Bring over Joel Freeland!

by sabonis on Dec 6, 2009 3:25 PM PST

Has anyone else thought about this? In a time where we have extra spots on the bench and we need a back up 4 and 5, why not bring over Joel Freeland and give him a chance? I think its quite obvious that we're gonna have to pull someone up from the D-League to help with our injuries and I think we might as well just give Freeland a chance. Not sure about his stats abroad, but I've always been interested in seeing him suit up in a Blazers uniform. What do you guys think?

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The earliest Joel Freeland will come over is next season, so forget about it.

Dear Paul Allen:

Fire Nate McMillan & hire Jeff Van Gundy.

Sincerely,
AK1984

by AK1984 on Dec 6, 2009 3:34 PM PST reply actions

Need a medical exemption

Our roster is already full. We’d have to waive a player (won’t happen) or get a medical exemption from the NBA to go over the roster limit due to injuries. That’s about a 50-50 shot. Getting Joel out of his existing contract and over here…? Doubt it. I’d guess we use the extra minutes to develop our vaunted depth.

by Steve The Hedge on Dec 6, 2009 3:48 PM PST reply actions

Yeah, very unlikely we get a medical exemption, they are seldom granted, and we have JP and Mills coming back soon.

Freeland can’t even think about coming over until his current season is done and we have the MLE (next summer) to pay him, and we might not want to use it for that.

by BlazerFanSince1970 on Dec 6, 2009 5:14 PM PST up reply actions

don't need the mle

You can sign your first round draft picks while over the cap.

by mrwonderfulone on Dec 6, 2009 8:26 PM PST up reply actions

We need the MLE because Joel won't (very, very, unlikely) come over for the 30th pick rookie salary scale.

But we can offer him anything that fits under our cap because he was drafted more than 3 years ago. However, since we won’t be under the cap we can offer him the MLE instead (that is a little fuzzy under the CBA rules, but most people believe it will be allowed). That should be enough to get him, if we want to use the MLE for that purpose.

by BlazerFanSince1970 on Dec 6, 2009 9:57 PM PST up reply actions

playing in europe, jeff pendergraft should be back to health soon, do not panic

by prof.mike on Dec 6, 2009 4:05 PM PST reply actions

What if it turns out he sucks?

by thetsaiguy on Dec 6, 2009 9:13 PM PST up reply actions

You solve that problem when it happens

#52

by jscot on Dec 7, 2009 12:52 AM PST up reply actions

I believe the NBA requires 8 healthy players...

so you have to be down to 7 to get the medical exemption.

by Escrote on Dec 6, 2009 6:14 PM PST reply actions

In theory it's possible

Players have got out of their Euro contracts mid-season (see Pops Mensah-Bonsu, who played for Rubio’s old team for a few games, got lots of highlights on the ACB web page, and was gone, and also Krstic who signed for the Thunder mid-season) but Unicaja is a big club and probably won’t need to ditch contracts. They have had a weird season, though: for a while there they lost every single game in league play while simultaneously winning every single game in Euroleague (a competition amongst the top clubs of Europe, regardless of country). They’ve just started winning in the ACB, and just started losing in Euroleague. Joel did well in their last game, though.

by meru on Dec 6, 2009 6:23 PM PST reply actions

Doesn't matter if he could get out of the contract. We can't contribute more than $500K to his buyout, and

we are only $1.4M under the cap right now. He won’t come over for $1.4M a year now when he could wait and ask for the MLE next summer.

by BlazerFanSince1970 on Dec 6, 2009 10:05 PM PST up reply actions

The buyout is negotiable

and endorsements help too (which he might get just because he’s English – there are giant posters of Luol Deng all over London, or there were last time I visited). And if he’s still under the rookie scale, then I don’t think it matters whether or not we’re under the cap – after all, even the Lakers can sign their draft picks.
BUT: I can almost guarantee it won’t happen because Unicaja and Freeland won’t want it, and Freeland at least has to want it.

by meru on Dec 7, 2009 6:06 AM PST up reply actions