Replacements for our FA

[BlazersBroncos]

The entire goal of the offseason has to be to convince two of these three guys to split the MLE. I go back and forth each day, its really difficult to decide the two I would keep, but the one most likely to accept this type of offer is Kanter IMO. He has made tons and tons of money and seems quite happy here. He also is an ideal backup to Nurkic.

Aminu is easily the most necessary resigning, and IMO he demands 10-12M per season. Hopefully we can make that work.

Say we get Hood and Kanter to split the MLE for a single season, with a handshake that they get long term deals. We spent a R1 pick on a shooter last season in Simons, so to me the most likely man out is Curry. I trust the talent of Simons replacing Curry far more than Trent replacing Hood and this doesn't even take into account Layman who IMO gets a RFA deal and is gone (I think he will want to move on too after we resign Aminu, showing him an unlikely chance for a larger role).

So Hood / Kanter / Aminu all back with the loss of Curry / Layman. That's about as good as we can hope IMO. Spend the #42 on Ignas Brazdeikis hopefully, whos shooting could translate right away.

We would need another guard and my pick, should he only command the vet min, would be Lin. Great culture fit, able to play PG and SG, good enough shooter. I sign him to help ensure we retain the depth that made us so dangerous in the first place.

PG - Damian Lillard / Jeremy Lin / Anferne Simons
SG - CJ McCollum / Rodney Hood / Gary Trent Jr
SF - Mo Harkless / Rodney Hood / Ignas Brazdeikis
PF - Al-Fariq Aminu / Zach Collins / Skal Labissiere
C - Enes Kanter / Zach Collins / Myers Leonard

IR Jusuf Nurkic

[Wizenheimer]

The entire goal of the offseason has to be to convince two of these three guys to split the MLE. I go back and forth each day, its really difficult to decide the two I would keep, but the one most likely to accept this type of offer is Kanter IMO. He has made tons and tons of money and seems quite happy here. He also is an ideal backup to Nurkic.

Aminu is easily the most necessary resigning, and IMO he demands 10-12M per season. Hopefully we can make that work.

Portland is scheduled for 126M in guaranteed salary...10 players

if they use their draft pick to add a player, they will be at 128M. The tax line will be 132M and the apron around 138M. A team can't use the full-MLE and go over the apron, at any time, before using it or after....they are hard-capped

Aminu at 10M would put the Blazers at the apron. All they'd have for Kanter-Curry-Hood would be the tax-MLE of 5.5M or non-bird for for Hood (4.1M) and Curry (3.4M)

these are the the 2016 chickens coming home to roost

Curry will very likely get better than his non-bird, and likely better than the tax-MLE, although that's not certain. Hood may be retain-able for his 4.1M non-Bird. Kanter at 5.5M starting salary (tax-MLE)? I'm pretty skeptical but who knows

say Aminu re-signs for 8M, Hood for 4.1M, and Kanter for 5.5M. Blazers are 14M over the tax like. Portland would have a 26M tax bill in a season when Nurkic might not play till the all-star game and probably would just be a shell of what he was. Will Jody Allen sign off on that? I'm skeptical about that

The Blazers need to attach their 1st round pick to ET or Meyers and get far enough under the apron that using their full-MLE wouldn't risk being hard-capped

[zzaj]

The entire goal of the offseason has to be to convince two of these three guys to split the MLE. I go back and forth each day, its really difficult to decide the two I would keep, but the one most likely to accept this type of offer is Kanter IMO. He has made tons and tons of money and seems quite happy here. He also is an ideal backup to Nurkic.

Aminu is easily the most necessary resigning, and IMO he demands 10-12M per season. Hopefully we can make that work.

Portland is scheduled for 126M in guaranteed salary...10 players

if they use their draft pick to add a player, they will be at 128M. The tax line will be 132M and the apron around 138M. A team can't use the full-MLE and go over the apron, at any time, before using it or after....they are hard-capped

Aminu at 10M would put the Blazers at the apron. All they'd have for Kanter-Curry-Hood would be the tax-MLE of 5.5M or non-bird for for Hood (4.1M) and Curry (3.4M)

these are the the 2016 chickens coming home to roost

Curry will very likely get better than his non-bird, and likely better than the tax-MLE, although that's not certain. Hood may be retain-able for his 4.1M non-Bird. Kanter at 5.5M starting salary (tax-MLE)? I'm pretty skeptical but who knows

say Aminu re-signs for 8M, Hood for 4.1M, and Kanter for 5.5M. Blazers are 14M over the tax like. Portland would have a 26M tax bill in a season when Nurkic might not play till the all-star game and probably would just be a shell of what he was. Will Jody Allen sign off on that? I'm skeptical about that

The Blazers need to attach their 1st round pick to ET or Meyers and get far enough under the apron that using their full-MLE wouldn't risk being hard-capped

1)...which would make it an unbelievably snake move if Olshey exits to the Lakers.

2)...Usually I'm averse to the idea of attaching picks to bad contracts to clear salary, but in this case--with how competitive the current team is, where Lillard is at in his career, with Nurkic being a likely a non-factor next season, etc--I think it's an absolute must. Attaching Turner to the FRP is the biggest domino. I may be wrong but I think that would put the Blazers at about 108M for 9 players...24M under the tax line. Overall, freeing up that extra 4M or so difference between the tax-MLE and the standard-MLE, could mean retaining nearly everyone...although I still think it highly unlikely.