Rodney Hood opts out

[d-train]

The delayed free agency is why Hood is more confident of his value. He believes his rehab is done and is ready to play. Naturally, he feels better about his market value than when he was injured and couldn't play.

[GEE]

I too am a fan of Hood, and share many of the opinions here. Confused by the decision, think ROCO and Hood could and should coexist, thought a year ago that a hand shake deal may have been made and restructuring his deal if rehab goes well, was in the plans all along. Hope I'm right on that last part. He seemed happy, and if he does return we're starting to look pretty competitive in the WC.

Dame / Simons
CJ / GTJ
Covington / Hood
Collins
Nurkic

That is a butt-load of shooters. Talkin to you HORSE! Hope he comes back, Melo too, and Gabriel. I'd be so very happy, if we end up with something like this:

Dame / Simons / MCW
CJ / GTJ / ???
Covington / Hood / Little
Collins / Melo / Gabriel
Nurkic / Whiteside / ???

DANGEROUS

[BlazersBroncos]

Dame / Simons
CJ / GTJ
Covington / Hood
Collins
Nurkic

I dont see it shaking out like that, I would put my money on:

G - Damian Lillard / Hopefully Not Simons
G - CJ McCollum / Gary Trent Jr
F - Rodney Hood / Gary Trent Jr
F - Robert Covington / Carmelo Anthony
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Zach Collins

We need GTJ to play swing or he is stuck around 15-18mpg. He should get 25 at least next season, especially during the RS.

[GEE]

Dame / Simons
CJ / GTJ
Covington / Hood
Collins
Nurkic

I dont see it shaking out like that, I would put my money on:

G - Damian Lillard / Hopefully Not Simons
G - CJ McCollum / Gary Trent Jr
F - Rodney Hood / Gary Trent Jr
F - Robert Covington / Carmelo Anthony
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Zach Collins

We need GTJ to play swing or he is stuck around 15-18mpg. He should get 25 at least next season, especially during the RS.

This is true if, Dame and CJ plays 40 min per night, which IMO, is flirting with danger. If you rotate Dame, CJ and GTJ, there should be around 24 for GTJ. The more minutes for GTJ, the fresher and healthier Dame and CJ will be for the playoffs. GTJ at SF is simply not smart from a defensive standpoint, but WAS necessary last year due to a lack of depth. If Hood comes back, with ROCO, there's no longer that issue.

[Blazinaway]

Dame / Simons
CJ / GTJ
Covington / Hood
Collins
Nurkic

I dont see it shaking out like that, I would put my money on:

G - Damian Lillard / Hopefully Not Simons
G - CJ McCollum / Gary Trent Jr
F - Rodney Hood / Gary Trent Jr
F - Robert Covington / Carmelo Anthony
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Zach Collins

We need GTJ to play swing or he is stuck around 15-18mpg. He should get 25 at least next season, especially during the RS.

This is true if, Dame and CJ plays 40 min per night, which IMO, is flirting with danger. If you rotate Dame, CJ and GTJ, there should be around 24 for GTJ. The more minutes for GTJ, the fresher and healthier Dame and CJ will be for the playoffs. GTJ at SF is simply not smart from a defensive standpoint, but WAS necessary last year due to a lack of depth. If Hood comes back, with ROCO, there's no longer that issue.

There should be some guards available fairly cheaply that can offer some additional size and D, I would like to add another PG

[DaVoiceMaster]

Dame / Simons
CJ / GTJ
Covington / Hood
Collins
Nurkic

I dont see it shaking out like that, I would put my money on:

G - Damian Lillard / Hopefully Not Simons
G - CJ McCollum / Gary Trent Jr
F - Rodney Hood / Gary Trent Jr
F - Robert Covington / Carmelo Anthony
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Zach Collins

We need GTJ to play swing or he is stuck around 15-18mpg. He should get 25 at least next season, especially during the RS.

This is true if, Dame and CJ plays 40 min per night, which IMO, is flirting with danger. If you rotate Dame, CJ and GTJ, there should be around 24 for GTJ. The more minutes for GTJ, the fresher and healthier Dame and CJ will be for the playoffs. GTJ at SF is simply not smart from a defensive standpoint, but WAS necessary last year due to a lack of depth. If Hood comes back, with ROCO, there's no longer that issue.

Shorter season so I'm guessing games are more frequent. Need to limit the minutes Lillard and McCollum play and maybe even sit them ocassionally on back-to-back games if necessary.

[d-train]

It does put us a little further from the luxury and repeater taxes so we might be more willing to use the Bazemore tpe or sign a free agent. I could also see Portland maybe already having a deal lined up with Hood where he gets less this year but a longer term deal ( say 3 years at $4 million per)

Even with Hood, we could use the Bazemore TPE and sign an MLE player and a BAE and still be below the luxury tax. I don't see how it does anything to help us..

