Sign & Trade - it's our only hope...

[BoomChakaLaka]

Let's face it, our only hope may be the Sign & Trade;

Lennard, Crabbe and a pick to Sac
For Cousins

Lennard, Crabbe to GSW
Ezeli and Barnes

Lenard for Monroe

Other ideas?

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Vucevic.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

Let's face it, our only hope may be the Sign & Trade;

Lennard, Crabbe and a pick to Sac
For Cousins

Lennard, Crabbe to GSW
Ezeli and Barnes

Lenard for Monroe

Other ideas?

Sac will want CJ & Harkless.

Barnes signed with Dallas.

 

[ebott]

No deal like that has ever happened. In a sign and trade deal, the free agent is ALWAYS the best player involved.

Our only option is to resign everyone and hope for the best. Give up on free agency forever. Always focus on the draft and making trades.

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

Exactly! I'm a homer but realize Lenard and Crabbe are not the better players....

 

[Scalma]

I was thinking some sort of three way trade where we land a Noel. The issue is our main tradeable assets are bigs and presumably a team like Philly would have no need fora plumlee. That's where a team like Houston or Toronto comes in.

Something like

To Philly: Portland 1st round pick, Houston 1st round pick

To Houston: Plumlee or Ed Davis

To Portland: Noel

Could maybe throw Vonleh at one of those teams as well.

 

[Schilly]

Are we just making changes for the sake of making changes now?

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Are we just making changes for the sake of making changes now?

No. Making changes for the sake of shutting up fans bitching about the lack of changes.

 

[Schilly]

I see the distinction

 

[Natebishop3]

No. Making changes for the sake of shutting up fans bitching about the lack of changes.

Come on you guys aren't being fair. This was being touted as THE summer where Neil added some needle movers. We took a kick in the nuts last summer and we were told to be patient because THIS summer we were going to get it back. We were gonna add a third weapon.

We got Evan turner at a steep price instead.

I like turner. I wanted him on this team, but this is a serious letdown after all the buildup and chatter. Last year we exceeded expectations and that's great, but the rest of the west is building up. Things got tougher and all we did was add Evan turner.

 

[LuckyShot]

I was thinking some sort of three way trade where we land a Noel. The issue is our main tradeable assets are bigs and presumably a team like Philly would have no need fora plumlee. That's where a team like Houston or Toronto comes in.

Something like

To Philly: Portland 1st round pick, Houston 1st round pick

To Houston: Plumlee or Ed Davis

To Portland: Noel

Could maybe throw Vonleh at one of those teams as well.

I don't understand the draw to Noel at all.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Neil is a big talker. More flash than substance.

He doesn't take risks. When he's forced to he panics - the Denver trade. He wasn't at all thinking long-term with that move.

Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee are all solid acquisitions but not a single one of them move the needle. They're all solid role players. Mid-tier targets seem to be where Neil likes to operate.

This route, Lillard/McColum are going to be ran into the ground.

 

[Schilly]

He hasn't had the assets outside of cap space, which no Blazers GM has been successful with, to make deals yet. At least not in post Lamarcus era.

 

[PDXFonz]

Neil is a big talker. More flash than substance.

He doesn't take risks. When he's forced to he panics - the Denver trade. He wasn't at all thinking long-term with that move.

Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee are all solid acquisitions but not a single one of them move the needle. They're all solid role players. Mid-tier targets seem to be where Neil likes to operate.

This route, Lillard/McColum are going to be ran into the ground.

He should have known that Wes was gonna rupture his Achilles, a good GM would have known that.

 

[VanillaGorilla]

It's not Neil's fault that you guys can't get your needles to move.

 

[LuckyShot]

Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee are all solid acquisitions but not a single one of them move the needle. They're all solid role players. Mid-tier targets seem to be where Neil likes to operate.

Individually, no, but collectively they got us to the second round and gave GS a run for their money when everyone thought we'd struggle to win 25 games. That moved my needle...

