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portland arent ready to resign him as a starting center. anyone think we should throw 6-8mil or so at him to be a solid 3rd big? even though our focus is on some wings, we are going to need someone who can play center now that we have dre and moose starting and there should be enough money left. has had a very nice season with the blazers, what do you guys think?

I think most on these board agree with you that Hickson would be an awesome fit as our 3rd big man. The problems are that he's likely to want to sign somewhere where he'll start, and regardless of that he'll probably get way more than $6M – $8M considering how bigs get overpaid (JaVale McGee, I'm looking in your general direction ... as will be Hickson's agent when it comes time to negotiate his client's new deal ...). So, great idea and perfect fit in theory, and I honestly hope I'm wrong here, but convincing him to to take a bench role and accompanying salary seems unlikely to me.

DocRI wrote:I think most on these board agree with you that Hickson would be an awesome fit as our 3rd big man. The problems are that he's likely to want to sign somewhere where he'll start, and regardless of that he'll probably get way more than $6M – $8M considering how bigs get overpaid (JaVale McGee, I'm looking in your general direction ... as will be Hickson's agent when it comes time to negotiate his client's new deal ...). So, great idea and perfect fit in theory, and I honestly hope I'm wrong here, but convincing him to to take a bench role and accompanying salary seems unlikely to me.

JaVale is an athletic 7 footer that can block shots and has upside. Hickson is NOT a center and does not defend the paint. He gets a lot of rebounds as a result of not contesting shots. So the "big men get overpaid" theory doesn't apply here.

It really amazes me how many people still defend the JaVale McGee signing, but no matter — "big men get overpaid" isn't a theory, it's a fact. Here are a few comparable recent free agent power forwards who all got at least roughly $8M per year (the high end of the range suggested for Hickson) —

- Kris Humphries ($12M)
- Jeff Green ($8M – $9M, and he's a SF/PF)
- Tyrus Thomas ($8 – $9M)
- Ersan Ilyasova (roughly $8M)
- Andrei Kirilenko ($9M – $10M)
- Ryan Anderson ($8M+)
- Serge Ibaka ($12.5M)
- Thaddeus Young ($8M – $9M, and he's a SF/PF)
- Andrea Bargnani ($10 – $12M)

Power forwards in the suggested $6M – $8M range include: Glen Davis, Drew Gooden, Channing Frye (although he may qualify as a center), Michael Beasley, and Amir Johnson.

I'll be the first to admit that certain names on that list are way, WAY better than Hickson (like Ibaka), but some of them are way, WAY worse. Hickson is 24 years old and coming off a season he's averaged roughly 13 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. There is NO WAY he takes a deal that cheap; he's going to want to get paid, and history states that he will.

First, many of those contacts are among the worst decisions in the NBA (Hump, Barge, Tyrus), and second, only Tyrus Thomas is clearly worse than JJ on that list, and he's there because he was still thought of as a developing player when he mysteriously forgot how to play basketball two seasons ago. I'd be okay with $6m, any more than that I'm nervous.

Ask Portland fans what they think of throwing $8m + a year at Hickson.

I'm with you dan2314. The list of qualify PF this season is insane and despite of several teams having cap space there are more available quality PFs than the demand.

Josh Smith, Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, Andray Blatche, Marreese Speights, Carl Landry.

All those guys should get more than the MLE, then you add JJ Hickson and that's 7 PFs who should get over the MLE and the majority of them will be going to a new team.

7-8 million should be about right for Hickson especially if Portland believes they need a Center to pair up with LMA.

DocRI wrote:It really amazes me how many people still defend the JaVale McGee signing, but no matter — "big men get overpaid" isn't a theory, it's a fact. Here are a few comparable recent free agent power forwards who all got at least roughly $8M per year (the high end of the range suggested for Hickson) —

- Kris Humphries ($12M)
- Jeff Green ($8M – $9M, and he's a SF/PF)
- Tyrus Thomas ($8 – $9M)
- Ersan Ilyasova (roughly $8M)
- Andrei Kirilenko ($9M – $10M)
- Ryan Anderson ($8M+)
- Serge Ibaka ($12.5M)
- Thaddeus Young ($8M – $9M, and he's a SF/PF)
- Andrea Bargnani ($10 – $12M)

Power forwards in the suggested $6M – $8M range include: Glen Davis, Drew Gooden, Channing Frye (although he may qualify as a center), Michael Beasley, and Amir Johnson.

