Finding Neil a backup SG/SF

[Mr. Robot]

So you agree that the Blazers along with other small market teams are better suited to be development teams for larger market franchises?

that doesnt make any sense... what makes you think Nurk wont go to contender once his contract with POR is done
yes, he can contribute more than Hezonja at this point, be he cant contribute as much as he could in 4-5 years time

and yet we brought Nurk in... I dont get what youre saying, better useless Harkless than Hezonja with upside

and I wonder how many POR fans knew Nurk gonna be as good as he is

 

[Mr. Robot]

I want POR to be competitive, but also have some young talent going forward
cause we cant bring good players here, were not going to be more than 1st or 2nd round playoff team

Id rather have some talented guys here, than mediocre players like Harkless, Aminu (yes defense is good, but other than that...), Napier, Leonard, Turner, Ed Davis, Pat C, maybe even Vonleh (Im saying maybe, cause I have some hope for him) with no upside whatsoever

 

[Blazinaway]

And we don't need a backup SF. We have Aminu, Harkless, and Turner.

correct, we need a starting one and someone who can shoot the fukkin ball

 

[Strenuus]

In fact, now you owe for stooping to talk to you. These shoes need shining. Take care of them while I have a sec. You're just a half-moderator, right?

I'm a full moderator around certain people.

 

[Scalma]

I could totally see Hezonja in Portland (he’s also friends with Nurk) but Layman does have a similar skillset so we might as well give him a look first. Hezonja will be a free agent and I think he could be had for the MLE. If we trade for him before, we’d get his bird rights. We wouldn’t even need to match salaries as we still have the TPE

 

[Scalma]

I've watched several Philly games this year - he's much better.

Saric is the real deal who still sees heavy minutes. No way philly trades him for anything less than a lottery pick. If there’s one wing that could be available on the sixers it’s Cabarrot.

 

[tester551]

I could totally see Hezonja in Portland (he’s also friends with Nurk) but Layman does have a similar skillset so we might as well give him a look first. Hezonja will be a free agent and I think he could be had for the MLE. If we trade for him before, we’d get his bird rights. We wouldn’t even need to match salaries as we still have the TPE

If we're talking FA targets, I would go after Exum. With him being injured, I think he could be had for a discount relative to his skill/talent

 

[Sarni]

Saric is the real deal who still sees heavy minutes. No way philly trades him for anything less than a lottery pick. If there’s one wing that could be available on the sixers it’s Cabarrot.

Saric doesn't fit that team now that Simmons is there. Their fans really do not seem to be happy with him this season and have discussed trading him a lot, problem is we don't really have anything that they may like aside from CJ who won't be send in return anyway. They might end up trading him before the deadline but it will have to be to another team who can give them what they need.

 

[Scalma]

If we're talking FA targets, I would go after Exum. With him being injured, I think he could be had for a discount relative to his skill/talent

Isn’t he a RFA next summer? Doubt Utah would let him go for the equivalent of the MLE.

 

[Scalma]

Saric doesn't fit that team now that Simmons is there. Their fans really do not seem to be happy with him this season and have discussed trading him a lot, problem is we don't really have anything that they may like aside from CJ who won't be send in return anyway. They might end up trading him before the deadline but it will have to be to another team who can give them what they need.

I’d offer them a protected first and Swanigan. Saric would be perfect for us.

 

[jlprk]

I'm a full moderator around certain people.

You have my undying allegiance on one condition:

Find where I criticized Olshey in a July thread when he signed Ed Davis, Aminu, etc. after losing Aldridge, because I said we needed to sign a star dribbling, scoring small forward, to balance the scoring with Lillard. Everyone said I was wrong because Olshey would fix it soon. 2 1/2 years later, we still have no roster balance on offense.

 

[GDiama]

As I'm seeing Hezonja being mentioned a lot what have you seen from him that you like? I have followed this guy a lot two years with Barcelona, Croatia national team and his first NBA season. He has even regressed since then. He is not a good player. He was once considered a bit time talent in Europe, but was wildly inconsistent, has no clue what tactic is and he has always been a problematic character. You think these three years riding the bench made him a better player? I was really amazed he cheated some people into picking him 5th while he should be a second round player in best case scenario. We need a good wing player, not the Hezonjas of this world. Better keep Layman then.

