[hoopsworld]The Blazers Report Aug 4, 2003
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Welcome to the August 4, 2003 edition of The Blazers Report. I am looking
back on my summer and wondering how did we get from Game 7 of the Dallas
series to starting to think about training camp starting and the wonderful
sport of college football and Washington Husky return to dominance beginning
at the end of August.
Today’s report will discuss the continuing saga that is the Blazers offseason.
Things picked up from The Blazers Report stating that Dallas and Portland
were talking and my suggested deal to a flurry of internet bullpoop reports
about a three team Atlanta Dallas and Portland mega deal to the continued
discussions about various teams and deals which brings the question, what
really is going on? Isn’t that what you rely on the Blazers Report to do?
Sabonis Return
Arvydas Sabonis’ contract becomes guaranteed on August 15. The significance
of this is that the Blazers are very unsure about whether he wants to play.
There are two schools of thought on this issue. You might remember that
before the 2001-02 season, Sabonis and the Blazers were unsure whether he
would come back and it ended up that he sat out the entire season. Last
season there were rumblings that the big man would return and he showed up
on schedule to sign his 3 year contract. Neither side was certain how long
Sabonis would play which is why the 3 year deal had various out clauses
within the deal. The first of these is August 15.
The lowdown on Sabonis is that the Blazers expect Sabonis to return next week
to Portland to take a physical and make a decision that he will play next
season. Initially Sabonis was not looking to return as he was disappointed
in his role last season. Sabonis feels like he can play 25-30 minutes per
game and does not want to return as a backup playing 10-15 minutes per game.
Since the end of the season, Sabonis still feels the competitive fire and it
is looking like he wants to return.
The Blazers, and primarily John Nash, are unsure whether they are looking to
pay $7 million for Sabonis to play center. With the luxury tax, Sabonis
would cost $14 million to play backup center on a team that has no realistic
shot at a championship. The Blazers were not looking to pay Scottie Pippen
$12 million ($6 + luxury tax) and would like to be paying Sabonis something
closer to $4 million in salary ($8 million luxury tax).
This leads to many choices like a choose your own adventure novel. The
first choice is whether Sabonis does get on the plane this week and heads to
Tualitan to get the physical. Based on the information I am hearing, it
appears Sabonis is likely to head to Portland for a meeting and physical.
The second choice is whether the Blazers want to pay Sabonis his $7 million
contract or trade him to another team. A related choice is whether that team
will pay Sabonis or will simply cut the contract for salary cap relief.
The Blazers are much more willing to trade Sabonis if they will cut him for
the cap relief for public relations reasons as well as not looking to help
a rival squad. The third choice is whether to either cut Sabonis' contract
and resign Sabonis to a cheaper deal using the mid-level exception or part
of it or trade Sabonis’ contract to a team that will cut him and then try
to resign him. The fourth choice is whether Sabonis will play for anything
less than his $7 million contract. The word right now is that the Blazers
will look to trade Sabonis’ contract as part of a deal to move Damon. The
Blazers are likely to look to resign Sabonis at a reduced rate and it is
unlikely that you see Sabonis play anywhere else.
Dallas and Portland
As we discussed last week, Dallas and Portland are talking. To recap last
week, I stated what I thought was a deal that would make sense for both teams:
Nash/LaFrentz/Eschmeyer for Davis/Woods/Patterson. The Blazers and Dallas
talked about Van Exel/LaFrentz for a Sabonis/Damon deal. Things do not look
good on the Dallas/Portland front. The two teams will either work out a deal
before August 15 that involves Sabonis, either his contract or him as a player
if Sabonis is agreeable, or nothing will get done between the teams. The teams
have talked about many players, but the Mavericks are unwilling to trade Steve
Nash or Dirk Nowitzki and the Blazers are not interested in picking up any of
the fringe players.
Raef LaFrentz will almost certainly be part of any deal and has an enormous
6 year/$60 million deal. He has big potential and is really in a tough
situation in Dallas and the Blazers brass feels he would improve dramatically
in Portland. But a long-term contract like that is tough to swallow when the
Blazers are 2-3 years from being back to payroll flexibility.
The Blazers have muted interest in Nick Van Exel. Van Exel is at his best on
a winning team in the playoffs, but he has serious concentration issues during
the regular season. He’s a strong point guard and can be anywhere between a
decent to solid shooter depending on his concentration, but for one more year
on his contract and nearing the age of 32 where most shooters start to lose
their legs, the Blazers do not believe that moving Van Exel for Damon makes
sense other than moving Damon out of town, which is a major goal of the
Blazers.
There has been talk of a Bonzi Wells/Sabonis/Damon trade for Finley/Van Exel/
LaFrentz. According to my information this is not true. The Blazers have
little interest in the original two for two and are not looking to acquire
Michael Finley for Bonzi. Finley is certainly a superior player, but for $7
million less per season, $50 million in contract at the end, and 4 years of
age, the Blazers would rather have Bonzi. The Blazers would love to see a
Bonzi/Finley tandem at the 2/3 but I am told they will not look to move Bonzi
for Finley.
The odds of a Blazers/Dallas trade are very low unless Dallas decides to
include Nash in the deal.
Atlanta and Indiana
Indiana remains interested in Sabonis’ contract and are offering Austin
Croshere in exchange for the deal. The Blazers have little interest in
acquiring Croshere at this point in time and particularly for Sabonis. It
is possible to see the Pacers involved in a multi-team trade, but after the
trade of Ron Mercer and their obvious unwillingness to move Al Harrington or
Jon Bender for Damon, it appears all hope of trading with Indiana is low.
Atlanta has some interest in Damon. Damon’s contract fits with Atlanta’s
salary cap flexibility goals which are after the 2005-06 season, but Damon
does not fit in well with Jason Terry, Boris Diaw, and Dan Dickau in the
backcourt. As for Jason Terry, there is no real interest from the Blazers,
I am told, and the Hawks are waiting to see if Terry signs a deal with the
Jazz to establish market value and then the Hawks will match the offer. This
is likely to be similar to the Blazers and Bonzi last season where the deal
will get signed in August or September once teams realize the Hawks will match.
Other choices
The Blazers remaining possibility is to move Damon to the Utah Jazz due to
the Jazz’s cap room. The Jazz need a point guard and might have interest
in Damon and his two year contract. While they would like to preserve cap
room for the following season, they don’t have significant ability to pick
anyone up in the free agent market at their most need position, power forward.
The Jazz would like to see the progress of Raul Lopez, but if he falters,
they might have interest in Damon.
As for other teams, the market is bleak at this point. Do not expect a deal.
Rasheed is said to be off the market unless for a major star. The Blazers are
still looking to move Ruben Patterson, but are not seeing any deals in the
forefront. Damon is the one player the Blazers would like to move, but look
to have a little chance to move him. Other than this, the Blazers are doing
just ducky.
Blazers and the offseason
Just so everyone does not start believing that I am a big John Nash believer.
Despite the positive spin that one can put on the Blazers balanced roster,
this team still does not have a point guard that it can trust, it lacks a
shooter in the backcourt/frontcourt, it has serious position battles at two
positions (SG and PF) and lacks a backup big man unless Sabonis returns and
even then, still lacks another big man unless Boumtje can look to step up
between now and fall camp.
To make matters worse, this team still says “please zone me” as there are
very few spot up shooters anywhere near the roster and the best one off the
bench is now sitting in Seattle.
That’s all for today, send me your e-mails.
--
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