Wizenheimer wrote:from Olshey's POV I think he wants Gasol because of the short term deal he'd be. I think Olshey has every intention of re-signing CJ and he knows that a short-term fix at C makes a lot of sense with the trio of Dame-CJ-Turner probably on schedule to make 70 million a year combined by July 2017...and Plumlee scheduled for hi extension when the cap is 110 million
as far as trajectory, I think Gasol on last year's Blazer team would have upgraded the team significantly, and I like Plumlee. Gasol is as good an assist man as Plumlee; he's a better rebounder, a better defender and a better rim protector. Further, he's actually a threat on offense opponents would have to respect
Better than Plumlee I'll buy but I just don't believe it will be by much. He's 35, limited mobility, strictly a center at this point, his defense is not going to be any better. His offense would be an upgrade, but I'm sticking to my belief he wouldn't have gotten us past a healthy Clippers team, let alone make a difference against GS. He would be fine if we could strictly add him, but when the equation becomes losing rights to younger players that's when I would balk at any short-term solution.
I also think you're making a significant leap of faith that 'young' players signed to contracts this summer will somehow have positive trade value next year or the year after. First of all, they have to perform and they need to have widely applicable skills. Meyers only has one skill, perimeter shooting, and it's inconsistent. Being tall and sloth-like slow isn't a skill; and being a sieve on defense isn't one either
Crabbe may have a skill that would give him some positive value, but that assumption depends on the type of contract he's on. If he ends up being paid 15-18 million/year, there's no positive value there that I can see
it might be worth keeping in mind justhow to justify paying Crabbe a lot of money. Lillard is going to make 28 million/year. Turner 17.5 million a year. In less then a year CJ is very likely to be on a contract paying him 25 million/year, or more
that's over 70 million a year, then add Crabbe to the mix and it could easily be 85 million a year for those 4 players...ouch. There are a whole lot of flaws in the foursome to be paying 85 million a year for
Who knows if they would be positive but,
short of an outrageous overpay (ie Crabbe at 18), having players like Aminu/Davis/Crabbe/Harkless/Meyers on deals between 7-14 million gives us options in trade. If Aminu is the player another team wants then we still have Harkless/Crabbe. I'm not saying these players would be the main attraction, but would give the other team options of how they want to match salary. The fewer contracts we have in that range, the fewer options we have to match salary.