ABM

I certainly hope that doesn't happen. I hear that Johnson is a lower low-baller than Sterling.

It would be Vancouver all over again.

Bwatcher

Thank you for replying Playmaker. Its also good to know that you think Goodwin may have been acting a bit on his own (Goodwin seems to have more than one player involved in trying to force trades this summer).

I don't remember exactly when, but it seems to me that soon after the draft, Goodwin made the statement about Reef would not come to camp. I really was startled at that time, because it seemed like the trading period had barely begun. I just wish that Reef had been more patient, but its his salary and his agent.

I also think, that if Reef wants to be angry with someone, he should be angry with the Hawks management. They were the ones that traded him here. Apparently Cheeks did not welcome him with open arms, but it wasn't like he had no chance to show what he could do. It seems like he may have rather quickly made the decision that Portland wasn't the place he wants to be. Anyway, I hope things work out for all.

Focus

I think u now realize Reef mean nothing at all to some blazer fans.

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Stay focus!

Focus

No worry on this, I don't think Bobcat can get Reef. If they go for Reef, they will have to trade half the team away.

And for Reef, I would like him to be on NJ, Boston, NY, Cleveland or Phily. All those team have good passer and in need for low post player, they will value Reef better.

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Stay focus!

Dan

you must not know much about the history of the Clippers, do you?

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A Buddhist walks up to a hot dog vendor and says "Make me one with everything".

when will the loss of life end?

The world respects the power of our example, not an example of our power.

I'd like to say I made this, but I didn't

KIDBLAZE

I thought you knew SAR. Like hell he's younger than kg

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trifecta

Actually he is.

Storyteller

Well, you're close. Time to pull out the updated numbers....

Portland's committed to the following salaries for 2005-06:

Derek Anderson: $9.093 million
Ruben Patterson: $6.353 million
Trenton Hassell: $4.500 million [assuming Minny doesn't match]
Sebastian Telfair: $1.676 million
Victor Khyrapa: $1.096 million
Travis Outlaw: $1.082 million
Sergei Monia : $0.848 million [estimate - before signing contract]
2005 1st round pick: $0.959 million [estimate - assuming #20 pick - before signing contract]

That's $25.607 million for 8 players. Add in 3 cap holds and Portland's minimum team salary is $26.821 million.

Now, I expect that the Blazers will NOT offer Zach an extension this summer. Instead, I believe they'll let him become a RFA next summer, in which case he'll count as $5.415 million until he signs a new contract. My guess is that if they want to play in the FA market, they'll keep him at this level until they sign a FA, then give him a big pay raise using his Bird rights.

Miles is a wildcard, though, isn't he? Let's just assume for our purposes, though, that his contract next summer is for $6.000 million (a nice round number...)

That takes Portland's team salary up to $37.427 million, including one cap hold. My best guess on next summer's salary cap is $45.55 million. That would leave Portland with $8.123 million in cap room if they renounced everyone else (Ratliff, Stoudamire, Van Exel, Abdur-Rahim and Stepania). Keeping Bird rights on any of those besides Vladimir would mean no cap room.

In the end, I agree fully with hobojoe - there's no big man FA out there worth renouncing both SAR and Ratliff AND worth not trading either of them for any value back.

hobojoe

Excellent analysis So Cal Blazer Fan, and in the end our outlooks end up being very similar. It's impossible to get a definite answer, but I think we can pretty much agree that it won't be a huge offseason for signing big free agents for Portland. Regardless of what happens, Portland won't have much cap room and they'll have to fill some holes with that room. They may be handicapped even more if they end up getting Hassell, like you have in your analysis but I didn't include because I think Minnesota will match. It would definitely be beneficial to the Blazers to get rid of SAR and get some value back for him. The only way I could see it making sense to keep him and let him expire would be if somehow they could get Derek Anderson off the books after this season as well, somehow convincing someone to trade expiring contract(s) for him. That's very unlikely however, so I think at this point the Blazers should get whatever value they can for SAR. At this point they're not handicapped into having to take on bad contracts because SAR is still a good player and his contract runs up after the season. Portland just has to be careful and not make a stupid trade.

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rx2web

Reguardless of where we stand on "Cap Space" Next summer, I find it simply amazing that we are even talking cap space. Remember this is a team that only but a year or so ago had a salary of near 100 Million. Didn't we with luxury tax included pay something like 150 million for our team?

The mere fact alone that within 2 years or so we will be even marginally under the cap is staggering. If anything I think that's a fairly good sign of the work that Nash and Patterson are doing for the team. I see us being competative in the future and financially smart. I'm not saying we won't go over the cap. Cause most teams seem to do that reguardless. But I don't think we will have wild abandon spending either.

I think what we will see is a Paul Allen who will pay the big $ when it's appropriate. Personally I like the looks of the Future of the blazer.

Playmaker0017

What one has to do with the other - I'll never know.

I know my mother, but I don't know if she's older than your mother.

If I were wrong (which I am not), it would mean that I don't know when Garnett was born.

Anyhow -- he's younger then Garnett. People forget that Reef was REALLY pretty young when he entered the league.

Play.

Dan

Kevin Garnett

Born: 05/19/76


SAR

Born: 12/11/76

so that means that SAR is just under 7 months younger than KG.

__________________
A Buddhist walks up to a hot dog vendor and says "Make me one with everything".

when will the loss of life end?

The world respects the power of our example, not an example of our power.

I'd like to say I made this, but I didn't