does our cap space plan for 09 make sense?

[roy7]

i was just wondering will we have room in 09 with darius miles contract still will we be able to sign a star?

[swede]

Short answer: Yes

[PDXKnight]

Even if we don't sign a star, it will allow the Blazers to resign their big four (I now consider outlaw one of the essential pieces to this team) and gives us future flexability. The Blazers are winning a good amount of games this season and having cap flexibility in 09' provides a lot of options even if a star isn't available.

[Mr Odd]

Sometimes winning also makes players sign
a tad less to a team that isnt winning.. .Wins
also attract free agents. So WIN BLAZERS WIN!!

[DeezXXnutZ]

I think the best way for us to get another big time player is too use Lafrentz expiring this summer and add draft picks and young talent...This could net us thye best player from my point of view but KP knows a lot more then me...If we actually can make it till 09 for cap space it would be great...I just don't see it happening....

[PDXKnight]

I think the best way for us to get another big time player is too use Lafrentz expiring this summer and add draft picks and young talent...This could net us thye best player from my point of view but KP knows a lot more then me...If we actually can make it till 09 for cap space it would be great...I just don't see it happening....

I'm not convinced that the Blazers need any more young talent. We're already the youngest team in the league and should look into getting an experienced player.

[Wizenheimer]

aha!...another excuse for me to whack on one of my favorite dead horses...thanks.

I think the cap space plan made sense last summer, but several things have changed. For one, it's become clear that Roy in something special and capable of being a hybrid type SG/PG. That tends to reduce the 'need' for a quality PG.

It's also clear that Blake is a solid player who doesn't make a lot of mistakes and plays well with Roy. Yet, his is a contract structured as one of the principal components of developing cap space.

And that contract structure is also present in Outlaw's contract and Jones's contract. And we see that Travis is becoming a special player and Jones is extremely valuable to Portland.

Add to that the fact (I'm assuming) that KP was likely looking at Martell Webster as a candidate just to be cut. Last summer, he was looking like a possible bust, and I think the thought was, it would be easy to get his contract off the books by simply letting him walk, and it wouldn't be a loss on the floor.

Those four players (outlaw-blake-jones-webster) were the theoretical backbone of portland's cap-space...by being gone.

But now we see they are rather essential to Portland's success. Portland can't dump just one and have any substantial cap-space. It almost has to be 3 out of 4. And a decision on a couple of them need to be made THIS summer, when the 2009 free agent list is a lot more hypothetical then certain.

I think portland may be better served focusing on draft picks, MLE signings, and timely trades.

[mojomarc]

I think the move we'll end up making with the cap space will be to sign a defensive stoppe on the wing who can ease the pressure on Roy/Rudy on the defensive end. If he can rebound well, all the better, but that's becoming less important when you figure Joel and Frye on the 2nd team and Oden/Aldridge on the first should be competitive with anyone.

[Mr Odd]

I think Rudy is going to play a big roll on
what Pritchard does. If Rudy does well &
looks to be able to score with no problem
in the NBA then the Blazers will probably
not go for a offensive player which may
change who Pritchard had in mind in '09.

[Effigy]

To be honest, I don't think we need to sign anyone else. We're already going to add Oden and Rudy, if we sign a big name player, that's less minutes for the guys we already have. Who can we add that's really going to help us that's feasible? DWill and CPaul aren't going to happen, their teams will match if they don't just sign extensions this year. Our most likely guys are Iguidala and Ben Gordon. I like both players but does Ben really add that much more than what we have? Do you want him taking shots away from Roy, Oden and LMA? I don't. And Iguidala is one of my favorite players, but I think Travis Outlaw gives us a lot of things that he does, and if Iggy were the 4th option on a team I'm not sure how much his offense would help.

The real Superstars won't be available, we're talking about the 2nd and 3rd tier guys that we'd have to give way too much money to. I think the best option is to try and use Raef's expiring and draft picks to get a guy like a Mike Miller, or something like that. A Role player who can do what we need.

