Zach Collins Post-ASG

[Pinwheel1]

Nurk is younger so that could interest a rebuilding team. I can’t see Portland not matching though, regardless what he gets. I don’t think he’ll get more than $15m per which is a bargain when you consider Steven Adams makes 25.

Yeah Steven Adams is way overrated IMO. 25 mil for him is crazy.
But if I am a young team, with no Dame like leaders, who might be usure of Nurk's personality and work ethic, I may be inclined to give someone like Ed 10 mil, rather then take a chance with someone like Nurk at 15.

That is not an issue with Portland as we know Nurk well. But to other teams he might seem a little temperamental.

 

[Rhal]

10 million a year is what I was saying. You said not anywhere close to that......

My original post was 3/27 for Ed, I meant not even close in terms of overall contract not per year.

 

[Pinwheel1]

My original post was 3/27 for Ed, I meant not even close in terms of overall contract not per year.

Only one less year....... is pretty close.

I do like the 3/27 number though which is just slightly more than the mid level exception.

 

[joeBlazers]

Signing Ed and Nurk might just take us into heavy Luxury Tax. Which I'm not sure can do. I feel that we will need to move one of ET, Leonard, Harkless before resigning Ed/Nurk. How we move those guys ... not sure. We can't cut them and if we trade them, we will get junk in return.

 

[joeBlazers]

We also need to sign Shabbaz, right?

 

[Nikolokolus]

Depends on how much money he wants.

Technically it doesn't matter how much he wants, it's how much he can get some team to offer him.

 

[Orion Bailey]

Why cant the blazers go to et and leonard and say the following:

We want you on this team. If tou want to be here, we need to renegotiate your contract.
We are on the rise but cant keep the team together as contructed. We beleive with one more roght addition we can be contenders.
We want you two part of that team. In order to do this, evan, we need to renegotiate your contract down to 12 mill a year but will pay 15 on the last year.
Meyers, we want you on the team but need to renegotiate your contract to 5 mill a year.


Something like that anyhow.
Make it clear they will be traded, more than likely to a team in termoil. So if you like this place, lets work together to make it all happen.


I know its a crapshoot but it isnt unheard of.

Also didnt dame get his large addidas contract after his blazers contract?
Maybe dame is willing to renegotioate down to 20 mill a year or something.
Again, allowing us to resign bazz, davis and nurk.

 

[blue9]

Signing Ed and Nurk might just take us into heavy Luxury Tax. Which I'm not sure can do. I feel that we will need to move one of ET, Leonard, Harkless before resigning Ed/Nurk. How we move those guys ... not sure. We can't cut them and if we trade them, we will get junk in return.

That's not gonna happen. We'll re-sign both Nurk/Ed, and continue to look for ways to reduce payroll. Nurk will put us into Tax - no getting around that. But if we can sign Ed to a deal similar to what Aminu is making, we could then trade Aminu for a future pick without taking anything back (hopefully!) so that Ed's deal has zero impact on payroll. Then be opportunistic on trading Turner/Meyers for similar salary, but on an expiring contract. Harkless should only be traded if we're getting some level of value in return - whether that's for another player, or packaging him with our pick to move up higher in the draft, doesn't really matter as long as we get some value out of it.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Why cant the blazers go to et and leonard and say the following:

We want you on this team. If tou want to be here, we need to renegotiate your contract.
We are on the rise but cant keep the team together as contructed. We beleive with one more roght addition we can be contenders.
We want you two part of that team. In order to do this, evan, we need to renegotiate your contract down to 12 mill a year but will pay 15 on the last year.
Meyers, we want you on the team but need to renegotiate your contract to 5 mill a year.

Because its against the rules. Otherwise teams would do it all the time (or at least try to). They are called guaranteed contracts for a reason.

BNM

 

[LayneStaley]

Ed is the only MUST resign bench player imo, Napier is important too but his production could probably be replaced by a rookie like Khyri Thomas with an early 20s pick. I’d prefer to resign both to reasonable contracts though.

