Portland Trail Blazers 2018/19

[droop10]

Not a Blazers fan...but I'm here to see how PhalanX spins this into a negative.

Wow, you're not a Blazer fan, you're just here to read me. How flattering.

This is obviously the main trade that had been floated. My only issue is that they are just as thin in the post as they were yesterday, and they have added about $4.3 million in salary, which takes them over the apron. Whiteside is obviously a huge upgrade defensively, and since his contract is up at the end of the year, it will not affect the Blazers long term, except that they only need one more season for the repeater tax if the payroll stays as it is.

So, basically, the nightmare of 2016 is over. I still think the Lillard deal is ridiculous, but that's a worry for a couple of years from now.

Haha, I follow the thread for the fun of it, which I wouldn't know about the constant pessimism if I didn't keep up with it! I was just playing around though. I'm not a huge NBA guy in general, so not a fan of any team, just story lines. I keep up with it from afar. I would like to see the Blazers do well having lived in Portland for a while, and the team being likable in general. I just wouldn't call myself a fan, as that would be an insult to people that are legit fans.

[Merganzer]

Great news about Whiteside. The Blazers have been as active as any team in the NBA and have actually, with the Whiteside acquisition, made the team better. The West is going to be fierce next season.

[Phalanx]

Kanter signs with the Celtics - 2 years, $10 million, player option for year 2. All the money the Blazers are paying in payroll, and they couldn't afford $5 million for Kanter. What a bummer. I wonder if Kanter will want to come back next year. Maybe not from his recent text:

https://twitter.com/MarcJSpearsESPN/sta ... 05/photo/1

One interesting development is that these new players seem to genuinely be happy to come to Portland. Kanter went on and on about it, Hood re-signed because he hasn't been this happy to play basketball in years, and now Whiteside is ecstatic to be coming to Portland. You have to give Olshey credit for this. He will probably never win a championship with his philosophy of overpaying everyone to be their buddy, but he sure is good at putting together a team on the fly.

I am curious what he will do now that he is over the apron and still 2 roster spots to fill. It might not be addressed until the trade deadline, but if so, Whiteside, Collins, and Skal is a pretty bare-bones front court. Maybe Little, who seems more natural at the 4 despite his height, will get back-up minutes there.

[greenyellow]

It definitely feels like championship or bust this season with how much they're spending. They already have a higher payroll than last year's filled with 15 players so are going to be paying a big luxury tax this season. With them needing to get at least one more post player, they'll likely hit the vet minimum market.

PG: Lillard, Simons
SG: McCollum, Bazemore
SF: Hood, Little, Layman, Trent Jr
PF: Collins, Hezonja
C: Nurkic, Whiteside, Skal

With a vet minimum signing, the payroll would look like this:
Subtotal (14 Players) 140,258,616
Dead Money 5,091,108
Subtotal w/Dead Money 145,349,724

Salary Cap 109,140,000
Over Cap 36,209,724

Tax Level 132,627,000
Over Tax Level 12,722,724

Apron 138,928,126
Above Apron 6,421,598

Tax 23,056,809
Total Salary with Tax 168,406,533

[Phalanx]

People keep saying 'they need to sign a back-up post player', but can a team do this if they are past the apron?

[greenyellow]

People keep saying 'they need to sign a back-up post player', but can a team do this if they are past the apron?

They can if they aren't hard capped, which I believe the Blazers aren't so can go past the apron to keep signing players at the vet minimum.

[Duck07]

People keep saying 'they need to sign a back-up post player', but can a team do this if they are past the apron?

I believe its just the vet min of ~1.2M as I saw someone on BE do the roster break down with salaries.

[greenyellow]

So apparently Harkless is headed to LAC so Miami can complete their sign-and-trade for Jimmy Butler. The Heat had to throw in a future first rounder to get the Clippers to take on Mo.

[thomas time]

Pretty good offseason in the last two weeks, Bazemore and Whiteside both in their last year of contracts so if they don't pan out they just let them walk. Whiteside is good center with Nurk still out for probably at least close to the first half of the season.

[Merganzer]

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[Phalanx]

So apparently Harkless is headed to LAC so Miami can complete their sign-and-trade for Jimmy Butler. The Heat had to throw in a future first rounder to get the Clippers to take on Mo.

That's really interesting. So, could the Blazers also have had that deal with the Clippers to get rid of Harkless? If so, they would have had room to sign Kanter and save themselves over $10million, while keeping Meyers as well. Of course, we don't know if the Clipper deal was on the table for the Blazers, but it is interesting to speculate that Neal actually preferred getting Whiteside and shedding Leonard to getting Kanter and staying under the apron.

A lot of Miami fans are saying how glad they are to be rid of Whiteside because of his immaturity and lack of work ethic. We have a pretty good idea what we would have gotten from Kanter and Leonard. It will be interesting to see how these deals work out this year.

P.S. How about Seth Curry's contract? $32 million over four years. Dude got PAID.

[karlhungis]

I don't care if they offer 45 minutes or 6 minutes. That isn't enough time to make such an impactful decision. That's ridiculous.

[Phalanx]

I don't care if they offer 45 minutes or 6 minutes. That isn't enough time to make such an impactful decision. That's ridiculous.

I understand your point, but what if Hood was going to sign elsewhere if they didn't jump on him right then? Now the Blazers, who as we know have issues signing free agents, are left dependent on Kanter's whims and risking getting stiffed by both guys? Oh, and P.S., they may have had to get that signing done before they jumped over the salary cap/ luxury tax apron with the Whiteside trade (or maybe Hezonja was the second guy Lillard mentions). So you potentially lose out on both deals while Kanter is trying to get through to Turkey? It seems like there is a lot of scrambling to get money on the first day of free agency, and once it is gone, it's gone. Literally in the Blazers' case: they had only one cap exception to use. You don't always have time for an Entmoot before making a decision.

We can say, for example, "It's not fair that the Blazers only get a few minutes to decide who to draft in the first round". Well, that's why you set up your board in advance and map out the possibilities. I mean, what did Kanter have to call his family about exactly? He hadn't broached the topic of signing with the Blazers with them before this? Or maybe it was the amount? He ended up signing for less than he likely would have gotten with the Blazers - less than Hood got, anyway. It feels like his agent dropped the ball by not preparing for free agency day. It really seems like Kanter got first dibs on the Blazers' only money, and he blew it, and now he is blaming the Blazers for taking the 'bird in the hand' while they could. Hopefully, he learned something, since he will likely be in this same position again next year.

[Everythingsducky]

I don't care if they offer 45 minutes or 6 minutes. That isn't enough time to make such an impactful decision. That's ridiculous.

Wrong. This is all about having a bad agent. Poor communication by all parties, maybe, but with all of the moves the Blazers have made prior, you would hope his agent would have been on an open line, knowing the Blazers are moving. Liked Kanter, but he was a defensive liability too often, hence his lack of minutes against GS. Blazers obviously valued getting Whiteside, while also being able to ship out Mo and Leonard. Might not have been able to unload them in a different scenario.

[greenyellow]

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