The super Melo to Portland thread + The Big Blockbuster

[B-Roy]

I would rather have Batum at that deal than Turner AND Crabbe.

I'm just comparing similar salaries. Replace Vonleh/Meyers/Turner with Batum and we would have this team with ~ the same salary:

Dame/Napier
CJ/Crabbe
Batum/Harkless
Aminu/Davis/Biggie
Nurkic/Collins

That is better than the team we currently have.

Olshey hasn't had that many good player trades. He's good at getting assets though...

1st/Barton for Afflalo

4 seconds for Robinson

Batum for Hendo/Vonleh

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

Nic was going to walk, too. Someone was going to throw ridiculous money at him and we weren't going to match.

He has four years and $100 million left on his current deal. In the grand scheme of things, would you rather be paying Batum $25 million a year, or be able to offer Nurk an extension?

BNM

I would rather have Lillard, CJ, Batum, whoever the f they want at 4, and Nurk. Fill in the rest with cheap ass contracts.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I would rather have Batum at that deal than Turner AND Crabbe.

Yeah as long as he played SF and not PG. His handles are always needed as a 3rd option. But when he tried to run the offense he forced too many stupid passes trying to make the highlight reel.

Turner does that as well but not to the extent Batum did. And quite frankly Turner has better handles and is a better passer. He just doesn't have Nic's outside shot. But he is a hell of lot better attacking the rim than Nic.

 

[B-Roy]

Nic was going to walk, too. Someone was going to throw ridiculous money at him and we weren't going to match.

He has four years and $100 million left on his current deal. In the grand scheme of things, would you rather be paying Batum $25 million a year, or be able to offer Nurk an extension?

BNM

There was no indication that he was going to walk. He was adamant on his love for Portland even as he got traded. The Blazers turned around and (surprisingly) won 44 games that season. If the same thing happened with Batum instead of Hendo/Vonleh we absolutely could have gotten him to resign. The Hornets only won 4 more games than us that year and Batum even took a discount.

Even if he signed the same deal with us it wouldn't really prevent us from offering Nurk an extension (assuming that trade still went down). It just means they would probably have not signed some combination of Aminu/Harkless/Crabbe/Leonard/Turner, which in hindsight - probably a good thing.

 

[Natebishop3]

Nic was going to walk, too. Someone was going to throw ridiculous money at him and we weren't going to match.

He has four years and $100 million left on his current deal. In the grand scheme of things, would you rather be paying Batum $25 million a year, or be able to offer Nurk an extension?

BNM

You say that.... but we matched Crabbe

 

[BigGameDamian]

Big suke and Isacc Ropp will talk about Ryan Anderson after the break on 1080 the fan.

 

[SlyPokerDog]

It was time for Batum to move on. It would have been nice to get more for him but meh... not a horrible thing that we didn't.

 

[dviss1]

I'm just comparing similar salaries. Replace Vonleh/Meyers/Turner with Batum and we would have this team with ~ the same salary:

Dame/Napier
CJ/Crabbe
Batum/Harkless
Aminu/Davis/Biggie
Nurkic/Collins

That is better than the team we currently have.

Olshey hasn't had that many good player trades. He's good at getting assets though...

1st/Barton for Afflalo

4 seconds for Robinson

Batum for Hendo/Vonleh

A few caveats:

Don't neglect context on the Afflalo trade.

Really? Robinson for a pair of future second-round draft picks and the draft rights to Kostas Papanikolau and Marko Todorovic was a good gamble on a top 5 pick.

And the jury is still out on Vonleh who Next to Nurk has the highest upside on the team.

 

[B-Roy]

Yeah as long as he played SF and not PG. His handles are always needed as a 3rd option. But when he tried to run the offense he forced too many stupid passes trying to make the highlight reel.

Turner does that as well but not to the extent Batum did. And quite frankly Turner has better handles and is a better passer. He just doesn't have Nic's outside shot. But he is a hell of lot better attacking the rim than Nic.

