The 2012 Offseason Thread: Summer Planning Ideas/Talk

[Fitz303]

Austin Rivers is, in no way, a PG. Rivers is as much a PG as Brandon Roy or Dwyane Wade. He is a ball controlling SG. He averaged 2.1 apg to 2.3 TOpg. There is literally zero chance that Austin Rivers plays PG in the NBA

[fishnc]

Hire a competent GM. Hire a big name coach not named Larry Brown. As far as the players go, here are a few scenarios that I wouldn't mind seeing play out:


Scenario A: Assumes Beal is available at 6 or 7

1) Draft Brad Beal
2) Draft Kendall Marshall
3) Trade Wes and 2nd rounders for a pick around 22-23 and take Harkless/Ross/Fournier
4) Re-sign Batum 8-9 mil/yr
5) Re-sign Hickson 5 mil/yr
6) Sign Hawes 8 mil/yr

K Marshall/Smith
Brad Beal/EWill
Batum/Moe Harkless
LMA/JJ Hickson
Hawes/Przybilla


Scenario B: Assumes NOLA drafts Beal as SGotF

1) Draft John Henson
2) Draft Kendall Marshall
3) Sign Eric Gordon to close to max deal
4) Re-sign Batum 8-9 mil/yr
5) Re-sign Hickson 5 mil/yr
6) Trade Wes for a backup 3

K Marshall/Smith
E Gordon/EWill
Batum/SF from Wes trade
Henson/Hickson
LMA/Przybilla


Scenario C: Assumes Nets win lottery and we miss out on Marshall

1) Draft Terrence Jones or BPA
2) Re-sign Batum 8-9 mil/yr
3) Re-sign Hickson 5 mil/yr
4) Sign Dragic 8 mil/yr
5) Push some cap space to 2013

Dragic/Smith
Matthews/EWill
Batum/Jones
Hickson/Thomas
Aldridge/Pryzbilla


Scenario Magic Unicorn: Blazers win the lottery!

1) Draft Unibrow
2) Draft Brad Beal
3) Re-sign Batum 8-9 mil/yr
4) Re-sign Hickson 5 mil/yr
5) Sign Dragic 8 mil/yr
6) Trade Wes for vet backup SF

Dragic/Smith
Beal/Ewill
Batum/Vet SF
Unibrow/Hickson
LMA/Pryzbilla

[Billy]

The more I think about Batum, the more nervous I get about Portland's plans for resigning him. I like his potential, and he has the ability to be a good scorer and lock down defender--but he hasn't shown that he can do that all the time.

IMO, Portland needs to go into the off season with a number in mind for Batum, and not waiver on it for one second. It would be tempting to match anything up to 9.5 million, but honestly I don't see Batum ever worth that much. I hope Portland makes a competitive deal that is in the neighborhood of Wilson Chandler's deal or possibly a little more, and see try to get him to accept that. If he won't, I think you need to consider sign and trade scenarios.

I honestly am beginning to think that teams are going to look to poach Batum early while Portland is off fishing for the big one. If Portland goes into the off season with a number in mind, it should make it much easier to move on if that number is exceeded.

[DusterBuster]

I've been a pretty big proponent of being cautious with Batum's new contract. I like him as a player, but is he ever inconsistent. If he get a deal anywhere seriously north of 8 mil, I'd be very scared of the Blazers matching the deal. With that said, I'm sure they will match the deal. I think they'd match anything up to around 10 or 11 mil for that matter, but if/when they do, it could very easily end up being a contract the Blazers will regret sooner than later.

His fair value for what he has shown as a NBA player to date is maxed out at 7.5 mil imo. Unfortunately, I think someone is going to pay him on potential over production, and that's a very scary proposition.

[jhern87]

Austin Rivers is, in no way, a PG. Rivers is as much a PG as Brandon Roy or Dwyane Wade. He is a ball controlling SG. He averaged 2.1 apg to 2.3 TOpg. There is literally zero chance that Austin Rivers plays PG in the NBA

I agree.. However I think if Rivers has the potential to be an All-Star in this league.. And if that's the case, who gives a damn if he's a PG or not?

[Fitz303]

Austin Rivers is, in no way, a PG. Rivers is as much a PG as Brandon Roy or Dwyane Wade. He is a ball controlling SG. He averaged 2.1 apg to 2.3 TOpg. There is literally zero chance that Austin Rivers plays PG in the NBA

I agree.. However I think if Rivers has the potential to be an All-Star in this league.. And if that's the case, who gives a damn if he's a PG or not?

