Another let it bake article

[theprunetang]

I like Turner. He is basically Nic Batum without the 3 ball. I think he would work if Harkless and Aminu were better shooters, and I personally want to keep both of those guys. I can't see him helping us too much if we retain both of them. If we end up signing or trading for sharpshooters at the 3 and 4 spots, I would love seeing Turner as a backup wing.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

I like Turner. He is basically Nic Batum without the 3 ball.

These two sentences in succession confuse me.

 

[B-Roy]

We don't need more wings. Crabbe/Aminu/Harkless have earned all the minutes there imo, and Montero can fill in the rest. There are bigger needs.

 

[theprunetang]

These two sentences in succession confuse me.

Eh. I always liked Batum. What can I say?

 

[Orion Bailey]

Hmm...what does an increase in confidence without an increase in ability do for you? He was more confident in putting up bricks?

His production was even worse than it was as a rookie.

Good question. Well He is barely 21, and has played hardly any NBA ball so one would think his confidence was low. So what does more confidence bring? It brings lack of hesitation, making the game go faster, while seeming like its slower. IT allows him to KNOW what he can do and what he should do and what he shouldn't do. Confidence also allows you to ... wait for it... yes. Shoot those bricks, so you gain more experience to turn the bricks into shots.
Its well known a confident shooter will shoot better than one without. Goes for just about anything in life.

If you don't think that gaining confidence is important for a player's development, then you don't know the game. You need not look any further than the Blazer's team as whole to see what confidence and believing in yourself can do.....

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Eh. I always liked Batum. What can I say?

I liked him too but if Nico can't shoot the three that makes for a pretty limited player. Mostly I just wanted to make a joke

 

[theprunetang]

I liked him too but if Nico can't shoot the three that makes for a pretty limited player. Mostly I just wanted to make a joke

I can respect that. Always go for the joke.

 

[Sinobas]

If you don't think that gaining confidence is important for a player's development, then you don't know the game. You need not look any further than the Blazer's team as whole to see what confidence and believing in yourself can do.....

d

Thomas Robinson.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I like Turner. He is basically Nic Batum without the 3 ball. I think he would work if Harkless and Aminu were better shooters, and I personally want to keep both of those guys. I can't see him helping us too much if we retain both of them. If we end up signing or trading for sharpshooters at the 3 and 4 spots, I would love seeing Turner as a backup wing.

We have a sharp shooter in Crabbe at the 3. Turner would be in the game with CJ and Crabbe.....along with two bigs.
I am no expert on Turner, but from what I have seen from him, along with the Boston blog article I posted, I am throwing out the idea that he could help CJ with the 2nd unit if indeed he can create his own offense and run the team like the article suggests.
That way we don't need to spend as much for a back up PG.

Turner and a Center (like Mozgov or Mahinmi or Biyombo) might be a decent plan B if we can't land a max player.

 

[theprunetang]

I liked him too but if Nico can't shoot the three that makes for a pretty limited player. Mostly I just wanted to make a joke

And yes, Nico without the 3 is limited. But Turner is a pretty good glue player who I know could help the right team win. I wanted him last year actually, before the Wes injury. I don't currently see a place for him on this roster though. Like I said, I want to keep Bark less-bite more, and Aminu. And with those two wings, we are pretty well covered unless the person coming in is a damned marksman.

 

[theprunetang]

We have a sharp shooter in Crabbe at the 3. Turner would be in the game with CJ and Crabbe.....along with two bigs.
I am no expert on Turner, but from what I have seen from him, along with the Boston blog article I posted, I am throwing out the idea that he could help CJ with the 2nd unit if indeed he can create his own offense and run the team like the article suggests.
That way we don't need to spend as much for a back up PG.

Turner and a Center (like Mozgov or Mahinmi or Biyombo) might be a decent plan B if we can't land a max player.

I can get behind this logic. But, would you keep both Harkless and Aminu in this scenario? I don't think there is enough room for all of them.

 

[Orion Bailey]

d

Thomas Robinson.

Right. And how would he be WITHOUT confidence? We will never know, but probably never would have been in the league. So even confidence helped his career too right?

 

[Pinwheel1]

I can get behind this logic. But, would you keep both Harkless and Aminu in this scenario? I don't think there is enough room for all of them.

I think you keep both. Turner would be replacing Henderson's minutes.
So you have a three guard lineup with Dame, CJ, Turner
SF: Harkless, Crabbe
PF: Aminu, Davis, Vonleh
C: Plums, Leonard, Davis

 

[theprunetang]

I think you keep both. Turner would be replacing Henderson's minutes.
So you have a three guard lineup with Dame, CJ, Turner
SF: Harkless, Crabbe
PF: Aminu, Davis, Vonleh
C: Plums, Leonard, Davis

Once again, this would be good. I'm sure the team would play well. But, is Crabbe going to get enough time to want to resign here? In my mind, Henderson is probably gone, and we will probably sell Crabbe on getting some or most of his playing time.

