Free Agency 2023 - Blazers and around the league.

[PDXKnight]

It’s worse than i thought it would be… No one would have given him that contract. 20 points and 4 rebounds = 32 million a year?

We’ll probably hear Simons getting a 3 year 100 million extension in a few minutes lol

Now do people believe me when I say that Cronin has always been part of the problem? He’s actually worse than Olshey lmao

I think kolde deserves mention here, tons of crapdit to him too.

[Dame Lizard]

Another conspiracy - we made a hand shake w/ Grant during the season, new CBA comes out and makes said handshake obviously a bad move but we honored it since it would have burnt our bridge w/ Clutch if we rescinded - and even led to Dame requesting a trade (Also would give him an out 'I have been loyal, they screwed over my boy Jerami and the roster now stinks even more, I want to move on, its not my fault')

Potentially, but why on earth make these handshake moves on players we're already going to be overpaying.

[Moonbeam]

The Suns signing Eubanks to be their third center is not a sign of Eubanks being undervalued or underappreciated here. It's a sign of Phoenix being desperate for bodies at low cost.

Sure, I get that Eubanks isn’t some needle mover. He’s a concrete floor that’s there to prevent a tram from truly bottoming out. But Portland kind of needs that with Nurk’s injury history. Watford also played some minutes at center. If the reason for letting both go was to re-sign Grant, and not for some other roster moves, that’s… not good. I guess I haven’t seen what Phoenix offered Drew. Maybe it was an overpay, but I doubt it could have been much given their salary situation.

I’ll wait to see how the roster rounds out.

[The Sebastian Express]

The Suns signing Eubanks to be their third center is not a sign of Eubanks being undervalued or underappreciated here. It's a sign of Phoenix being desperate for bodies at low cost.

Sure, I get that Eubanks isn’t some needle mover. He’s a concrete floor that’s there to prevent a tram from truly bottoming out. But Portland kind of needs that with Nurk’s injury history. Watford also played some minutes at center. If the reason for letting both go was to re-sign Grant, and not for some other roster moves, that’s… not good. I guess I haven’t seen what Phoenix offered Drew. Maybe it was an overpay, but I doubt it could have been much given their salary situation.

I’ll wait to see how the roster rounds out.

Oh I'm not saying Portland couldn't use Drew since we now have one (1) center on the roster.

I'm just saying him signing with PHoenix doesn't mean he was undervalued here, especially by fans. Phoenix signed him because they need capable bodies, he's third string there.

[Sinobas]

I think Grant is actually a really good SF. His obvious weakness is rebounding. The Blazers were one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, and in part due to Grant.

The Blazers need a better, 4, let him play the 3, Sharpe at the 2, and we're no longer a small team.

It's still an over-pay, if you look at the quality of player making 30+ mil per year. Should have been more like 25-27. What difference that will ever amount to is another question...

This team is destined to be filled with scrubs till Dame retires.

[DusterBuster]

I really really dislike this logic tbh. You add up those 2m's here and there and that is the difference between getting a really good role player or not.

Ok? I mean... they're not adding up those 2m's here and there... but sure, w/e.

2m for Nurkic, 2m for Grant and so forth......

Honestly your argument doesn't make any sense to me DB.

Ditto. Especially since your “so forth” ends there, but w/e.

[Norm2953]

Another conspiracy - we made a hand shake w/ Grant during the season, new CBA comes out and makes said handshake obviously a bad move but we honored it since it would have burnt our bridge w/ Clutch if we rescinded - and even led to Dame requesting a trade (Also would give him an out 'I have been loyal, they screwed over my boy Jerami and the roster now stinks even more, I want to move on, its not my fault')

This is likely the case. Portland could not refuse to honor their handshake deal.

I do wonder what comes next for with Eubanks leaving, Portland has only one guy taller than 6-9 unless
they are really going to depend on Badji or going to sign Hall.

[DusterBuster]

Cronin is legit just gonna run this **** back.

[The Sebastian Express]

Cronin is legit just gonna run this **** back.

Well, not exactly.

Because as of right now we are actually down two bigs.

[PDXKnight]

Why do I always feel like as a portland fan I'm perpetually counting down till we get out of a bad contract? It's like on repeat every time we have flexibility we find a way to screw it up. And with grants deal we have him extending into when we could potentially have flexibility with Sharpe and scoot re upping. Sheesh I hope year 5 isn't fully guaranteed

[Moonbeam]

Time for Portland to trade for Embiid.

[Pattycakes]

I think Grant is actually a really good SF. His obvious weakness is rebounding. The Blazers were one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, and in part due to Grant.

The Blazers need a better, 4, let him play the 3, Sharpe at the 2, and we're no longer a small team.

It's still an over-pay, if you look at the quality of player making 30+ mil per year. Should have been more like 25-27. What difference that will ever amount to is another question...

This team is destined to be filled with scrubs till Dame retires.

I’m in same mindset. Actually completely a fan of playing him and Shaedon together

[PDXKnight]

Time for Portland to trade for Embiid.

I wish that was our only problem to worry about still lol

We'd be lucky if we could pay someone scoot even to take on this albatross Jerami deal... obviously being facetious but from a trade market standpoint it'd probably take that sort of value to unload the worst contract. The minute jerami signed this it became the most negative value in the nba

[Norm2953]

Interesting the Bucks just signed Middleton to a $102 million/3 contract.

Did we really have to give Grant 5 years?

[Jsun947]

Interesting the Bucks just signed Middleton to a $102 million/3 contract.

Did we really have to give Grant 5 years?

Are we really going to keep doing this?

Middleton is 2 years old, played 24mpg over 33 games last season and looked like ****. He hasn't exactly been a model of health the previous few years either. He didn't get a bigger or longer contract becomes its concerning that he can stay on the court.

[BlazersBroncos]

No idea how we go into 23/24 with Dame, Simons, Scoot and Sharpe at the G spots.

Wonder how many FRP we could get if we hail-married a Simmons trade - Simons + Little for Simmons + 2 FRP?

Dont see many other options that have even a slight chance of moving the needle.

[Dangeruss]

Move only really makes sense to me with a Dame trade. But it’s really hard to believe Cronin has the nads to pull the trigger

[DusterBuster]

Why do I always feel like as a portland fan I'm perpetually counting down till we get out of a bad contract? It's like on repeat every time we have flexibility we find a way to screw it up. And with grants deal we have him extending into when we could potentially have flexibility with Sharpe and scoot re upping. Sheesh I hope year 5 isn't fully guaranteed

I get it, but for all the woe-is-me here on the Blazer board, understand that every team deals with this.

[DusterBuster]

At this point the Blazers off-season feels done. They’ll do a few around the edges signings, but I don’t see much else happening, Dame probably stays for the season to see what’s up with the rookies if they can be Day 1 good and if Sharpe takes a leap, then we’ll see.

It seems clear tho Cronin is betting on internal improvements and continuity to make the team better than they were.

[PDXKnight]

To me this says blazers had to pay a premium to even get jerami to return. Jerami was fully willing and ready to go anywhere else unless we broke the bank to extend him