Portland - 2016 Offseason

[DaVoiceMaster]

Meyers is not good at defense. He's the worst Portland big defensively and that shows in every ranking of Portland's defensive players. Defensive rating, defensive win shares, defensive box plus/minus. Davis, Plumlee, and Vonleh are all much better then him. Much better

DRPM tracks defensive numbers too.

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/sort/DRPM

they track 100 NBA PF's. Out of 100 PF's, Meyers ranks 95th. only 5 are worse

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/3/sort/DRPM/position/6

and if Meyers was ranked as a center, out of 78 NBA centers, Meyers would rank 78th. The worst C. And do so by a significant gap. Even Enes Kanter is better. Maybe that's why Olshey offered Kanter...he was looking for a defensive upgrade over Meyers...

put that in perspective...out of 177 NBA big men, only 5 have worse DRPM's then Meyers; and of those 5, three of them, Jabari Parker, Derrick Williams, & Terrance Jones, look more like they are tweeners then stretch-4's.

So we should try him at SF?

[Jsun947]

As I've written before, I think Kent Bazemore from the Hawks should be a target for Portland
for he's come a long ways from his days with the GSW and Knicks and while not likely the
offensive threat Crabbe is, is a much better perimeter defender than anyone currently on
the roster.

I've thought Bazemore should have been a target for the Blazers when he was with the Warriors. Was ticked off he went to the Lakers.

Going off the list of names mentioned previously, do you prefer... Barnes or Anderson? I'm assuming you cannot add both?

Technically we probably could if we renounced all of our free agents then traded Vonleh and Davis or Aminu without taking back any salary. But then you still have to bank on GSW not matching. Based on his production Barnes might become one of the most overpaid players in the NBA this offseason.

[Norm2953]

I just read the max free agent thread on the trade board and agree with Wiz that the thought
of Batum making $26 Million/year in a projected max contract deal would make me wonder
in the end if the smart teams would simply opt out of the market. I would think the cap is
not going to keep rising exponentially and when the cap comes down, the teams who gave
out these bloated contracts this summer will be stuck with luxury taxes for years to come.

[Fitz303]

Watching the Olshey/Stotts press conference just now, there a few things that Olshey has said that are quite interesting regarding this offseason.

Olshey:

Re draft: "We acquired the Cleveland 2018 first at the dealdline which is a pick we can put into play. We've got cash. We've got future 2nds. We've got resources to get ourselves involved in this draft."

"I tell Meyers, if you believed in yourself half as much as I believe in you, you'd be an all star"

Some of these are being tweeted by press guys there, so this will be a bit easier:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/mikegrich/status/732638090230030336[/tweet]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BlazerFreeman/status/732637370189668352[/tweet]
So I'm assuming we'll likely be getting at least 1 rookie this season

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BlazerFreeman/status/732638677877161984[/tweet]

[Downtown]

"I tell Meyers, if you believed in yourself half as much as I believe in you, you'd be an all star"

Whoah.

[Downtown]

As far as being just as aggressive as last summer that could mean going after their own free agents or looking at others. It's a pretty open ended answer. After all he did sign what, five free agents(Frazier, Montero, Alexander, Aminu, and Davis)? So if they sign Leonard, Crabbe, Harkless,Henderson, and one other that's being as aggressive in someone's eyes.

[Jsun947]

Those were pretty generic answers to questions you expect a politician to give.

Meyers was sitting right in front of him. He wasn't going to trash talk the guy during a head coach press conference.

[Fitz303]

Those were pretty generic answers to questions you expect a politician to give.

Meyers was sitting right in front of him. He wasn't going to trash talk the guy during a head coach press conference.

The part about the draft, I felt was pretty candid. The question basically pushed the draft aside, and Olshey was quick to say that, basically they're going to go hard in the draft, as long as they can get the right player.

Meyers was sitting there, but he had nothing to do with the question. Olshey brought that part up on his own

[Wizenheimer]

Watching the Olshey/Stotts press conference just now, there a few things that Olshey has said that are quite interesting regarding this offseason.