There's definitely a chance that Rivers ends up being an all star SG, and if the Blazers think that's a risk worth taking, I have no problem with that pick at 11. Just letting people know that they shouldn't get their hopes up for Rivers playing PG, cause it's not happening

[DusterBuster]

I definitely agree with the idea of if the Blazers really think Rivers is going to be better than just another Jerryd Bayless, then they should grab him. But I disagree that they should take him @ #11. They should move back and try to dump Shawne Williams' contract in the process with a team who's closer to where Rivers should be picked.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Billy, I would offer 4/$40 tops. If he wants more than that, I might have to start talkin with other teams. Just to throw something out there... Deron Williams AND Eric Gordon??? Could they pull that off?

[Walton'sBeard!]

This summer is very exciting. So many different directions it could go.

Keep both picks, draft a PG and a wing and chase a big in free agency.
Keep both picks, draft a center and a wing and chase a PG in free agency.
Keep both picks and stack at a position like PG or the post in free agency.
Trade a pick or both picks.

I wish I could say one particular route was the best way to go, but there are so many different ways the team could be improved

Add to all this the possibilty that NJ wins the lottery...

[DusterBuster]

Mike Barrett is on 1080 right now. Issac asked him who he thinks the, GM, coach and PG of the Blazers will be next year....

Barrett said he doesn't know (and even if he did probably couldn't say) who the GM might be. The only thing he mentioned about the GM is that you don't want to pay a ton of attention to the names you hear about first, because the guy who gets the job tends to not be talked about in the media a lot.

As for coach, he again gave the "I don't know" answer. He said that obviously is going to depend a lot on the GM, but he does sincerely hope that Canales gets a look.

With PG, he said with little hesitation that he thinks Goran Dragic is going to be the Blazers starting PG next season.

[fishnc]

Mike Barrett is on 1080 right now. Issac asked him who he thinks the, GM, coach and PG of the Blazers will be next year....

Barrett said he doesn't know (and even if he did probably couldn't say) who the GM might be. The only thing he mentioned about the GM is that you don't want to pay a ton of attention to the names you hear about first, because the guy who gets the job tends to not be talked about in the media a lot.

As for coach, he again gave the "I don't know" answer. He said that obviously is going to depend a lot on the GM, but he does sincerely hope that Canales gets a look.

With PG, he said with little hesitation that he thinks Goran Dragic is going to be the Blazers starting PG next season.

It's interesting that he says he has no idea who the Blazers new GM will be and consequently has no idea who the coach will be, yet he has no doubt that Dragic will be our next PG. I wonder how the new GM feels about that...is signing Dragic a job requirement?

[DusterBuster]

I think he was just saying that Dragic would be the most realistic option and best PG upgrade, which won't change regardless of what GM is in charge.

[Blazinaway]

Mike Barrett is on 1080 right now. Issac asked him who he thinks the, GM, coach and PG of the Blazers will be next year....

Barrett said he doesn't know (and even if he did probably couldn't say) who the GM might be. The only thing he mentioned about the GM is that you don't want to pay a ton of attention to the names you hear about first, because the guy who gets the job tends to not be talked about in the media a lot.

As for coach, he again gave the "I don't know" answer. He said that obviously is going to depend a lot on the GM, but he does sincerely hope that Canales gets a look.

With PG, he said with little hesitation that he thinks Goran Dragic is going to be the Blazers starting PG next season.

It's interesting that he says he has no idea who the Blazers new GM will be and consequently has no idea who the coach will be, yet he has no doubt that Dragic will be our next PG. I wonder how the new GM feels about that...is signing Dragic a job requirement?

maybe we can infer that PA likes Dragic?

[DusterBuster]

I think what you can infer is that Dragic is the most likely option. Obviously Deron is a huge long-shot and it'll be nothing short of a miracle if they can convince him to sign. Then you have Nash, while I think if the Blazers wanted him, they could get him, but he's just another short-term solution and it'll just be doing a repeat of Miller. While he'll be great for 2 or so years, the Blazers will just have to search for another PG quickly. Dragic offers a long-term solution that would allow the Blazers to get off this PG-carousel they've been on for the past decade or so.

[Village Idiot]

I think what you can infer is that Dragic is the most likely option. Obviously Deron is a huge long-shot and it'll be nothing short of a miracle if they can convince him to sign. Then you have Nash, while I think if the Blazers wanted him, they could get him, but he's just another short-term solution and it'll just be doing a repeat of Miller. While he'll be great for 2 or so years, the Blazers will just have to search for another PG quickly. Dragic offers a long-term solution that would allow the Blazers to get off this PG-carousel they've been on for the past decade or so.

The advantage of signing Dragic over Williams is that you still have enough cap-space to sign a center like Spencer Hawes. Dragic isn't the star Williams is but he's looked great this year and isn't precocious.