Ducks Attack Message Board Forum

Phalanx wrote:The Blazers are in the familiar situation of being right at the luxury tax threshold and having several players (Hart, Winslow, Grant, and Little) on expiring deals that they won't be able to re-sign more than two of because Lillard is already eating everyone's lunch.

Little was extended on the cheap. Hart is signed through next year. Grant is the only real question mark moving forward.

Boom wrote:

Phalanx wrote:The Blazers are in the familiar situation of being right at the luxury tax threshold and having several players (Hart, Winslow, Grant, and Little) on expiring deals that they won't be able to re-sign more than two of because Lillard is already eating everyone's lunch.

Little was extended on the cheap. Hart is signed through next year. Grant is the only real question mark moving forward.

Hart has a Player Option, Grant is a FA with Bird Rights and Winslow also is a FA that has Early Bird Rights too.

The problem is that the team is close to being pennies (67K) from paying into the Luxury Tax for an Ownership group who doesn't want to pay. As I understand it, the current Tax bill for the 10 teams paying into is almost 700M combined which would put close to 35M back into the accounts of the 20 teams that don't pay.

So if Vulcan won't sell to Phil anytime soon, I just don't see them doing much beyond trading Hart to free up space to try and get another PF/C to balance the roster out. I also think a Grant deal for next year will put them over the Cap in 2023/24 so it would be another reason to remain below the Tax line this year.

Boom wrote:

Phalanx wrote:The Blazers are in the familiar situation of being right at the luxury tax threshold and having several players (Hart, Winslow, Grant, and Little) on expiring deals that they won't be able to re-sign more than two of because Lillard is already eating everyone's lunch.

Little was extended on the cheap. Hart is signed through next year. Grant is the only real question mark moving forward.

Yeah, I saw the news about the Little contract after I posted here. So $7 million is added to next year's payroll, which now totals around $134 million. The luxury tax this year is a little over $150 million, so it probably will be just a little more than that next year. Hart has a player option for $13 million for next year, which I highly doubt he will exercise, so that's why I called him an expiring. Given those numbers, I don't see any way they will all be signed next season. Grant alone would likely put them into the tax. They will be lucky to retain Hart and Winslow.

Sharpe will be getting his first career start against Houston tonight with Lillard out. Should be interesting how he does in that role.

Q from one who is admittedly WAY out of the loop on almost all things NBA. I notice that Portland is about to play games at Phoenix on two consecutive nights. I've never heard of such scheduling in the NBA before. Has that now become common, or at least "not uncommon," perhaps in part to save on flight costs or simply the number of flights for a team each year?

Greenblood wrote:Q from one who is admittedly WAY out of the loop on almost all things NBA. I notice that Portland is about to play games at Phoenix on two consecutive nights. I've never heard of such scheduling in the NBA before. Has that now become common, or at least "not uncommon," perhaps in part to save on flight costs or simply the number of flights for a team each year?

They started doing the consecutive games against the same team in the same arena during the pandemic. The reasoning behind it was that it reduced travel, possibly limited the spread of Covid across teams, etc. The NBA apparently liked how it worked enough to keep implementing it since it is now relatively common.

Thanks! Makes some sense, I guess.

Even without Simons tonight, Blazers get the win over the Suns on a Grant game-winner at the buzzer.

greenyellow wrote:Even without Simons tonight, Blazers get the win over the Suns on a Grant game-winner at the buzzer.

The most unlikely/impressive win of the season. Billups has established a good culture on this team. It remains to be seen how far that can take them.

I had completely written this off as a loss without Dame. Winning without him or Simons is impressive. If they lose the second of the series in Phoenix, I think you're plenty happy with that as a blazer fan.

Blazers get another buzzer beater in Miami as Josh Hart hit a three at the buzzer to get the 110-107 win.

Duck07 wrote:

Boom wrote:

Phalanx wrote:The Blazers are in the familiar situation of being right at the luxury tax threshold and having several players (Hart, Winslow, Grant, and Little) on expiring deals that they won't be able to re-sign more than two of because Lillard is already eating everyone's lunch.

Little was extended on the cheap. Hart is signed through next year. Grant is the only real question mark moving forward.

Hart has a Player Option, Grant is a FA with Bird Rights and Winslow also is a FA that has Early Bird Rights too.

The problem is that the team is close to being pennies (67K) from paying into the Luxury Tax for an Ownership group who doesn't want to pay. As I understand it, the current Tax bill for the 10 teams paying into is almost 700M combined which would put close to 35M back into the accounts of the 20 teams that don't pay.

So if Vulcan won't sell to Phil anytime soon, I just don't see them doing much beyond trading Hart to free up space to try and get another PF/C to balance the roster out. I also think a Grant deal for next year will put them over the Cap in 2023/24 so it would be another reason to remain below the Tax line this year.

Blazers have historically been a tax team. Even after PA passed away.

Boom wrote:

Duck07 wrote:

Boom wrote:

Phalanx wrote:The Blazers are in the familiar situation of being right at the luxury tax threshold and having several players (Hart, Winslow, Grant, and Little) on expiring deals that they won't be able to re-sign more than two of because Lillard is already eating everyone's lunch.

Little was extended on the cheap. Hart is signed through next year. Grant is the only real question mark moving forward.

Hart has a Player Option, Grant is a FA with Bird Rights and Winslow also is a FA that has Early Bird Rights too.

The problem is that the team is close to being pennies (67K) from paying into the Luxury Tax for an Ownership group who doesn't want to pay. As I understand it, the current Tax bill for the 10 teams paying into is almost 700M combined which would put close to 35M back into the accounts of the 20 teams that don't pay.

So if Vulcan won't sell to Phil anytime soon, I just don't see them doing much beyond trading Hart to free up space to try and get another PF/C to balance the roster out. I also think a Grant deal for next year will put them over the Cap in 2023/24 so it would be another reason to remain below the Tax line this year.

Blazers have historically been a tax team. Even after PA passed away.

Unless a team is looking at a complete rebuild with rookie contracts, and middling players, it's difficult to get some spacing from the tax threshold.

Another impressive, seemingly unlikely win tonight by the Blazers, on the road against New Orleans. The Blazers were without Lillard, Nurk, Sharpe and Keon Johnson.

If they were conducting a way too early vote for Coach of the Year at this very moment, Billups would definitely be on the very short list. Hopefully the team can keep it up.

Still can't believe they're pulling off these wins with so many starters/key contributors out. Maybe Cronin's plan is working out better than everyone thought, especially in getting Grant.