Shut up you know what I mean. Anyway the offseason isn't over yet.

 

[illmatic99]

I wonder how much Noah can develop. We're pretty much stuck where we are unless he blows up.

sigh

 

[illmatic99]

Neil is a big talker. More flash than substance.

He doesn't take risks. When he's forced to he panics - the Denver trade. He wasn't at all thinking long-term with that move.

Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee are all solid acquisitions but not a single one of them move the needle. They're all solid role players. Mid-tier targets seem to be where Neil likes to operate.

This route, Lillard/McColum are going to be ran into the ground.

Could have argued that maxing out a Parsons coming off two knee injuries, and aiming to waive multiple RFAs to throw 40 mil at a 36 yr old Gasol are both huge risks.

 

[Mediocre Man]

Let's face it, our only hope may be the Sign & Trade;

Lennard, Crabbe and a pick to Sac
For Cousins

Lennard, Crabbe to GSW
Ezeli and Barnes

Lenard for Monroe

Other ideas?

Maybe ones other team might accept?

 

[Mediocre Man]

It's not Neil's fault that you guys can't get your needles to move.

Maybe viagra is what Neil has been missing?

 

[Sinobas]

He should have known that Wes was gonna rupture his Achilles, a good GM would have known that.

Mathews was not apart of the Afflalo trade. But Afflalo ended up not being worth the draft pick, let alone the Will Barton component. Some like to give him the out that "hindsight is 20/20", but I've noticed no one gives that out to a GM that drafts bust after bust. The most important part of a GMs job is to predict how a player will perform for a team, whether it be through draft, FA or trade. So far Neil has done pretty good in the draft...but the rest of his resume is a mixed bag.

And of course, we don't know everything he tried to do behind the scenes. But we know his signings have not been his "plan a".

 

[Sinobas]

Neil is a big talker. More flash than substance.

He doesn't take risks. When he's forced to he panics - the Denver trade. He wasn't at all thinking long-term with that move.

Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee are all solid acquisitions but not a single one of them move the needle. They're all solid role players. Mid-tier targets seem to be where Neil likes to operate.

This route, Lillard/McColum are going to be ran into the ground.

Yes, his talk has been bigger than his walk.

 

[TBpup]

He hasn't had the assets outside of cap space, which no Blazers GM has been successful with, to make deals yet. At least not in post Lamarcus era.

Understanding that Cap Space doesn't and hasn't worked, should have led to another approach. If you know have a very good idea that what you have isn't of value, then it is your job to figure out what does work. Unbalanced trades, trades before letting players go for nothing so you at least have another asset, and not trading away so many Draft picks when that is one of the only way you have of maintaining some control over players.

I'm not doubting Neil's effort. It just seems that the 'cap space' route that fans have been sold for the last couple of years had very little chance of success and many of those fans already knew it.

This is a partial list of players the Blazers had that they received absolutely nothing for in return. There are good reasons that is the case with some of them but that is a LOT of talent in some cases just to walk out the door without getting anything back. Teams like Portland just can't afford to have that happen.


· Jamal Crawford, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Jonny Flynn, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Joel Przybilla, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Craig Smith, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Hasheem Thabeet, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Dan Gadzuric, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Justin Holiday, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Dallas Lauderdale, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Jared Jeffries, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· ThePortland Trail Blazersrenounced their free-agent exception rights toElliot Williams.

· ThePortland Trail Blazersrenounced their free-agent exception rights toNolan Smith.

· ThePortland Trail Blazersrenounced their free-agent exception rights toEric Maynor.

· ThePortland Trail Blazersrenounced their free-agent exception rights toJ.J. Hickson.

· ThePortland Trail Blazersrenounced their free-agent exception rights toLuke Babbitt.

· Earl Watson, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Mo Williams, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Arron Afflalo, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· LaMarcus Aldridge, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Joel Freeland, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Alonzo Gee, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Robin Lopez, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Wesley Matthews, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Dorell Wright, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Mike Miller, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Tim Frazier, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

· Anderson Varejao, previously with thePortland Trail Blazers, became a free agent.

