swap would likely be only a couple picks if it even occurred. (since we'd only be allowed to swap our best). We'd then see what we could get for Aminu, Davis, and Harris. Trade them for 2nd round picks or even cash considerations, with garbage, expiring big men to match salaries. Lillard / Napier / Watson McCollum / Connaughton / Quarterman Green / Layman / Vonleh / Garbage Big Man Bogut / Garbage Big Man ---------------------------------------- So when it comes to the off-season, we'd have DALs 1st, Our 1st, and the Right to Swap the Best one of those with ORL's 1st. Here's how I think our picks would lay out. POR: 6h DAL: 11th ORL: 7th. I'm going to use a Lottery Simulator to see what happens. POR: 2nd DAL: 11th ORL: 7th So we'd keep 2 and 11. Draft Josh Jackson 2nd to be our SF (If we didn't get top 3, then Jonathan Isaac or Jayson Tatum) Draft Isaiah Hartentstein 11th We'd still have about $40-$45M in cap space. We could pursue guys like J.Holiday (to be our 3rd guard), or S.Ibaka, who might accept the money and come to Portland. If not, we could pursue less expensive players like Amir Johnson, Ersan Ilyasova, Tyreke Evans, Jared Sullinger, Patrick Patterson, Darren Collinson, Andrew Bogut (re-sign), Thabo Sefelosha, Terrence Jones, etc. So say we land more realistic options in Collinson, Sefelosha, and Jones on 1 year, $10M deals while accepting Ezeli's team option, (maybe he'll play next year). You'd have a lineup of: Lillard / Collinson McCollum / Sefelosha Jackson / Layman Vonleh / Jones Bogut / Ezeli / Hartenstein There's a chance that's a playoff caliber team. You'd have good defenders in Bogut, Vonleh, Jackson, and Sefelosha. Jackson would be that 3rd piece that we've been missing, and Hartenstein would be If not, you could possibly get a 1st for Bogut, Sefelosha, Collinson, Ezeli, and Jones depending on how their season's are going. Because they'd be on expiring contracts, you could also take on bad contracts for 1st round picks. We'd also still have about $5M in cap space, so we could be that 3rd team to make a different trade work and get rewarded (ex. CLE/ORL trade last year). Since those free agents are on expiring deals, we'd also have capspace for next year to do the same thing (go after a needle mover or sign vets to 1-year deals that we can later try trade for 1sts). Meanwhile, we'd be developing Jackson, Vonleh, Layman, and Hartenstein to help Lillard or McCollum in the future.
Meyers for an expiring and a 1st rounder? the only person on the planet that'd do that is Olshey the problem here is that we were under the impression we were stockpiling 'assets' but just about every single one has had a negative return. aint nobody gonna take meyers at a premium, we're stuck with him unless we bundle with a decent player. were gonna have to trade someone decent to get any traction unfortunately, and TBH im fine with it cause this team aint going anywhere like it is atm
The problem with trading all the non-Lillard/McCollum players for valuable draft picks is that most of those players don't have much value. If you want first-rounders, you'll have to trade Lillard or McCollum. Of course, they're worth more than first rounders unless we're talking about a top-three pick this year or something. The only other player on the roster worth something right now is Plumlee. He's not worth a lot, mind you, but he's a useful player that other teams could want. But, of course, you have Portland keeping him...
Change "trade Meyers for an expiring contract and a first round pick " to "trade Meyers for a box of Voodoo Donuts and a 6-pack of beer" (domestic) and you might get a GM to bite.
I LOVE THIS IDEA. #signsexecutiveorder That's how this works, right? OMG I'm ready for the OT thread!
I think you will have probs unloading these contracts for expiring contracts and cap space. They just aren't worth the money that was committed to them. But if that was the solution by this General Manager and I was Allen, he would be gone tomorrow if not now. He better have a better solution than that.
Both Harkless and Meyers make 9 million a year. You won't get a first round draft pick for them, but someone will want them in the off season. Especially Meyers. He just needs a few weeks of solid shooting, nothing he has not done before. 9 mil a season for a center who can shoot, will not be impossible to move with the new cap.
I remember an old center for the Jazz who pretty much got paid 9m a year because he could shoot 3s. Can't remember the guys name though.
