The super Melo to Portland thread + The Big Blockbuster (1 Viewer)

[Boob-No-More]

Dude floating this rumor still saying it's alive but Portland is holding out on receiving additional compensation for taking on Andersons contract.

Sometimes it's better to just roll with your mistakes than try to undo them.

I hope Neil is REALLY holding Daryl Moery's feet to the fire. The only way we help HOU turn one of their mistakes into a player they covet is if we also get to undo one of our mistakes and get a little something more for our trouble.

Worst case, I hope Neil draws this out long enough that other deals get done and other players sign elsewhere and in the end HOU either gets desperate and meets Neil's demands, or he says fuck it, walks away and they end up not getting Carmelo.

BNM

 

[e_blazer]

Other than Ezeli, who we never should have counted on for anything, given his injury history, those were all nagging, minor injuries. Harkless missed 5 games, but only 2 where he did not dress. Crabbe missed 3 games, all after we acquired Nurk. His "absence" had nothing to do with our poor start. His performance did. Meyers missed 8 games - and you say that like it's a bad thing.

Seriously, we sucked because our guys collectively played like shit and underperformed until Nurk arrived in mid-February. The whole point of handing out those ridiculous contracts last summer was too improve our bench and give us "quality depth". Good teams overcome injuries because of their depth. The next man up steps up and does his job. In spite of adding Turner and Ezeli via free agency and retaining Crabbe, Harkless and Leonard, our depth flat out sucked. Of those five, Harkless is the only one that didn't underperform.

It's funny that the negative nancies call me a homer, but I am also perfectly willing to call the guys out when they underperform. I get called a homer by one side and a hater by the other. No excuses. We had the second highest payroll in the league, but were 11 games under .500 when Nurk arrived. Guys simply weren't earning their money. The guys who got the big contracts underperformed and the guys that didn't seemed to be moping that they missed out. Neither is acceptable and it took a 22-year old, out of shape Bosnian to light a fire under them awaken them from their funk.

Maybe its a good thing we haven't been able to sign any free agents this summer. Maybe now guys will all come into camp focused on playing their best and not worrying about who got what. I also like that we added two rookies that seem highly motivated to make their marks. It should push the the players ahead of them and around them to elevate their play. Let's hope so. We've gotten off to horrible starts the last two seasons. That was understandable in 2015-16 do to losing four starters, but last year's slow start was unacceptable and inexcusable.

BNM

Good post, BNM. I agree that injuries, up until Nurkic got hurt, had much less to do with the Blazers' poor start than their general crappy play. I do think that Ed's regression was at least partly attributable to a bum shoulder. Part of Meyers' horrible season probably had to do with his recovery from shoulder surgery, but given his relatively unimportant role on the team, you can't really point to that as a major factor. The team's schedule that was so heavy on road trips early, combined with the painful slowness of trying to integrate Turner into Stotts' offense, were certainly major contributors. But I think that there was an air of complacency around the team due to their playoff success and an expectation that it would translate to bigger success in 2016-17 that bit them in the butt. In reality, all that did was to raise the attention the opposition gave the Blazers. In short, they were a young team that had to learn that nobody gives a crap about your prior success or what you're being paid. Bring your A game or lose.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

I hope Neil is REALLY holding Daryl Moery's feet to the fire. The only way we help HOU turn one of their mistakes into a player they covet is if we also get to undo one of our mistakes and get a little something more for our trouble.

Worst case, I hope Neil draws this out long enough that other deals get done and other players sign elsewhere and in the end HOU either gets desperate and meets Neil's demands, or he says fuck it, walks away and they end up not getting Carmelo.

BNM

Rough guess:
Neil says he needs a 2020 1st from Houston. But, it's kind of crazy to give away a 1st that far into the future, and certainly a GM like Morey is loathe to do it.

 

[BBert]

Other than Ezeli, who we never should have counted on for anything, given his injury history, those were all nagging, minor injuries. Harkless missed 5 games, but only 2 where he did not dress. Crabbe missed 3 games, all after we acquired Nurk. His "absence" had nothing to do with our poor start. His performance did. Meyers missed 8 games - and you say that like it's a bad thing.

Seriously, we sucked because our guys collectively played like shit and underperformed until Nurk arrived in mid-February. The whole point of handing out those ridiculous contracts last summer was too improve our bench and give us "quality depth". Good teams overcome injuries because of their depth. The next man up steps up and does his job. In spite of adding Turner and Ezeli via free agency and retaining Crabbe, Harkless and Leonard, our depth flat out sucked. Of those five, Harkless is the only one that didn't underperform.

