Official Around The NBA Thread.....July

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

Clippers trying to compete now with Mbah A Moute and Scott. Their rebuild is actually pretty interesting, they have moved from a completely packed salary structure to having potentially $70million to spend next year plus a few promising young players. Wouldn’t be surprised if they got Kawhi or Klay, or even AD via a big trade.
 
Some of my favorite quotes from this Zach Lowe piece: on OKC signing Paul George: "Turns out, there is a co-star cool with Westbrook jacking 43 shots in an elimination game." Another one concerning OKC: "By the way: How funny is it that the team that quibbled over maybe $8 million with James Harden is about to become one of the most prolific taxpayers in league history?"
"Meanwhile, the West might have as many as 13 legitimate playoff hopefuls depending on how the Kawhi Leonard stalemate resolves and your taste in the Mavericks. (Mine: We are overrating them as playoff contenders.)"
On the Nurkic signing:
"Portland faced no serious competition for Jusuf Nurkic before inking him to a four-year, $48 million deal -- with only $4 million guaranteed in Year 4, per league sources. On the surface, it resembles Denver bailing out Mason Plumleewith a three-year, $41 million deal when Plumlee had nowhere else to turn. Portland could have played hardball, and dared Nurkic to take the one-year qualifying offer -- a scenario in which he would have become an unrestricted free agent after the 2018-19 season.

Play well, and Nurkic's floor next summer -- when many more teams will have cap room -- might have been the full midlevel exception. Portland paid him slightly more than that as a tradeoff for locking in four seasons. The Blazers maintain good will with Nurkic (and agents around the league), and preserve a trade asset.

Nurkic is better than Plumlee, and will earn less per season as the cap jumps toward $110 million and then $120 million. Portland should eventually be able to trade Nurkic for at least neutral value. The Nuggets cannot trade Plumlee without attaching an asset."

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/24057463/zach-lowe-winners-losers-2018-nba-free-agency
 
Are some LA fans going to go so far as to boo LeBron James?

That would be epic.

:)
 
It's becoming more obvious we should trade CJ. With Curry, Trent, and Baldwin all deserving minutes and our need for a SF, I'd love to move CJ for a Jimmy Butler/Khris Middleton type... start Curry at the 2 with Baldwin as the guard off the bench sprinkled in with some Trent. Harkless could be the backup 3 and knock Turner out of the rotation... we'd be so much better from a balance standpoint:

Lillard (28) / Baldwin (20)
Curry (28) / Trent (12) / Lillard (8)
JB-Type (34?) / Harkless (14)
Aminu (27) / Harkless (13) / Collins (8)
Nurkic (32) / Collins (16)

I like that lineup a lot.
 
It's becoming more obvious we should trade CJ. With Curry, Trent, and Baldwin all deserving minutes and our need for a SF, I'd love to move CJ for a Jimmy Butler/Khris Middleton type... start Curry at the 2 with Baldwin as the guard off the bench sprinkled in with some Trent. Harkless could be the backup 3 and knock Turner out of the rotation... we'd be so much better from a balance standpoint:

Lillard (28) / Baldwin (20)
Curry (28) / Trent (12) / Lillard (8)
JB-Type (34?) / Harkless (14)
Aminu (27) / Harkless (13) / Collins (8)
Nurkic (32) / Collins (16)

I like that lineup a lot.

Moving CJ for Butler would make so much sense for everyone here. Minnesota finally get some floor spacing and can play Wiggins in his natural position without Butler getting in the way, Portland get a wing who can defend and Butler goes to a team that could perhaps go deep in the playoffs with him and gets to play whichever role he prefers because we can use him both at 2 and 3.

Olshey will never make that move because he won’t accept the uncertainty of Butler re-signing here next year. If he leaves and goes East then then it would basically be a one year rental in a year when nobody can compete with Golden State anyway. Basically a perfect mirror of the situation with George last year. Teams like OKC can take such risk and make that move, Portland won’t.
 
Moving CJ for Butler would make so much sense for everyone here. Minnesota finally get some floor spacing and can play Wiggins in his natural position without Butler getting in the way, Portland get a wing who can defend and Butler goes to a team that could perhaps go deep in the playoffs with him and gets to play whichever role he prefers because we can use him both at 2 and 3.

