Ifeaanyi Festus Ezeli is in town and preparing to interview w Blazers

[Natebishop3]

I still think I'd be calling Whiteside right about now.

 

[Scalma]

You ready....no one

I just went through every team and the only teams that may need a starting center are the Pelicans and Rockets. Cavs too but they don't have any money. Maybe the hornets. That's it.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Tell me the Warriors aren't going to start Pachulia at center

They've said they'll start Nutcracker at center.

 

[Scalma]

I still think I'd be calling Whiteside right about now.

That guy only cares about money lol the wade decision won't affect him.

 

[riverman]

Now that we've flown to meet with free agents and been turned down..one flies to meet us and we turn them down?

 

[LuckyShot]

Now that we've flown to meet with free agents and been turned down..one flies to meet us and we turn them down?

If he asks for stupid amounts of money just to be 6'11" and 265 lbs and block a couple of shots per game, and he won't budge from his silly salary number, yeah.

 

[Natebishop3]

That guy only cares about money lol the wade decision won't affect him.

I would open by telling him that he will be the one and only focus of the defense next season in Miami. His numbers will falter and he'll look like a horrible contract. He would stand to make more money long term if he went to a better situation.

 

[Scalma]

I can't wait til pat Riley trades whiteside at the deadline.

 

[BrianFromWA]

By renouncing Mo and not picking up the guarantees for Cliff and Montero, (and including the salaries for Turner at 16.4M and Napier's 1.35M), you can sign Ezeli for 16.1M (4/68.7M) and then sign Layman, Montero and Cliff to minimum contract exceptions (EDIT: Or, if you really wanted to, carve up the Room Exception) without regard to Cap Space. This maintains the cap holds/RFA matching ability of Leonard and Crabbe.

(Edit #2): By renouncing Meyers and not picking up the guarantees for Cliff and Montero, (and including the salaries for Turner at 16.4M and Napier's 1.35M), you can sign Ezeli for 16.7M (4/71.3M) and then sign Layman, Montero and Cliff to minimum contract exceptions without regard to Cap Space. This maintains the cap holds/RFA matching ability of Harkless and Crabbe.

If Leonard accepts the QO (unlikely, but for hypothetical purposes), we can keep all of our RFAs on holds (again, not picking up the guarantees on Montero and Alexander) and offer 12.7M to start (4/54.7M), then sign 2 of Montero, Cliff and Layman with vet min contracts after (because we'll be at 13 players and can only have 15 going into the season).

If Leonard accepts the QO, he loses Bird rights if he's traded, so he has a no-trade clause that only he can waive. And he becomes a UFA next summer (probably a great time for a mobile, decent-shooting big to be a UFA). He gone.

 

[Natebishop3]

By renouncing Mo and not picking up the guarantees for Cliff and Montero, (and including the salaries for Turner at 16.4M and Napier's 1.35M), you can sign Ezeli for 16.1M (4/68.7M) and then sign Layman, Montero and Cliff to minimum contract exceptions without regard to Cap Space. This maintains the cap holds/RFA matching ability of Leonard and Crabbe.

If Leonard accepts the QO (unlikely, but for hypothetical purposes), we can keep all of our RFAs on holds (again, not picking up the guarantees on Montero and Alexander) and offer 12.7M to start (4/54.7M), then sign 2 of Montero, Cliff and Layman with vet min contracts after (because we'll be at 13 players and can only have 15 going into the season).

If Leonard accepts the QO, he loses Bird rights if he's traded, so he has a no-trade clause that only he can waive. And he becomes a UFA next summer (probably a great time for a mobile, decent-shooting big to be a UFA). He gone.

God... fuck that.... Keep Mo.

 

[Trackjack]

He came to sign with us for how much I don't know. If the his knees get clear believe me they will work something out to be a Blazer.

 

[BrianFromWA]

now that the math's out of the way, didn't Steve Kerr hold Festus on the bench in the playoffs until he absolutely HAD to play him, and then he committed one of the dumber (and more significant) fouls in recent history? I didn't see him play this season.

Then again:

Ezeli was voted by the Warriors as the franchise’s best teammate this season.

 

[Minstrel]

I would open by telling him that he will be the one and only focus of the defense next season in Miami. His numbers will falter and he'll look like a horrible contract. He would stand to make more money long term if he went to a better situation.

Telling an athlete that he's going to suck as the first option and be viewed as a horrible contract in order to woo him? Please tell me you're better with women than you are with professional athletes!

 

[TBpup]

I just went through every team and the only teams that may need a starting center are the Pelicans and Rockets. Cavs too but they don't have any money. Maybe the hornets. That's it.

Houston has Capella and just signed Nene. They probably don't want to spend that much money on a 3rd center. Pelicans already have Asik they are paying a bunch of money to and Charlotte has Hawes, Zeller and just signed Hibbert. All of that is good for Portland from a negotiating standpoint.

 

[Blazer Freak]

I don't want to give up Harkless. I would dump Leonard in a second.

Dame
CJ
Turner
Aminu
Ezeli

With Crabbe, Harkless, Vonleh, Davis off the bench. That's still a VERY solid rotation. Extremely versatile. I left Plumlee off the list because I think we need to trade him. If Ezeli can get an offer like this, Plumlee is going to get some kind of stupid offer next summer.

