Kurt Thomas to Portland

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He's played a significant role on playoff teams the last two years. Milwaukie and Chicago. Since Shaq retired, he's the oldest player in the league.
 
Man, if this is for a reasonable amount of cash I love this move. Like MZ said Kurt Thomas is a bad ass motherfucker. He will knock you the fuck down if you hurt any of his guys and he will give you a hard foul and kids will not drive back in. He is like Joel with an ability to hit an outside shot and even more of an enforcer. No one going to be giving hard fouls to LaMarcus this year unless they want Kurt Thomas to knock them the fuck down.
 
elder statesman!

and yes, he will be our enforcer if nothing else, no easy baskets
 
The Blazers do need to put together a viable NBA roster. I know the on-paper min-maxers would prefer to play 5 fans off the street to get the top lottery chances, but the Blazers in real life can't literally have only 5-6 legitimate NBA players. Thomas is nothing special, but he gets the team one player closer to an actual NBA roster. Consider it the basic administrative business of running the team...you have to staff all the roster spots. I still think Marc Stein's "Blazermaniacs could use some good news" comment on this signing is comical, though. Finally, a reason to hope!
 
When all is said and done, I like this a whole fuckin' lot better than Reggie Evans at the MLE for 4 years. Not only is Thomas better, cheaper and on a shorter contract, he also gets an AARP discount on most meals and lodging.

But, the Vulcan bean counters fucked up. If only they'd signed Thomas to a 1-year deal, he'd be eligible for the Veteran’s Minimum Reimbursement program and the league would have paid a big chunk of Thomas' salary. By signing him to a 2-year deal, the Blazers lose out on the Veteran’s Minimum Reimbursement. Oh well, just SPAM, I suppose. I thought it was the Vulcans' job to end that practice.

BNM
 
Carlito said:
I disagree. Not tear down but retool. We can't tear down considering we have LA and Batum. One good draft and a few trades/signings we will be fine. Would you like to relive the 2004-2005 days maxiep?
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I don't think we have a choice, unless years of 39-43 float your boat.
 
great point BNM, I was just about to post this.

It might be that in the new CBA they removed that clause, or made it more cap-friendly or something. But I agree that they did hose themselves out of 750k or so.
 
If the blazers had a good gm, we would be fine with trade pieces we have. It takes way too long to rebuild. Look at twolves, kings, bobcats, Knicks (10 years)
 
Rebuilding from scratch is out of question IMO. With the ownership uncertain moving forward you do not want a dwindling fan base/season tics. They must hire a competent GM who can re stack this lineup through trades. Otherwise this franchise (in my humble opinion) can withstand another rebuild.
 
LA helped.

Mike Barrett @Blazermb
L. Aldridge a big help in landing Kurt Thomas. They're both from Dallas and worked out together all summer. LA made a key phone call to K.T.
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maxiep said:
I don't think we have a choice, unless years of 39-43 float your boat.
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Didn't we win 48 games and secure the 6th seed last season without Oden and Roy sucking (other than that one magical quarter against Dallas)? I know the general mood around here is pretty dismal right now, but why does everyone assume we'll be so much worse this year? Aldridge will be even better. Batum and Matthews should both be improved and will take all of Roy's minutes (which will improve our perimeter defense compared to last year). We'll have a full season of Gerald Wallace starting instead of Dante Cunningham for half a season. I personally think Felton is a minor downgrade at starting PG, but he's in a contract year and will be highly motivated. So, I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. Thomas ain't great, but he's better than any back up big man we had last season. We lost Rudy, but that seems like addition by subtraction.

Of course, the wheels could continue to fall off and we could suffer even more injuries. If Camby goes down, we are pretty fucked at this point. I like Chris Johnson, the energy, shot blocking and rebounding he brings off the bench, but if he's forced into the role of starting center, I'm afraid it won't be pretty. But, I'll worry about that only if/when it happens.

BNM
 
Boob-No-More said:
Didn't we win 48 games and secure the 6th seed last season without Oden and Roy sucking (other than that one magical quarter against Dallas)? I know the general mood around here is pretty dismal right now, but why does everyone assume we'll be so much worse this year? Aldridge will be even better. Batum and Matthews should both be improved and will take all of Roy's minutes (which will improve our perimeter defense compared to last year). We'll have a full season of Gerald Wallace starting instead of Dante Cunningham for half a season. I personally think Felton is a minor downgrade at starting PG, but he's in a contract year and will be highly motivated. So, I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised. Thomas ain't great, but he's better than any back up big man we had last season. We lost Rudy, but that seems like addition by subtraction.

