The 2012 Offseason Thread: Summer Planning Ideas/Talk

[DaVoiceMaster]

The Blazers have so many options tihs summer. There's been lots of talk about Deron Williams, Goran Dragic and now Eric Gordon's name has popped up. Spencer Hawes and Chris Kaman have been mentioned to fill the center position. There's even talk about what to do with Nic Batum and JJ Hickson.

Here's the challenge....

What is YOUR summer plan. Include free agent signings, trades, draft picks, the works. What will your Portland Trail Blazers roster look like when the 2012-13 season starts. Let's see how creative, informed and in-tune you are.

Blazers Current Salaries
$14,000,000 Aldridge
_$6,505,320 Matthews
_$5,225,000 Crawford
_$3,135,000 S. Williams
_$1,892,280 Babbitt
_$1,442,880 E. Williams
_$1,365,720 N. Smith
_$1,352,181 Thomas
------------------------------
$34,918,381 Total

Player Cap Holds
_$5,886,343 Hickson
_$5,388,413 Batum
__ $854,389 C. Smith
------------------------------
$12,129,145 Total

Other Cap Holds
_$1,045,600 Claver
___$850,800 Freeland
------------------------------
_$1,896,400 Total

$58,044,000 Salary Cap
$48,943,926 Committed Salary
------------------------------
_$9,100,074 Available Cap Space


Draft Pick Cap Holds
_$2,331,700 - Pick #7
_$1,772,100 - Pick #11
------------------------------
_$4,103,800 Total


If necessary...

Roster Charge - Per Player
___$473,604 Per Spot

[Fitz303]

Trade 7th, Matthews, and TPE for Danny Granger
Draft - Marshall 11th
Sign Dragic - 8 Million per
Sign Omer Asik - 6 Million per (is that possible?)
Re-sign Hickson - 5 Million per
Re-sign Batum - 9 Million per
Re-sign Craig Smith - 1 Million

Dragic/ Marshall/ Smith
Batum/ EWill
Granger/ Babbitt
Hickson/ Smith
Aldridge/ Asik/ Thomas

[Jack wore plaid]

Assuming Crawford opts out, the Blazers will have about 16 million to spend with cap holds to Batum, Hickson, Freeland, Claver and the two lottery picks.

So realistic plan A would be

Draft Drummond with NJ's pick

Draft Lamb or Beal with our pick

Sign Goran Dagic

Sign Spencer Hawes

Re-sign Batum

Re-sign Hickson

Leaves you with

Dragic/E.Will/Smith
Matthews/Lamb/E.Will
Batum/Babbitt
Aldridge/Hickson
Hawes/Drummond

[Chanse503]

Draft day trade: Nets pick, W.Mathews, E.Willams and rights to V.Claver for R.Rondo.
Draft J.Lamb with our pick--if we would be so lucky!
Consider signing Jesus Shuttlesworth in free agency and an offer for Asik.

[Mr Odd]

I refuse to put down what I want to
happen because it will just be cursed!!

[lackeyde3]

if the blazers were smart they wont be much players for this free agency they would be for next years free agency.

id say they resign batum for whatever he is gonna get (hopin no more than 8 mil) and maybe sign hickson to a matthews like 5-6 mil a year. then get as many league min/1 yr deals to not eat up cap for next season.

as for the draft, id think they would continue the trend of drafting for need and the obligational PG project, so something like drummond and lillard.

i would also consider trading matthews for whatever expirings you can get as long as it came with a first round pick preferably in the lottery somewhere and draft BPA

[deanwoof]

trade one of our picks with wes matthews to cleveland for anderson varejao and their late 1st rounder.
use 1st pick on bradley beal (or BPA if someone slips)
use 2nd pick targeting terrance jones if he slips somehow. (BPA).
use 2nd rounder on a big man.
Make sure one of the picks is a wing player; see below.

have larry miller spend no more than an hour on the phone with deron williams' agent. if they have ANY chance go all in and offer him max and fill out roster with min vet players that want to play here.
otherwise sign goran dragic no more than $10M a year to as long as a contract as possible (4, 5 years?)
resign batum to no more than $9M a year. if he gets offered a deal more than that say adios nice to know ya and pray BPA was a SF. or we luck out terrance jones drops to us.
resign hickson to at most 7 mil a year for 3 years.
fill rest of roster with any live bodies. bring back ha. fire freethrow guy.

varejao / joel / thomas
aldridge / hickson / 2nd rounder
batum / babbit / williams
beal / williams
dragic / smith / ha

[Norm2953]

It's unclear when our GM and head coaching jobs will be filled but the pre-draft
workouts will be here before too long and it seems likely Caleb and the current
staff will be doing the workouts. Hopefully we will have a new head coach in
place prior to the draft for it would tough on the new head coach to not be
involved with the workouts, draft, summer league and off season 1-1 workouts.

Portland will probably pick one of Meyers Leonard/Tyler Zeller and if depending on
how Marshall works out, will either pick him or his UNC team mate John Henson.

I suspect we will end up doing little in free agency for we don't have a head coach
and player agents will be leery of steering their clients to Portland without
knowing what type of coach is in place with Portland.

