which is why I didn’t investigate it myself for so long. It is butchering the team to an extent (Blake, Sergio, Outlaw, Frye, Przy), but if it is LeBron that shows up, IMO that is the most no-brainer decision in the history of no-brainer decisions. The numbers work. I think a lot of what stopped me from looking into it further was looking at max contracts around the league. The problem with doing that, is there are plenty of guys that make 20+ million dollars per year, and assuming every one gets those #‘s. There is a limit based on how long you’ve been in the league on how much you can make. The 2003 draft class will make under 17 million dollars for the 2010 season. That might not seem like a big difference, but it was enough to make this thing an actual real life possibility.

I went with Hedo, because he seems like an automatic. He’s the guy that will be a FA, that we REALLY can get. I can say Boozer, but there isn’t a real life chance we get a guy like him, with his other options. Its not like Hedo’s a bum either, he’s currently a top 10 FA for this season IMO.

This is a pretty negative response for a post that actually had some time, effort, and thought put into it. There has been a lot of complaints about the negative tone of BE lately and these are the kind of responses that are both off putting and add nothing to the conversation. I can see being a bit caddy on some of the 2 line trade posts that have popped up, but it is not very cool to be caddy on a well written fanpost.

If I had intended to criticize the guy, I might have said something to the effect of why take up BE space with stuff like this.

I have no problem with as11osu doing this. That’s why I said more power to him. I just thought it represented a lot of effort on something very ephemeral (sp?). Pretty much akin to doing a detailed analysis of weather patterns in the NW in order to pick what week two summers from now you plan to take your vacation at the beach. In either case, I’m impressed by the amount of time spent, but uncertain as to what effect it is for.

One could even argue that Dave spends far too much time running a—in the grand scheme—useless site. But we all spend time reading and writing here because we love the Blazers. And as11osu spent time writing this because he loves the Blazers.

Posts like this are the stealth booger of this site. They must go.

Although you’re right about our current unit going to through the rigors of the regular season, that has very little bearing on the future moves I’d make for this team. This team should have one goal in its future, and thats to win a Championship. You’ve got to build your team for the playoffs, meaning heavier minutes for your best players, and shorter benches. I think the better playoff team is the one that holds off on a FA until the 2010 season.

I did a minute distribution chart for the playoffs for each team.

Although these lineups seem uneven, through sheer volume on the 2009 team, when you think about come playoff time, when the minutes start to get distributed to your best players more heavily, I think I actually prefer the 2010 team.

Playoff Minute Distribution

2009 FA Team
Roy (40)
Aldridge (40)
Oden (36)
2009 FA (34)
Rudy (30)
Webster/Batum (30)
Blake/Bayless/Sergio (30)

2010 FA Team
2010 FA (40)
Roy (40)
Aldridge (40)
Oden (36)
Rudy (30)
Webster (18)
Batum (18)
Bayless (18)

When you get into the playoffs you don’t need to be 12 deep, or even 10 deep. I’d be perfectly cool to roll into the playoffs with that particular 8 man squad.

Also, if that FA were to be LeBron James, we’d have what could potentially be the best starting 5 to ever take the court together.

PG: Brandon Roy
SG: Rudy Fernandez
SF: LeBron James
PF: LaMarcus Aldridge
C: Greg Oden

I would call that unit: Game Over

Aldridge is borderline right now, but he’s also just 23, and is clearly the second most important player on this team. When he’s not on the court, we’re actually worse off than we are when Brandon isn’t out there. He’s got such a broad skill set, and he’s the only player on the entire team, that we have a negative number when he’s not on the court. Its a pretty substantial negative number too.

http://www.82games.com/0809/0809POR.HTM

All great players play 40+ minutes per game in the playoffs. There just aren’t any leftover minutes after great players get through. Don’t you want in our most important games of the year to have Brandon, LaMarcus, Greg and Rudy on the court for as long as you can? This kind of thing doesn’t become conventional wisdom by sucking. It sticks and people adopt what works. In the playoffs, short rotations, and heavy minutes for superstars works. Take a look at LBJ’s +/- numbers in the playoffs last year. In his 550 minutes on the court his team gained 66 points, in just his 72 minutes off the court his team lost well over half of that (38).

I can’t claim any special evaluation skills here, but what timbo says seems as obvious to me as the nose on timbo’s face. (I hear Cyrry is his knickname.)

It is why I’ve never quite understood the fascination with wanting to trade for this guy or that, or trying to out-Kevin Kevin Pritchard. I’m not slamming those who do. I just don’t understand it.