After sitting on everything the last couple of days, if you told me before the offseason started we'd end up with Turner and Ezeli, ignoring their contracts, I'd be disappointed we didn't add a star but overall would think we added two solid players too our roster. Just because GSW has Durant doesn't mean we need to rebuild because theirs no chance. We just need to continue to collect talent and hope we can hit on a late pick like. Draymond, etc to give us that second/third star.

I'm in agreement with you, I think Plumlee is gone at some point this season. He's an NBA player, but he's flawed offensively and is going to be getting a larger contract next season that the Blazers will not be matching.

Is it a contending roster? No, not currently. But it's one that has good talent 1-9 and will compete every night. It's going to take atleast a half season to see how the seismic changes this offseason have affected the NBA and gives Olshey an idea of how to adjust the roster moving forward.

One thing people need to remember is that with these new contracts you can GUARANTEE another amnesty clause will be part of any new CBA agreement.

 

[Cippy91]

I learned that Jason Quick's got himself a gut. Impressive. Anyways, I hope we let go of meyers if we let go of anybody. I feel like Harkless is much more valuable

 

[Cippy91]

What has Meyers proved to us in the last few years really? that he can stretch the floor and shoot? play good defense SOMETIMES. Harkless proved more in a year to me then Meyers has in three

 

[Chris Craig]

@KingAlbertoJrSpeed since the other thread was locked, I'll post this here

Blazers 112 Warriors 109

Durant 38 points
Curry 29 points

Lillard 26 points 8 assists 2 steals
McCollum 22 points 4 assists
Turner 18 points 4 rebounds 3 assists
Crabbe 14 points
Ezeli 11 points 15 rebounds 4 assists 3 blocks

 

[Scalma]

Houston has Capella and just signed Nene. They probably don't want to spend that much money on a 3rd center. Pelicans already have Asik they are paying a bunch of money to and Charlotte has Hawes, Zeller and just signed Hibbert. All of that is good for Portland from a negotiating standpoint.

Yeah, none of those situations would stop me from upgrading at the position if I had the money.

Ezeli is better than all those guys.

 

[boredinsalem]

I think IF (and a decent sized one) you can deal Plumlee, Leonard and Harkless are the guys to bring back, while letting Crabbe walk (and get Ezeli on the $12M or so left. Leonard is a unique piece, even though flawed. And the numbers bear out that Dame and CJ were better with him on the court. I don't think the other stretch 4s in the league have the body size to set the picks that he can on the perimeter.

I really like the thought of platooning Leonard and Ezeli with each offering a different skill on offense (pick n pop or pick n roll essentially) and lots of size on defense, and using Aminu/Noah at 4. With Turner's increased playmaking we will be able to use Harkless (or Aminu) at 3 while still having plenty of ball handling on the floor at all times, even w/o retaining Crabbe.

I guess that I just don't think we're in contention right now, and Harkless and Leonard both seem to have MUCH higher upside than Crabbe.

 

[Sarni]

I like this move a lot if we don't overpay. If he can stay fit he will have a good impact.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

I like Ezeli at $1.93489 mil per season.

 

[Blazers Roy]

So now we're taking GSW's trash?

I don't understand what Neil is doing, he is acting like Cuban now.

 

[Cippy91]

So now we're taking GSW's trash?

I don't understand what Neil is doing, he is acting like Cuban now.

He isn't helping like Cuban. I believe they just renounced festus. With Bogut and Barnes it was different.

 

[Blazers Roy]

He isn't helping like Cuban. I believe they just renounced festus. With Bogut and Barnes it was different.

I'm not talking about helping the Warriors or not, i'm talking about offering huge desperate contracts to anyone.

 

[BonesJones]

If Leonard accepts the QO (unlikely, but for hypothetical purposes), we can keep all of our RFAs on holds (again, not picking up the guarantees on Montero and Alexander) and offer 12.7M to start (4/54.7M), then sign 2 of Montero, Cliff and Layman with vet min contracts after (because we'll be at 13 players and can only have 15 going into the season).

The ideal situation would be Meyers accepting the QO, then trading Plumlee for a future 1st. That'd leave us with $15M to offer Ezeli which is enough to get him IMO. Then we can keep Montero, Connaughton, and Layman.

1st Unit:
Dame / CJ / Turner / Aminu / Festus

2nd Unit:
Crabbe / Moe / Vonleh / Davis / MyLe

3rd Unit:
Napier / Pat / Luis / Layman / Cliff

 

[BonesJones]

Well the Mike Rice firing makes more sense--need your announcers to pronounce your own players' names correctly.

Afalo FTW

 

[BonesJones]

Give me Ekpe Udoh instead.

LOL

I'm not talking about helping the Warriors or not, i'm talking about offering huge desperate contracts to anyone.

LMFAO

 

[Mediocre Man]

No way in hell Bruce Lee was a Targaryen.

 

[Eastoff]

I'm not talking about helping the Warriors or not, i'm talking about offering huge desperate contracts to anyone.

We're not offering him huge contracts if he's an UFA who flew here on his own and we didn't meet him at the airport.