Olshey will never make that move because he won’t accept the uncertainty of Butler re-signing here next year. If he leaves and goes East then then it would basically be a one year rental in a year when nobody can compete with Golden State anyway. Basically a perfect mirror of the situation with George last year. Teams like OKC can take such risk and make that move, Portland won’t.
Portland should though. Butler's a hard worker who's played under and has a respect for Thibs. I think hes really respect Dame and like the situation. If he leaves, then maybe we could get some cap space for next summer to go after Tyreke, Cousins, Klay, etc.
 
Portland should though. Butler's a hard worker who's played under and has a respect for Thibs. I think hes really respect Dame and like the situation. If he leaves, then maybe we could get some cap space for next summer to go after Tyreke, Cousins, Klay, etc.

Oh, I do agree with you. Even if we lost Butler after a year (I don't think we would, think he would love it in Portland), we could still build something via free agency after getting some cap relief. I don't think we would be able to get someone like Klay but Indiana are not a posh market either and they have got plenty of decent free agents mainly thanks to being frugal with money recently.

I just don't think Olshey would ever make such move. I think CJ is borderline untradeable because he's proven quality and has a great relationship with Dame. I think Dame, CJ, Collins and Nurkic are off the table for any possible trades.
 
Idk why every top player in the west that wanted off of their team wouldn't be clamoring to go to the east right now.
you can make the allstar team in the east now if you were a bench player in the west....trip to finals is a cakewalk compared to the west....I don't get it either
 
Portland should though. Butler's a hard worker who's played under and has a respect for Thibs. I think hes really respect Dame and like the situation. If he leaves, then maybe we could get some cap space for next summer to go after Tyreke, Cousins, Klay, etc.

Totally agree with this. Butler fits the Blazers’ need more than CJ in my opinion, and Portland needs to take a chance and swing for a home run.
 
Totally agree with this. Butler fits the Blazers’ need more than CJ in my opinion, and Portland needs to take a chance and swing for a home run.

Butler is one of the few players who could replace C.J.'s scoring AND provide a significant upgrade defensively (Kawhi and PG13 being the other two that are/were available) . A year and a half ago when there were rumblings Butler wanted out of CHI, I was totally on board with trying to get him with a package centered around C.J. - and I love C.J.

So, hell yeah! If Butler is available, you have to go for it and make your best offer. The problem is, Thibs LOVES Butler and he's not just the MIN coach, he's also the President of Basketball Operations. I think he'd probably much rather move Wiggins than Butler, and Wiggins is just a bigger, less efficient, higher paid version of C.J. No thanks to that.

That said, a Butler for C.J. swap may actually also be our chance to get rid of Meyers. Not that MIN would actually want him, but Gorgui Dieng is one of the highest paid backups in the league. He is owed more than $48 million over the next three years and plays less than 16 mpg. That's an extra year and $27 million more than Meyers is owed. Dieng is a better player, but if anything, he may be even more overpaid than Meyers.

upload_2018-7-12_15-49-15.png

The cost savings alone may not be enough to pry Butler free from MIN. They may actually want a useful player in exchange for Dieng, and even more cost savings:

upload_2018-7-12_15-54-30.png

This saves them a whopping $41 million on Dieng's contract and Aminu actually seems like the kind of defensive player Thibs would prefer. This one, I'd still do.

This is what MIN would probably ask for:

upload_2018-7-12_15-56-44.png

Would you give up our PF of the Now and our PF of the Future to get Butler? Dieng would be a solid (if grotesquely overpaid) back up for Nurk, but doesn't really have the skill set to play PF in today's NBA. We'd no longer be relying on Meyers as our backup center, but we that leaves Meyers and Swanigan as our "best" options at the 4. Maybe offer them a lottery protected future 1st round pick instead of Collins.

BNM
 
Interesting. It is very unlikely Butler becomes a blazer, and if he does, remember he only has 1 year on his contract (before he has a player option), so could end up being a 1 year rental. So, if we're going to dream about Butler, the preferred dream is the wet one where we unload ET (who is supposed admired by Thibs).

Butler is one of the few players who could replace C.J.'s scoring AND provide a significant upgrade defensively (Kawhi and PG13 being the other two that are/were available) . A year and a half ago when there were rumblings Butler wanted out of CHI, I was totally on board with trying to get him with a package centered around C.J. - and I love C.J.

