Hassan Whiteside

[d-train]

What option regarding Whiteside should Blazers chose? Blazers can re-sign Hassan using bird rights exception. We retain our MLE, BAE, and TPE to obtain other players. Or, we could sign & trade Hassan if a team that Hassan chooses is willing to compensate Blazers with a player Blazers want. Or, renounce Whiteside and let him go for nothing in return. This is not a path to cap room even if Ariza and all exceptions are renounced, retaining exceptions is a no-brainer best option.

[GEE]

I have said it before, we should remember that Whiteside was a huge FA target for Olshey, just a few years ago, where he was runner-up in the sweepstakes. Now he has him here, happy apparently, with some meaningful games left to play, and help down low returning in Z and Nurk. It's gonna be a fun bunch of games watching the 3 play together, and I think Whiteside will enjoy it as well.

Dame/CJ/Trent/Ariza/Collins/Melo/Nurkic/Whiteside with a splash of Simons/Little, that's pretty scary for other teams this year IMO. Next year, return all but Melo, and hopefully add a couple more key additions with some combination of our FRP, SRP, TPE, MLE and BAE. The window could be WIDE OPEN!

[Myth]

Sign and trade for better fit or assets is the best option as a fan. Re-sign is fine if cheap. Letting him walk makes sense for salary cap if the other 2 options aren't available, and I expect this is the most likely scenario.

[red_power]

Money talks here. I'd personally like to see Hassan back and filling 6th man role next season but Blazers definitely not in the position to overpay him by a single nickel.

[Village Idiot]

Money talks here. I'd personally like to see Hassan back and filling 6th man role next season but Blazers definitely not in the position to overpay him by a single nickel.

With Hassan I feel like he is one of those guys, like Hood, who need affirmation, a clear role they can play and respect more than money.

You can tell he's happy and appreciated here. He'll stay on a reasonable deal and take pride in creating the best 48 minutes of center play in the NBA.

[d-train]

Sign and trade for better fit or assets is the best option as a fan. Re-sign is fine if cheap. Letting him walk makes sense for salary cap if the other 2 options aren't available, and I expect this is the most likely scenario.

You are kind of right, but you are using the wrong terminology.

Letting Whiteside go doesn't help Blazers with the salary cap. There is nothing Blazers can do that makes sense to get under the cap enough to have better options under the salary cap than we have over the salary cap. So, even if we give up every player not under contract, Blazers will not chose 'cap room' over the 'cap exceptions' we get by being over the salary cap.

However, there is the taxpayer threshold number that the Blazers might want to stay under (post Paul Allen). This number limits what the Blazers and other teams are willing to pay players like Whiteside, Ariza, and Melo. If one of (Whiteside, Ariza, or Melo) goes elsewhere, this would give Blazers enough room under the taxpayer threshold to use our $7M TPE.

[HoopsFanAZ]

All responses in this thread are in the ballpark IMHO..

[Myth]

Sign and trade for better fit or assets is the best option as a fan. Re-sign is fine if cheap. Letting him walk makes sense for salary cap if the other 2 options aren't available, and I expect this is the most likely scenario.

You are kind of right, but you are using the wrong terminology.

Letting Whiteside go doesn't help Blazers with the salary cap. There is nothing Blazers can do that makes sense to get under the cap enough to have better options under the salary cap than we have over the salary cap. So, even if we give up every player not under contract, Blazers will not chose 'cap room' over the 'cap exceptions' we get by being over the salary cap.

However, there is the taxpayer threshold number that the Blazers might want to stay under (post Paul Allen). This number limits what the Blazers and other teams are willing to pay players like Whiteside, Ariza, and Melo. If one of (Whiteside, Ariza, or Melo) goes elsewhere, this would give Blazers enough room under the taxpayer threshold to use our $7M TPE.

You are correct, and that is what I meant. I never thought this would get us under the cap, but simply for salary/tax sake it makes sense.