 

[illmatic99]

http://nyloncalculus.com/stats/rim-protection/

Keep going down the list. Millsap is incredible. Analytics love his defense and his raw stats are some of the best in the league. ATL is smart and no longer have a clog inside, so they prolly won't let him go.

Ezeli's rim protection numbers are really good, but he only played 45 games last year and seems injury prone. I have no interest in gutting the team for him. John Henson is another similar dude who played even fewer minutes last season, but he's a great rim protector. We missed out on Aldrich.

 

[Sarni]

Ezeli only makes sense if he takes a contract that doesn't require us to renounce anyone except Meyers, and he probably won't. I'm not even sure I want to renounce Meyers to get Ezeli either.

 

[blue9]

Individually, no, but collectively they got us to the second round ...

Eh...did they really? I know that, yes, we made it to the 2nd round. But c'mon - that really did have more to do with who we faced (or didn't face), than the quality play of Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee. Aminu was godawful for most of the LAC series and Davis was largely invisible. Both of our recent second round appearances had more to do with luck than truly being a quality 2nd round team.

 

[BBert]

Well...I think the best use of our cap space might have been in a lop-sided trade to a team needing to make space. Of course, I have no idea how hard Neil looked at those options, or if there were any viable options of that nature that would have made us better. All I know is, I'm pretty much over trying to use cap space to lure a big-time needle-moving free agent. At the same time, I have to wonder how often players like that are traded for, and how often traded for space? Not often, I'd wager. (See sig line below.)

 

[blue9]

Understanding that Cap Space doesn't and hasn't worked, should have led to another approach. If you know have a very good idea that what you have isn't of value, then it is your job to figure out what does work. Unbalanced trades, trades before letting players go for nothing so you at least have another asset, and not trading away so many Draft picks when that is one of the only way you have of maintaining some control over players.

Totally agree with this. I recall people being certain that we would be a Free Agent destination so long as we proved to be plucky, young upstarts. My rebuttal has always been that we won't draw Free Agents until we make the WCF. Once that happens - and ONLY once that happens - will impact players want to sign with us. It is known.

But beyond that, even operating on hope, there just weren't any names this summer worth taking a stab at. Aside from a couple key names, this Free Agent class sucks. There were two huge red flags regarding Free Agency and Neil chose to ignore both.

However, I think he has until the Trade Deadline to salvage the mess he's gotten himself into. He now has more tradeable assets than he's ever had. He needs to match offers on at least Harkless and Meyers. Then let's see if he can flip some combo of our players into a difference-maker. IMO he has to trade at least one of Plumlee/Davis. And since we're no longer going to have any cap-space for the foreseeable future "value contracts" don't hold any monetary value for us, but might hold value for another team looking to create future cap space.

 

[PDXFonz]

Mathews was not apart of the Afflalo trade. But Afflalo ended up not being worth the draft pick, let alone the Will Barton component. Some like to give him the out that "hindsight is 20/20", but I've noticed no one gives that out to a GM that drafts bust after bust. The most important part of a GMs job is to predict how a player will perform for a team, whether it be through draft, FA or trade. So far Neil has done pretty good in the draft...but the rest of his resume is a mixed bag.

And of course, we don't know everything he tried to do behind the scenes. But we know his signings have not been his "plan a".

When Wes went down the entire long term plan changed. That AA trade could have been completely different had we not lost Wes.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Neil is a big talker. More flash than substance.

He doesn't take risks. When he's forced to he panics - the Denver trade. He wasn't at all thinking long-term with that move.

Aminu/Harkless/Davis/Plumlee are all solid acquisitions but not a single one of them move the needle. They're all solid role players. Mid-tier targets seem to be where Neil likes to operate.

This route, Lillard/McColum are going to be ran into the ground.

Bump.