The extra room just leaves extra options on the table. After using all those avenues it would put us close the the lux tax and make follow up deals such as mid season trades riskier. Not saying it's good for the team he opted out just that it isn't all bad for the team

This is just fact. Because the Blazers have so much financial flexibility, we aren't married to signing our own free agents. We have multiple paths to building payroll up to the tax threshold

[GEE]

As for Hood, unless there's a better fit, sign him with the MLE. I know there are many options out there to fill his role and minutes, but I doubt there's a better one. I will say the same for Whiteside. BAE for Melo is also money well spent IMO. These 3 guys are key pieces to having any chance in the West.

I don't need 15 role players, I need 9 DOGS, and a good enough bench to hold leads, while reducing unnecessary wear on our stars during the 72 game schedule. These simple moves, that don't rock the boat, makes our playoff core, and competitors for the WCF's.

Dame
CJ / GTJ
ROCO / Hood
Collins / Melo
Nurkic / Whiteside

Only thing I need is Gabriel resigned, Mario traded for a Big Bite and a bag o' chips, a vet PG and a 3rd C. Actually, I really only need a 3rd C, because I'd be fine having Mario as the 3rd PG.

Bench: Simons / Mario / cj / Little / Gabriel / ???

RIP CITY!!!

[d-train]

As for Hood, unless there's a better fit, sign him with the MLE

We have early bird rights to re-sign Hood, don't need to use the MLE.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Hood's Early Bird Rights at 175% of this past season's salary puts him at just over $10 million in year one. [It's that or the average salary for the NBA, whichever is greater.] The $10 million figure is what Dwight Jaynes mentioned in a recent article.

[zzaj]

I’ll go on record as saying that I believe resigning Hood to a multi-year deal is a huge mistake, based on his achilles injury. He will be a mini financial albatross for the life of his contract.

[d-train]

I don't have any problem with the achilles injury if he is successfully rehabbed. My problem is his value. IMO, $5-6M/yr is his value. He has great size but gets murdered by the best big wings. He doesn't compete well against size. I don't mind if Blazers re-sign him, but $10M/yr is not good value.

[Village Idiot]

If the achilles injury is fixed I have no problem with the Blazers paying him $10 million a year. He made 49% of his 3s and lead the league in catch and shoot 3 point percentage. I fail to see how Hood is any less valuable than Gallinari, Harris or Bertans. If we can retain Hood, add Millsap we have 3 of the top 10 guys in catch and shoot 3pt percentage with CJ1 being the third guy. How awesome is that?

[d-train]

I like Gallo better than Hood, but not more than Melo. I like Melo and Hood, but not Melo and Gallo.

[plyrically]

It’d be crazy if NeO didn’t take advantage of Whiteside as an asset. I say whiteside on s&t for either Millsap/Gallo, and then sign the other one via FA.

Then get Rolo back. And we’re pretty solid on both ends.

Dame/CJ/Ant
CJ/GTJ/**WillieB
Roco/Little/CJ2/**WillieB
Gallo/Sap/Zach
Nurk/Zach/Rolo

The wing is a little underpopulated off the bench, prolly would also go for a **veteran there with either the bae or tpe, whichever is left after signing Sap and Rolo.

** Or we get Will Barton on top of Sap in a sugg s&t.

[red_power]

The only problem with that idea is the fact, that Nuggets and Thunder most likely have absolutely zero intention to pull a SnT for Hassan.
Literally can't see any reason why they should do that.

[Waynearchetype]

Gallo is going to get more than MLE and Whiteside. He's still a fringe all-star level player, like CJ. CJ wouldn't go for MLE.

Maybe there is a scenario where they have Steven Adams lined up to be traded. Maybe in that scenario, they'd be willing to sign and overpay whiteside to a 1 year $20m deal in order to extract some 1st round picks out of us. It'd be spooky, because it would line up with the decline in our stars. I'd say the chance of that though is less than 1%....

[Malapropism]

I'm convinced that anyone who thinks Whiteside is a fringe all-star player only looks at stats and has never actually seen him play.

[JasonStern]

Wonder if the Blazers had a handshake deal last off-season when they signed Hood. Sign for one year so we can establish Early Bird rights, then we'll renegotiate next off-season. Can't imagine he's had a chance to workout for that many teams. And I can't imagine that many teams offering him MLE-tier money without doing so.

[DusterBuster]

I'm convinced that anyone who thinks Whiteside is a fringe all-star player only looks at stats and has never actually seen him play.

Yeah, I don't see Whiteside getting more than the MLE either. The book is out on him for most scouts and GM's that his numbers are somewhat hollow.