We are in GREAT hands.

[OddEnormous]

From Ben on Blazers Edge:

The current situation for Miller probably looks worse than it is. The timing appears to be motivated in part by a rash of free agent signings of backcourt players that Portland had targeted. Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, Raymond Felton and Kyle Korver all were on Portland's free agent target list, and all signed elsewhere over the weekend. Later, Luke Ridnour, who Nate McMillan has long admired, was taken off the board thanks to another insane offer from David Kahn. Plus, Raja Bell, who Portland also had interest in, seems headed to a sure-fire title contender. The outsized offer to Matthews wasn't just a product of an inflated market but also a big, quick run on Portland's supply.

Who needs a GM when you can land your 7th choice free agent (maybe).


To be honest I don't even care.

I'm still buzzing we got rid of the terrible man who does the radio interviews too much.

 

[EGame]

I think Matthews will prove to be better then many of those listed there. His ability to defend and shoot the 3 is nice. The only two I may take over Matthews would be Morrow or Korver for there great 3 point shooting.

 

[Nikolokolus]

OK.

 

[Further]

I think Matthews will prove to be better then many of those listed there. His ability to defend and shoot the 3 is nice. The only two I may take over Matthews would be Morrow or Korver for there great 3 point shooting.

I agree. Maybe Felton also, but not sure.

Overall, I think that the WM signing will work out well, but it depends on what the Blazers next move is.

 

[OddEnormous]

I think Matthews will prove to be better then many of those listed there.

You may be right.

Not really the point though.

 

[EGame]

You may be right.

Not really the point though.

Well if Matthews does well, it would seem we are in fine hands. I would rather overpay for someone like a young Matthews than someone like Farmar or Ridinour. I do wonder, though, as we were never really linked to Korver, Felton, or Morrow as a destination I don't think. I remember we were linked to Farmar, but perhaps I just missed a headline on the others.

 

[barfo]

I'm unconvinced that we were actually after all of those guys and would have preferred each of them over Matthews.

barfo

 

[RamblinRod]

You may be right.

Not really the point though.

What is the point? That Ben Golliver is making assumptions that don't quite fit your free agency expecations, while also falling into range of your "boo hoo KP is gone" wheel house?

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

I'm assuming he was their #1 target because of a combination of youth, athleticism, desire to improve, tough attitude, defense and three point shooting. I don't think any of the others have all that.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

I'm assuming he was their #1 target because of a combination of youth, athleticism, desire to improve, tough attitude, defense and three point shooting. I don't think any of the others have all that.

I think Felton does. He's the only FA I've been disappointed that we didn't pursue. He signed with NY for all of $15M over 2 years. Perhaps he's expecting his value to skyrocket under D'antoni, but I have difficulty believing that the guaranteed $34M we offered Matthews wouldn't have at least gotten his attention.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Well, maybe you are right; I just read a Draft Express scouting report on Felton and he seems to have a lot going for him, although his 38% three point shooting (his best by far in 5 years) was on only 2 attempts a game. It troubles me that Larry Brown doesn't seem to like him.

Anyway, I think I agree with speculation from Dwight James that the Blazers are targeting a higher level PG, and with Matthews they are looking to replace Rudy and/or Bayless.

 

[Sug]

The point of Dave's article was that they only had one target left. It makes sense that we went with the full MLE, because there was nonstandard left. What do you think KP would have done?

 

[STOMP]

I think Felton does. He's the only FA I've been disappointed that we didn't pursue. He signed with NY for all of $15M over 2 years. Perhaps he's expecting his value to skyrocket under D'antoni, but I have difficulty believing that the guaranteed $34M we offered Matthews wouldn't have at least gotten his attention.

East coast guy + a starting role in the biggest market... the same PDX offer probably wouldn't have been enough. On top of that, like LBrown I'm not a big fan of Felton's game.

to the OP, while it wouldn't surprise me that Portland looked in to acquiring each of the listed guys and probably a lot more. They've always claimed (especially during KP's time) to make a lot of inquiries... leave no stone unturned. I think it's silly to assume making inquiries = thats their guy as Ben seems to have done.

STOMP

 

[julius]

From Ben on Blazers Edge:



Who needs a GM when you can land your 7th choice free agent (maybe).


