Portland - 2016 Offseason

Norm2953 · Post #81 » by **Norm2953** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 7:59 am

One thing to note is how the league is changing for the small ball teams will only increase if the
GSW repeat as NBA champs.

I'd like to know if Portland's small ball team involving Plumlee/Vonleh in a unit with Aminu,
Harkless, Dame and CJ would fare well. To be sure, Portland could use an upgrade of
a third scorer to reduce some of the pressure off of the guards.

Jsun947 · Post #82 » by **Jsun947** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 3:30 pm

I think we could go small just fine but you aren't going to beat GSW in a 7 game series by trying to do what they do better.

I don't think we really need another 20 PPG type guy. We need our 3-5 spot to take pressure off dame and CJ though particularly by attacking the rim off the dribble and passing. Aminu is a perfect example of a guy that tends to catch the ball and either does a bunch of jabs steps & gives up or he tries to attack and most of the time dribbles it off his leg or foot. If he had better handles the defense would actually have to collapse.

Between Plumlee, Crabbe, Harkless, Aminu, Vonleh, And Davis I think Plumlee is the best at catching, dribbling, attacking, and passing and it's probably not even close.

Zers4Eva · Post #83 » by **Zers4Eva** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 5:13 pm

blazersj wrote:No one seem to talk about this guy Marjanovic from the Spurs.

I'd love for the Blazers to throw big money at him this off season.

Nah. His name sounds to much like margarine.

Post #84 » by **DaVoiceMaster** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 5:29 pm

I've saw him play one game and he looked horrible. He's big and that's about all... at least in the one game I saw. He's Serbian though, like my wife.

zzaj · Post #85 » by **zzaj** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 6:01 pm

Yeah, Boban is too slow for a big minute C in today's NBA, IMO. Perhaps in another era...

Beeboywhoo · Post #86 » by **Beeboywhoo** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 6:52 pm

You know, it might not be the sexiest move, but Jordan Hill is a free agent. The blazers could go TRUE small ball and have hill as our 5. He can space the floor too, pretty good defender, and hes 28. Low risk medium reward.

if not Ian Mahimi is also a UFA and is 29.

some other players I like:
Jeff Green - 29
Hibbert? (lol) - 29
Hassan whiteside - Sexiest pick here
Ryan Anderson - 27 I'm not a huge fan but I could see POR going for him
Biyombo - 23

We don't need a ball dominant center, just one that plays clog defense and grabs rebounds, and is mobile for fast breaks. for SF/PF Im a fan of 3&D guys. Jeff green would be awesome

Soulyss · Post #87 » by **Soulyss** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 10:47 pm

Portland will probably kick the tires on the elite FA landscape for a fit (Durant, Whiteside, Horford) and probably a second tier that might be good team/culture fits (Noah, Barnes, Ezeli)... If he strikes out, or doesn't get much interest I think he'll focus on a talent consolidation and focus on our RFA.

Masterfully · Post #88 » by **Masterfully** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:22 pm

The meeting point between fit and need falls on Barnes IMO. But for Portland to have any shot of actually signing him it would take nothing short of the max. Let's be honest, you're not going to get max return on that investment.

Maybe you're better off trying to find the next underdeveloped 21 or 22 year old and spend a season or two building them up.

zzaj · Post #89 » by **zzaj** » Thu Feb 25, 2016 11:34 pm

Man, it's good to be a young-ish mediocre FA in the NBA this next year. Outside of Durant I don't really see anybody that the Blazers can target realistically, or would even want for the prices that this fairly miserable looking FA crop is going to fetch.

Durant isn't going to happen.

Barnes and Ezeli are going to be part of bidding wars, and both have question marks because of the way the GS plays. Both will probably end up on bad contracts.

Biyombo (he'll most assuredly will opt out) would be a nice addition as a rim protector but he has hands of stone, plays below the rim and even at only 23 probably lacks the upside to be a starting PF/C. AND he's likely to end up as Plan C for a lot of teams after Whiteside/Ezeli...so he'll probably get about the same or potentially even more than Rolo's 13.5per/4. Not worth that price.

Whiteside is probably out of the question, but if he isn't? There are a ton of questions about him obviously--not the least of which is does he ACTUALLY make his team's defense better?