It's funny that the negative nancies call me a homer, but I am also perfectly willing to call the guys out when they underperform. I get called a homer by one side and a hater by the other. No excuses. We had the second highest payroll in the league, but were 11 games under .500 when Nurk arrived. Guys simply weren't earning their money. The guys who got the big contracts underperformed and the guys that didn't seemed to be moping that they missed out. Neither is acceptable and it took a 22-year old, out of shape Bosnian to light a fire under them awaken them from their funk.

Maybe its a good thing we haven't been able to sign any free agents this summer. Maybe now guys will all come into camp focused on playing their best and not worrying about who got what. I also like that we added two rookies that seem highly motivated to make their marks. It should push the the players ahead of them and around them to elevate their play. Let's hope so. We've gotten off to horrible starts the last two seasons. That was understandable in 2015-16 do to losing four starters, but last year's slow start was unacceptable and inexcusable.

BNM

Nice post, for a hater homer.

 

[BBert]

I hope Neil is REALLY holding Daryl Moery's feet to the fire. The only way we help HOU turn one of their mistakes into a player they covet is if we also get to undo one of our mistakes and get a little something more for our trouble.

Worst case, I hope Neil draws this out long enough that other deals get done and other players sign elsewhere and in the end HOU either gets desperate and meets Neil's demands, or he says fuck it, walks away and they end up not getting Carmelo.

BNM

This. This isn't a charity. If we don't get the deal we want, just walk.

 

[Boob-No-More]

This. This isn't a charity. If we don't get the deal we want, just walk.

Yep, either squeeze a first round pick out of Morey (and maybe a second rounder out of NYK) or leave him holding his dick in his hand.

BNM

 

[Sweetriverphil]

Yep, either squeeze a first round pick out of Morey (and maybe a second rounder out of NYK) or leave him holding his dick in his hand.

BNM

What a horrible feeling. Dick in hand. Jeez. The world was your goddamn oyster mere moments before, but now look at you. Dick. In. Hand. Poor Rockets. And their Rocket dicks.

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

Dude saying that Melo Is going to Houston, so if he does have sources, sounds like we should know soon

 

[Chris Craig]

Well with Tim Hardway JR. Signed and atlanta reportedly not matching, carmelo is definately out the door. Whether the Houston\NYK\Portland trade happens is yet to be seen, and is becoming more and more doubtful especially with word of PHX\Cavs putting together a package to send Carmelo to Cleveland and Love to PHX.

 

[Natebishop3]

I hope Neil is REALLY holding Daryl Moery's feet to the fire. The only way we help HOU turn one of their mistakes into a player they covet is if we also get to undo one of our mistakes and get a little something more for our trouble.

Worst case, I hope Neil draws this out long enough that other deals get done and other players sign elsewhere and in the end HOU either gets desperate and meets Neil's demands, or he says fuck it, walks away and they end up not getting Carmelo.

BNM

What's our best case scenario in this trade then? What's a trade where we come out a clear winner? I tried to throw together a bunch of scenarios but it was hard to find one I actually liked for us.

 

[Sinobas]

Well with Tim Hardway JR. Signed and atlanta reportedly not matching, carmelo is definately out the door. Whether the Houston\NYK\Portland trade happens is yet to be seen, and is becoming more and more doubtful especially with word of PHX\Cavs putting together a package to send Carmelo to Cleveland and Love to PHX.

I'd much rather have Love that Anderson.

 

[OSUBlazerfan]

I'd much rather have Love that Anderson.

Cavs want Melo with love, not as a swap

 

[Minstrel]

What's our best case scenario in this trade then? What's a trade where we come out a clear winner? I tried to throw together a bunch of scenarios but it was hard to find one I actually liked for us.

I'd be okay with something like this:

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y968b3dd

It requires New York to actually like players like Crabbe, Vonleh and Davis. I don't (well, I think Davis is solid if last season was an aberration), so I don't expect them to, but you never know. Portland gets back an older but better version of Crabbe and adds another two-way wing in Ariza. It's not like some amazing deal for Portland, but they get better IMO. I'm not a believer in Vonleh--people that are probably think that Portland gets hosed in this.

It's probably not possible to create a trade in which Portland gets an awesome return (that Houston/New York would do).

 

[Minstrel]

Cavs want Melo with love, not as a swap

The current rumor is a Love for Melo swap with Phoenix as a third team.

 

[H.C.]

Other than Ezeli, who we never should have counted on for anything, given his injury history, those were all nagging, minor injuries. Harkless missed 5 games, but only 2 where he did not dress. Crabbe missed 3 games, all after we acquired Nurk. His "absence" had nothing to do with our poor start. His performance did. Meyers missed 8 games - and you say that like it's a bad thing.

Seriously, we sucked because our guys collectively played like shit and underperformed until Nurk arrived in mid-February. The whole point of handing out those ridiculous contracts last summer was too improve our bench and give us "quality depth". Good teams overcome injuries because of their depth. The next man up steps up and does his job. In spite of adding Turner and Ezeli via free agency and retaining Crabbe, Harkless and Leonard, our depth flat out sucked. Of those five, Harkless is the only one that didn't underperform.