 

[Eastoff]

Why cant the blazers go to et and leonard and say the following:

We want you on this team. If tou want to be here, we need to renegotiate your contract.
We are on the rise but cant keep the team together as contructed. We beleive with one more roght addition we can be contenders.
We want you two part of that team. In order to do this, evan, we need to renegotiate your contract down to 12 mill a year but will pay 15 on the last year.
Meyers, we want you on the team but need to renegotiate your contract to 5 mill a year.


Something like that anyhow.
Make it clear they will be traded, more than likely to a team in termoil. So if you like this place, lets work together to make it all happen.


I know its a crapshoot but it isnt unheard of.

Also didnt dame get his large addidas contract after his blazers contract?
Maybe dame is willing to renegotioate down to 20 mill a year or something.
Again, allowing us to resign bazz, davis and nurk.

We got a Donald Trump gm over here

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Signing Ed and Nurk might just take us into heavy Luxury Tax. Which I'm not sure can do. I feel that we will need to move one of ET, Leonard, Harkless before resigning Ed/Nurk. How we move those guys ... not sure. We can't cut them and if we trade them, we will get junk in return.

Allen can eat the tax for a year or two and then get rid of those guys.

 

[AFully22]

I think this summer will be the opposite of the notorious summer of 16’ in a lot of ways. You’ll see a lot of mid tier guys either signing for a lot less than expected or signing short term deals to try and get more money when the salary situation changes around the league.

The other interesting tid bit will be to see if the front office tries and resign Nurk, Ed, and Shabazz to two year deals so that they keep the summer of 2020 slotted as the year a bunch of our deals come off the books and we will have money to spend to try and lure someone like Middleton and/or Green.

I think Ed will resign for around 7 mil a year and Nurk for around 10 mil a year. Shabazz I have no clue.

 

[joeBlazers]

People, I hate ET's contract. What were we thinking? 4 years?
Which one do you believe is worse? ET or ML+MO ? Is there a team out there (like the Browns in football) with enough cap to take on ET? We could give them a draft pick ...

 

[BBert]

People, I hate ET's contract. What were we thinking? 4 years?
Which one do you believe is worse? ET or ML+MO ? Is there a team out there (like the Browns in football) with enough cap to take on ET? We could give them a draft pick ...

That contract is going to kill us. Turner is a valuable player at times, but not remotely that valuable, and not at all times. I'd much rather start Harkless. Turner is a backup.

As for your question, I'd much rather keep Meyers and Mo than Turner, for the money.

 

[handiman]

That contract is going to kill us. Turner is a valuable player at times, but not remotely that valuable

If Pat and Evan flip flopped contracts, would they also exchange roles? I can't help but think so.

 

[Scalma]

If Pat and Evan flip flopped contracts, would they also exchange roles? I can't help but think so.

No. Connaughton is not good.

 

[ripcityboy]

The amount of obsessing about the Evan Turner and Meyers Leomard contracts in here is unhealthy. Listen. Bad deals in a sport with guaranteed contracts is a fact of life. I don't care whether it's baseball or basketball. You ride them out. Luckily, we have an owner who's willing to do that. The rules which are supposed to help small market teams can hurt them just as badly. Neil was able to trim the fat enough that we avoided the luxury tax. But we are most likely going to pay it at some point. Lets value the players we have and separate the dollar sign attached to their contract....

 

[handiman]

No. Connaughton is not good.

No worse than Turner many nights. One has more defensive impact, the other has more [positive] offensive impact.

 

[theprunetang]

No. Connaughton is not good.

Beg to differ. He is no budding superstar, but he is a guy who gives it his all on offense and defense every minute he is on the floor. He's a good role player.

 

[stampedehero]

Do the Blazers not resign Nurk if he finishes this strong the rest of the year and in the playoffs? Just playing devil’s advocate.

I think Management will keep Nurk as long as he accepts under 20 million on three year. We all want Nurk but once $ is on the plate, a player's hunger comes on.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Team is +18 per 100 possessions with Zach on the court post asg... which is just crazy.

 

[1eyejack]

Only way to drop Meyers or another bad contract is to attach our first round pick. Sucks hate wasting a pick but signing Ed and Nurk is better than anything we’d get in the draft.

 

[Sarni]

Only way to drop Meyers or another bad contract is to attach our first round pick. Sucks hate wasting a pick but signing Ed and Nurk is better than anything we’d get in the draft.