Of course, the wheels could continue to fall off and we could suffer even more injuries. If Camby goes down, we are pretty fucked at this point. I like Chris Johnson, the energy, shot blocking and rebounding he brings off the bench, but if he's forced into the role of starting center, I'm afraid it won't be pretty. But, I'll worry about that only if/when it happens.

BNM
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Speaking for only myself, I like a team that can compete for a title. I don't mind a team that is building to do that either. What Portland is doing is standing still (partly no fault of their own)
 
Boob-No-More said:
When all is said and done, I like this a whole fuckin' lot better than Reggie Evans at the MLE for 4 years. Not only is Thomas better, cheaper and on a shorter contract, he also gets an AARP discount on most meals and lodging.
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No question about that, but that's setting the bar pretty low.

If Thomas was signed at the veteran's minimum, then it's not as bad of a move as I had thought. I have a problem, though, with where the management seems to think this team is... adding a veteran presence to a team that doesn't have many young guys just isn't that helpful, IMO, and the team should be looking more to the future than they are.

I guess maybe that's why Cho is no longer GM: he agreed with me that this team, as it's constructed, isn't nearly good enough to make a splash in the playoffs.

Ed O.
 
This statement by Kurt Thomas speaks volumes about where this team is


jwquick
Kurt Thomas said he chose Portland over Chicago, Boston, Memphis and Miami. He said the opportunity to play, and a 2-yr deal were factors
 
Mediocre Man said:
This statement by Kurt Thomas speaks volumes about where this team is


jwquick
Kurt Thomas said he chose Portland over Chicago, Boston, Memphis and Miami. He said the opportunity to play, and a 2-yr deal were factors
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Yeah, we're more desirable than Chicago, Boston, Memphis and Miami.
 
Mediocre Man said:
This statement by Kurt Thomas speaks volumes about where this team is


jwquick
Kurt Thomas said he chose Portland over Chicago, Boston, Memphis and Miami. He said the opportunity to play, and a 2-yr deal were factors
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He would have had an opportunity to play in Boston, Memphis and Miami. He did it for the 2 yr contract which probably wasn't offered by other teams. Good news, PA still looking to win.
 
a question, could the extended (to the Dec. 16 I think) Bayless TPE have been used to sign Thomas?
 
maxiep said:
Kurt Thomas is a personification of this iteration of the Blazers: Solid, unspectacular, past its prime.

The time has come to tear down and rebuild. We got old, injured, expensive with a thin bench in a hurry.
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Aldridge, Batum, Wesley Matthews, Elliott Williams, Armon Johnson, Luke Babbitt, Chris Johnson are old? That's half our team with 5 or less years of experience. And Wallace and Felton (younger than Andre Miller) aren't that old. Only old players are Camby and Thomas.
 
KingSpeed said:
Aldridge, Batum, Wesley Matthews, Elliott Williams, Armon Johnson, Luke Babbitt, Chris Johnson are old? That's half our team with 5 or less years of experience. And Wallace and Felton (younger than Andre Miller) aren't that old. Only old players are Camby and Thomas.
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Armon JOhnson, Luke Babbitt and Chris Johnson are NBA caliber players?
 
Ed O said:
It depends on how much they're paying, of course, but it is generally ridiculous to offer a 39 year-old guy a two year deal.

A guy with PERs of 9.9 and 10.0 the last two years? Even worse.

Of course, if/when he gets hurt (as older players so often do) it would be a blessing in disguise to get his inefficient minutes replaced with someone who might actually be able to contribute to the present AND to the future.

Sheesh.

Ed O.
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His PER is irrelevant because his ugage is so low. 10 PER with 9.4 usage is productive in a specific role.
 
It's kind of funny to me that Thomas is the NBA's oldest player by one day......over Grant (over the) Hill.
 
Mediocre Man said:
This statement by Kurt Thomas speaks volumes about where this team is


jwquick
Kurt Thomas said he chose Portland over Chicago, Boston, Memphis and Miami. He said the opportunity to play, and a 2-yr deal were factors
Click to expand...

That seems to answer why we gave him a two year deal, otherwise we wouldn't have got him. And as for saving cap room for next year, maybe they decided we wouldn't have much of a chance anyway.

I'm good with this signing, as others says plays D, shoots .500 and a good screener. If there were young guys available who could do even 80% as well, i would favor signing them, but I haven't seen any. One of the few who is around we already have (Chris Johnson).
 
For the money I like the signing. I just hope to god he doesn't end up pulling a "Juwan" with this team and is forced to play starters minutes half-way into the season.
 
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