Shabazz Napier Traded To Portland for $$$

[Nemesis21]

A lot of history there.

I think it was worth the gamble and Napier cost nothing.

Reminds me of the people who wanted Travis Diener to start back in the day.

Yeah, what's wrong with that? Travis Diener is a GOD. And you know it.

LOL!

No one is god.

On the Real GM Orlando Magic Forum, he is.

[Howard Mass]

Yeah, what's wrong with that? Travis Diener is a GOD. And you know it.

LOL!

No one is god.

On the Real GM Orlando Magic Forum, he is.

LOL!

[Skin]

More trash from BSPN:

Kevin Pelton
ESPN Staff Writer

The deal

Magic get: Cash considerations

Blazers get: Guard Shabazz Napier

Portland Trail Blazers: B

This trade is unlikely to work out quite as well for the Blazers as when they picked up an unwanted player from Orlando this time last year: Maurice Harkless, who emerged as a starter by the end of the season and is now a restricted free agent in demand.

Napier's NBA track record isn't nearly as promising. The Magic more or less used Harkless' roster spot to pick up Napier for cheap from the Miami Heat after a disappointing rookie season, and Napier actually shot worse in Year 2: 32.7 percent on 3s and a dreadful 35.1 percent on 2-pointers -- third worst among players with at least 90 2-point attempts.

Still, I'm not ready to completely abandon Napier Island. Point guards tend to develop later than players at other positions, so even though Napier is about to turn 25 -- he's nearly two years older than Harkless, who has two years more NBA experience -- the 50 most similar players at the same age based on my SCHOENE projection system improved about 3.8 percent the following season.

Most of the closest comparisons, including former Portland guard Steve Blake, developed into solid backups or in some cases even starters.

If Napier can shoot the 3 as he did as a rookie (36.4 percent), he's a good fit with the Blazers, who don't need a pure backup point guard because C.J. McCollum runs the offense with starter Damian Lillard on the bench.

And at worst, Portland can walk away after this season by declining the fourth-year option on Napier's rookie contract by Oct. 31.


Orlando Magic: C

Having agreed to sign D.J. Augustin to go along with C.J. Watson as backups to starter Elfrid Payton, the Magic surely didn't want to keep a fourth point guard on the roster. Unlike the Harkless deal, which was one of several cases of Orlando undervaluing its own talent, this isn't selling particularly low on Napier. It's unlikely he had any positive trade value at this point in his career.

Why oh why do people think Harkless is any good?

[tooler]

Pelton is kind of a Portland homer so he probably watched a lot of Moe this season during his contract year, wrote off the bad things as youth and inexperience, and saw only the good things. We did that the first and second year he was here. By the third year, though, we'd had enough.

It's curious he hasn't signed a deal yet. I thought the Blazers were going to get ripped off, but if they can talk him into a cheap deal, then at least he's an athletic body on a good contract.

[Rick Rolled]

Pelton is kind of a Portland homer so he probably watched a lot of Moe this season during his contract year, wrote off the bad things as youth and inexperience, and saw only the good things. We did that the first and second year he was here. By the third year, though, we'd had enough.

It's curious he hasn't signed a deal yet. I thought the Blazers were going to get ripped off, but if they can talk him into a cheap deal, then at least he's an athletic body on a good contract.

I'm convinced that even if his life depended on it, Pelton wouldn't have one positive thing to say about us.

I feel like he's been posting here incognito.

[ORLMagicGirl15]

Good luck Shabazz. Hopefully he get this opportunity to improve your game. Good luck to him.