Nah I would hate giving up a pick just to get out of the contract. Worst case scenario we might need to give up Harkless for nothing, teams would take him as his deal is not that terrible. First round picks are too valuable nowadays to give them up just to release a deal, unless it is to free up cap space that you would otherwise not have (we will go into luxury tax but we can resign our players).

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Only way to drop Meyers or another bad contract is to attach our first round pick. Sucks hate wasting a pick but signing Ed and Nurk is better than anything we’d get in the draft.

Nah I would hate giving up a pick just to get out of the contract. Worst case scenario we might need to give up Harkless for nothing, teams would take him as his deal is not that terrible. First round picks are too valuable nowadays to give them up just to release a deal, unless it is to free up cap space that you would otherwise not have (we will go into luxury tax but we can resign our players).

You can argue that the time to give up the pick is right now. Now is when we really want to make a jump in improvement. We're young enough.

However, there are some problems with trading draft picks:
1) Arguably, Neil's best trait as a GM is his ability to draft. So, trading the pick is like telling @HCP not to hassle rookies on s2 - it's what he's best at.
2) Right now, vet salaries have inflated like crazy (especially with the TV deal), but rookie salaries have remained fixed by contract. So, far and away
the best deals right now are rookie deals. There's never been a better time to build through the draft - even for a young team
3) We'll be in the luxury tax, and we need cheap deals.

 

[PtldPlatypus]

Nah I would hate giving up a pick just to get out of the contract. Worst case scenario we might need to give up Harkless for nothing, teams would take him as his deal is not that terrible. First round picks are too valuable nowadays to give them up just to release a deal, unless it is to free up cap space that you would otherwise not have (we will go into luxury tax but we can resign our players).

Harkless and Aminu both, IMO. If Collins is the long term answer at PF, and Stotts is completely unwilling to play Aminu at the 3, then there's no reason to try to keep him around. Would love to see both of them dealt this summer, and the Blazers draft a SF (Hutchinson? Move up for Bridges?) that would be able to contribute off the bench from the get go, and possibly become a long-term starter at that spot.

 

[Wizard Mentor]

Zach had another fantastic game, and his numbers post-asg are now off the charts:

Update:

9 Games (164 min)
FG: 22-42 = 52.4%
3FG: 8-17 = 47.1%
FT: 7-8 = 87.5%
Reb: 41 (STILL 9.0/36 min, hard to assess because he plays with Davis who is a monster rebounder)

For those not paying attention, he's now TWO FTs from 50/40/90, while playing some fantastic defense.

note: OP updated as well.

 

[Scalma]

I haven’t really looked at Zach’s stats all season; mainly because he plays such a limited role offensively. You can’t compare him to other rookies that get more minutes and have more freedom.

That being said, Zach has impressed me from the moment he started getting minutes. For all the love Markkanen gets, his three point shooting has been pretty up and down, and he has the green light to fire (6 attempts a game) so opportunity and rhythm isn’t an issue. Zach’s percentage is actually higher, and I can’t remember the last time he got six attempts in one game, nevermind on average.

Zach will be the best big from his class.

 

[Scalma]

One of the funniest moments in a game is always the moment between a guards eyes lighting up when he sees Zach switch onto him, and the realization that this isn’t the regular white boy.

 

[dviss1]

Is there a stat for being a gamer?

Zach just trots back up the floor whether he hits a 3 or gets a block etc. His facial expressions don't change much, like he's been here before. It doesn't seem to matter if it's the start of a game against a bad team or the end of the 4th against the reigning champs. He's just not afraid of the moment. That kind of poise and composure at his age is what impresses me the most. Add in his work ethic and that he seems to fit in with the culture the front office is building and we have a home run at the 10th pick for this team. I could care less about his stats at this point. I'm looking at his body language and how he is adjusting to playing in a mans league as a 20 year old who hasn't grown into his body quite yet.

Side note.
I thought that Draymond guarding him out at the 3 point line really opened up the key for us last night. Zach held his own against a defensive machine last night. Ed is the perfect big brother for Zach right now.

3 words:

He's. Getting. Comfortable.