Portland Trail Blazers 2018/19

[Phalanx]

By the time this extension kicks in, Lillard will be 30, and eating up over a third of the cap. I believe, with all the minutes he has played in his career, that his game will be beginning to tail off by then. So you are giving him a massive raise at the same time that his game is declining. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Do I want to get rid of Lillard? No, I just don't want to mortgage the farm for him. I like winning better than keeping aging stars. Would I trade Lillard? Sure, if the right deal came along. I think taking his $48 million off the payroll and getting a good point guard and a good scoring forward for $24 million each would quite possibly make the team better. Or maybe even three guys for $16 million. Nurkic will be making only $12 million the next several years, so we know it can be done. The problem is that nobody is going to trade good players for Lillard on that deal. Bad contracts are a liability, not an asset, as we have learned only too well the past three years. And yet, they are about to do another one.

Who are the Blazers bidding against? Nobody else is going to pay that much to keep him at 30 years old, especially as hard as he has been ridden in his career. If he wants to win, he needs to take a reasonable contract and let management sign some better players. If he wants to be selfish, he probably isn't a great fit to lead a championship contender anyway.

[Oregon Ownage]

By the time this extension kicks in, Lillard will be 30, and eating up over a third of the cap. I believe, with all the minutes he has played in his career, that his game will be beginning to tail off by then. So you are giving him a massive raise at the same time that his game is declining. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid. Do I want to get rid of Lillard? No, I just don't want to mortgage the farm for him. I like winning better than keeping aging stars. Would I trade Lillard? Sure, if the right deal came along. I think taking his $48 million off the payroll and getting a good point guard and a good scoring forward for $24 million each would quite possibly make the team better. Or maybe even three guys for $16 million. Nurkic will be making only $12 million the next several years, so we know it can be done. The problem is that nobody is going to trade good players for Lillard on that deal. Bad contracts are a liability, not an asset, as we have learned only too well the past three years. And yet, they are about to do another one.

Who are the Blazers bidding against? Nobody else is going to pay that much to keep him at 30 years old, especially as hard as he has been ridden in his career. If he wants to win, he needs to take a reasonable contract and let management sign some better players. If he wants to be selfish, he probably isn't a great fit to lead a championship contender anyway.

Thats where you are wrong. Teams would love to have Lillard on their team and if he hits free agency, he will have several competitive offers at his age.

[Merganzer]

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2019 ... -time.html

First Team
F Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks
G James Harden, Houston Rockets
G Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors
F Paul George, Oklahoma City Thunder
C Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets

Second Team
C Joel Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers
F Kevin Durant, Golden State Warriors
G Damian Lillard, Portland Trail Blazers
F Kawhi Leonard, Toronto Raptors
G Kyrie Irving, Boston Celtics

Third Team
G Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder
F Blake Griffin, Detroit Pistons
F LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers
C Rudy Gobert, Utah Jazz
G Kemba Walker, Charlotte Hornets
—

[Phalanx]

Who are the Blazers bidding against? Nobody else is going to pay that much to keep him at 30 years old, especially as hard as he has been ridden in his career. If he wants to win, he needs to take a reasonable contract and let management sign some better players. If he wants to be selfish, he probably isn't a great fit to lead a championship contender anyway.

Thats where you are wrong. Teams would love to have Lillard on their team and if he hits free agency, he will have several competitive offers at his age.

This conversation gets so boring. You have no proof, you just insist that I am wrong. It was the same after 2016; people insisted those contracts were market value. Of course they were wrong, and it was proven when they couldn't trade any of them except the Crabbe deal where they had to take back a terrible contract in return, and that was even to the very team that signed him to the offer sheet in the first place. This contract will be the same. Nobody will want 30-year old Lillard at $191 million. THe Blazers are bidding against only themselves, because that is all Olshey knows how to do.

[thomas time]

how about you just go join the Warriors fan base, you want a team that does everything perfect to you. Who would you like to be blazers pg if it isn't Dame?

[woundedknees]

All I will say about the separated ribs is from personal experience...

In the previous century (circa 1970) I was developing into a fairly decent cross country runner.

During a race against one of the premiere teams in Oregon, I was having one of the best runs of my career,. About half way through the race, the course ran on a rural road, with multiple spectators sitting in their cars along the shoulder.
As I passed this group of vehicles, one of the drivers unexpectedly opened her car door.

The corner of the window frame hit the middle of my sternum, at full speed.

My ribs made a sound comparable to breaking multiple stalks of celery. It literally was intense pain every time I coughed, sneezed, or took a deep breath for months.

If the pain Dame was in, as well as the difficulty breathing deeply, was anything like I experienced when I separated my ribs that day, I have to give him a standing ovation.

