NBA Draft Thread

[oregontrack]

i used to have a pretty decent handle on the cba, but i really haven't been keeping up since the new deal was put in place ending the most recent lockout. with that said, what i propose may or may not actually work, but it's just a quickly thrown together plan, so i'm not overly concerned about it. it about stretches our cap space to the brink.

my offseason plan, post-draft.

1. re-sign jj hickson. we refused his qualifier, but that doesn't mean we don't want him back. he's slightly undersized for what we ask him to do, but he averaged 15/8 in a reserve role in 19 games a blazer last year. big stats on a bad team? perhaps. but i think he's worth an extension, assuming someone doesn't come and offer him the moon. if hickson gets to be too expensive we need to get creative. i think craig smith would be a nice fit, this time with more minutes. love the rhino. he's not the answer, mind you, but it's a start.

2. sign aaron grey. he's an unrestricted fa who played last year in toronto. he's a serviceable stop-gap center who won't cost much. he can bridge the gap until meyers leonard warrants more playing time. as much as i love pryz, i just don't think his body is up to surviving a full nba season. grey doesn't have many miles on him, and he's not terrible.

3. re-sign batum. one of the most overrated blazers of all time? maybe, but that doesn't mean he's a bad player, or that he doesn't have value. he's still young and he's still developing, and he adds versatility to an otherwise stagnant roster.

4. make a run at eric gordon. he's unrestricted, he's young, and he can score the basketball. we NEED another scorer. matthews isn't that guy, batum isn't that guy. lillard will be overloaded trying to learn how to the run show. if gordon gets priced out of our range (a possibility), i would make an offer to oj mayo. mayo the point guard is terrible, mayo the shooting guard can be a significant weapon, and he's probably the #2 shooting guard on the market.

i don't do mock trades. way too many variables at play.

lillard/smith
gordon/matthews/e-will/barton
batum/matthews/babbit
aldridge/hickson/thomas
gray/hickson/pryz/leonard

aldridge is 26, gordon 24, batum 24, lillard 21. that would be your core. you kind of know what you get from lma and gordon; they're legit 20+ ppg scorers. the future of this franchise would then rest on the development of batum and, probably most importantly, lillard. if lillard can finally become the point guard of the future this organization has been desperately searching for for almost a decade, this group has legitimate potential. if leonard can start by year 2 and makes strides as an above-average nba center, that's a formidable starting five.

edit: i forgot to mention "the alternative plan". the alternative to doing something worthwhile this offseason is to just do nothing, throw lillard and leonard to the wolves, and tank the entire 82 game season. this would set up another high lottery pick and save money for what looks like an amazing free agent class of 2013. the downside is, obviously, tanking another season and wasting another year of lamarcus in his prime.

[RanDux]

Didn't we trade away our first round draft pick next year, or is it protected?

[greenyellow]

Didn't we trade away our first round draft pick next year, or is it protected?

They traded it to Charlotte as part of the Wallace deal, but it's top-12 protected the next three years.

[uostudent]

i used to have a pretty decent handle on the cba, but i really haven't been keeping up since the new deal was put in place ending the most recent lockout. with that said, what i propose may or may not actually work, but it's just a quickly thrown together plan, so i'm not overly concerned about it. it about stretches our cap space to the brink.

my offseason plan, post-draft.

1. re-sign jj hickson. we refused his qualifier, but that doesn't mean we don't want him back. he's slightly undersized for what we ask him to do, but he averaged 15/8 in a reserve role in 19 games a blazer last year. big stats on a bad team? perhaps. but i think he's worth an extension, assuming someone doesn't come and offer him the moon. if hickson gets to be too expensive we need to get creative. i think craig smith would be a nice fit, this time with more minutes. love the rhino. he's not the answer, mind you, but it's a start.