[DusterBuster]

Draft Day: Nets Pick (#7), Blazers Pick (#11) for Rondo. Deal agreed upon on draft day, officially completed on July 1st. (assuming that is still possible under the new CBA, I haven't heard whether or not that has changed)

FA: Sign Spencer Hawes - 4 yrs / 35 mil (roughly)
Match Batum - whatever / whatever
Sign Hickson - 4 yrs / 22 mil
Sign Przybilla - 2 yrs / 5 mil

Rondo/Smith
Matthews/EWill
Batum/Babbitt
Aldridge/Hickson
Hawes/Przybilla

[DusterBuster]

Assuming Crawford opts out, the Blazers will have about 16 million to spend with cap holds to Batum, Hickson, Freeland, Claver and the two lottery picks.

So realistic plan A would be

Draft Drummond with NJ's pick

Draft Lamb or Beal with our pick

Sign Goran Dagic

Sign Spencer Hawes

Re-sign Batum

Re-sign Hickson

Leaves you with

Dragic/E.Will/Smith
Matthews/Lamb/E.Will
Batum/Babbitt
Aldridge/Hickson
Hawes/Drummond

Drummond will not slip to the Nets pick. They're currently #7, and with the way they've been playing (good), compounded by the way the teams around them have been playing (REALLY bad), there's a chance it will fall to #9 before the season is out.

[JasonStern]

pick up batum's qo

pick up hickson's qo

trade wesley matthews, nolan smith, picks 7 and 11 for rajon rondo and pick 21

use 21 on a player that slides in the draft. maybe keep the point guard drafting streak alive and draft teague?

trade picks 40, 41, and $3 million for the rights to draymond green.

waive and use the stretch provision on shawne williams

entering free agency:
LaMarcus Aldridge 14,000,000
Rajon Rondo 11,000,000
Nicolas Batum QO 5,388,412
JJ Hickson QO 3,300,000
Luke Babbitt 1,892,280
3 roster charges 1,500,000
Elliot Williams 1,442,880
Kurt Thomas 1,352,181
Marquis Teague (@ #21) 1,089,100
Shawne Williams 1,042,666
Draymond Green 857,000
[Joel Freeland] 850,800

= $44 million

presuming a $58 million cap, that leaves $14 million for free agents.

I'd then offer hawes 3 year/$24 million.
I'd try to resign crawford to 3 year/$15 million or hope he opted in.

use the under the salary cap but now over exception to sign hamed haddadi (2 year/$5 million)

then offer veteran minimum contracts to joel pryzbilla, patty mills, and jason kapono.

and finally match reasonable offers to batum and hickson.

rondo/mills/teague
crawford/williams/kapono
batum/green/babbitt
aldridge/hickson/thomas
hawes/haddadi/pryzbilla

not super sexy, I know, but that roster contains two all-stars in their prime on reasonable contracts, a solid mix of veterans and youth to go along with them, and reasonable contracts to make trades mid-season should the need arise.

[JasonStern]

So realistic plan A would be

Draft Drummond with NJ's pick

if drummond slides to the 7-9 range, then I'd be hesitant to draft him.

if the blazers were smart they wont be much players for this free agency they would be for next years free agency.

id say they resign batum for whatever he is gonna get (hopin no more than 8 mil)

...and you just killed any cap space they would have next season.

Draft Day: Nets Pick (#7), Blazers Pick (#11) for Rondo. Deal agreed upon on draft day, officially completed on July 1st. (assuming that is still possible under the new CBA, I haven't heard whether or not that has changed)

I like your plan better than mine, but have no idea if it works, hence mine expanding the trade.

[lackeyde3]

how is signing batum to 8 mil and then sign agents for league min/1 year contracts like i suggested eating cap space? not to mention i suggested trading away 1 of the 2 guys makin more than a mil a year we have under contract long term in matthews for expirings/picks?

13 mil for LA 8 for batum 1.5 for smith williams and thomas and 2 for babbit. thats 27.5 mil for next season if just signed 1 yr deals like i suggested that leaves roughly 30 mil before whatever the 2 or 3 first round picks will be, which i honestly do not know but it certainly would be about the same as what we have this season.

at the end of the day all im trying to say is save it for next season i couldnt really care less what happens this free agency period

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Draft Sullinger - ready to contribute big man, strong enough so that Aldridge isn't always defending the bigger big man (Aldridge would defend longer/lengthier players, Sullinger would defend physical post players)

Draft Marshall - most likely PG to develop as a true floor general behind Nash

Sign Nash - Helps keep us in the playoffs and competing as Marshall/Sullinger learn how to win on a good team

Sign Asik - Great defensive big man, good compliment to Aldridge/Hickson/Sullinger


Nash - Marshall
Matthews - Williams
Batum - Babbitt
Aldridge - Hickson
Asik - Sullinger

[Lozar]

how is signing batum to 8 mil and then sign agents for league min/1 year contracts like i suggested eating cap space? not to mention i suggested trading away 1 of the 2 guys makin more than a mil a year we have under contract long term in matthews for expirings/picks?

13 mil for LA 8 for batum 1.5 for smith williams and thomas and 2 for babbit. thats 27.5 mil for next season if just signed 1 yr deals like i suggested that leaves roughly 30 mil before whatever the 2 or 3 first round picks will be, which i honestly do not know but it certainly would be about the same as what we have this season.

at the end of the day all im trying to say is save it for next season i couldnt really care less what happens this free agency period

Why are you saving cap space for next off-season?

You want to get in the Dwight Howard sweepstakes or something?

I'd say our shot at getting Deron Williams eclipses that of Dwight Howard by a lot. Neither is a huge shot but at least with Deron we have a small small chance.