So, hell yeah! If Butler is available, you have to go for it and make your best offer. The problem is, Thibs LOVES Butler and he's not just the MIN coach, he's also the President of Basketball Operations. I think he'd probably much rather move Wiggins than Butler, and Wiggins is just a bigger, less efficient, higher paid version of C.J. No thanks to that.

That said, a Butler for C.J. swap may actually also be our chance to get rid of Meyers. Not that MIN would actually want him, but Gorgui Dieng is one of the highest paid backups in the league. He is owed more than $48 million over the next three years and plays less than 16 mpg. That's an extra year and $27 million more than Meyers is owed. Dieng is a better player, but if anything, he may be even more overpaid than Meyers.

View attachment 21532

The cost savings alone may not be enough to pry Butler free from MIN. They may actually want a useful player in exchange for Dieng, and even more cost savings:

View attachment 21533

This saves them a whopping $41 million on Dieng's contract and Aminu actually seems like the kind of defensive player Thibs would prefer. This one, I'd still do.

This is what MIN would probably ask for:

View attachment 21534

Would you give up our PF of the Now and our PF of the Future to get Butler? Dieng would be a solid (if grotesquely overpaid) back up for Nurk, but doesn't really have the skill set to play PF in today's NBA. We'd no longer be relying on Meyers as our backup center, but we that leaves Meyers and Swanigan as our "best" options at the 4. Maybe offer them a lottery protected future 1st round pick instead of Collins.

BNM
 
Butler is one of the few players who could replace C.J.'s scoring AND provide a significant upgrade defensively (Kawhi and PG13 being the other two that are/were available) . A year and a half ago when there were rumblings Butler wanted out of CHI, I was totally on board with trying to get him with a package centered around C.J. - and I love C.J.

So, hell yeah! If Butler is available, you have to go for it and make your best offer. The problem is, Thibs LOVES Butler and he's not just the MIN coach, he's also the President of Basketball Operations. I think he'd probably much rather move Wiggins than Butler, and Wiggins is just a bigger, less efficient, higher paid version of C.J. No thanks to that.

That said, a Butler for C.J. swap may actually also be our chance to get rid of Meyers. Not that MIN would actually want him, but Gorgui Dieng is one of the highest paid backups in the league. He is owed more than $48 million over the next three years and plays less than 16 mpg. That's an extra year and $27 million more than Meyers is owed. Dieng is a better player, but if anything, he may be even more overpaid than Meyers.

View attachment 21532

The cost savings alone may not be enough to pry Butler free from MIN. They may actually want a useful player in exchange for Dieng, and even more cost savings:

View attachment 21533

This saves them a whopping $41 million on Dieng's contract and Aminu actually seems like the kind of defensive player Thibs would prefer. This one, I'd still do.

This is what MIN would probably ask for:

View attachment 21534

Would you give up our PF of the Now and our PF of the Future to get Butler? Dieng would be a solid (if grotesquely overpaid) back up for Nurk, but doesn't really have the skill set to play PF in today's NBA. We'd no longer be relying on Meyers as our backup center, but we that leaves Meyers and Swanigan as our "best" options at the 4. Maybe offer them a lottery protected future 1st round pick instead of Collins.

BNM
No. Too much value for them. Butler's outta there. Collins or CJ, not both.
 
Would you do the second trade, C.J. and Aminu for Butler and Dieng? Maybe throw in a top 20 protected 1st to sweeten the pot?

BNM
I’d give up Collins and CJ to be honest, but I’m not nearly as high on Collins as others seem to be.
 
Would you do the second trade, C.J. and Aminu for Butler and Dieng? Maybe throw in a top 20 protected 1st to sweeten the pot?

BNM
I wouldn't. If all that's been rumored is true, and butler doesn't want to be there, and is a free agent after the season, then I think them getting a locked in CJ straight up is fair value. The thought of having 26 million dollars tied up in 2 crappy backup Cs is a no. Especially when you factor in butler looking at a huge contract ne t summer.
 
I wouldn't. If all that's been rumored is true, and butler doesn't want to be there, and is a free agent after the season, then I think them getting a locked in CJ straight up is fair value. The thought of having 26 million dollars tied up in 2 crappy backup Cs is a no. Especially when you factor in butler looking at a huge contract ne t summer.

So, would you do the first scenario, C.J. and Meyers for Butler and Dieng. That would rid us of one overpaid backup center. We'd replace him with another overpaid back up center, but one that's actually halfway decent.

BNM
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top