Portland - 2016 Offseason

[zzaj]

Dallas got played. Hassan clearly just used them to force Miami into a max deal, probably from the advice of Wade who's doing pretty much the same this year and did the same last year. Wonder if he even bothered with a meeting with Portland (or if Portland even bothered with the meeting with him)? I had always said I thought he was going back to Miami, so seeing him not end up in Dallas is good.

I wish Portland had made a stronger swing at Dwight, but it looks as though his minds already focused on a team.

Now seeing that Dallas is likely gonna lose out on all their FA options, do they come back to Parsons with a max offer? Other teams are reportedly lining up max offers for him, so I guess we get to see what he plans. Being back from my alcohol fueled low of how crappy the start of FA went for me personally (lol), I still can't say I'm the least bit happy with it. I'd still prefer they don't bother with Parsons, I can't stand his personality and don't trust his knees, but if they sign him they sign him. I'd rather see Olshey just do what he's best at though and start dumpster diving for talent. I think the deeper we get into FA the more options there will be to absorb contracts.

I don't know that this is over yet. He's meeting with 4 teams, and nobody knows who the other 2 teams are besides Boston and Atlanta. If Parsons agrees to the deal with Portland, and Portland is one of those 2 teams, we now have the guy who recruited Howard to Houston, who could possibly help recruit him to Portland, along with Dame. It's possible that I'm reading too far into it, but this could be part 1 of a 2 part move to bring in the old Houston Rocket buddies. We'd likely have to renounce all of our free agents besides Crabbe, but it would be a good move IMO.

Lillard/ ???
McCollum/ Crabbe
Parsons/ ???
Aminu/ Vonleh
Howard/ Davis

That's better than last year's team. We would still have Plumlee's contract that we could move for a backup PG or backup wing, and the cap space exception, which is like 2.5 million to fill the other slot

That looks pretty good to me tbh. Although I don't think Crabbe comes back - he's probably going to get a ridiculous offer somewhere in the region of 16m. Will the Blazers be able to match that given the amount needed for Parsons/Howard? I like bringing back Harkless instead but that's just me -I'm probably the biggest Harkless bandwagoner right now.

I have a hard time believing that Dwight would happily be a 4th option on any team. I also think Crabbe is going to get 16-18million from some team. That would leave the Blazers incredibly thin at the Guard position and the Blazers would probably end up with the worst bench in the league. 2.5 million isn't going to get you very much this year.

[Blazinaway]

DJ Augustine agrees with Orlando Magic per Woj.

[DusterBuster]

DJ Augustine agrees with Orlando Magic per Woj.

Didn't know he still played.

[Norm2953]

I sincerely hope for Duster's sake that Parsons gets a backdoor max contract offer from Dallas
and stays with them for I find it troubling he's still going on visits.

[DusterBuster]

I sincerely hope for Duster's sake that Parsons gets a backdoor max contract offer from Dallas
and stays with them for I find it troubling he's still going on visits.

Don't hope for my sake, hope for the Blazers sake. And yeah, you should find it troubling he's still going on visits and not exactly in a rush to take them either.

We've all see this song and dance before.... Portland offered him max money, meaning no matter where else he goes they can't offer him more money. So at this point, it's all about where he wants to play. If he was sold on Portland, there was no reason for him to leave that meeting without signing, but he did.

[DusterBuster]

According to ESPN, Parsons has ruled out Dallas completely at this point. However he and Conley have talked at length about playing together in Memphis in the past. Having Memphis meeting today apparently, not "early next week" as previous reports had said.

[LicketyBrindle]

I think this offseason will officially end up proving the point I have been saying for 15 years now:

Teams like POR can't sign big time, franchise changing FA's. The only way for a team like POR to become a true championship contender is thru the draft or trades.

Unfortunately, due to us overachieving and being a slightly above average team the last couple years, we can't get any high enough draft picks to get the potential franchise players. And, our only traceable assets that are worth anything are guys we need to keep.

It makes it very difficult to make the big improvement gains to get to a contending status.

[LicketyBrindle]

I sincerely hope for Duster's sake that Parsons gets a backdoor max contract offer from Dallas
and stays with them for I find it troubling he's still going on visits.

Don't hope for my sake, hope for the Blazers sake. And yeah, you should find it troubling he's still going on visits and not exactly in a rush to take them either.

