Merged: Breaking News: Hedo rejects offer

[Rodolfo]

It'll be interesting to see what KP does now. Settle for someone less or hold on to the cap space?

 

[B-Roy]

It'll be interesting to see what KP does now. Settle for someone less or hold on to the cap space?

Holding on to the capspace would do nothing for us.

 

[Minstrel]

Well, this isn't going to be a popular observation but...Pritchard will actually have more cap space at the trade deadline next season. The space from this off-season, plus the cap-holds of Claver, Koponen and Freeland will not exist. Cap-holds for players teams hold the rights to but don't have on roster are only in effect during the off-season.

So, he could potentially have more to work with during the season. I'm not advocating for waiting til then or not, but it's worth bearing in mind.

 

[MAS RipCity]

If we start bayless and batum, im finding standing pat..make our run in 2010

 

[mgb]

I heard that KP is signing Ha as a SF. Now that's a tall front court!! Save a little money too!

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Bill Simmons - the voice of reason

Seriously: Portland, you dodged a bullet. Hedo peaked 2 years ago. He might be 33 for all we know. You're better off. Trust me.

 

[cdub503]

I'm quite glad that we didn't sign him. Wouldn't shoo him away if we got him but wasn't in love with him either. Get a pg and were good!

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

I had the same thought - til I read Bill Simmons' opinion. Now I know we lost out.

 

[alex42083]

Who knows what to believe until Hedo himself explains why this went down the way it did. According to Ric Bucher, it wasn't about money. Portland just wasn't "cosmopolitan" enough for Hedo and his wife. Ouch.

If this is true - I'm glad we didn't sign a candyass who wants to play in a "cosmopolitan" town.

And this dude played in Sacramento for four years, and enjoyed it I thought. Sacramento? Ugh.. F you Hedo's wife.

 

[Boob-No-More]

karma will have a funny way of paying back Hedo.

And Brian Colangelo.

*Hard to pin this one on KP, but I'm sure people will.

Yep, the same people that were bitching about KP overpaying for Hedo are now blaming him for not getting him because Toronto offered him even more money. You can't have it both ways folks.

Look for Toronto to have one season of 35 - 40 wins followed by 4 years of being one of the worst teams in the league - after Bosh leaves next summer and they are locked into Hedo for four more years with $50 million left on his contract.

BNM

 

[Boob-No-More]

Bill Simmons - the voice of reason

Yeah, because we all know what a genius Bill Simmons is when it comes to evaluating basketball talent.

That he thinks we "dodged a bullet" makes me feel even worse about losing out on Hedo.

BNM

P.S. Did he mention that Greg Oden is a bust? If not, it will be the first time in two years he's mentioned Portland and not taken a cheap shot at Oden. He's the Bill Laimbeer of sports writers.

 

[B-Roy]

Yeah, because we all know what a genius Bill Simmons is when it comes to evaluating basketball talent.

That he thinks we "dodged a bullet" makes me feel even worse about losing out on Hedo.

BNM

P.S. Did he mention that Greg Oden is a bust? If not, it will be the first time in two years he's mentioned Portland and not taken a cheap shot at Oden. He's the Bill Laimbeer of sports writers.

He did take a cheap shot at Oden.

FYI: Hedo changed his mind in Portland after seeing Greg Oden limp towards him for a handshake. (Waiting.) What, too soon? <---In the same tweet.

 

[craigehlo]

Yep, the same people that were bitching about KP overpaying for Hedo are now blaming him for not getting him because Toronto offered him even more money. You can't have it both ways folks

When your entire off season plan is to land Hedo, you better be damn sure you can do it. It was a direction they chose when they let Raef's contract expire for nothing.

KP failed to execute and they don't have much leverage right now on the already weak FA market.

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

Hedo is a pussy, scared of the challenge of facing the tough western conference.

Enjoy losing in Toronto Hedo! You have shown that you have no heart and that $$ is all you care about. We dont need ya. Enjoy Canada and their crap beer!

Crazy reading on ESPN that Hedo's about face is being compared to Boozer and the Jazz/Cav situation. You'd have to be a fool to think that Toronto has a better chance of winning then we do.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Man, there's so much "people know what ain't so" going on right now it's amazing.

