tsherkin wrote:-= original quote snipped =-
Ben Gordon + 10' pole = I still wouldn't touch him.
He's a nice streak shooter but he's really not a playmaking guard and he's actually not that great of a defender, either. He's pretty much not worth the money that you might otherwise use to re-sign the guys already on your squad.
Gilbert Arenas is DEFINITELY not worth it; your offense is developing fine and he's a hack on D and a chucker. He can get hot like crazy and he gets to the line very well but he's not worth the money he's paid, especially since you're theoretically about to add a high-efficiency interior scoring option (especially if Oden is just taking tip-ins and dump passes for easy buckets off of penetration by the guards and forwards) to boost your O, so of what value would be the addition of Arenas? He'd be a chemistry buster and nothing more. The same would be true of Baron Davis, both of those guys would just serve to take the ball out of Roy's hands.
We've been having debates like this because of Kevin Pritchard's stated plan to make a big splash in the free agent market of 2009.
With that in mind, we then look at who might be available. IMO, the list isn't that impressive, but the prevailing notion would be that if portland is going to add a major player, it would probably be in the backcourt.
Arenas and Davis are the 2 notable backcourt players who might be free agents. However Arenas has apparently reiterated that he's going to opt-out this summer so he'd be off the blazer's table. And Davis's bad back is too big a red flag.
That was leaving Gordon as a possibility if he was to play for the QO next season. I think he'd be a good match with Roy as a backcourt partner theoretically. The trouble would be how much money he'd want and if he could accept being a 3rd or 4th option. I don't know if he could accept that kind of role, and it certainly seems like he wants a lot of money.
A big issue with the cap-space plan is that portland will have to 'dump' some productive players, either by trade or simply renouncing the rights. That wouldn't be the case if Darius Miles vanished, but it doesn't look like that will happen.
And complicating it further is the question of just how good Rudy Fernandez is going to be. If he turns out to be a real good NBA player (and many here think he will be), then Portland begins to run out of room for another big time player.
Personally, I think portland may be better off dumping the cap-space plan. Instead, they should focus on player development; draft picks and draft day trades (which Pritchard seems a master of); and MLE signings.