To be honest I don't even care.

I'm still buzzing we got rid of the terrible man who does the radio interviews too much.

Paul Allens pathetic attempt at getting a GM, who could've gotten us a top notch player via free agency this summer, is just proof that the team is...MOVING TO SEATTLE!!!!



We didn't sign a backup PF who is worthy of starting!

We didn't sign a shitty PG who the Lakers would rather have Steve Blake over!

We didn't land Ridnour, who "Nate" loved (although I swear that I heard Ridnour wasn't terribly pleased with playing under Nate).

We didn't get 34 year old Raja Bell!

And not Kyle Korver! He signed elsewhere!

Overpaid a bit for Wesley? Sure. But not by a lot. As Sug said, what would KP have done? Probably re-signed Steve Blake. A new GM wouldn't have made a big splash in the free agency market. It might make a difference in a trade, but that's assuming the team is going to trade for a PG who is worth anything. Nate loves PG's who aren't exactly speed demons and can just camp out at the 3 point line for the 3 players the team plays.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Yeah there is a fine line between offering a FA a reasonable contract and a contract his current team won't match. Not sure what that line would have been. They could not have offered Matthews a contract based on worth. If they wanted him, then they had to go all in. Only time will tell if he is a good fit for the Blazers. Obviously the Blazers think so as he was their main target. Or at least their main target of those they tought they could get.

 

[hasoos]

If you want to make up your mind on a player like Felton film is your best friend. You can spew all the stat lines you want, but unless you have seen him play, you really don't know what he is all about. Felton is one of those trade off PG. You are going to get good defense from him, but on offense his decision making leaves a lot to be desired. I could give a rats ass what he shoots. Many of the problems he has have nothing to do with shooting. They have to do with decision making.

 

[RR7]

If you want to make up your mind on a player like Felton film is your best friend. You can spew all the stat lines you want, but unless you have seen him play, you really don't know what he is all about. Felton is one of those trade off PG. You are going to get good defense from him, but on offense his decision making leaves a lot to be desired. I could give a rats ass what he shoots. Many of the problems he has have nothing to do with shooting. They have to do with decision making.

I haven't seenenough of him, but I always seemed to hear this criticism of him from Bobcat fans. Seemed to be compared to Jarrett Jack quite often.

 

[RR7]

As for the article, Bell is still not signed, Farmar signed with NJ after we put in an offer for Matthews, Ridnour just signed as well, and Morrow and Korver both signed for less than Matthews. It seems a rather poorly thought out whining post to think Matthews was behind any of those targets. How would Ridnour and Farmar be behind Matthews, when we offered a deal to him before them? That's just stupid. I usually like a lot of Ben's stuff. Maybe he wrote this late in the evening, or early without coffee? Why would we rush to sign someone when all of our targets were basically still available. Dumb.

 

[Pinwheel1]

Portland's thinking IMO is that they have NO current SG behind Roy. Yes they have a decent combo guard in Bayless. But no true back up SG. (Rudy is flat out gone)

They wanted to fill that need with the MLE, and they did not want to take any chances of coming away empty handed. They think Wes was the best option. I don't think any of the other FA' s discussd factored into it as they were not SG that Portland wanted. Morrow maybe, but talk about system players........

 

[mook]

Why are people that down on Matthews contract? He's a 23 year old kid who just started over half his games in his rookie season (and 10 playoff games where he played 30+ minutes against Kobe and Carmello) for coach Sloan, a guy who is basically the coach Nate wants to be. Defense-first, grind-it-out, mistake-free, playoff basketball.

On top of that, he was a much better player after the All-Star break and getting the starting job than he was before that point. (Do people realize that after the AS break he was a .500/.400/90% guy?) That he showed so much growth in a single rookie season speaks well about his upside. While other rookies were hitting the wall, he was vaulting over it.

Yeah, it's a lot of money, but it's also front-loaded ($9 mil the first year). Big contracts suck when you are two or three years into them and the money gets bigger as the player leaves his prime. This is the exact opposite. As he enters his prime he actually gets cheaper. He projects to be a reasonably tradeable commodity whenever we want to unload him ($6.5 mil/year in the final four years of his deal).