I don't think you can make an argument that Turner is better than Batum at anything. Turners assist % in his lone season in Portland was lower than Nic's in his last 3 with Portland.

His handles may be better, but it sure doesn't lead to any meaningful results. Batum was at least a difference maker in many other aspects of the game.

 

[dviss1]

Sportstwo denizens will talk about Ryan Anderson and know just as much as those asshats on 1080 the fan.

FIFY

 

[B-Roy]

A few caveats:

Don't neglect context on the Afflalo trade.

Really? Robinson for a pair of future second-round draft picks and the draft rights to Kostas Papanikolau and Marko Todorovic was a good gamble on a top 5 pick.

And the jury is still out on Vonleh who Next to Nurk has the highest upside on the team.

None of those deals were good deals in hindsight. I don't really care about the perception when those deals went down. You can consider the context but still look back and admit that they didn't work out.

 

[dviss1]

None of those deals were good deals in hindsight. I don't really care about the perception when those deals went down. You can consider the context but still look back and admit that they didn't work out.

Stop using hindsight...

The Afflalo move was a great trade at the time. We were 3rd in the league, red hot and rollin'. Take that hindsight somewhere down the street and check it at the door.

 

[BBert]

This just feels so much like the Denver trade. Neil is being patient.

Seemed like that was weeks if not months in the making.

 

[Pinwheel1]

I don't think you can make an argument that Turner is better than Batum at anything. Turners assist % in his lone season in Portland was lower than Nic's in his last 3 with Portland.

His handles may be better, but it sure doesn't lead to any meaningful results. Batum was at least a difference maker in many other aspects of the game.

Are you seriously going to tell me that Nic was better at attacking the rim when he so often refused to do it? ET is very effective at taking his man into the post and scoring on him on the baseline. And like you said his handles are better. Those are two things.
I also think ET is stronger and plays more physical but that is just my opinion.

 

[H.C.]

A few caveats:

Don't neglect context on the Afflalo trade.

Really? Robinson for a pair of future second-round draft picks and the draft rights to Kostas Papanikolau and Marko Todorovic was a good gamble on a top 5 pick.

And the jury is still out on Vonleh who Next to Nurk has the highest upside on the team.

He left out the biggest acquisition.
Robin Lopez.
I don't even remember who NO traded for Rolo, but it was huge.

 

[B-Roy]

Stop using hindsight...

The Afflalo move was a great trade at the time. We were 3rd in the league, red hot and rollin'. Take that hindsight somewhere down the street and check it at the door.

It wasn't, Afflalo sucked ass with us, even when he was given the opportunity to start.

But even if it was, bad moves should still reflect on the person that made the call. Another example, in the Robinson trade, Houston knew he sucked and was able to get a fairly good return on him. Olshey didn't and thought it would be a good gamble.
Looking back, Houston got the better end of the deal. Shouldn't that reflect well on Morey and not well on Olshey? Public perception at the time a trade occurs is useless, the kneejerk reactions made by fans and the media when a trade is made usually turn out more wrong than right.

It's like the people that argue to this day that Oden was the correct pick over Durant, that every GM in the league would have picked Oden. You can keep believing that, but you're wrong.

 

[dviss1]

He left out the biggest acquisition.
Robin Lopez.
I don't even remember who NO traded for Rolo, but it was huge.

Withey.

 

[B-Roy]

Are you seriously going to tell me that Nic was better at attacking the rim when he so often refused to do it? ET is very effective at taking his man into the post and scoring on him on the baseline. And like you said his handles are better. Those are two things.
I also think ET is stronger and plays more physical but that is just my opinion.

Maybe, but that skill and his skillset in particular doesn't fit the team as well as Batum's. Just my opinion, and despite his handles being better, I still think Batum is a better passer and decision maker. YMMV.

 

[Boob-No-More]

You say that.... but we matched Crabbe

4 years younger and $45 million less, and still a bad contract and a regrettable decision.

BNM

 

[BoBoBREWSKI]

I wish we still had Batum!

 

[Blazers Roy]

95 pages about Ryan Anderson...
Players like Turner,Meyers or Anderson are not worth the time we spend writing about them, let alone the money being spent on their paychecks.

