2019 Offseason: Part 2

[Dzon Dilindzer]

pau gasol can be nurks mentor, he can definitely learn him a thing or two on the offensive end

lets hope they do just that

[DusterBuster]

Im pretty sure I mentioned Pau Gasol as a possible C depth given that he's another past Olshey target from 2016 iirc.

[DusterBuster]

Between Hassan, Baze and Pau, this summer has basically been a 2016 do-over for Olshey to get all the guys he targeted that summer that went elsewhere.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Im pretty sure I mentioned Pau Gasol as a possible C depth given that he's another past Olshey target from 2016 iirc.

I'm positive I mentioned the Blazers should sign him a few weeks ago.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Pau Gasol — Smart signing on the court and on many levels.
Calling it now — Midseason trade of Whiteside for Marc Gasol.

[d-train]

Between Hassan, Baze and Pau, this summer has basically been a 2016 do-over for Olshey to get all the guys he targeted that summer that went elsewhere.

It's not a do-over. We wouldn't have Whiteside or Bazemore without the free agent signings in 2016.

[d-train]

I'm calling it now. Nobody will want to trade Whiteside in February.

[Norm2953]

If healthy, Gasol should do fine in limited minutes as a mentor to Zach Collins. Interesting how NO tends to circle back to the guys he’s targeted before for who did we target in 2017 or 2018?

[HoopsFanAZ]

d-train has a good point.

Remember back to the days of TraderBob. He made trades with, and for, players of sizable salaries. The payroll was HUGE for the time. It took big contracts to get them in return. Now, he was no chemistry major, but he earned the moniker. KP was a draft day specialist. Olshey is gauging chemistry and fit with talent — at least that’s what he says ... and I’d agree. It’s a smart strategy for a small market.

Without spending on the “best” that he could get in 2016, Olshey wouldn’t have had bigger, (eventually) tradable contracts and no caproom if he spent too much less. Olshey’s error was in length of contract (in my view).

[d-train]

20-21 isn't going to be successful unless we are working on 20-21 in 19-20. Specifically, we need to accumulate assets now that can be retained through 20-21 and into 21-22, while getting team salary below the tax in 20-21.

You could always make arguments that the grass is always greener.

Imo this year or next are our best chances of competing. This year being contingent on Nurk being healthy, and either rolling out a beast Nurkic/Whiteside Centre rotation, or trading Whiteside at the trade deadline for a PF/SF.

When Dame's $50M per year kicks in, that'll be a tough pill to swallow.

My point about 2020-21 is about the realization with Dame's max extension, an extension for CJ is not going to happen
for the team simply cannot commit $80+ million of their cap to Dame/CJ. If that's the case, let's see how the team
performs in a rugged western conference but keep an eye towards $50 Million in contracts coming off their books and
using CJ's highly desireable expiring contract to get a better fit alongside of Dame/Nurk. Whiteside athletically is superior
to Nurk so let's see how he plays in Portland.

The problem with your point is your assumption that a big financial commitment will be followed up with dumb personnel decisions. It's more likely Blazers big financial commitment will be followed by good decisions and financial commitments. Unless, between now and next summer the Lillard extension proves to be a mistake. We can expect blazers to follow-up with a continuation of their commitment.

[PDXKnight]

I really like this signing of pau gasol. 12 mpg from him helps our depth a ton, and I like that we added a guy who from my estimation knows how to give a hard foul

[DusterBuster]

Between Hassan, Baze and Pau, this summer has basically been a 2016 do-over for Olshey to get all the guys he targeted that summer that went elsewhere.

It's not a do-over. We wouldn't have Whiteside or Bazemore without the free agent signings in 2016.

I'm just saying that he's getting a chance to acquire all the guys he had targeted ahead of who he ended up settling for in 2016....

Can we not nitpick the hell out of every little innocuous comment for once d-train?

[d-train]

Between Hassan, Baze and Pau, this summer has basically been a 2016 do-over for Olshey to get all the guys he targeted that summer that went elsewhere.

It's not a do-over. We wouldn't have Whiteside or Bazemore without the free agent signings in 2016.

I'm just saying that he's getting a chance to acquire all the guys he had targeted ahead of who he ended up settling for in 2016....

Can we not nitpick the hell out of every little innocuous comment for once d-train?

We know Turner wasn't plan A, B, or C. Basically, the decision was, Turner was better than nothing. If you recall, nobody was confident Lillard and CJ could win enough regular season games to ever make the playoffs. Lillard and CJ were not a pair of stars that other stars wanted to pair with. It would be a different story today, but because we didn't have proven stars until after they got off their rookie contracts. We never had stars and cap room.