1) We currently have a cap # of 49.983. If we renounce Freeland and Kopo, we have 48.335. The cap last year was 58.68. Teams have been told it'll be the same or even a little less.
Assuming the same, we can offer someone a 5/50.6M contract. If we renounce the two (and cap stays same) we can offer 5/60.03M. For every 100K the cap goes down, reduce the total contract amount by 580k.

2) When I left the military, I could've gotten a really high paying job in Boston or Huntsville, AL. I could've had a less-paying job here in Seattle. My family is all within 3 hours of me, and my wife's is in northern Cali. She's been to DC, Boston and Orlando and only really liked DC (though we were in Crystal City, so I don't know if that counts as "DC"). She said she really didn't want to leave WA, and would get a part-time job to make up the difference b/c she didn't want to move to the East. Just b/c your wife has input on your move doesn't mean she wears the pants. Let's put it this way: if she divorces him, it's a heck of a lot more expensive than the savings he'd get even if we overpaid. Grow up.

3) If we would've cut Blake or Outlaw before the June 30 deadline, we'd have another 4M up front (which is 23M over the 5 years) more to give. I'm not saying Hedo's worth 5/82M, but Blake and/or Travis would've been a small price to pay to have that flexibility. And if it turned out that we got spurned, then we can re-sign them later. We also could make a 14M lopsided trade now, instead of a 10M.

4) Agree with Ed (iirc), in that we wouldn't need a point-forward if we had a single decent point guard. We currently have two small SGs manning the point guard with no actual point skills. I'm holding out hope that Bayless can come along, but I'm thinking if revisiting the Conley/Gay/Jaric for Outlaw/Blake is worth checking out again.

5) Ru-Bee-Oh!

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

It cracks me up how many of you pretend to have a crystal ball and see the future.

KP etc. could not have possibly thought something like this would happen.

Stop being arm chair QB's and join the real world.

 

[BrianFromWA]

Really? You mean with "all the work they put in" and being "paid to do this job" and "scouting all day all year" while fans watch "a couple of games a year and read DraftExpress", they couldn't have come up with risk management scenarios? You're serious?

Wow. No wonder IKPYT.

How about this? The fact that, as an "armchair QB" I saw that there were multiple strategies available, and the poorer one was chosen. I saw that there were only very limited reasons why our cap space would actually be that valuable, and questioned why we were pinning our hopes on it. Now that it looks as if my bad-case scenario came through, you say "KP could not have possibly thought something like this would happen". First, I think that's false. Second, if it's true, then he should be looked at for gross negligence. What the heck do you mean, "couldn't have possibly thought that the target he had might sign somewhere else for a variety of reasons?" Did he not watch Baron Davis and Elton Brand last year? Or remember Carlos Boozer's raping of CLE? Or almost any other "negotiation" that seemed one-sided from the beginning? Wow. Just, wow.

 

[Tince]

Really? You mean with "all the work they put in" and being "paid to do this job" and "scouting all day all year" while fans watch "a couple of games a year and read DraftExpress", they couldn't have come up with risk management scenarios? You're serious?

Wow. No wonder IKPYT.

How about this? The fact that, as an "armchair QB" I saw that there were multiple strategies available, and the poorer one was chosen. I saw that there were only very limited reasons why our cap space would actually be that valuable, and questioned why we were pinning our hopes on it. Now that it looks as if my bad-case scenario came through, you say "KP could not have possibly thought something like this would happen". First, I think that's false. Second, if it's true, then he should be looked at for gross negligence. What the heck do you mean, "couldn't have possibly thought that the target he had might sign somewhere else for a variety of reasons?" Did he not watch Baron Davis and Elton Brand last year? Or remember Carlos Boozer's raping of CLE? Or almost any other "negotiation" that seemed one-sided from the beginning? Wow. Just, wow.

Get off the ledge, turbo.

 

[oldmangrouch]

karma will have a funny way of paying back Hedo.

*Hard to pin this one on KP, but I'm sure people will.

Agreed. It's what KP does *next* that he will (deservedly) be judged by.

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

I have a question with anyone who wants to do some math. Won't Hedo really be getting less of his paycheck in Canada since he has to pay the higher government taxes there? I think if its 10% more or so over the life of his contract the money might look closer then it seems.

