6/30 3:pm

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Register Log in
I imagine we use Bledsoe today or he's pretty useless to us? When's the deadline to move him?

Trade for Thybulle
Sign Kyle Anderson, Batum, Jalen Smith or Hartenstein.

Any of this would be a win.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Don't see any chance at this; Clippers can give him about $10 million per year as early bird free agent. For same money he'd rather live in LA and doesn't like that we traded him away. If we could offer him much more than LAC maybe he would've considered this.
Click to expand...
they're loaded at the wing/forward positions.

George/ Mann
Kawhi/ Roco/ Coffey

not to mentions Powell and Kennard at SG.

Can Nico get minutes there? Not sure they'd give him the 10 mil he is seeking. We can bring him in for slightly below the full MLE.

I don't think he holds any resentment btw.
 
TBpup said:
He may.....just going off of some of the production/projected salary estimates. Then again, those same estimates have Ingles making more than Ant.....which won't happen. I think Smith has quite a bit of untapped potential and was just starting to show it when he got some run in IND at the end of last season. 13.4/7.6 with a block in just under 25 mpg. Also shot .373 from '3' in those 22 games. Not a huge sample size and certainly better than anything else he had ever produced, but it's an encouraging sign.
Click to expand...

If your looking at an estimate which shows Ingles making more than Ant its a very shitty estimate.
 
blazerkor said:
I think we have one glaring need and it's at backup C, so I hope that's addressed early but not necessarily with anything more than the vet min. Now unlike Hartenstein and Bamba, Jalen Smith definitely has played at PF effectively in the league so he would give us a lot of flexibility, if he comes in and lights the world on fire while Grant shows in training camp that he's able to guard guys like Ant or even Dame out in space/on the perimeter and Smith shoes he can keep up with guys like Justise and Josh maybe we have our starting PF that can slide up to C. So I think he's the only one... even though he's the least proven and possibly the one demanding the least, that I would be OK spending the full MLE on. I don't want close to 30M dedicated to two guys who can only play one position.

I hope that rumored Ant 4/80 deal gets announced right away so if one of the teams vying for Brunson doesn't extend an offer sheet that makes the deal worse for us.

I think that there is a deal out there that Joe sees as a big splash otherwise I don't think he could have been so bold as to say we aren't good enoug, have to get better and are going to take it to the limit. I think he could have committed to doing everything he can but would have chosen some less demonstrative language so I think after the blitz of announcements about new deals being reached that there might be a trade that Joe sees as a large piece of the puzzle, it could be just Thybulle, it could be Collins or it could be something all of us would see as a big splash. If it was for the right guy it would be fantastic if by the end of the day we had guaranteed the Bulls our pick in 2024 and had three less future first round picks.

Exciting times! Go Blazers!
Click to expand...

Forward is the only position we don't have a clear starter. It is also a position that is much harder to acquire a passable player with either the vet minimum or trade. If we can get a forward (ie Kyle Anderson, Otto Porter Jr, TJ Warren, etc) with the MLE I would go there first. If no forward worth more than the BAE is available then I'm fine throwing the MLE at a center. There are a lot of veteran minimum center options. Even guys like Eubanks or a similar mid season pickup can always be plugged in if need be.
 
tbh, i don't think we'll really focus much on getting our target today. I think the focus is still to trade Bledsoe for someone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
Pinwheel1 said:
Jalen Smith will get a lot of attention. He will get the full MLE from someone. I am still confused about whether or not we have it available. If FA starts today how does the league know how much we are signing Nurk and Ant for? Didn't someone say we could not spend over 31 million on those two if we wanted to use the full MLE? Can we backload one of those contracts in order to do so?
Click to expand...

We can likely use the full MLE with those salaries. However it puts us just barely into the tax, hard caps us, and limits flexibility for the rest of the season.

If a valuable talent is available for the MLE then go ahead and agree to it. Later we could even trade away Bledsoe contract with a 2nd round pick, trade away Winslow or Little, or make other such maneuvers.

But if the full MLE targets are at Derrick Jones Jr level its better to just stick with the tax MLE. We gain flexibility in being able to sign players during the season, or take on salary in a later trade. We might be able to dip the tax, avoiding repeater in future years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
TBpup said:
Those contracts and order of operation are important. Also, we need to move a couple smaller contracts out like Didi, Keon, and then of course Bledsoe. That will help.
Click to expand...

Order of operation doesn't really matter. We either use the full MLE and thus are hard capped, or we're not.
 
RR7 said:
It's not about whether they know how much we have, it's what we are allowed to do after using the full MLE. Using it hard caps us at the tax apron. So using it first, using it last, timing doesn't really matter. It' all about where our final salary lands.
Click to expand...

Just don't use the full MLE, yes? Or are we hard capped if we use a large portion of it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
PtldPlatypus said:
By my count, if they re-sign Nurk to 68/4 and Ant to 80/4 as speculated, and waive Bledsoe and just eat the 3.9M, they'll have 12 players under contract and about 19M space under the apron. If they want to go full MLE, I see no reason why they can't.
Click to expand...

Projections I have seen don't have us with quite that much. If your calculations are correct that would be good.
 
AmirIcon said:
I imagine we use Bledsoe today or he's pretty useless to us? When's the deadline to move him?

Trade for Thybulle
Sign Kyle Anderson, Batum, Jalen Smith or Hartenstein.

Any of this would be a win.
Click to expand...

I believe the deadline with Bledsoe is the 11th.

Bledsoe move needs another team to agree to a trade. Other teams are going to prioritize agreements with free agents today/tomorrow/etc.