 

[PCmor7]

Wait, I thought this was about a "let's get baked" article. Excuse me.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Once again, this would be good. I'm sure the team would play well. But, is Crabbe going to get enough time to want to resign here? In my mind, Henderson is probably gone, and we will probably sell Crabbe on getting some or most of his playing time.

In my mind Crabbe gets about 28 minutes at SF. Harkless gets about 20 minutes. (Depends on the match up) Don't care who starts, but Crabbe needs to be in there with the 2nd unit. But CJ starts and plays with the 2nd unit, so there are ways to make it work.

Aminu gets only PF minutes. True the free agents might be worried about minutes, but if they want to win then they just have to look at GS and see how valuable it is to have a versatile bench. If you pay them and they win.....all is good.

 

[Natebishop3]

Charles Barkley was adamant that the Blazers have to sign Meyers (and Crabbe). He said it like three or four times. And Shaq and Co. didn't tell him he was a dolt. Apparently Charles sees a significant benefit to the team in Meyers' skill set that a lot of posters here do not.

That's true... but isn't Charles also the guy who constantly mispronounces names? I don't think he pays that much attention.

 

[Nate]

I am thinking as him more of a replacement for Henderson. I think we view Terry's offense as 3 pt oriented, but as CJ, Hendo and LMA have shown, the mid range shot is effective as well. Neither Aminu nor Harkless excel at it, but apparently Turner is getting better at it......

"Turner is a jack-of-all-trades. He doesn't dominate in any particular area, but he's solid in pretty much all of them. The one area he struggles with is his outside shooting, but he's deadly from mid-range and quietly produced an efficient season, shooting a career-high 45.6 percent from the floor."

Crabbe is a good mid range shooter

 

[PtldPlatypus]

2016/17 Salary or Projected

Lillard - $21,597,000
Aminu ---$7,680,965
Davis -----$6,666,667
McCollum$3,219,579
Vonleh ---$2,751,360
Plumlee---$2,328,530
Varejao---$1,984,005 (stretched)
Leonard-----$7,000,000
Harkless-----$7,000,000
Crabbe-------$7,000,000
Montero--------$874,636 (non-guaranteed)
Alexander------$874-636 (non-guaranteed)
Total-----$68,977,378

If the cap is $92,000,000, that leaves just over $21,000,000 to sign 4 players. That is also guesstimating what Meyers, Mo and Crabbe get and that number could be smaller. Regardless, , if you are signing someone of any value, they will come in and take minutes from the top 9. So who do you want to sign and whose minutes go away? If it's someone in the front court, does that mean Vonleh gets no minutes to develop at all?

Neil has the cash to go do get an impact player but it's tough to get big names here and whom do you fit into this group that wants to show up early, work out extra, have dinners with the team etc?

OK--first of all, you've left Connaughton off the roster. Secondly, Crabbe's cap hold is significantly lower than that $7M, so we have more than the $21M you referenced. Third, the conventional wisdom is that Meyers will probably be offered a deal significantly larger than what would be reasonable for the Blazers to match, so his salary and minutes can probably be removed from the equation. And fourth, yes, I have no problem with Vonleh remaining third string. If you don't earn the PT, you don't get the PT.

Who do I want to sign? Optimally Durant, or Horford. But absent a big name FA...Marvin Williams to provide scoring from the PF spot; Greivis Vasquez to provide a legit backup PG; Cole Aldrich to provide some rim protection from the center spot. Find a way to get an early draft pick to pick up GP2, and you've got yourself a full roster.

Dame/Vasquez/Payton
CJ/Crabbe/Connaughton
Harkless/Aminu/Montero
Williams/Davis/Vonleh
Plumlee/Aldrich/Alexander

 

[Nate]

Charles Barkley was adamant that the Blazers have to sign Meyers (and Crabbe). He said it like three or four times. And Shaq and Co. didn't tell him he was a dolt. Apparently Charles sees a significant benefit to the team in Meyers' skill set that a lot of posters here do not.

I think he's a niche player right now. And should be paid as such. But he could develop a more complete game.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Crabbe is a good mid range shooter

True Crabbe is a good mid range shooter. But he and Tuner are two entirely types of players. Crabbe is more of a catch and shoot guy, while Turner is better at creating shots for himself and others. Not saying he is a tall PG because that experiment did not work. But he is another ball handler that we need. He and Crabbe would fit well together.

 

[TBpup]

OK--first of all, you've left Connaughton off the roster. Secondly, Crabbe's cap hold is significantly lower than that $7M, so we have more than the $21M you referenced. Third, the conventional wisdom is that Meyers will probably be offered a deal significantly larger than what would be reasonable for the Blazers to match, so his salary and minutes can probably be removed from the equation. And fourth, yes, I have no problem with Vonleh remaining third string. If you don't earn the PT, you don't get the PT.