2. sign aaron grey. he's an unrestricted fa who played last year in toronto. he's a serviceable stop-gap center who won't cost much. he can bridge the gap until meyers leonard warrants more playing time. as much as i love pryz, i just don't think his body is up to surviving a full nba season. grey doesn't have many miles on him, and he's not terrible.
Gray is extremely injury prone, even more so than Przybilla

3. re-sign batum. one of the most overrated blazers of all time? maybe, but that doesn't mean he's a bad player, or that he doesn't have value. he's still young and he's still developing, and he adds versatility to an otherwise stagnant roster.
I think Portland fans tend to overrate Batum's potential, but his production is quite good. He's an efficient offensive player, rebounds pretty well for his position, doesn't turn the ball over a ton, and is a very solid defender. Batum is quite good.

4. make a run at eric gordon. he's unrestricted, he's young, and he can score the basketball. we NEED another scorer. matthews isn't that guy, batum isn't that guy. lillard will be overloaded trying to learn how to the run show. if gordon gets priced out of our range (a possibility), i would make an offer to oj mayo. mayo the point guard is terrible, mayo the shooting guard can be a significant weapon, and he's probably the #2 shooting guard on the market.
Gordon is a restricted free agent. New Orleans will likely match any off that he receives. Gordon is an extremely talented player, but he's injury prone and isn't worth a max contract.


i don't do mock trades. way too many variables at play.

lillard/smith
gordon/matthews/e-will/barton
batum/matthews/babbit
aldridge/hickson/thomas
gray/hickson/pryz/leonard

aldridge is 26, gordon 24, batum 24, lillard 21. that would be your core. you kind of know what you get from lma and gordon; they're legit 20+ ppg scorers. the future of this franchise would then rest on the development of batum and, probably most importantly, lillard. if lillard can finally become the point guard of the future this organization has been desperately searching for for almost a decade, this group has legitimate potential. if leonard can start by year 2 and makes strides as an above-average nba center, that's a formidable starting five.

edit: i forgot to mention "the alternative plan". the alternative to doing something worthwhile this offseason is to just do nothing, throw lillard and leonard to the wolves, and tank the entire 82 game season. this would set up another high lottery pick and save money for what looks like an amazing free agent class of 2013. the downside is, obviously, tanking another season and wasting another year of lamarcus in his prime.

[oregontrack]

you're right on gordon's fa status, i have no idea why i said 'unrestricted'. my entire point, which i didn't really address, was that several sources have indicated that the hornets are highly unlikely to match a big money offer to gordon, who doesn't want to play in new orleans.

[Boom]

If we can't sign Gordon or maybe OJ Mayo then I hope we sign a bunch of guys to 1 year deals and tank.

Save the money and go after Chris Paul or James Harden in 2013

[uostudent]

you're right on gordon's fa status, i have no idea why i said 'unrestricted'. my entire point, which i didn't really address, was that several sources have indicated that the hornets are highly unlikely to match a big money offer to gordon, who doesn't want to play in new orleans.

Teams rarely let young, talented restricted free agents go. The Hornets have indicated that they will match any offer sheet that Gordon receives. Personally, I don't think Gordon is worth the max, but New Orleans isn't exactly in a position to be attracting top tier free agents. Gordon is young and they'll build the franchise around he and Davis.

If we can't sign Gordon or maybe OJ Mayo then I hope we sign a bunch of guys to 1 year deals and tank.

Save the money and go after Chris Paul or James Harden in 2013

Chris Paul probably isn't going to leave the Clippers and if he does, he won't go to Portland. I live in LA and he absolutely loves it here. Can't believe that the Lakers trade didn't go through

Anyways, next summer the Clippers will be able to offer Paul more money and more years than any other team. He bought a $10 million mansion in Beverly Hills. He seems to love playing with Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and Caron Butler. 1/3 of the Clippers games this season were nationally televised. Paul has gotten a ton of exposure playing in LA. Probably a 95% chance that he stays with the Clippers.

Harden will be a restricted free agent. Don't see OKC letting him go. They may part with Ibaka though.