BNM

So you ignored Turner and Aminu for what reason?
I could take it as you just forgot about them, or I could take it you did it purposely to try and make my comment seem ignorant.
I think I'll choose to do the former...
As if it was the latter it's not worth my time to get in an internet fight with you. Frankly no one on this board is worth that effort.

I simply pointed out Portland had zero continuity last year due mainly to nagging, or lingering injuries...
Aminu played 82 in 15-16 and frankly had a career year.
Fast forward to 16-17 he only plays 61 and is suffering with a nagging injury very early in the season.
He returns from said nagging injury, only to suffer another one, returns again, only to have the playoffs start.

Turner was poorly integrated by coaching and laid an egg for the first 20 or so games. He starts to turn it around, and breaks his hand. He only plays 65 games last year.
After being the great off-season FA who was supposed to take pressure of Lillard & CJ when teams trapped them.

Then there is Lillard, you know the human aspect of my post...
He it was reported Lillard was dealing with a real life, off-the-court issue pre-break. It was also reported he was able to handle it post break.
As much as this out of shape 22 year old 7 footer changed the team. Having your leader back changes it as well.

One of the biggest things Portland had in 15-16 was health. Lillard was the only one to miss time? At least from what I remember off the top of my head. Even that was minimal.

 

[BigGameDamian]

The current rumor is a Love for Melo swap with Phoenix as a third team.

Link?

 

[Natebishop3]

I'd be okay with something like this:

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y968b3dd

It requires New York to actually like players like Crabbe, Vonleh and Davis. I don't (well, I think Davis is solid if last season was an aberration), so I don't expect them to, but you never know. Portland gets back an older but better version of Crabbe and adds another two-way wing in Ariza. It's not like some amazing deal for Portland, but they get better IMO. I'm not a believer in Vonleh--people that are probably think that Portland gets hosed in this.

It's probably not possible to create a trade in which Portland gets an awesome return (that Houston/New York would do).

I think that's one of the first ones I came up with. I guess I would be okay with it. I'm not sure if that's a clear win though.

 

[RR7]

Knicks have Courtney Lee making over 10 a year, and now have Hardaway locked in at close to 18. They have no use for Crabbe.

 

[BonesJones]

Knicks have Courtney Lee making over 10 a year, and now have Hardaway locked in at close to 18. They have no use for Crabbe.

Crabbe can play SF.

 

[KingSpeed]

Cavs want Melo with love, not as a swap

So Melo would come off the bench? Or would Love start at center?

 

[dviss1]

Crabbe can play SF.

That's really what he is. 2 Guards light him up. He doesn't have the handles to play SG.

 

[dviss1]

So Melo would come off the bench? Or would Love start at center?

Bron can play any position.

 

[Minstrel]

Link?

I put it in the the Around the NBA thread: Merged: Around the NBA - Offseason Edition

 

[BonesJones]

Cavs don't have assets outside of Love.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Cavs want Melo with love, not as a swap

If they kept Love they would have to find a taker for Tristan Thompson. Given his performance in the finals, that might be tough.

 

[HailBlazers]

I think that's one of the first ones I came up with. I guess I would be okay with it. I'm not sure if that's a clear win though.

I would never be okay with Trevor Ariza. Fuck that guy. At this point I think it's clear we have to develop from within and not give up on players too early.

 

[KingSpeed]

Bron can play any position.

Center? Who starts? LeBron at PG instead of Kyrie?

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

I'd be okay with something like this:

http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y968b3dd

It requires New York to actually like players like Crabbe, Vonleh and Davis. I don't (well, I think Davis is solid if last season was an aberration), so I don't expect them to, but you never know. Portland gets back an older but better version of Crabbe and adds another two-way wing in Ariza. It's not like some amazing deal for Portland, but they get better IMO. I'm not a believer in Vonleh--people that are probably think that Portland gets hosed in this.

It's probably not possible to create a trade in which Portland gets an awesome return (that Houston/New York would do).

Now that NY has signed Hardaway to that ridiculous contract, will they be able (or willing) to take back a lot of contract? I was hopeful earlier but this doesn't look good.

 

[Minstrel]

Now that NY has signed Hardaway to that ridiculous contract, will they be able (or willing) to take back a lot of contract? I was hopeful earlier but this doesn't look good.

Yeah, I'm not sure if they'd be willing. They should be able to--the players they're getting basically just replace Carmelo Anthony's salary space. It would be a question of whether they like Crabbe and whether they're fine with playing Crabbe and Hardaway together. They liked Hardaway enough to pay him $18M/year, so they clearly value players differently than I do.

 

[OneLifeToLive]

I don't see how Ryan Anderson improves the Blazers. Don't like this deal.