[Matt800]

Sounds like the team will get a chance to play with all of Whiteside, Nurkic, and Collins. I think it would be generally unlikely for whiteside to be back, because it would take him playing well, the team (including nurkic and collins) playing well with him, him wanting to be back, and the finances working out. But if the team plays well and whiteside plays well that will go a long ways.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

This is kind of a weird poll option, obviously if a team will S&T Whiteside for a player that we like we take that every day.

But that player is likely to be some washed up old dude on a gigantic contract which makes it a little more difficult to see it happening.


However it shakes out, I do not expect Whiteside to be a Blazer next year. He is a luxury we cannot afford as a backup center (positional versatility yo!) and I just do not believe he would be real motivated as a bench big, and an unmotivated Whiteside is not a desirable player.

[d-train]

This is kind of a weird poll option, obviously if a team will S&T Whiteside for a player that we like we take that every day.

The option the Blazers would chose everyday is to re-sign Whiteside. S&T's are rare because 3 parties have to benefit, so Blazers would have to get something they like. It would be unlikely that Blazers would get as good a player as Whiteside back in trade, but s&t's do happen. Usually, it takes a good player like Whiteside and a destination that can't otherwise sign Whiteside without a s&t.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

This is kind of a weird poll option, obviously if a team will S&T Whiteside for a player that we like we take that every day.

The option the Blazers would chose everyday is to re-sign Whiteside. S&T's are rare because 3 parties have to benefit, so Blazers would have to get something they like. It would be unlikely that Blazers would get as good a player as Whiteside back in trade, but s&t's do happen. Usually, it takes a good player like Whiteside and a destination that can't otherwise sign Whiteside without a s&t.

Well I personally disagree.

[d-train]

This is kind of a weird poll option, obviously if a team will S&T Whiteside for a player that we like we take that every day.

The option the Blazers would chose everyday is to re-sign Whiteside. S&T's are rare because 3 parties have to benefit, so Blazers would have to get something they like. It would be unlikely that Blazers would get as good a player as Whiteside back in trade, but s&t's do happen. Usually, it takes a good player like Whiteside and a destination that can't otherwise sign Whiteside without a s&t.

Well I personally disagree.

Ok, you don't like option 1. How does that make option 2 a weird option? The goal of the options was to cover all the possibilities. Maybe you don't like Whiteside, what is an option not covered by options 2-4?

[DeBlazerRiddem]

The option the Blazers would chose everyday is to re-sign Whiteside. S&T's are rare because 3 parties have to benefit, so Blazers would have to get something they like. It would be unlikely that Blazers would get as good a player as Whiteside back in trade, but s&t's do happen. Usually, it takes a good player like Whiteside and a destination that can't otherwise sign Whiteside without a s&t.

Well I personally disagree.

Ok, you don't like option 1. How does that make option 2 a weird option? The goal of the options was to cover all the possibilities. Maybe you don't like Whiteside, what is an option not covered by options 2-4?

Sorry, I just meant that "trade for a player we like" precludes all the trades we don't like and is thus a no-brainer.

I guess I wasn't sure if this was a "which is your preferred option" or "which is the most likely option". Trading for a player I like is definitely my preferred option but I don't think its very likely.

[d-train]

Ok, you don't like option 1. How does that make option 2 a weird option? The goal of the options was to cover all the possibilities. Maybe you don't like Whiteside, what is an option not covered by options 2-4?

Sorry, I just meant that "trade for a player we like" precludes all the trades we don't like and is thus a no-brainer.

I guess I wasn't sure if this was a "which is your preferred option" or "which is the most likely option". Trading for a player I like is definitely my preferred option but I don't think its very likely.

I don't even know why I challenged your criticism. I criticize poll questions all the time.

All trades are unlikely, especially s&t's.

[PDX MM]

I would like to bring him back as long as we can resign him on a team friendly deal. If there is a team out there willing to pay more than us then a S&T works for me otherwise thank him for his time here and move on.