If we just look for a minimum contract player that can shoot the ball just bring back Dorell Wright. He can still play and has been solid in his 5 Euroleague games. Plays in Germany. Better than "Super Mario".

 

[Paine Tablet]

View attachment 17071

I love me some Kevin Spacey. Great actor.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

You have my undying allegiance on one condition:

Find where I criticized Olshey in a July thread when he signed Ed Davis, Aminu, etc. after losing Aldridge, because I said we needed to sign a star dribbling, scoring small forward, to balance the scoring with Lillard. Everyone said I was wrong because Olshey would fix it soon. 2 1/2 years later, we still have no roster balance on offense.

Couldn't find that, but I did find this post from that summer where you said replacing Batum with Aminu would make us better because it would end the point-forward nonsense, and we needed to get more shots for Lillard, and didn't need scoring from our forwards.

Haven't read this thread. I copied the name Aminu Al-Farouq from the Woj tweet into Basketball-Reference to see his stats, and it had not heard of this player. I suspected the names were reversed, and yes, this site says so. So is his name Aminu Al-Farouq or Al-Farouq Aminu?

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/aminual01.html

Okay, I see his PER jumped from 13.2 to 14.4 by moving from New Orleans to Dallas, which has a similar system to that of its former assistant coach Stotts. So Farouq fits in here. 8th pick in the draft. 7 years experience, same as Batum.

He's a SF an inch taller than Batum and is known for defense. I always thought Batum was easily replaceable by many equals in the league, though many Blazer posters think that Batum's a big star. I predict that we will improve at SF next year. For half the price.

Hmm. Below average in assists. Above average in rebounds, blocks, steals, win shares because of defense, value over replacement player (gave Mavs 4 extra wins), box plus/minus because of defense not offense. No more point-forward nonsense. Lillard needs more shots so he can return to rookie form, carrying the team in the clutch. We need fewer points from forwards...unless we sign a true big inside scorer, not an inefficient shooter-only like Aldridge.

Batum's covered. Now cover Matthews (easy, get a defender) and Aldridge (get a basket attacker). Unless there are major injuries, I see another 50-win season in Stotts' system.

 

[Sarni]

I’d offer them a protected first and Swanigan. Saric would be perfect for us.

I doubt they want a pick. Truth be told, I have no idea what 76ers might want anyway, they seem to have everything to succeed in the future.

 

[illmatic99]

 

[GDiama]

I don't think Denver picks up the phone if we call them.

 

[Labinot41]

I don't think Denver picks up the phone if we call them.

Hahaha

 

[illmatic99]

I don't think Denver picks up the phone if we call them.

Hey they made out like bandits in the Barton/Afflalo deal. Hell, Malik Beasley was who they picked with the #1 they got from us.

 

[blue9]

Hey they made out like bandits in the Barton/Afflalo deal. Hell, Malik Beasley was who they picked with the #1 they got from us.

Same with the 'Dre/Felton (or Nolan/Faried) deal! That puts them at a 2:1 advantage on recent trades...seems like they owe us a good turn.

 

[BigGameDamian]

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yc8q7umu

 

[KeepOnRollin]

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yc8q7umu

I would do that deal. What is the Nets' motivation to go for it though?

 

[BigGameDamian]

I would do that deal. What is the Nets' motivation to go for it though?

DeMarre Carroll is just the type of SF we need though.

 

[GDiama]

I would do that deal. What is the Nets' motivation to go for it though?

Unfortunately we don't know how Lin comes back otherwise I'd easily give our non lottery first for this trade. The Nets cut 6M of salary this way and they have near max cap space in summer while they also get a pick.

 

[blue9]

While one of these does target a SF that people have clamored for in the past, the real goal of these two trades is to GET RID OF a SF (or SG, or whatever the hell he's suppose to be):


Derrick LOLz is MIA (and I don't mean South Beach), Isaiah Thomas is injured, and CLE's defense is in the toilet. PERFECT time to sell them on ball-handling wiz-kid, and all-around extraordinaire, Evan Turner; packaged alongside first-team ALL-NBA DEFENSE Al-farouq "The Wall" Aminu!



PHI may finally be ready to revisit their failed lotto pick now that things are on the up-and-up and they've got a new headmaster running the school. They badly want to get Okafor off their roster, but so badly that they will take on some salary?

 

[Sarni]

Philadelphia did not just create cap space for a max free agent to just give it all up to get someone who is twenty times worse than their ball handling forward.

