Blazer Ringbearer

I said no, because I don't think he's a max player.

If for some reason, he's getting multiple max offers and there was some deal on the table where he could come to Portland without giving up more than Zach, then I'd consider it...

I'm not saying you hold out for the MLE, but he probably doesn't deserve to make much more than his current salary as Masbee said.

Blazer Ringbearer

By the way, when does Lewis have to make the decision on whether or not to opt out of his contract?

I'm wondering if it would be possible to trade for him (no complicated S&T required) after July 1st, and extend him at a later date.

sa1177

Great post...saved me having to look up Zach's dollar numbers. Pretty much my sentiments as well.

If we are able to shed Zach's salary I think spending that money (+ a lil more) on Shard makes perfect sense. What other premier SF's are we going to spend it on? orPG's or Centers for that matter. (this assumes SG and PF are occupied by Roy and LA)

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OntheRocks

What about offering him exactly Zach's remaining salary ish... 13.3 start 14.6, 16, 17.3 with maybe a additional year and tweaks? Maybe they would go for zach especially if they might lose him and get nothing for his value.

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Trader Ed

great minds think a like.. or is it fool seldom differ

I wondered that myself.. and thought it possible.

But according to Laryy Coon, teams can not trade plyers in the offseason prior to July 1 whom have early termination offers (ETO)

link is around here somewhere in one of our threads being discussed about Rashard

I think it would be a cleaner way of doing it too... but we can not

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Blazer Ringbearer

Right, but if he has to decide by July 15th it would be possible - so I'm wondering when he makes that opt-out decision.

It's probably earlier, but thought I'd ask.

Trader Ed

I would think before midnight on June 30... so he would be prior to the new fiscal year


so.. lets go with that and say he has a wink deal to Portland if he does not opt out

he then gets traded to us in mid July.. and we extend him to a big $ deal

works for me.. we get 2x years of smaller $


hey a guy can hope can't he

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Oldmangrouch

If Zach is overpaid, what Lewis is asking is a joke.

At least Zach does *2* things - score and rebound. Lewis does only one.


BTW, don't kid yourselves. One month in Portland, and the local media would be finding reasons to kvetch about his "character."

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Samuel

Then we'd get called out for tampering and lose future draft picks. No thanks!

Blazer Ringbearer

Lewis would be stupid to not opt out if he couldn't be traded prior to that decision... he would lose all leverage.

dudleysghost

I agree with this for the most part. I don't think Shard is "worth" $15.5 mil in comparison to other NBA players' salaries, but we still might be smart to pay him that if we have to. We are already paying Zach almost that much and we don't need cap space anyway to re-sign our young players. In fact, if Allen is really excited about this team, my guess is that we won't even have to worry about paying the lux tax in the future.

I disagree with the part about it increasing productivity, coachability and chemistry. Lewis and Zach are about equally productive. If we move Aldridge to PF, it's still a wash, because he would otherwise be playing C for us, unless you think he's going to produce more at the PF spot than he would at C. We're basically replacing Ime in the starting lineup with Joel, which doesn't seem like much of an upgrade.

Coachability is important, but this season I haven't seen anything to suggest that Zach isn't coachable, or that Rashard is. Zach had his problems with Nate last year, but he seemed to be doing everything right this year.

Chemistry is also important, but again, does Zach create bad team chemistry? I know MM probably thinks so, but based on what? People bash him for not being a leader, but some of the reports we've read the second half of the season seemed to show he was taking on more of a leadership role. And since when has Rashard lead any team anywhere?

That said, the change still could benefit us in any or all of those ways. We don't know if Zach or Lewis is more coachable or more amenable to good team chemistry, but Pritchard and Nate are definitely in a position to know, so if they think so I'll believe it.

And while I think the productivity is a wash on paper, in real life we could be a better team with Rashard. He's not a good passer or defender, which ironically is the same complaint that many of his fans on this board level at Zach, but he is a real serious perimeter threat. I think that's something this team could really use and doesn't have. Of course, Zach's post scoring is also valuable, but Aldridge has shown signs of a nascent post game, and given his meteoric learning curve, I'm confident he can and will develop those skills. I also think he's more of a natural PF than a C, so we would be unlocking value by switching his position.

On the Raef contract; we wouldn't really be replacing Raef's dollars with Rashard's. Salary dollars are fungible, and since it isn't a one for the other swap, the two are unrelated. But Raef's expiring, eventually, does give us flexibility in the future, and as someone pointed out, at that time we'll only have one big contract (Zach's or Lewis's).

Lastly, I probably would have easily traded Zach for Lewis last season, but this season changed the equation. Last year Zach was fighting with Nate and playing gimpy. This year Zach played very strong and seemed to have resolved all his conflicts with Nate. He's made himself a much more valuable asset to us. I'm still perfectly willing to see him traded if it helps the team, but my conception of what kind of return in trade would help us has increased considerably.

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mediocre man

I don't think Zach creates bad chemistry for the team at all, but thanks for putting words in my mouth. Just a quick memo......(I prefer nachos)

I think the players on the team like Zach. I simply think Zach hurts our chances of winning due to the style of play we institute when he is playing. Lewis isn't to my first choice, especially at 15+ million a year. I'd love to add someone like AK. We could probably get him for cheap, or trade Zach in a 3 way and end up with an extra draft pick. Richard Jefferson is another player I'd like KP to target. I'd like to get him and their pick as well.

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Masbee

Both RJ ($12, $13, $14, $15 million) and AK ($14, $15, $16, $18 million) are on big money contracts.

If you don't want to pay Lewis $15 mil, why do you want to pay RJ or AK that? At least we know Lewis WANTS to play in Portland, as long as he gets paid the coin. That should count for something.

As I said earlier, I would consider a sign and trade for Lewis, but I don't want to overpay him, and I think $15 to START is too high. $15 at the end, like RJ's contract is, IMO, about right.