http://espn.go.com/espnradio/grantland/player?id=13521893 Finally something legit to keep us occupied for a few days. Still listening here so can't summarize yet.
For those that want to listen, only the first 40% is Blazers, so it isn't that long. Not a whole lot new there. The one piece I found interesting was Neil's version of the core is: Dame, CJ, Aminu, Leonard, Plumlee. Not much mention of Davis, Vonleh or Harkless. Of course this could change during training camp, or Stotts might have a different plan. Even though Neil said the Henderson trade was part of a plan to free up cap space to bring someone else in if LMA stayed, he didn't seem to see Henderson as a key piece.
Olshey mentioned (28 minute mark) that there are currently 12 guaranteed contracts. Then "corrected" himself and said 13 guaranteed including Miller. Hmm... By my count (and Basketballinsiders.com), the Blazers currently have 14 guaranteed contracts, and 3 non-guaranteed. Is one of the contracts that's currently noted as guaranteed actually not? Perhaps Montero?
he spoke very high of Vonleh when he was talking about that he had discussed the trade with Aldridge and that Vonleh made sense in both scenarios, with and without Aldridge. Sounded to me like he considered Vonleh in the new core too.
True. I think he doesn't see him impacting right away. But, certainly NO seemed to like him as a core part of the future.
It "seemed to be about nothing..." BUT it was all too obvious (Neil knew also) why Zach did the Seinfeld thing. Zach was trying (weak) to butter Neil up to get some juicy answers out of him. Neil shut him down.
I'm not sure I would look at it so directly. But, if this group (plus other additions in the next few years) can make the WCF then we may look back and be thankful that the team took a new direction. If they flounder in the lottery and first round exits then not so much. I don't think Vonleh is necessarily going to be the level of player that LAMe-arcus was, but this new bunch could lead to a team that has more success than the LMA era Blazers had.
I got a reply from Eric Pincus with Basketballinsiders.com - I've updated the Blazers cap info thread to show Montero as non-guaranteed.
Well, we really have on backup PG now right? Pressy is like a 3rd stringer type, not a rotational player. So Henderson will be getting starters minutes either way. Though he's average at best.
W/ Bos. he was; I think @ that time, he was ~60% of the way there to being a backup PG. W/ us, I think he'll improve a lot by the start of the season (he'll have more to learn during the season & he'll learn). This season, he'll become a good enough backup PG (he won't become 6th-man of the yr. but for us he'll contribute/provide value). UNTIL he becomes a decent PG... we can call him "Philler Pressy!" We may have lost THE Thrill BUT we've NOW got Phil the Fill!