[Wizenheimer]

I'm just looking over team payrolls to see which players have contracts that expire after 08/09 and will be UFA in the 2009 off-season (and that portland would have any interest in):

Joe Smith (too old)
Drew Gooden
Brandon Bass
Rasheed Wallace (yeah, right)
Jeff Foster (now here's a banger)
Lamar Odom
Desmond Mason
Jason Kidd (AARP Member)
Mike Bibby
Chris Wilcox

2008/09 Player options (would have to complete contract):

Allen Iverson
Baron Davis
Jermaine O'Neal
Elton Brand
Corey Maggette
Shawn Marion
Gilbert Arenas

2009/10 Player options (would have to opt out)

Richard Hamilton
Al Harrington
Kobe Bryant
Hidayet Turkoglu
Kyle Korver
Amare Stoudamire
Carlos Boozer
Mehmet Okur

Rookie Scale Qualifying Offer for 2008/09:

Josh Childress
Josh Smith
Emeka Okafor
Ben Gordon
Luol Deng
Andris Biedrins
Delonte West
Kris Humpries

[mojomarc]

There's another option, Wiz, that you're not considering. If we have cap space to sign an unrestricted FA, we also have capspace to take more salary back in a trade than we send out. It will be more difficult to pull off, but that might open up our options as well, particularly if we have a player that we'd want to do an S/T with.

[SalemStoner]

I think the most likely use of our capspace is to use Raef's expiring contract packaged along with 2-3 of our prospects(some combo of Jack/Sergio and Outlaw/Webster/Frye) and maybe a draft pick or two for a tier 2 type player(aka borderline allstar) who will be happy to fit into our team premise.

Guys who I think might fit into that mold and are possibly available.

Richard Jefferson
Shawn Marion
Josh Howard
Andrei Kirilenko
Lamar Odom
Antawn Jamison

It should be noted alot of those players are SFs, and several have point forward type skills too(which I think would mesh well with Roy).

[Wizenheimer]

There's another option, Wiz, that you're not considering. If we have cap space to sign an unrestricted FA, we also have capspace to take more salary back in a trade than we send out. It will be more difficult to pull off, but that might open up our options as well, particularly if we have a player that we'd want to do an S/T with.

I won't spend the time to find them, but shortly after the cap-space plan surfaced (by comments made by KP and Tom Penn), I was saying in several threads, it was more likely cap-space could be used for trading rather then a FA signing.

But I don't think KP will find a situation where the blazers could trade 15 million in cap space for a GOOD 15 million a year player. If it's a trade the cap space is used for, I'm inclined to think 6-8 million in cap space would be more effective...or at least have a better chance of being used. And keep in mind, if portland can develop 7 million in cap space, they are also likely to have Miles's expiring contract, so if KP is wanting to trade, cap-space and a 9 million expiring contract may make up part of a big trade package.

As long as we're keeping things in mind, it should be noted that several teams besides Portland are angling for cap-space that summer. A lot can change between now and then of course, for that matter it might change for portland.

But if 7 or 8 teams besides portland have substantial cap-space at the same time, the relative value of cap-space shrinks, probably by quite a bit.

[listerine]

I've always felt the cap-space plan was a decoy. I actually don't recall KP ever saying that he planned to use that money to sign someone. He just says, "It gives us flexibility down the road."

His goal is to field a competitive team while being financially responsible. And he can do that with three stars surrounded by role players. He can't do that with four stars.

The Blazers will hold onto that cap space and let it be eaten up by the contracts we'll offer our own players. The Chris Paul/ 4th superstar dreams aren't going to happen.

[Wizenheimer]

I think the most likely use of our capspace is to use Raef's expiring contract packaged along with 2-3 of our prospects(some combo of Jack/Sergio and Outlaw/Webster/Frye) and maybe a draft pick or two for a tier 2 type player(aka borderline allstar) who will be happy to fit into our team premise.

Guys who I think might fit into that mold and are possibly available.

Richard Jefferson
Shawn Marion
Josh Howard
Andrei Kirilenko
Lamar Odom
Antawn Jamison

It should be noted alot of those players are SFs, and several have point forward type skills too(which I think would mesh well with Roy).

If the expiring contract of Lafrentz is used, then it won't be in conjunction with cap space. His contract expires before portland would have cap space. Furthermore, it would seem that if lafrentz is traded, then the cap-space plan is dead anyway. The expiring part of the equation almost guarantees that.

[ebott]

I'm with Wizenheimer on this one.

The reason we might have 20+ mil in cap space in 2009 is that we would be dumping Webster, Outlaw, Jones, Blake and Frye. I don't see that happening.

[Tim Lehrbach]

A sign-and-trade using Webster or Frye is a possibility, too. Those two might be coveted by others but expendable in the Blazers' pursuit of another star (if that pursuit comes to be). BYC won't apply for Webster or Frye because the Blazers will be so far under the cap.