We've all see this song and dance before.... Portland offered him max money, meaning no matter where else he goes they can't offer him more money. So at this point, it's all about where he wants to play. If he was sold on Portland, there was no reason for him to leave that meeting without signing, but he did.

Imagine if he actually turns us down. We miss out on plan A, B, C, all the way to Z!

[BlazersFan2015]

Imagine if he actually turns us down. We miss out on plan A, B, C, all the way to Z!

Huh? He was, at worse, Plan C.

We likely preferred Whiteside to him, but that ship has sailed. A number of teams are bummed. Lets be realistic.

And its not clear if we preferred Howard. Its possible that we didnt want to roll the dice on his childish emotions.

For all the 'he seems like a Douche' hate that Parsons gets, he is LOVED by other NBA players. Us peasants may dislike the guys demeanor, but if he is a plus in the locker room, thats all that matters.

The only concern with him is his knees, and to a lesser extent defense. IMO we need to get Aldrich. He should be an elite part time defensive center and could hold the paint down ala. Bogut in GS. Just not as intelligent of a passer on offense.

Also, agian, dont even think of paying Crabble more than 12M. He is a one dimensional shooter, and if we sign Parsons we can replace that shooting. Get Henderson for like 8M, let Crabble get like 16-18M from a bottom feeder and see how much Hark will cost. If he is over like 10M, move on.

PG - Damian Lillard
SG - CJ McColumn / Gerald Henderson
SF - Chandler Parsons / Mo Harkless
PF - Al Fariq Aminu / Ed Davis / Noah Vonleh
C - Cole Aldrich / Mason Plumlee

If we use CJ as the primary backup PG, there would be enough minutes for both Mo and Henderson IMO.

[Waynearchetype]

I don't get the Parsons hate. We're going to max out our cap this year unless we're tanking. We can either resign players we know aren't high quality (i.e. our own restricted) and hope for growth, leaving us capped out. Or we can swing for some guys we know are better but might miss 15-20% of the season.

Personally, with Parsons we're likely the best 3 point shooting team in the league. That'll give Terry some more magic to work with. Parsons might be able to convince another decent FA to come over, but even without that we still made an improvement. It's not a superstar, or even a star, but its getting better. Keep in mind without our injury luck, and other teams injury curses last year, we might not have even been in the playoffs, let alone a second round exit.

It's not the shiniest thing, but I can appreciate it.

[Oneluckbox]

Personally, with Parsons we're likely the best 3 point shooting team in the league.

You need Steph and Klay to be the best 3pt shooting team in the league. Portland doesn't have that (unfortunately)

[Waynearchetype]

Personally, with Parsons we're likely the best 3 point shooting team in the league.

You need Steph and Klay to be the best 3pt shooting team in the league. Portland doesn't have that (unfortunately)

Okay okay, hows 2nd best sound?

[Oneluckbox]

Personally, with Parsons we're likely the best 3 point shooting team in the league.

You need Steph and Klay to be the best 3pt shooting team in the league. Portland doesn't have that (unfortunately)

Okay okay, hows 2nd best sound?

Yeahhhhh I'll take that

[Wizenheimer]

the thing that surprises me the most about the Parsons pursuit: it was just last season, 2014-15, that Paul Allen paid Brandon Roy 19.3 million dollars in the final year of the contract signed in 2010. In fact, PA paid Roy 80 million dollars for just 47 games in a Blazer uniform.... . For laughs, I did the math, it worked out to $61,000 a minute and $140,000 a point

anyway, I'm surprised PA signed off on chasing Parsons considering the legitimate concern about his meniscus issue in his right knee. He not only signed off, he was part of the meeting. I'm assuming the Blazer doctors were allowed to review Parsons' medical files and gave an opinion, but I don't know that for sure