Good pick-a-part....lol. Sorry to have left off a guy who never plays and of course feel free to add in his minuscule salary. It was more generalizations without getting in to the minutia of cap holds, potential max contracts with all the cap dollars out there and without guessing as to what the conventional wisdom of the myriad of GM's with tons of money to spend on a guy coming off of 2 shoulder dislocations.....who knows what that market is given this summers free flowing dollars.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Good pick-a-part....lol. Sorry to have left off a guy who never plays and of course feel free to add in his minuscule salary. It was more generalizations without getting in to the minutia of cap holds, potential max contracts with all the cap dollars out there and without guessing as to what the conventional wisdom of the myriad of GM's with tons of money to spend on a guy coming off of 2 shoulder dislocations.....who knows what that market is given this summers free flowing dollars.

Wasn't intended as a "pick-apart" so much as information necessary to support my answer to the question asked. Without acknowledging the 11th player, my reasons for omitting Leonard, and the cap space made available by Crabbe's status, the remainder of my post is anywhere from incomplete to ignorant.

 

[BBert]

That's true... but isn't Charles also the guy who constantly mispronounces names? I don't think he pays that much attention.

Yeah to my ears it sounded like he was saying "Miles" instead of "Meyers". I attributed it to his accent.

 

[TBpup]

Wasn't intended as a "pick-apart" so much as information necessary to support my answer to the question asked. Without acknowledging the 11th player, my reasons for omitting Leonard, and the cap space made available by Crabbe's status, the remainder of my post is anywhere from incomplete to ignorant.

I was being complimentary. Missed it and Pat certainly should have been in there....didn't take it personal at all. The rest was just being general. Too much technicality, cap holds, projected future cap levels etc can get to numbers oriented. Plenty of that in my job.

 

[Natebishop3]

d

Thomas Robinson.

Actually, TRob finally got some playing time at the end of the year and he was killing it until he got injured.

@ Orlando - 18 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 steal (8-13 shooting 61.5% from the field)

@ CLE - 10 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal (5-13 shooting 38.5% from the field)

@ NY - 14 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals (6-10 shooting, 60% from the field)

Vs NO - 11 points, 15 rebounds (4-8 shooting, 50% from the field)

@ WAS - 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists (10-16 shooting, 62.5% from the field)

@ CHA - 16 points, 17 rebounds (7-16 shooting, 43.8% from the field)

Those games were in a row. And then he got hurt.

 

[theprunetang]

Actually, TRob finally got some playing time at the end of the year and he was killing it until he got injured.

@ Orlando - 18 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 steal (8-13 shooting 61.5% from the field)

@ CLE - 10 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal (5-13 shooting 38.5% from the field)

@ NY - 14 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals (6-10 shooting, 60% from the field)

Vs NO - 11 points, 15 rebounds (4-8 shooting, 50% from the field)

@ WAS - 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists (10-16 shooting, 62.5% from the field)

@ CHA - 16 points, 17 rebounds (7-16 shooting, 43.8% from the field)

Those games were in a row. And then he got hurt.

Just because he was bad for his first couple of years in the league doesn't mean he can't still become something. Just look at Austin Rivers. He was a laughingstock when he joined the league and I was so looking forward to making fun of him during the Clippers series. I had some jokes all lined up. But, I didn't realize he had figured some things out since the last time I payed attention to him. T rob could still figure it out. I am applying this logic to Meyers as well. Come on big guy!

 

[ripcityboy]

There is no patience in the NBA. Unless your tanking and waiting to put together some kind of core. You just have no idea what things can come up and derail your season. Neil won't put all his eggs in one basket
But he'll be agreed I've in fre agency and probably try and secure us a pick. I'm on the fence about Leonard. He has a unique skill set. But it is replaceable.

 

[Nate]

We don't need more wings. Crabbe/Aminu/Harkless have earned all the minutes there imo, and Montero can fill in the rest. There are bigger needs.

I feel like there's already not enough minutes to go around!

 

[Nate]

Actually, TRob finally got some playing time at the end of the year and he was killing it until he got injured.

@ Orlando - 18 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 steal (8-13 shooting 61.5% from the field)

@ CLE - 10 points, 11 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal (5-13 shooting 38.5% from the field)

@ NY - 14 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals (6-10 shooting, 60% from the field)

Vs NO - 11 points, 15 rebounds (4-8 shooting, 50% from the field)

@ WAS - 23 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists (10-16 shooting, 62.5% from the field)

@ CHA - 16 points, 17 rebounds (7-16 shooting, 43.8% from the field)

Those games were in a row. And then he got hurt.

I hate that trade so much... This season would've been so fun with t-rob and Barton.