O-Live has videos of parts of the presser, but as is their practice, O-Live has chopped the video up and made several 'articles'....better click-bait that way but pretty hard to find any continuity

Olshey:

Re draft: "We acquired the Cleveland 2018 first at the dealdline which is a pick we can put into play. We've got cash. We've got future 2nds. We've got resources to get ourselves involved in this draft."

yeah, it will be interesting to see if the Blazers can get a late 1st or a 2nd. With everything Olshey has on his plate over then next 14 months, he'd probably like to have a player locked into a cheap, long term deal like draft picks are. I'm not sure that Cleveland 1st has enough value to get a 2016 first. That's where having cash to spend might help.

"I tell Meyers, if you believed in yourself half as much as I believe in you, you'd be an all star"

ughhh. that worries me. Having Meyers was an excuse to not draft Rudy Gobert. If Portland re-signs him, what other opportunities will they miss?

Some of these are being tweeted by press guys there, so this will be a bit easier:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/mikegrich/status/732638090230030336[/tweet]

I'm really curious what his sources are for this. I hope it's because of very recent conversations with player agents. Iknow there are some fairly strict non-interference rules...Blazers can't talk to other teams' free agents till July 1. But I'd imagine there are ways that get partly around that rule when it comes to talking to player agents. Portland has 6 free agents of their own so there's probably been plenty of opportunity to discuss general things with several agents.

I hope that's it and he's not just basing it on signing Aminu and Davis last summer. Those were nice signings for Portland but not any more significant then signing Wesley Matthews or Andre Miller

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BlazerFreeman/status/732637370189668352[/tweet]
So I'm assuming we'll likely be getting at least 1 rookie this season

could be

we know Paul Allen loves the draft...a lot. Keep in mind, that over the last 3 seasons, if you count the coming draft, Portland has had only 1 draft pick in either round and they traded it on draft day. Allen may be pushing to get a draft day buzz

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BlazerFreeman/status/732638677877161984[/tweet]

I hope so, although I'm not that sure what it means.

on one hand, the Blazers lost Aldridge and made no effort to retain Matthews or Lopez. On the other hand they chased Monroe, signed Aminu and Davis, and traded for Harkless. It might be safe to assume they made other unsuccessful moves we didn't hear about. Olshey needs to make a bigger splash then Aminu IMO

[Fitz303]

Watching the Olshey/Stotts press conference just now, there a few things that Olshey has said that are quite interesting regarding this offseason.

O-Live has videos of parts of the presser, but as is their practice, O-Live has chopped the video up and made several 'articles'....better click-bait that way but pretty hard to find any continuity

The Blazers Facebook page has the entire press conference. It's like 3 posts from the top

[DaVoiceMaster]

Too bad the Blazers don't have a way to grab the Lakers pick if it falls enough. I doubt the Blazers would trade Lillard or McCollum and I doubt anyone else on the roster would be able to get that pick.

[Wizenheimer]

Too bad the Blazers don't have a way to grab the Lakers pick if it falls enough. I doubt the Blazers would trade Lillard or McCollum and I doubt anyone else on the roster would be able to get that pick.

if you had the 4th or 5th pick in the draft, would you trade it for CJ?

[DusterBuster]

I'm so stoked for this offseason. I think July is gonna be a lot of fun.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Too bad the Blazers don't have a way to grab the Lakers pick if it falls enough. I doubt the Blazers would trade Lillard or McCollum and I doubt anyone else on the roster would be able to get that pick.

if you had the 4th or 5th pick in the draft, would you trade it for CJ?

Dunno. I guess it would depend who was available and whether you think they'll be better than CJ. I'm not a college guy so I have no clue who's available.

[Wizenheimer]

Too bad the Blazers don't have a way to grab the Lakers pick if it falls enough. I doubt the Blazers would trade Lillard or McCollum and I doubt anyone else on the roster would be able to get that pick.

if you had the 4th or 5th pick in the draft, would you trade it for CJ?

Dunno. I guess it would depend who was available and whether you think they'll be better than CJ. I'm not a college guy so I have no clue who's available.

yeah, I don't know much about college players either.

I do think that teams that have a top-5 pick tend to be looking for a bigger payoff then a player of CJ's caliber. He'll be 25 when next season starts and it's a lot easier to project his ceiling then it is for a top-5 draft pick. CJ may enter into the discussion of all-star level players over the nest 2 or 3 seasons, but there's certainly no guarantee of that. Of course, there are no guarantee's with draft picks either but I'm pretty certain if Portland had the 4th pick in this draft, almost all Blazers fans would be hoping for a player that would end up better then CJ. Besides that, it's almost always the case that teams with a top-5 pick are in rebuild mode and not as interested in a win now player like CJ.

still can't believe the haul Danny Ainge got for dumping KG and Pierce

[Masterfully]

Would a team consider trading a top 5 pick for CJ? Sure.
Top 2 pick for CJ? Not a chance.