whatever the case, as others have noted, it's not anything close to a done deal yet. With both Parsons and Batum being offered full max deals, any other team meeting with Parsons knows they have to offer a max deal. So the Blazer have no leverage there. If Parsons takes his time making a decision and if he's the linchpin of Portland's off-season plans, there's a lot of potential for Portland to fail big-time if he signs with another team. Another lost-opportunity off-season. Of course, some here think Portland failing to sign Parsons would be a good result, but the Blazers scrambling around trying to come up with a plan D can't be good
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as for Portland "gutting" the roster to make max room for a couple of big names: Henderson, Kaman, and Roberts fall into the 'who-cares' category; yeah, it might be nice to re-sign Henderson as long as it was a bargain contract, but the future of the Blazers won't pivot on Henderson. When it comes to Portland's RFA's, my own take is that for both Crabbe and Meyers, the Blazers would be better off seeing them in the rear-view mirror. Crabbe appears to be headed for a ridiculous pay-day and it would be bad if Portland was the one signing the checks. I don't know what Meyers will get paid, but whatever it is would be too much if the Blazers were paying it. Neither one of those guys will alter Portland's trajectory by staying or leaving

Harkless is the only Blazer free agent it's worth, IMO, to try and keep. At the same time, if the Blazers sign Parsons and Harkless can gets 12-15 million a year, there's strong logic in Portland not paying 36-40 million a year for Parsons and Harkless. Tough choice here if Parsons does sign
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Mozgov at 16 million/year?.... ....leave it to the damn Lakers to screw up the off-season for everybody else

[Waynearchetype]

I expected prices to increase due to the cap increasing, thinking they'd correlate proportionately. However, I didn't really take into consideration supply/demand. It isn't just that the cap has increased, its that a bunch of teams have lots of money and there isn't enough product. I'd like to say there is going to be buyers regret in a few years, but next years deals might make these ones bargains...

[Fitz303]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/jwquick/status/748909623390851074[/tweet]

Bingo

[PDXKnight]

the thing that surprises me the most about the Parsons pursuit: it was just last season, 2014-15, that Paul Allen paid Brandon Roy 19.3 million dollars in the final year of the contract signed in 2010. In fact, PA paid Roy 80 million dollars for just 47 games in a Blazer uniform.... . For laughs, I did the math, it worked out to $61,000 a minute and $140,000 a point

anyway, I'm surprised PA signed off on chasing Parsons considering the legitimate concern about his meniscus issue in his right knee. He not only signed off, he was part of the meeting. I'm assuming the Blazer doctors were allowed to review Parsons' medical files and gave an opinion, but I don't know that for sure

whatever the case, as others have noted, it's not anything close to a done deal yet. With both Parsons and Batum being offered full max deals, any other team meeting with Parsons knows they have to offer a max deal. So the Blazer have no leverage there. If Parsons takes his time making a decision and if he's the linchpin of Portland's off-season plans, there's a lot of potential for Portland to fail big-time if he signs with another team. Another lost-opportunity off-season. Of course, some here think Portland failing to sign Parsons would be a good result, but the Blazers scrambling around trying to come up with a plan D can't be good
----------------------------------------------------------------------

as for Portland "gutting" the roster to make max room for a couple of big names: Henderson, Kaman, and Roberts fall into the 'who-cares' category; yeah, it might be nice to re-sign Henderson as long as it was a bargain contract, but the future of the Blazers won't pivot on Henderson. When it comes to Portland's RFA's, my own take is that for both Crabbe and Meyers, the Blazers would be better off seeing them in the rear-view mirror. Crabbe appears to be headed for a ridiculous pay-day and it would be bad if Portland was the one signing the checks. I don't know what Meyers will get paid, but whatever it is would be too much if the Blazers were paying it. Neither one of those guys will alter Portland's trajectory by staying or leaving

Harkless is the only Blazer free agent it's worth, IMO, to try and keep. At the same time, if the Blazers sign Parsons and Harkless can gets 12-15 million a year, there's strong logic in Portland not paying 36-40 million a year for Parsons and Harkless. Tough choice here if Parsons does sign
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Mozgov at 16 million/year?.... ....leave it to the damn Lakers to screw up the off-season for everybody else

Yeah the knee injury history is concerning and it's baffling that pa would be okay with this move. That being said in some weird way It may be a good sign in the sense that it shows that pa isn't shying away from paying money for what he views as a chance to win more games

[Butter]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/jwquick/status/748909623390851074[/tweet]

Bingo

Interesting. I would have thought they would have tried to get Howard first.

[Fitz303]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/748910418853175296[/tweet]

Another one. This is what I'm hoping for

[Oneluckbox]

So it may come down to which team mate Parsons wants to play with? Conley or Howard?