[BlazersBroncos]

I think you build what you can with the assets available, and given that we should take the non-trendy approach and aim for 48 minutes of traditional big man play with Nurkic and Hassan. Its evident that Nurkic isn't a guy you can rely on to ever be that 32mpg center, he is just too big to take that many minutes. If (big if) Whiteside is content with backing up Nurkic at around 24mpg, he should be back. He would absolutely dominate second units, I could see him at 14-16ppg in 24mpg.

[skoharry]

I say we either S&T or just let him go and sign a cheaper option. Some names that come to mind are biyombo, maker, Howard, r.lopez, Noel, Baynes, or O'Quinn. If I had to pick it would be between noel, Lopez, and Baynes. If I had to come up with trade ideas, then I would go with something between POR/MEM or POR/NYK/ATL

[BlazersBroncos]

I say we either S&T or just let him go and sign a cheaper option. Some names that come to mind are biyombo, maker, Howard, r.lopez, Noel, Baynes, or O'Quinn. If I had to pick it would be between noel, Lopez, and Baynes. If I had to come up with trade ideas, then I would go with something between POR/MEM or POR/NYK/ATL

Biyombo, Maker, O'Quinn and Lopez are very big downgrades. Baynes will get more than Hassan now that he can stretch the court and Noel likely chases a starting gig IMO. He also isnt much of a character improvement over Hassan. Dwight will want to stay in a big city IMO.

Hassan is set to have a very tepid market. I think 10M average isn't out of the realm of possibility, and if that's the case you ink him ASAP. He would form an insane duo with Nurkic and likely be a trade chip moving forward. Also, this plan to replace Hassan relies on UFA so we would be losing potentially the top backup center in the league by a good margin while also using our MLE to replace said player. That limits a lot of what we can do across the roster.

If we walk away from Hassan, or he balks at being a backup, I say use the TPE to invite Kanter back into the fold. Boston may be looking for cap relief and we may be able to get him for a fake second round pick. It adds less salary that some of the other replacement ideas (Notably Baynes and likely Noel) without using our MLE. We already know he is a culture and system fit, we already wanted him once (He took too long to ink and we pivoted to Hood) and we sure miss his screens (Hassan is better at a lot of stuff, but man he isn't near the screener he should be with his frame and size).

[d-train]

I say we either S&T or just let him go and sign a cheaper option. Some names that come to mind are biyombo, maker, Howard, r.lopez, Noel, Baynes, or O'Quinn. If I had to pick it would be between noel, Lopez, and Baynes. If I had to come up with trade ideas, then I would go with something between POR/MEM or POR/NYK/ATL

Biyombo, Maker, O'Quinn and Lopez are very big downgrades. Baynes will get more than Hassan now that he can stretch the court and Noel likely chases a starting gig IMO. He also isnt much of a character improvement over Hassan. Dwight will want to stay in a big city IMO.

Hassan is set to have a very tepid market. I think 10M average isn't out of the realm of possibility, and if that's the case you ink him ASAP. He would form an insane duo with Nurkic and likely be a trade chip moving forward. Also, this plan to replace Hassan relies on UFA so we would be losing potentially the top backup center in the league by a good margin while also using our MLE to replace said player. That limits a lot of what we can do across the roster.

If we walk away from Hassan, or he balks at being a backup, I say use the TPE to invite Kanter back into the fold. Boston may be looking for cap relief and we may be able to get him for a fake second round pick. It adds less salary that some of the other replacement ideas (Notably Baynes and likely Noel) without using our MLE. We already know he is a culture and system fit, we already wanted him once (He took too long to ink and we pivoted to Hood) and we sure miss his screens (Hassan is better at a lot of stuff, but man he isn't near the screener he should be with his frame and size).

I think you have mostly everything right, starting with the importance of re-signing Whiteside. Aside from retaining a very good player, we make smart use of bird rights to keep our other team building assets for improving the team.

I agree Maker and O'Quinn are big downgrades, I like Biggie and Tolliver better. I hope we don't have a roster spot for subpar players. Baynes, Lopez, and Biyombo are good replacement options if the cost of retaining Whiteside is over budget. I also agree Kanter is a better replacement and since Boston is over the tax, they probably can't afford to retain Kanter.