[oregontrack]

there's merit to everything you're saying. i just fall into the same belief that several nba insiders hold that thinks new orleans is putting on a smokescreen for potential suitors to keep the price down on gordon. near max money is a lot for a player who's somewhat redundant with austin rivers around now, to say nothing of the fact that gordon has expressed his unhappiness with the organization and wants out. it's the tom benson era now, and gordon will be an extremely expensive holdover from the previous regime.

of course, new orleans could choose to make good on their word and keep gordon no matter the cost. it's just far from a sure thing. expensive, disgruntled players who have a similar skill set to your sparkling new draft pick may not fit into future plans. there's actually been quite a bit of buzz between the gordon/pacer connection, which would obvious suit me well considering i'm also a big pacer fan.

[Boom]

Harden will be a restricted free agent. Don't see OKC letting him go. They may part with Ibaka though.

I think it's the other way around. A Big like Ibaka is harder to replace than a scoring punch off the bench.

And resigning Harden would likely put them above the salary cap

I believe the penalty will be 2:1 and then jump to 3:1 in a few years.

That's a lot for a small market team.

[oregontrack]

eric gordon is going to meet with the pacers and rockets for sure, and "possibly" the bobcats, mavs, and blazers.

portland is gearing up an offer for bulls c omer asik; but so is houston, who is rumored to be offering $8 mil annually. no way we should touch that, but ironically we could/should already have asik, considering he was an '08 second round pick of ours.

[thomas time]

I really like Gordon too, but I think we need a Center more (not Asik though) espically if it's near max money.

[thomas time]

I just went to blazersedge.com to see if there was anything new, and to my suprise I see blazers are going to offer Roy Hibbert a max deal. I like him and know we need a center, but not sure max money (although that's probably the only we can get him).

[thomas time]

Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reports that the Minnesota Timberwolves have discussed a 4-year contract offer with Portland Trail Blazers restricted free agent forward Nicolas Batum.
-----------------------------------
An offer was discussed and the two sides will meet in Minnesota later today to deliberate on it further, according to a source very close to the situation. The detailed figures that are being mulled over is a four-year, $45-50 million deal

I like Batum but think that is a bit too much. We will see what happens with Hibbert and other offers, I'm loving reading all these rumors.

[oregontrack]

hibbert is worth max money in the sense that he's a really good 7-footer who defends the rim and has some offensive game, and in the west he'd be the second best center behind bynum. i mean, bill russell he's not, but in the grand scheme of things the hibbert's of the world are rare, and unfortunately one has to luck out in the draft to get one, or dramatically overpay to get one in free agency.

he would fit in beautifully with lma down low.

now, it's up to indy. if it's a straight up 4-year, max contract, indy will assuredly match. we (i say this now as a pacer fan) have a ton of cap room. THAT SAID, a few years ago portland infamously made a toxic, front-loaded offer to utah's paul millsap, where utah had to stretch their finances in order to match our offer. as i said above i'm no expert on the current cba, so i'm not sure that's still legal, but if portland did the same toxic offer with indy, the pacers don't have that kind of cash just sitting around. if portland sticks a wild signing bonus on there and indy would have to come up with $18 mil in year one just to match the deal, hibbert could very well head to portland.

[oregontrack]

Chris Haynes of CSNNW.com reports that the Minnesota Timberwolves have discussed a 4-year contract offer with Portland Trail Blazers restricted free agent forward Nicolas Batum.
-----------------------------------
An offer was discussed and the two sides will meet in Minnesota later today to deliberate on it further, according to a source very close to the situation. The detailed figures that are being mulled over is a four-year, $45-50 million deal

I like Batum but think that is a bit too much. We will see what happens with Hibbert and other offers, I'm loving reading all these rumors.

agreed. that's a LOT of money for a player as wildly inconsistent as batum. the problem portland has now if they're looking to go in another direction is that the small forward market is pretty weak. the best sf on the market was probably gerald wallace, and he's going to re-up with brooklyn. the next? probably jeff green, who's okay but not as good as batum and there will likely be a lot of competition for him. and outside of babbit or (possibly) claver, we don't have anyone available to replace him.

i actually think portland will match. i just hope he improves to the point where he's worth the deal.