Another shot from Simmons

[Masbee]

But do you agree with him?

LINK​

I thought the Blazers were stupid, but what the hell do I know?

 

[drexlersdad]

Aldridge won't make more than $12M until 2012/2013 season, so there's still a chance he improves and earns every cent. As it is right now he's probably slightly overpaid, but not enough to make a big fuss about. It took a little extra to keep him and I'm fine with that.

as of right now, he makes 5.8 million. 10.7 next year. pretty fair imo.

 

[BasX]

That Hedo contract sucks, but the Bargnani signing seems much better now than it did before. You can look at the numbers and say OMG 6.2 RPG, but watching the Raptors play night in night out I am convinced he's a 8 RPG guy easy, small factors come into play with that. I could go on for days about Bargnani but when talking about LaMarcus, from the games I have seen, I am somewhat impressed, though most of it is jumpers.

 

[drexlersdad]

That Hedo contract sucks, but the Bargnani signing seems much better now than it did before. You can look at the numbers and say OMG 6.2 RPG, but watching the Raptors play night in night out I am convinced he's a 8 RPG guy easy, small factors come into play with that. I could go on for days about Bargnani but when talking about LaMarcus, from the games I have seen, I am somewhat impressed, though most of it is jumpers.

lma still wins using advanced metrics but it is getting closer.

http://www.basketball-reference.com...m=0&p1=aldrila01&y1=2010&p2=bargnan01&y2=2010

 

[Boob-No-More]

lma still wins using advanced metrics but it is getting closer.

http://www.basketball-reference.com...m=0&p1=aldrila01&y1=2010&p2=bargnan01&y2=2010

The biggest thing that hurts Bargnani is still his almost historically bad rebounding. Given the pace Toronto plays at, and the amount of minutes he plays, he should be grabbing a lot more rebounds. He was doing a little better early in the season, but his TRB% has dropped back to 10.5%. Not quite as historically bad as his previous three years, but still embarassingly bad for a 7-footer.

His defense is still pretty bad, but the Raptors as a team play very poor defense. Ironically, he's actually blocking a lot more shots these days than Aldridge - who used to be a much better shot blocker. But, there's more to defense than blocking shots.

BNM

 

[MickZagger]

Simmons just knows he can get a rise out of the Blazers fan base, so he enjoys striking a chord every once in awhile.

 

[Nikolokolus]

If this is the LMA we can expect going forward with little to no improvement, then yes this is probably a bad deal ... if he actually starts playing better interior defense and can get just a little better at drawing free throws or getting into the lane (his handle is pretty bad along with his post moves) then I think it's a reasonable contract (unless a hard cap gets instituted).

 

[Natebishop3]

LMA is overpaid, but not grossly overpaid. I would have liked to see us sign him in the 45-50 million range. I don't think that would have been unrealistic.

 

[drexlersdad]

LMA is overpaid, but not grossly overpaid. I would have liked to see us sign him in the 45-50 million range. I don't think that would have been unrealistic.

lamarcus makes 5.7 million this year. he is not overpaid.

david west was at 5/45 or so and has one of the best contracts in the nba, according to simmons the VERY best. and lamarcus beats him in pretty much every statistic. at 5 years younger.

45 million would have been the steal of the century. maybe 60 million or 55 million is a better fit, but at that point we are talking between 1-2 million a year. why even bother?

 

[STOMP]

But do you agree with him?

I'm a big Aldridge fan, but thought/posted that they overpaid him this last offseason. I recall many posters being upset at those of us who dared to rain on their LA signing day parade by pointing out that they were overspending. I bet if I were to look up those threads it would be the same posters who are now upset he isn't playing at an all star level.

Bill Simmons is right that Portland overpaid LA, but he's wrong that the "owners need to be saved from themselves." They are big boys doing business... them whining about salaries and the CBA is part of trying to negotiate a better deal. If an owner can't hack it in this high stakes game I'm sure that there are many other rich folks who'd like to make them an offer.