Sure I could see us agreeing to a trade with Bledsoe today. But if not I bet the Blazers will look at offers until his guarantee, and the other team on a trade might be waiting to confirm their other moves first. Often the final trades keep being modified up until the 6th when signings start to become official.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Projections I have seen don't have us with quite that much. If your calculations are correct that would be good.
Click to expand...
Were those you were seeing before using the updated cap/ tax figures that came out this week? The apron estimate has been raised to 157M, which makes a huge difference.
 
illmatic99 said:
they're loaded at the wing/forward positions.

George/ Mann
Kawhi/ Roco/ Coffey

not to mentions Powell and Kennard at SG.

Can Nico get minutes there? Not sure they'd give him the 10 mil he is seeking. We can bring him in for slightly below the full MLE.

I don't think he holds any resentment btw.
Click to expand...

Batum started 54 of 59 games he played for them last year. Their owner doesn't give a shit about luxury tax.

Nic likely view himself as the starter or key bench player, so I don't think he's concerned at all about the backups of Roco, Coffey, Mann, Kennard, or Powell.

Kawhi and George have played what 25% of the teams games together? Again I don't think Nico is concerned with them taking his minutes or touches, he's more a complimentary piece anyways. I'd be shocked if he doesn't resign there.
 
RR7 said:
Even 1 dollar over the tax MLE, and we're hard capped.
Click to expand...
did not know that. i thought we could cut a mil or so from the NT MLE and still stay below hard cap. Interesting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
illmatic99 said:
tbh, i don't think we'll really focus much on getting our target today. I think the focus is still to trade Bledsoe for someone.
Click to expand...

So you think we will let all the free agents agree to deals; and we don't use the MLE?
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Were those you were seeing before using the updated cap/ tax figures that came out this week? The apron estimate has been raised to 157M, which makes a huge difference.
Click to expand...

Could be. Yeah I saw the estimates went up. I don't follow this or track it like I use to so I'm sure yourself or others have a way more precise idea.
 
illmatic99 said:
did not know that. i thought we could cut a mil or so from the NT MLE and still stay below hard cap. Interesting.
Click to expand...

No thats not right; if that were the case then every tax team could basically exceed the tax MLE.
 
illmatic99 said:
it's a likelihood if we have a deal lined up with Bledsoe.
Click to expand...

If we have a deal lined up with Bledsoe then why not use both?

At the least use the MLE on a player that might have trade value at the deadline, potential to improve, etc. I don't see any reason to avoid using the MLE. Well besides Vulcan/Jody pocketing the cash. I hope that is not the case.

Now if you are saying use the tax MLE instead of non-tax full MLE yes I'm all for that. I'd only use the full MLE if its a much better player.
 
illmatic99 said:
did not know that. i thought we could cut a mil or so from the NT MLE and still stay below hard cap. Interesting.
Click to expand...
We might be saying 2 different things. I haven't run any numbers, it's very likely we could use the full mle and stay below the hard cap. It's just that we would have to stay below it is all. I thought TB was asking, if we don't use all of the full, does it not trigger the hard cap.
 
TBpup said:
If it's done right, you can still make a lot of moves beforehand. Many teams were hard-capped last year. (11)
Click to expand...

I don't see a scenario where moves beforehand of hard cap matter. The Blazers are either hard capped or their not. There is no way to beneficially spend money now, go over the anticipated hard cap, and then get under that in a few days time.

Maybe you think the cap holds impact the hard cap? They don't.

Regardless, all the agreements we hear reported the next few days are just tentative nonbinding verbal agreements. The team will do the official transactions in whatever order makes sense starting July 6th.
 
WesleyMatthews said:
Forward is the only position we don't have a clear starter. It is also a position that is much harder to acquire a passable player with either the vet minimum or trade. If we can get a forward (ie Kyle Anderson, Otto Porter Jr, TJ Warren, etc) with the MLE I would go there first. If no forward worth more than the BAE is available then I'm fine throwing the MLE at a center. There are a lot of veteran minimum center options. Even guys like Eubanks or a similar mid season pickup can always be plugged in if need be.
Click to expand...
I disagree with your assertion that backup C isn't the most glaring need. Yes it would go a long way to have a better starting SF than we do right now and that could definitely be where all of our MLE goes or we should definitely look at that being the big splash we make in the trade market. What I will say again is we have no backup C right now, I don't think we can expect to win if the best we have behind Nurk (who's best seasons have left twenty or more minutes to be played behind him) is someone that you think you can get off the waiver wire on some ten days and we do have multiple quality guys that have started at SF.
 
RR7 said:
We might be saying 2 different things. I haven't run any numbers, it's very likely we could use the full mle and stay below the hard cap. It's just that we would have to stay below it is all. I thought TB was asking, if we don't use all of the full, does it not trigger the hard cap.
Click to expand...
ah ok. So as long as we are below the apron after using it, we can use the full MLE and not trigger the hard cap?
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
illmatic99 said:
ah ok. So as long as we are below the apron after using it, we can use the full MLE and not trigger the hard cap?
Click to expand...
No, if you use the Full MLE (which is any amount over the TPMLE) or receive a player via sign and trade, your team is hard capped. That's just the hard cap rule. I also think it's triggered by use of the BAE.
 
RR7 said:
We might be saying 2 different things. I haven't run any numbers, it's very likely we could use the full mle and stay below the hard cap. It's just that we would have to stay below it is all. I thought TB was asking, if we don't use all of the full, does it not trigger the hard cap.
Click to expand...

Yeah I followed the same thinking as you but perhaps others were thinking of a different scenario.

In fact with your scenario, I'd argue if we do get hard capped it makes sense to avoid the tax. Since the team can only go a couple million into the tax, it seems dumb to waste a nonrepeater tax year for that tiny benefit.

If we are going to go in the tax then there should be the flexibility to go way into it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)
Back
Top