I'll be the first to admit that certain names on that list are way, WAY better than Hickson (like Ibaka), but some of them are way, WAY worse. Hickson is 24 years old and coming off a season he's averaged roughly 13 points and 10.5 rebounds per game. There is NO WAY he takes a deal that cheap; he's going to want to get paid, and history states that he will.

The only guy on your first grouping of guys that is way worse is Bargnani and he got his deal several years ago under the old CBA. Let's throw Tyrus in their too, but again these guys were retained by their own horrible team in what wasn't the first real year of steep penalties for lux tax teams where teams may be more cautious with the amounts they hand out to 3rd rate free agents like Hickson. It's easy to say he'll be looking for a deal that pays him well, its another thing to give a realistic destination for him where he'd get paid. Of all the teams with available capspace, I can only really see Phoenix or Houston as scenarios where he may be able to go and get paid. And that's without me really even knowing Phoenix's PF situation and Houston only after they strike out on Dwight and can't get Josh Smith to come. Maybe you can name some scenario's since you seem sure he'll get paid.

13 and 10 is going to command near max salary. Over a dozen teams can sign a max player.

I used to fault Davidson for being cheap but his Pistons fans are for the most part just as cheap as him. Every FA Pistons fans want to bring in seem to be interested in making him take a 30-50% pay cut. Hickson is going to ask for Ben Gordon money. If you dont want to pay someone 10mil a yr then they most likely arent good enough to crack the Pistons rotation. This is not LA or Phx or NYC.

Come on, warspite, every fan is cheap that doesn't want to massively overpay someone? Ask Portland fans and they'll tell you Hickson is great at put-backs and not very good at everything else. No man defense, no help defense, no jumper, no passing, high TOs. Dictionary definition of a stats guy and one-dimensional player. Not saying he's a bad player-- rebounding is valuable and he's proven he can consistently be very very good at it-- but I'd bet that any team that goes above $7m for him will be almost immediately regretting it.

Edit: it occurs to me we're talking about different things here. Some of you are arguing that Hickson will get more than $8m pet year and the rest are saying we shouldn't give him that much. Does anyone think we should be seriously looking at him for like 4 years $35m?

I want to see if we can sign Millsap as our back-up big, but if we can't get him I think Hickson would be a nice pick-up...

If you tallied all of the comments on this board about bad contracts and overpaid players, you would likely find, cumulatively, that we have claimed that 70% of the players are overpaid and on bad contracts.

[quote="Dirtgrain"]If you tallied all of the comments on this board about bad contracts and overpaid players, you would likely find, cumulatively, that we have claimed that 70% of the players are overpaid and on bad contracts.[/quote

Well, the Pistons are a bad team so it's not surprising that they have their share of bad contracts. Maggs and CV were always clearly overpaid, Max and Stuck should have but didn't live up to their contracts, and Calderon is making a bit too much as well. If all those guys had lived up to 80% of what GMs expected when they signed them, we wouldn't be such a bad team.

If you look at pretty good teams like the bulls or pacers, a few guys might make too much money but most of their contracts are reasonable. Most of their big contracts are reserved for players who are at least average starters with no massive holes in their games or problems with their attitudes. I don't think Hickson fits into that category and don't think he's a solid investment.

I think Hickson can be had for around 7-8 million a year. He's not going to command anywhere near the max. I love Hickson as our 3rd bigman. I think he's an Anderson Varejao type without the defense. A 3/25 or 4/32 deal is more than fair him.

The fact that the very team that e is putting up 13/10 for wants nothing to do with him, is telling with regards to Hickson's value.

IF Hickson was worth near Max money Portland would not be letting him go

[quote="princeofpalace"]

HotelVitale wrote:

princeofpalace wrote:I love Hickson as our 3rd bigman. I think he's an Anderson Varejao type without the defense. A 3/25 or 4/32 deal is more than fair him.

If by "Anderson Varejao without the defense," you mean "Kris Humphries without the midrange game," you're right on. Though you should probably add "without any idea how to pass" and "with a meager basketball iq"."

id rather go after Speights or Clark.

Hickson wants a starting gig, he is going to help a team needing a post scoring 4 big time. Love the kid.

Offer Hickson 3yrs/18mil with incentives worth an additional 3mil...Thats a fair deal, he can take it or leave it...

Clarity wrote:Hickson wants a starting gig, he is going to help a team needing a post scoring 4 big time. Love the kid.

Post scoring? We talking about the same dude?