I love the idea of trading for Carroll. Nets could actually do that trade, they are in rebuild mode and getting another draft pick is something they would fancy. They actually took Carroll as a salary dump with TWO Raptors picks, if they can get another one they will be fine with it. They could actually even take some of our contracts as they won't be players in free agency for a while anyway. If we offered them a pick plus Turner and Harkless for Carroll and someone to match salaries (Trevor Booker?), they would IMO consider it. Turner plus first round pick for Carroll could also work. Harkless plus pick too and it makes more sense with New York connection. They could end up getting THREE first round picks plus Harkless for just agreeing to take Carroll from Toronto for half a year.

 

[BonesJones]

Philadelphia did not just create cap space for a max free agent to just give it all up to get someone who is twenty times worse than their ball handling forward.

I love the idea of trading for Carroll. Nets could actually do that trade, they are in rebuild mode and getting another draft pick is something they would fancy. They actually took Carroll as a salary dump with TWO Raptors picks, if they can get another one they will be fine with it. They could actually even take some of our contracts as they won't be players in free agency for a while anyway. If we offered them a pick plus Turner and Harkless for Carroll and someone to match salaries (Trevor Booker?), they would IMO consider it. Turner plus first round pick for Carroll could also work. Harkless plus pick too and it makes more sense with New York connection. They could end up getting THREE first round picks plus Harkless for just agreeing to take Carroll from Toronto for half a year.

My ideal trade would be:
Turner, Leonard, 2020 1st Round Pick
For
Carroll, Booker.
Booker is expiring, and not really needed. We could maybe flip him for something, or he could make Davis expendable (I've suggested trying to get BOS 1st round pick this year for Davis, as they have an $8M injury exception from Hayward, and they can use that to trade for an expiring contract. Davis is perfect for them, as their biggest need is a PF off the bench).
-----
So if BKN doesn't like the above trade, maybe you do
BKN Gets: Evan Turner, Meyers Leonard, BOS 2018 1st, POR 2020 1st
BOS Gets: Ed Davis
POR Gets: Trevor Booker, DeMarre Carroll.
Meyers might actually be useful to BKN, as they may view him as somebody they could help turn around his career. They're thin in the frontcourt and would lack shooting with the likes of Turner and Hollis-Jefferson on the wings. Booker replaces Davis, Carroll replaces Turner, which likely makes us better, and we save money while only giving up a 1st. BKN gets 3 picks for the initial salary dump from TOR to BKN involving Carroll.

Either way, POR saves $14M this summer, and $28M next summer.

We could also be in position to have cap space for free agency next summer. As it would stand, we'd have about -$6M in cap space with ET and MyLe gone, Carroll on our roster, and counting Vonleh's and Napier's cap holds. However, by trading one of Harkless/Carroll (which both would hypothetically have enough value to get rid of for free), we could have $4M-$8M. Trade both and we could have apx. $18M in cap space.

So we could either keep Caroll and Harkless and have a filled out, improved roster and likely be able to resign Nurk without going far above the tax line, or we could trade both of those guys and we could go into free agency with $18M in space and a roster of:
Lillard
McCollum
Nurkic (Cap Hold)
Aminu
Vonleh (Cap Hold)
Napier (Cap Hold)
Collins
Swanigan
Layman

You could save $6M by renouncing Napier and trading Layman, which gets our cap space to $24M. If we somehow landed somebody for that amount, we could make those moves to clear the space.
However, we'd have $18M to fill only a couple spots, as that above group fills out our roster for the most part.

Lillard / Napier
McCollum / ?
Aminu / ? / Layman
Vonleh / Swanigan
Nurkic / Collins

So here's a few hypothetical scenarios if we cleared cap space:
-We sign Avery Bradley to be our backup guard for $24M a year for 3 years w/ a play option. (We trade Layman and renounce Shabazz)
-We make use of our $18M as well as Cap Space Exception (apx. $5.5M) with a combination of signings of Redick, O'Quinn, Booker, Ed Davis, Mirotic, Barton, Joseph, T.Young, T.Evans, A.Johnson, Temple, etc.

We could also package our 2018 or 2020 pick (whichever we kept) and try to turn Harkless/Carroll into a starting SF such as Gallinari, Crowder, etc.

Basically, we need to create flexibility heading into this off-season, and a trade with BKN would do the trick.