So he's young, he's shown rapid growth, he's a perimeter defender who can hit threes, and he's had experience as a starter in the NBA playoffs on a team that plays very much like us (except his team actually got out of the first round!) We paid a premium for him, but he's the kind of guy I have absolutely no problem paying a premium for.

He's the Anti-Turkoglu.

 

[OddEnormous]

Well if Matthews does well, it would seem we are in fine hands.

How so?

If he's the BEST option why did they try to get 6 others first?

 

[OddEnormous]

Paul Allens pathetic attempt at getting a GM, who could've gotten us a top notch player via free agency this summer, is just proof that the team is...MOVING TO SEATTLE!!!!



We didn't sign a backup PF who is worthy of starting!

We didn't sign a shitty PG who the Lakers would rather have Steve Blake over!

We didn't land Ridnour, who "Nate" loved (although I swear that I heard Ridnour wasn't terribly pleased with playing under Nate).

We didn't get 34 year old Raja Bell!

And not Kyle Korver! He signed elsewhere!

Overpaid a bit for Wesley? Sure. But not by a lot. As Sug said, what would KP have done? Probably re-signed Steve Blake. A new GM wouldn't have made a big splash in the free agency market. It might make a difference in a trade, but that's assuming the team is going to trade for a PG who is worth anything. Nate loves PG's who aren't exactly speed demons and can just camp out at the 3 point line for the 3 players the team plays.

Oh dear...

Do you hang out with Ed O?

 

[RR7]

How so?

If he's the BEST option why did they try to get 6 others first?

How would they have tried to get the others first when half didn't sign until after Matthews? Did you think that through at all? They rushed to sign Matthews because Farmar and Ridnour were signing in the future?

 

[Tince]

I must interpret things different than the people who think the world is coming to an end.

I read that the Blazers made a list of 6-8 people they were interested in this summer, and signed one of them. I didn't read anywhere that Matthews was our last choice and we were stuck with him. The only negative I read was that we may have paid a hefty price to get him (which I agree with). There is no way we wanted Farmer over Matthews, so to take the stance that we struck out with all the guys listed above could only seem like a conclusion one might draw if they were looking for something to complain about.

 

[Tince]

How would they have tried to get the others first when half didn't sign until after Matthews? Did you think that through at all? They rushed to sign Matthews because Farmar and Ridnour were signing in the future?

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. The conclusions being drawn in this thread don't make any sense if you use any critical thinking skills.

 

[tlongII]

Personally I think Matthews was the best choice out of ALL of the players listed. The kid really stepped up his game in the playoffs. He's the son of an NBA player so he's grown up around the game. I think it's a great signing IF we get him. I'm still not convinced that Utah won't match.

 

[RamblinRod]

From the Columbian: LINK

The Blazers viewed Matthews as the team's No. 1 option heading into free agency. His youth, potential, scrappiness, perimeter shooting and ability to lock down wing players are seen as keys for a Portland team trying to take the next step in its evolution.

So there you have it. Matthews was the first and only choice all along. I'll trust Brian Smith's sources over Golliver's speculation and bitterness.

 

[OddEnormous]

From the Columbian: LINK



So there you have it. Matthews was the first and only choice all along. I'll trust Brian Smith's sources over Golliver's speculation and bitterness.

Yes Matthews was the main target all along.

The Blazers contacted all those other guys first as decoys before they threw a mountain of money at WM.

I also believe it was to get those other FA's better contracts.

We're so giving as an organization.

(And don't forget about Mason)

 

[RR7]

You just going to continue to ignore that we for one, contacted Matthews first, from all reports, and offered him a contract while some of those guys weere available? I suppose by ignoring inofrmation, you can always view things however you want them. Make sure to pull your head out of the sand to breathe every once in a while, though. Or get a good straw.

 

[Hype #9]

From Ben on Blazers Edge:



Who needs a GM when you can land your 7th choice free agent (maybe).


To be honest I don't even care.

I'm still buzzing we got rid of the terrible man who does the radio interviews too much.

That makes absolutely no sense. If Matthews was the 7th choice, why did they sign him first? Especially since he is a RFA, and they knew they'd have to way 7 days. Jordan Farmar, Anthony Morrow, Raymond Felton, Kyle Korver, Luke Ridnour, and, Raja Bell were clearly not higher priorities than Matthews.