The other signings were using exceptions to sign our own players. The 2016 contracts were expensive, but the so-called negative impact is a mischaracterization. 2016 was a willingness to spend money and an unwillingness to give up any player that we thought could help the team.

[Norm2953]

You could always make arguments that the grass is always greener.

Imo this year or next are our best chances of competing. This year being contingent on Nurk being healthy, and either rolling out a beast Nurkic/Whiteside Centre rotation, or trading Whiteside at the trade deadline for a PF/SF.

When Dame's $50M per year kicks in, that'll be a tough pill to swallow.

Bradley Beal has at least $111/3 on the table. An extension similar to that for CJ would be similar

My point about 2020-21 is about the realization with Dame's max extension, an extension for CJ is not going to happen
for the team simply cannot commit $80+ million of their cap to Dame/CJ. If that's the case, let's see how the team
performs in a rugged western conference but keep an eye towards $50 Million in contracts coming off their books and
using CJ's highly desireable expiring contract to get a better fit alongside of Dame/Nurk. Whiteside athletically is superior
to Nurk so let's see how he plays in Portland.

The problem with your point is your assumption that a big financial commitment will be followed up with dumb personnel decisions. It's more likely Blazers big financial commitment will be followed by good decisions and financial commitments. Unless, between now and next summer the Lillard extension proves to be a mistake. We can expect blazers to follow-up with a continuation of their commitment.

[Norm2953]

Don’t know if my last post came out but with the likelihood of CJ wanting a contract similar to Bradley Beals $111/3 next summer, I’d it feasible for Portland to think about close to $85 million/ year tied to Dame/CJ in their long term planning?

[d-train]

Don’t know if my last post came out but with the likelihood of CJ wanting a contract similar to Bradley Beals $111/3 next summer, I’d it feasible for Portland to think about close to $85 million/ year tied to Dame/CJ in their long term planning?

We are lucky that we are paying a guy for what he has proven he can do. The Warriors are paying big bucks to guys with a torn ACL and a stat stuffer on a lousy team.

[Norm2953]

Guys can recover from a torn ACL and Klay is better than CJ, assuming there are no complications
but its close to $85 Million/season for Dame/CJ. Add to it Nurks contract and a potential extension
for Zach Collins and we're at the salary cap for 4 players.

We'll likely see Portland's intentions during this season for Zach Collins and Simons are a large part
of their future, starting in 2019-20. Little will get a "redshirt" season but the team will get a long
look at Whiteside and Bazemore to see if they are fit moving forward. Nurk is signed for three
years on a great contract and we'll see how Simons develops. Portland is going to need CJ this
season but that impending max contract is going to be a challenge for Portland for we're not the
GSW who know they compete for championships if they keep Steph, Klay and Dray. Portland would
be best served with a CJ replacement that more or less matches CJ at half the cost or controllable
via RFA. It's okay when Dame/CJ were making half of the teams cap but 70% is another matter.

[Showdown]

Pau Gasol — Smart signing on the court and on many levels.
Calling it now — Midseason trade of Whiteside for Marc Gasol.

Buyout signings Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons

[realboredcactus]

Read on Twitter

hope he can soak up some spot minutes at the big spot. Can't see him playing more than 10-12 a game, but this certainly pushes Collins to be a 4 at this point

[Sinobas]

It's not a do-over. We wouldn't have Whiteside or Bazemore without the free agent signings in 2016.

I'm just saying that he's getting a chance to acquire all the guys he had targeted ahead of who he ended up settling for in 2016....

Can we not nitpick the hell out of every little innocuous comment for once d-train?

We know Turner wasn't plan A, B, or C. Basically, the decision was, Turner was better than nothing. If you recall, nobody was confident Lillard and CJ could win enough regular season games to ever make the playoffs. Lillard and CJ were not a pair of stars that other stars wanted to pair with. It would be a different story today, but because we didn't have proven stars until after they got off their rookie contracts. We never had stars and cap room.

The other signings were using exceptions to sign our own players. The 2016 contracts were expensive, but the so-called negative impact is a mischaracterization. 2016 was a willingness to spend money and an unwillingness to give up any player that we thought could help the team.

I think Vonleh and Davis were luxury tax casualties. But you could argue we're no worse off with who we have now. We also have 2.8 mil in dead weight that will run on for many years thanks to the Allen Crabbe "undo".

In my mind, the biggest negative was the fact that Evan Turner played so many minutes for us. I think Stotts felt compelled to play him due to his contract. Last year's playoffs reveal his true feelings, when the stakes were just too high and he benched Turner. Evan Turner taking the floor for our team was a negative 80% of the time.