STOMP

 

[Boob-No-More]

BTW, Aldridge is nowhere to be seen on Simmons' list of "25 worst contracts in the league that have 3-plus years or at least $25 million remaining".

BNM

 

[oldmangrouch]

FWIW.

Simmons clearly states that his "top 40" list takes contracts into consideration. His clear implication was that LMA missed the cut because of his contract. I have no real argument with that.

 

[BenDavis503]

LMAs contract will look good in that 4th year. When he is finally good.

 

[BGrantFan]

LMAs contract will look good in that 4th year. When he is finally good.

He has a PER of 18+ the past three years. That's good, isn't it?

 

[KingSpeed]

anyone notice what he said about Zach Randolph?

If you need two points at the end of a tight game, and you could throw it inside to any low-post player, he's the pick this season. It's true.

Damn. That's just what we need on our team.

 

[KingSpeed]

Also- note that he places Batum as a starter on the All-French Team:

Starters: Parker, Mickael Pietrus, Nicolas Batum, Boris Diaw, Joakim Noah. Bench: Ronny Turiaf, Rodrigue Beaubois, Yakhouba Diawara, Johan Petro, Alexis Ajinca, Ian Mahinmi.

 

[axs88]

Bynum is a 22 year-old center who's putting up a PER of 20. His contract is huge, but there are only two more guaranteed years (of $28.6m) past this one on it, and I don't think many people think it was a mistake to give it to him.

Ed O.

And Simmons actually hated on the Bynum extension too, with similar reasoning. Why sign somewhat unproven (based on play or health) players to an extension, making them virtually untradeable until the extension kicks in.

 

[KingSpeed]

Revisionist history?

"What if the Celts had landed the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in 2007?" (they would have taken Durant in either spot and built around Durant, Jefferson, Rondo, Pierce and a bunch of draft picks and expiring contracts

Wasn't the entire city of Boston hoping to get Oden?

 

[KingSpeed]

Interesting also:

So they're 0-guards. Ideally, you want to surround 0-guards with spot-up shooters, one rebounder and a pick-and-pop forward who can make 18-footers. Gilbert Arenas created the 0-guard position, for better or worse; Dwyane Wade mastered it; Brandon Roy strikes the best balance between selfish and unselfish; and Evans might have the most raw talent of any of them.

 

[axs88]

Revisionist history?

"What if the Celts had landed the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in 2007?" (they would have taken Durant in either spot and built around Durant, Jefferson, Rondo, Pierce and a bunch of draft picks and expiring contracts

Wasn't the entire city of Boston hoping to get Oden?

Well, BS has this anecdote that Durant was #1 on Ainge's board. It rhymes well with his mancrush (and hindsight), so he goes along with it, I guess.

The thing about this whole 'should have taken Durant' situation... Let's say, in an alternate universe we take KD #1, Seattle takes Oden and his injuries don't happen. At the same time, Durant takes 7-10 (instead of 17-20) shots a game in his first three years in Portland, Oden dominates on a crappy Sonics team, while we run a Lamarcus/Zach/KD frontcourt, and all of a sudden everybody's saying we should have taken the center.

 

[oldmangrouch]

Well, BS has this anecdote that Durant was #1 on Ainge's board. It rhymes well with his mancrush (and hindsight), so he goes along with it, I guess.

The thing about this whole 'should have taken Durant' situation... Let's say, in an alternate universe we take KD #1, Seattle takes Oden and his injuries don't happen. At the same time, Durant takes 7-10 (instead of 17-20) shots a game in his first three years in Portland, Oden dominates on a crappy Sonics team, while we run a Lamarcus/Zach/KD frontcourt, and all of a sudden everybody's saying we should have taken the center.

I get what you are saying - but do you realy think Oden would be healthier if he had been drafted by another team? The other part of the hypothetical - KD not getting as many shots on that Blazer team - has merit. He would have been forced from the beginning to diversify his game...and who knows how that would have played out. It might have been good for him, or he might have been a brat about it.