Al-Farouq Aminu to Orlando

[Wickzki]

Would you guys do Robert Covington for Nassir Little & Anfernee Simons? Under contract around 10m/yr till 2022

You throwing in a handful of firsts?

Trade does not work. We need to include 8 million more in salary.We have nobody to make that work.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Chief was a class act. From a bench player to a starter playing both forward spots. He was just good enough to beat out other Blazers ... though he hasn’t had a ton of competition. Olshey’s reclamation projects of good character guys worked for Chief getting paid. I wish him well.

Collins was the heir apparent at PF from the moment he was drafted. No other choice on the horizon.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

For some reason the Hassan trade makes me wish we had tried to keep Aminu. I understood if we had to choose between Harkless and Aminu in that role going forward to give Collins more run but losing both depletes our wing/forward defense a little more than I like.

[Sinobas]

Would you guys do Robert Covington for Nassir Little & Anfernee Simons? Under contract around 10m/yr till 2022

The Blazers seem to be super high on Simons, they wouldn't include him in a trade unless they were getting someone really good back.

We have no need for Covington, we have a plethora of SFs.

[plyrically]

For some reason the Hassan trade makes me wish we had tried to keep Aminu. I understood if we had to choose between Harkless and Aminu in that role going forward to give Collins more run but losing both depletes our wing/forward defense a little more than I like.

I really like Baze and Rodney on the wing defense wise!

Man, it will behoove of ya’ll to go ahead and check out some of Baze’s defensive highlights last year in ATL. He can block, he can move his feet and he steals the ball with the best of em. (That’s why for stretches last season, before the ankle- he was like the 50th rated player in 9cat).

Now granted Moe and Chief are longer, and capable shutdown defenders..each with his own deficits. Moe simply killed PG and Chief had that major stop on Westbrick, But I really like the other dimension Baze and Rodney bring in defensively.

[Tim Lehrbach]

For some reason the Hassan trade makes me wish we had tried to keep Aminu.

Do we know for sure that they didn't? I've been wondering about this. Any indication from Aminu or elsewhere whether the Blazers offered him a contract?

[DeBlazerRiddem]

For some reason the Hassan trade makes me wish we had tried to keep Aminu.

Do we know for sure that they didn't? I've been wondering about this. Any indication from Aminu or elsewhere whether the Blazers offered him a contract?

No idea really. I had been expecting to let Aminu walk because he was a luxury we couldn't really afford, so I assumed it was similar to how we let Ed Davis walk. We had bird rights so we at least could have matched the contract, but there's certainly the possibility it was a mutual breakup and that Aminu was just as happy looking for greener pastures.

Really all I meant to say however is that the Whiteside trade ended up opening an Aminu-sized hole in our rotation that I thought Harkless/Layman were going to step up and fill this year. I actually think Aminu/Whiteside with Collins off the bench would be a good fitting trio.

[HoopsFanAZ]

1. Chief’s agent said (or strongly implied) he had little to no contact with Olshey leading up to free agency.
2. No reports of any lesser offer.
3. If the Blazers were interested on a lower number, they waited on the market to set the price.
4. Tax $$$ — not because of Chief but current mix.
5. Two words — Zach Collins.

[purely speculation, of course. ]

[mighty_duck]

Can we do a sign-and-trade with Orlando, so we at least get a trade exception out of this? Gives us more options...

As to why we didn't offer a similar package to Aminu -
1.Avoid the luxury tax this year
2. More importantly don't bite in to cap space next year (without Aminu, we'll have $20-23m, enough to be minor players).

I'm not convinced either reason is valid to lose Aminu for nothing. The tax hit will be minimal, and the Allen estate has a few shekels left. I also don't trust NO with large swathes of cap space, especially with the dearth of quality free agents next year. The few good ones will fetch above market prices.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Good question on the sign and trade.
I looked on the cba salary faq but didn’t find anything against it, especially given Orlando’s lower salary.

[d-train]

Good question on the sign and trade.
I looked on the cba salary faq but didn’t find anything against it, especially given Orlando’s lower salary.

Blazers can't really do a sign and trade. They are probably already over the apron. They certainly can't allow themselves to be hardcapped.

[d-train]

For some reason the Hassan trade makes me wish we had tried to keep Aminu.

Do we know for sure that they didn't? I've been wondering about this. Any indication from Aminu or elsewhere whether the Blazers offered him a contract?

Against Pelicans our failure was by our core players. This year the failure was our supporting players. Other than the OKC series, we were beat on the boards. It could be most of Aminu's money went to Whiteside to address our rebounding weakness.