Ryan Anderson is always hurt (significant time in 6 of 7 seasons) and with how much the NBA is currently valuing outside shooting, he's going to get overpaid.

Green is going to be 30 and is basically the player you want Aminu to turn into eventually. No real sense in overpaying for him for a player you already have.

Given the poor strength/likely salaries of this FA crop and the PDX track record of landing top tier FAs...if it's been Olshey's plan to build through FA in the offseason, I'd say that's not a very good plan.

deanwoof · Post #90 » by **deanwoof** » Fri Feb 26, 2016 2:04 am

Mozgov is hot garbage that people will overpay for as well

If KD leaves, what's the chances OKC blows it up and we snag Ibaka?

zzaj · Post #91 » by **zzaj** » Fri Feb 26, 2016 2:53 am

deanwoof wrote:Mozgov is hot garbage that people will overpay for as well

If KD leaves, what's the chances OKC blows it up and we snag Ibaka?

Ibaka would be just about the perfect PF for this Blazer team running Stotts ball. If KD leaves I doubt that OKC blows it up. They could still be a good team with developing/adding to the parts they have.

Now that you mention it, I think Ibaka is about the perfect model for Vonleh's development. In 2 years if Vonleh is playing like Ibaka? Things will be good in Blazer-land.

Agenda42 · Post #92 » by **Agenda42** » Fri Feb 26, 2016 6:31 am

zzaj wrote:Given the poor strength/likely salaries of this FA crop and the PDX track record of landing top tier FAs...if it's been Olshey's plan to build through FA in the offseason, I'd say that's not a very good plan.

Olshey's strength thus far has been his opportunism. I don't really think he has a grand plan. He's just looking to make good bets.

I don't think he will sign a big money contract for anyone but CJ this offseason. He values flexibility and likes dumpster diving.

deanwoof · Post #93 » by **deanwoof** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 3:08 pm

We really need a defensive big man. I don't care if he's a "C or PF" - IMO they're interchangeable titles in today's nba.

Wizenheimer · Post #94 » by **Wizenheimer** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 5:25 pm

Agenda42 wrote:Olshey's strength thus far has been his opportunism. I don't really think he has a grand plan. He's just looking to make good bets.

I don't think he will sign a big money contract for anyone but CJ this offseason. He values flexibility and likes dumpster diving.

are you sure that's a strength?

his affection for dumpster diving is what kept the Blazers as having one of the worst benches in the league for 3 seasons. In his 1st two seasons, he had a cumulative total of 27-28 million in cap-space. The players he got for that space were Victor Claver, Joel Freeland, Dorrell Wright, Thomas Robinson, Terrel Harris, and Robin Lopez. And to get TRob & Lopez, he also had to trade away essentially six 2nd round picks....the cap-space wasn't enough. The only player worth anything of note there was Lopez, who he let walk away for nothing 2 years later

He went thru 28 million in cap-space & 6 second round picks, of which Lopez only accounted for 5.9 million and 2 seconds. That sure seems like more of a weak job of "opportunism" rather then a 'strong' one. Those crappy benches made it difficult for Portland to compete with elite teams, and that was never more apparent then in the playoff series against the Spurs when their bench destroyed the Blazer bench

it could even be argued that past weak opportunism pushed Olshey into a desperation trade of their 1st round pick and Will Barton for Afflalo. It's also worth pointing out that in the 2014 off-season, Al-Farouq Aminu, Ed Davis, and Rodney Stuckey all signed veteran minimum contracts totaling around 3 million, while the opportunistic Olshey was signing Chris Kaman & Steve Blake for over 7 million

and what kind of opportunism is involved in letting a bunch of players walk for nothing: Aldridge, Matthews, Lopez, JJ Hickson, Freeland, Claver, Jared Jeffiries, Mo Williams, Dorell Wright. And how many of Crabbe, Leonard, Harkless, Henderson & Kaman will be added to the list this off-season?

I know opportunism can take different tracks and yield different results. Flexibility is great, but here's the thing: if Olshey starts re-signing CJ, Crabbe, Harkless, Leonard, etc. then flexibility is flying out of the window at warp speed, and where will the Blazers be with pretty much the current roster locked up long term?