Well done, indeed.

[Phalanx]

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/rip-city-f ... 43307.html

People, including Lillard, saying Simons may blow up and become a star. His rookie deal goes through 2021-22, which would be the first year of Lillard's massive extension. I wonder if there will be any money to sign Simons to a second contract? Who knows, maybe that is why Lillard's people are trying to get this deal done now so that it is a fait accompli by the time Simons or Zach Collins come looking for a deal.

[StevensTechU]

I've thought about this off and on, and with the news I just saw about Alan Crabbe being traded from the Nets to the Hawks, was thinking on it again.

The Trailblazers brass get a lot of grief about the big contracts it did sign, but what are some of the best contracts it didn't sign?

In recent memory, I have to tip my hat at not paying a ton of money for Wes Matthews, Alan Crabbe, and opting to sign Seth Curry out of free agency over Shabazz Napier.

[Phalanx]

I've thought about this off and on, and with the news I just saw about Alan Crabbe being traded from the Nets to the Hawks, was thinking on it again.

The Trailblazers brass get a lot of grief about the big contracts it did sign, but what are some of the best contracts it didn't sign?

In recent memory, I have to tip my hat at not paying a ton of money for Wes Matthews, Alan Crabbe, and opting to sign Seth Curry out of free agency over Shabazz Napier.

I don't understand this post. First of all, the Blazers DID pay a ton of money to Crabbe. $75 million over four years. Even after they traded him, they had to take back almost $20 million in dead salary for Andrew Nicholson. I think the grief they get over this is warranted.

I guess we can be thankful they didn't sign Matthews to the deal he got with Dallas, but when Olshey turned around and paid almost the same money to Evan Turner, I'm still not sure who got the worse deal. It would have been nice to at least have Matthews' outside shooting the past several years.

As for Curry, he was a nice signing. Even he wasn't a slam dunk though. He costed $2.8 million vs Napier's $1.94 million, and when one figures in the luxury tax, the disparity is even greater. Curry was a significantly better shooter, but Napier handled the ball way more, scored more, got to the free throw line more, and had triple the assists per game. I would probably take Curry too - I think Napier was declining in Portland and needed to go elsewhere, but it isn't like there is such a difference between them that we should all sing praises to Olshey about it.

I think Olshey had a good year. He signed Nurkic to a very reasonable multi-year deal, he signed Curry and acquire Hood and Kanter, and the result was a nice playoff run. It was only one year though, other than Nurkic, all of those players are likely gone, and the deals he did in 2016 are going to almost guarantee that next year will be another early playoff exit such as we have grown accustomed to in recent years. I think if I owned the Blazers, I would take the power to sign contracts out of his hands and let him stick to drafting and trades.

[StevensTechU]

There are a lot of things I’ve noticed you don’t understand, like how to be happy. Here, this one's on me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

Fair point about Crabbe, though.

[Phalanx]

There are a lot of things I’ve noticed you don’t understand, like how to be happy. Here, this one's on me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-diB65scQU

Fair point about Crabbe, though.

It was just a nice way of saying your post was not very well thought out. I mean, I know you only thought about it off and on, but I feel like you can do better if you apply yourself.

I will say this, it made me think about what if we had kept Matthews instead of signing Turner, which was a fun exercise. If they sign Matthews, they likely would not have had the salary cap room to make that dumb trade with Cleveland for Anderson Varejao. The Blazers are still paying almost $2 million of salary cap for the next two years, and all so that they could draft Caleb Swanigan with Cleveland's pick. Whoopdeedoo. Maybe the trade for Rodney Hood was the other shoe in that deal, but I still think there is a pretty good case for Matthews staying in Portland the last four years. He was a fan favorite, a great veteran leader, and he might have been able to provide balance on the Blazers after Aldridge left.

It's interesting to think about, anyway. For people who like thinking, that is.

[greenyellow]

With the Warriors having both KD and Klay injured, next season may be the time for Portland or anyone else out West to make a run for a title.

[StevensTechU]

With the Warriors having both KD and Klay injured, next season may be the time for Portland or anyone else out West to make a run for a title.

I logged into the board to say basically the exact same thing. Things seem a lot more wide open now.

[Merganzer]

With the Warriors having both KD and Klay injured, next season may be the time for Portland or anyone else out West to make a run for a title.

I logged into the board to say basically the exact same thing. Things seem a lot more wide open now.

Get to Las Vegas, this one and others, still have the Warriors as the favorites for next season: https://www.si.com/nba/2019/06/14/nba-f ... contenders

[Phalanx]

If the Blazers could field the same team as this year, I'd say they had a shot. It won't be the same team though.