But let's just say you were to trade CJ for the #3. Do you take Bender, who could be a poor man's Porzingas? Or maybe you go Hield or Murray, but neither may end up as good as CJ. Jaylen Brown moves my needle a bit, but you would have a couple seasons worth of development for that to pay off.

I just can't make an argument for Portland trading CJ for picks 3-5.

[Blazinaway]

Would a team consider trading a top 5 pick for CJ? Sure.
Top 2 pick for CJ? Not a chance.

But let's just say you were to trade CJ for the #3. Do you take Bender, who could be a poor man's Porzingas? Or maybe you go Hield or Murray, but neither may end up as good as CJ. Jaylen Brown moves my needle a bit, but you would have a couple seasons worth of development for that to pay off.

I just can't make an argument for Portland trading CJ for picks 3-5.

with Philly getting the one pick Okafor may get traded, I'm thinking to Boston for the 3 and change perhaps

[DusterBuster]

Would a team consider trading a top 5 pick for CJ? Sure.
Top 2 pick for CJ? Not a chance.

But let's just say you were to trade CJ for the #3. Do you take Bender, who could be a poor man's Porzingas? Or maybe you go Hield or Murray, but neither may end up as good as CJ. Jaylen Brown moves my needle a bit, but you would have a couple seasons worth of development for that to pay off.

I just can't make an argument for Portland trading CJ for picks 3-5.

I just hate the idea of trading known quantity for unknown. If CJ was like a 15ppg sorta player, showing he's gonna be solid but maybe still unknown for being really really good, I'd be more open to trading him. But he's proven now to be a 20ppg+ player, have nothing short of amazing chemistry with Lillard and being a fringe All Star quality player, probably only held back by the guard position being so stacked in the West. Even with the #1 overall pick, there's no guarantee you get a player of that quality from a top pick.

[DusterBuster]

Would a team consider trading a top 5 pick for CJ? Sure.
Top 2 pick for CJ? Not a chance.

But let's just say you were to trade CJ for the #3. Do you take Bender, who could be a poor man's Porzingas? Or maybe you go Hield or Murray, but neither may end up as good as CJ. Jaylen Brown moves my needle a bit, but you would have a couple seasons worth of development for that to pay off.

I just can't make an argument for Portland trading CJ for picks 3-5.

with Philly getting the one pick Okafor may get traded, I'm thinking to Boston for the 3 and change perhaps

I don't know if Okafor gets traded, but I expect the Sixers to be wildly active during the trade with trades. I think the Colangelo bros are gonna massively overhaul that roster on draft night to try and bring some semblance of balance to the Sixers.

Also, side note from the General Board.... F*** the Celtic fans who're crying over the fact they "only" got the #3 pick. I kinda like the Celtics as a team, but they're fans are by far the absolute worst in the NBA.

[zzaj]

Would a team consider trading a top 5 pick for CJ? Sure.
Top 2 pick for CJ? Not a chance.

But let's just say you were to trade CJ for the #3. Do you take Bender, who could be a poor man's Porzingas? Or maybe you go Hield or Murray, but neither may end up as good as CJ. Jaylen Brown moves my needle a bit, but you would have a couple seasons worth of development for that to pay off.

I just can't make an argument for Portland trading CJ for picks 3-5.

Yeah, CJ is just a teensie bit too good to trade for an unknown. However, if the Blazers were able to get a mature 4 year player that can get them 18/3/3 (maybe a Buddy Hield for example or a 13/5/6 Valentine), it could be huge. Replacing the "CJ contract issue" next offseason with a CJ-lite type player on a rookie contract would open up all kinds of opportunities to improve the roster.

Of course holding on to CJ and letting him improve his stock could also be the smartest thing. Alternately, just holding on to CJ as a player and giving him 20+ million a season could end up being the smartest thing...I'm no GM.

I will say, that more than perhaps any time in NBA history, with the league awash in money, productive rookies on rookie contracts are going to be worth their weight in DIAMONDS as teams try to improve in this new CBA.