Post #95 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Sat Feb 27, 2016 8:55 pm

Beeboywhoo wrote:You know, it might not be the sexiest move, but Jordan Hill is a free agent. The blazers could go TRUE small ball and have hill as our 5. He can space the floor too, pretty good defender, and hes 28. Low risk medium reward.

You know, he may be a little redundant with Davis here, but if we could get him on a similar contract (Davis is at 6.6, so somewhere around 8) he would be a good asset to have and having a bench stocked full of bargain defensive role players is a good thing to have come the playoffs.

He could get significantly more than (almost twice?) the contract Davis is on though. This summer could be crazy. While I still think its important for the Blazers to make the most of their capspace this summer with a big splash, I almost think that if we cant recruit a top tier free agent, we should sit it out (besides some small bargain moves) and wait to pick up the pieces in the new CBA

some other players I like:
...
Biyombo - 23

Also really like him. Been a fan since he was drafted, he was very young and raw but seemed like a hard-worker and I would love to see him opt out this summer so we can sign him. I would overpay for him, I love his year to year development at the FT line and he is one of the top rim defenders in the league.

Murrog · Post #96 » by **Murrog** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 4:08 am

The question in my mind is...Vonleh.

Young, raw, highly talented--where is he going to go in the next year or two?

If we thing that Vonleh has potential to develop into that 3rd guy, with two years, then it makes sense to keep the guys we have. Stotts has already shown us that he can and will develop young players.

If we not sure, then making trades involving our front court make sense.

Wizenheimer · Post #97 » by **Wizenheimer** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:22 am

Murrog wrote:The question in my mind is...Vonleh.

Young, raw, highly talented--where is he going to go in the next year or two?

If we thing that Vonleh has potential to develop into that 3rd guy, with two years, then it makes sense to keep the guys we have. Stotts has already shown us that he can and will develop young players.

If we not sure, then making trades involving our front court make sense.

maybe I'm looking at things wrong, but it Portland truly wants to give Vonleh every opportunity to develop, then they shouldn't give meyers leonard 9-10 million/year to play PF

DusterBuster · Post #98 » by **DusterBuster** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 10:50 am

DeBlazerRiddem wrote:
some other players I like:
...
Biyombo - 23

Also really like him. Been a fan since he was drafted, he was very young and raw but seemed like a hard-worker and I would love to see him opt out this summer so we can sign him. I would overpay for him, I love his year to year development at the FT line and he is one of the top rim defenders in the league.

Color me shocked to find out he's still in the league.

red_power · Post #99 » by **red_power** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 1:37 pm

DeBlazerRiddem wrote:
some other players I like:
...
Biyombo - 23

Also really like him. Been a fan since he was drafted, he was very young and raw but seemed like a hard-worker and I would love to see him opt out this summer so we can sign him. I would overpay for him, I love his year to year development at the FT line and he is one of the top rim defenders in the league.

He's actually WAY older than his passport says.
Btw I don't think he's a good option here. Do we need undersized center without offensive game? We had 2 of them already.

Post #100 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Mon Feb 29, 2016 2:40 pm

red_power wrote:
DeBlazerRiddem wrote:
some other players I like:
...
Biyombo - 23

Also really like him. Been a fan since he was drafted, he was very young and raw but seemed like a hard-worker and I would love to see him opt out this summer so we can sign him. I would overpay for him, I love his year to year development at the FT line and he is one of the top rim defenders in the league.

He's actually WAY older than his passport says.
Btw I don't think he's a good option here. Do we need undersized center without offensive game? We had 2 of them already.

The age thing has been a constant question about him. I remember being fairly convinced about an x-ray of his wrist growth palates at 16 showing they were still not fused, which usually happens around 18. Plus he's had a development curve like a young person. But even if youre convinced its all a lie that still puts him at the lower age range of potential candidates with fewer miles and still seeing player growth.

As for the undersized center with no offensive game... Dude I'm over it. I want my bigs to defend and protect the rim. Don't need a 2-way star center to win these days, just need guys to buy-in and play their roles. Regular sized centers can't step out and guard small ball, you want a guy like Biyombo who is quick, long and plays hard - that is the direction the league is headed. Not like we ever have to beat a Cousins or Okafor in the playoffs anytime soon.