It is sort of the same as folks who start talking about the 2009 draft and who they think their team should select. For one, there are two many unknowns and for another, there is still most of this season to play. What if, for example, Martell comes back and shows he’s taken a giant step forward from last year? Or Steve Blake continues to shoot 3’s at the same percentage as last year? Or Channing or Bayless end up getting significant minutes due to an injury?

So I am not saying “Hey stupid!” “Pay attention to the road and quit daydreaming.” I’m saying “Experience and enjoy today.” “Tomorrow will come soon enough.”

This team wasn’t assembled for the purpose of eventually being annointed by The King’s presence to usher him towards his HOF stats and a gold plated statue in front of the RG.

Instead it will be the asterisk by his eventual career stats that says:

Lebron James *

• would have won many titles, if it wasn’t for the emergence of the Portland Trailblazers.

-

I probably expanded on that thought way too much. It made me smile though.

is that he is there to be a guy to take pressure off of LeBron as he can create his own shot and specifically not be a guy who needs a playmaker, so he will be taking touches away from LeBron.

 I dont know if you can say that you cant have 2 main guys on a team, I think it is probably more important that the 2 main guys have different skill sets, like Duncan and Parker/Ginobilli. That would not be the case with LeBron and Roy, but it does seem to be the case with LMA and Roy.

no matter what, sign me up for 3 Championships. Secondly, even if LBJ did leave after that, we’d still have a 29 year old Brandon Roy, a 26 year old LaMarcus Aldridge a 25 year old Greg Oden and a 28 year old Rudy Fernandez. As far as Brandon goes, I’m sure he’d be very comfortable with multiple Championships no matter how they were derived. And again, in your scenario, he’d have plenty opportunity after LBJ left to get his 4th 5th and 6th titles. You don’t turn down players that make you win Championships. You suck it up, and make it work… and reap the benefits. Also, LBJ like Rudy, like Oden, like Roy is a supremely unselfish player. Thats part of the reason everyone is going to want to play with him in 2010. Hopefully thats also a reason he’d want to come here.

Here’s the 2010 FA list:
http://www.realgm.com/src_freeagents/2010/

Notice a couple attractive names on it, that aren’t superstars? Tayshaun Prince, Shane Battier, Josh Howard, Carl Landry, Tyson Chandler, Andrei Kirilenko. If you ask me, even if you’re not among the crowd wanting a superstar, wouldn’t you rather be in 2010’s free agent crop with your 20 million dollars than the 2009 crop?

Aldridge is borderline right now, but he’s also just 23, and is clearly the second most important player on this team. When he’s not on the court, we’re actually worse off than we are when Brandon isn’t out there. He’s got such a broad skill set, and he’s the only player on the entire team, that we have a negative number when he’s not on the court. Its a pretty substantial negative number too.

http://www.82games.com/0809/0809POR.HTM

with a non-escalating salary, an early termination option for the final season, and a 15% trade kicker.

That seems like fair value, y’know.

You see, I don’t care that much if someone calls me stupid or an idiot. I know I’m not one (most of the time) and when I go and do something stupid, well, I figure it is appropriate to be called stupid.

Where I find fault with you argument is in it’s basic premise. That Portland could acquire LeBron James for the cost of Blake, Sergio, Outlaw, Frye and Przybilla. Now that is what I would call “interesting” thinking. Definately outside the box. (See, no reference to idiotic. I want to stay on jscot’s good side. I’m angling for a job and so far Tom is my only serious competition.)

If I have it right, you are saying we would trade those guys for James, just allow them to expire and use the cap space to sign him. I see two critical flaws with that reasoning. The first has already been mentioned above – the low probability of LeBron wanting to play in Portland rather than NY or LA. The second has to do with dollars. In today’s Truehoop there was a mention about the net worth of the Cav’s and how having James on the roster might account for a $200 million increase. That’s the sort of leverage that can have him asking for the moon. Without checking out one of the CBA sites to see what the most a team can offer him, I would think it would be at least the $17 + million he’s due to get from the Cav’s if he doesn’t. Why else opt out?

I believe the answer to that last question is that the CBA is expiring. There is a possibility that LeBron could get more than $17 mil for 2010. If he can, Portland would have cleared cap space and still not have enough to get in the game. If the rules don’t change, what does Portland offer that NY doesn’t? Multiple championships you say? More so than a revamped Knicks team that has added Amare Stoudimire or Chris Bosh? Remember that Michael Jordan’s basketball salary was pocket change to what he earned in marketing income. That’s what James has his eye on. And if he can take a Cav’s team to the Finals at least once and almost there a second time, he has every reason to believe that with their financial resources, the Knicks will do their best to surround him with enough talent.