Portland Trail Blazers 2018/19

[Merganzer]

Paraphrasing a bit here, but yesterday on ESPN, Woj stated that with Little, a more seasoned Simons, and a healed Nurkic, the Blazers have the pieces that will allow them to make a trade for a player that puts them in strong contention for a repeat appearance in the WCF next season.

[Phalanx]

In an exchange of overpaid players on expiring contracts, it looks like the Blazers are trading Evan Turner for Kent Bazemore. The Blazers gain about $660k in payroll in the deal. Bazemore shoots from distance a little better, but everything else is pretty similar. Not sure what the thinking is here...maybe they are just tired of Turner.

[greenyellow]

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[Thurston]

My knee-jerk reaction is that Bazemore is a more reliable game-by-game contributor than Turner was and he'll help with floor spacing, something opponents just didn't have to respect with Turner. ET is the better ball handler, but CJ and Simons can do a bit of that when Lillard sits. Not the deal to win us the West or anything, but I think it's a positive move.

[Thurston]

Portland gives Layman his Qualifying Offer, so we'll see what happens.

[Merganzer]

A lot of love for Portland
https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2019 ... -good.html

Love to Portland?

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[Phalanx]

Love's contract averages $30 million/year over the next four years. Unless the Cavs are willing to take Bazemore and either Harkless or Myers Leonard, I don't see how that trade could ever happen.

[Boom]

Love's contract averages $30 million/year over the next four years. Unless the Cavs are willing to take Bazemore and either Harkless or Myers Leonard, I don't see how that trade could ever happen.

Yes, that’s how it would work. Harkless, Leonard, and maybe Nassir Little for Love.

[Alan]

A lot of love for Portland
https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2019 ... -good.html

Love to Portland?

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Click bait

[Phalanx]

Love's contract averages $30 million/year over the next four years. Unless the Cavs are willing to take Bazemore and either Harkless or Myers Leonard, I don't see how that trade could ever happen.

Yes, that’s how it would work. Harkless, Leonard, and maybe Nassir Little for Love.

Harkless and Leonard will make $22.8 million between them. That's not enough salary to get Love. The Blazers are one year away from ending their self-imposed sentence in salary cap Hell, and already, people want to sign up for four more years of it. Finally, there are some guys on cheap rookie deals that can actually contribute, and people want to trade them away in favor of old has-beens who are injury prone and wildly overpaid. Yeesh.

The way out of this mess is to let Collins, Simons, and Little develop into rotation players, and start adding contracts like Nurk's that are both reasonable and tradeable. Don't pay one guy $30 million and then scramble around trying to fill the rest of the roster with the Jake Laymans of the world. Get some good deals on some guys with growth potential, and make a deep team.

P.S. I would love to see if the Blazers can steal Jordan Bell from the Warriors. They just extended him the QO like the Blazers just did for Layman. Total position of need, and I still think he has great potential as a back-up at minimum.

[Merganzer]

https://www.blazersedge.com/2019/6/30/2 ... es-it-work

The Portland Trail Blazers and Damian Lillard have agreed to a four-year, $196 million super maximum contract extension, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

The All-NBA guard will have a player option for $52 million in the last year of the extension, sources said.

Al - Farouq Aminu to sign with Orlando Magic: 3 years 29M

Rodney Hood stays with Blazers: 2 years 16 M

[greenyellow]

Hood's signing likely means Kanter is gone, unless he really enjoys Portland and returns for the vet minimum. Blazers are probably going to going to have to start either Collins or Leonard at center to start the season if they don't make some sort of trade/signing for another big man.

[Phalanx]

So you've got:

Lillard, Simons, Trent
McCollum, Bazemore
Harkless, Hood, Little, (Layman?)
Collins, Leonard
Nurkic, Labissiere

They seem very thin in the post, very inexperienced at back-up point guard, and already into the luxury tax. Does signing Hood mean they gave up on Kanter?

If Nurk doesn't come back at 100% this season, I wouldn't expect the Blazers to make the playoffs with this roster.

[Phalanx]

Quick is saying that Hood is actually signing one of those sign-for-two-stay-for-one player option deals, and that year one is only the $5.7 mid-level. If so, that seems like a great deal, even if it is only for a year. Hood really seemed to be figuring it out toward the end of the season and into the playoffs.
It seems like the only way to fix the roster imbalance would be to trade Bazemore or Harkless for a post player. Good thing this is going to be Meyers Leonard's breakout season, or I would be really worried.

[greenyellow]

I think the odd man out is Harkless. I could see him being traded for a potential PF and then they sign a vet or two for the minimum to provide depth.