Just buyout Leonard-->keep Harkless--> tell Morey to go fuck himself.
Why do we need all that drama??

 

[Natebishop3]

It wasn't, Afflalo sucked ass with us, even when he was given the opportunity to start.

But even if it was, bad moves should still reflect on the person that made the call. Another example, in the Robinson trade, Houston knew he sucked and was able to get a fairly good return on him. Olshey didn't and thought it would be a good gamble.
Looking back, Houston got the better end of the deal. Shouldn't that reflect well on Morey and not well on Olshey? Public perception at the time a trade occurs is useless, the kneejerk reactions made by fans and the media when a trade is made usually turn out more wrong than right.

It's like the people that argue to this day that Oden was the correct pick over Durant, that every GM in the league would have picked Oden. You can keep believing that, but you're wrong.

You mean after he got hurt and really shouldn't have been playing at all?

 

[dviss1]

It wasn't, Afflalo sucked ass with us, even when he was given the opportunity to start.

But even if it was, bad moves should still reflect on the person that made the call. Another example, in the Robinson trade, Houston knew he sucked and was able to get a fairly good return on him. Olshey didn't and thought it would be a good gamble.
Looking back, Houston got the better end of the deal. Shouldn't that reflect well on Morey and not well on Olshey? Public perception at the time a trade occurs is useless, the kneejerk reactions made by fans and the media when a trade is made usually turn out more wrong than right.

It's like the people that argue to this day that Oden was the correct pick over Durant, that every GM in the league would have picked Oden. You can keep believing that, but you're wrong.

This is a pointless argument because you are only using hindsight. I didn't see you jumping up and down complaining when the moves were made but hey maybe you did. You complain about everything.

The argument about Oden vs Durant is fucking tired. You are wrong about it but continue to use hindsight as your barometer. Wonder what side you fell on at the time of that draft...

 

[B-Roy]

He left out the biggest acquisition.
Robin Lopez.
I don't even remember who NO traded for Rolo, but it was huge.

You're right, that was a pretty good trade. He then let Rolo go for what turned out to be a pretty good contract.

That one and the Nurkic deal stand out. But I still believe that Olshey was more after the 1st round pick than Nurkic, but that's just my opinion. I may be wrong.

 

[dviss1]

You mean after he got hurt and really shouldn't have been playing at all?

But hindsight is 20/20 tho...

 

[Boob-No-More]

I would rather have Lillard, CJ, Batum, whoever the f they want at 4, and Nurk. Fill in the rest with cheap ass contracts.

Except you can't really play that game. Nic was the first domino to fall. If we had kept him we likely would not have blown it up. We probably would have kept Rolo (who was our second youngest starter after Dame), which means no Plumlee, which means no Nurk...

You can't cherry pick which deals to undo and which to keep. They are all interrelated.

BNM

 

[Natebishop3]

Some of you leave out some very important facts about the Afflalo trade.

We barely got to see what the team looked like with Afflalo coming off the bench. We traded for him on February 19th and then Wes went down on March 6th. So not even a month after we traded for Afflalo. Our season was basically over at that point.

And then, Afflalo went down on April 9th. So barely a month after Wes went down, we lost Afflalo. We didn't even get two months of a healthy Afflalo on the team. Some of you are extremely harsh about that trade, but it was doomed for reasons that were completely outside of our control.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

It was time for Batum to move on. It would have been nice to get more for him but meh... not a horrible thing that we didn't.

 

[dviss1]

You're right, that was a pretty good trade. He then let Rolo go for what turned out to be a pretty good contract.

That one and the Nurkic deal stand out. But I still believe that Olshey was more after the 1st round pick than Nurkic, but that's just my opinion. I may be wrong.

A center on a rookie deal and a 1st rounder is a FUCKING STEAL for a 20+ game rental for Plums. But you'll find something negative to say about it...

 

[Schilly]

New York finally has their front office disaster dialed in too as of today maybe now they make some more significant progress.