This really all depends on two factors:

Free healthcare in Canada....and if he should buy a lottery ticket and win (in Canada) he won't have to pay tax on his winnings if the money is kept in Canada!


(two of the reasons that I moved up here! - the third: married a Canuck! with two daughters!)

 

[ODENISGOD]

Hedo agrees to 5 year 53 million with the toronto

that didn't take long! KP got used big time

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4305310

 

[B-Roy]

Re: Hedo agrees to 5 year 53 million with the toronto

You do know that we have a gigantic thread on this right?

 

[BrianFromWA]

Get off the ledge, turbo.

I don't know what you mean by that. I'm suicidal for being right, and laughing at people saying "it couldn't have been predicted?" And that my mind is racing much faster than others'? Am I getting warmer?

 

[Ed O]

Get off the ledge, turbo.

Actually, I think his point is a good one: some of those of us who are critical of the Blazers are criticized for not having access to the same information, or for not being as smart as KP. The defenders of the Blazers management (like fan bois everywhere) often have knee jerk reactions that can work in any direction.

For what it's worth, I don't blame KP here, this week. He really didn't cost us anything by having Hedo out and taking a few days... the thing is that he's painted the Blazers into a corner where options have been getting fewer and fewer, it appears, and that is what worries me.

But there's still time. There's still time this summer and there will be time before the trade deadline... but ...

tick

tick

tick...

Ed O.

 

[Boob-No-More]

When your entire off season plan is to land Hedo, you better be damn sure you can do it. It was a direction they chose when they let Raef's contract expire for nothing.

KP failed to execute and they don't have much leverage right now on the already weak FA market.

Entire off season plan? So, you know for a fact that Kevin Pritchard has no other plan at all to do anything else now that Hedo is gone? Exactly how do you know this for a fact?

There are still multiple free agents available that could help this team. Veteran point guards, Jason Kidd, Andre Miller are all unsigned. There are plenty of back-up power forwards who could be had for about half our cap space.

And, of course, there are almost an infinite number of lopsided trades available where we take back more salary than we send out. We could end up getting a top flight player because we are able to send out multiple expiring contracts and absorb a bad contract in return. With so many teams hurting for cash, don't underestimate what the Blazers can add using their cap space that doesn't involve a free agent signing.

BNM

 

[BrianFromWA]

Not to speak for Craig, BNM, but other than Kidd (who I agree, we should go after hard--like 3/33) or Miller (not so much), everything we do now has to have a team as a partner. Lopsided trades, RFA signings, S&Ts, whatever--

We were told by the mgmt that cap space was more valuable than expiring contracts, b/c you didn't have to worry about trade partners lowballing you, or flaking out, or finding other deals. But now we're at the same point (again, other than Kidd) of having to rely on trade partners.

It's not doomsday, yet--but the job is much harder today than it was before.

 

[ODENISGOD]

Can't wait for the spin from people like Barrett and KP. Im guessing its going to go something like - We really like our team and were going to go to war with these guys. And terms like let it bake and culture. Get your popcorn ready its gonna be some kind of show!!!!

 

[craigehlo]

Entire off season plan? So, you know for a fact that Kevin Pritchard has no other plan at all to do anything else now that Hedo is gone? Exactly how do you know this for a fact?

I'm sure this is going exactly to plan. We pass on cheaper unrestricted FAs to waste our time on Hedo.

This was the Blazers' plan and it blew up in their face. Sure they aren't out of options, but they didn't seem to hedge their bets well by not actively pursuing multiple FAs during the critical first few days of free agency.

 

[RoyToy]

Hedo rejecting the offer will end up being a great thing for the Blazers. The guy is seriously getting too much attention.

Good player, but I personally never thought he was the right piece. I'm seriously fine with Batum at SF and just having a better PG. I'm even fine with Outlaw coming off the bench still.

Portland already has a lot of pieces to win a championship. Once Batum/Rudy/Bayless/ and the beast Oden step it up, that roster is MORE than fine. Portland is still ridiculously stacked.

 

[Idog1976]

karma will have a funny way of paying back Hedo.

*Hard to pin this one on KP, but I'm sure people will.

If his karma payback has anything like the multiplier that Chris Wallace is receiving (AI and Z-Bo...wow) then Hedo might be in for something truly awful.