Back-Up Power Forward: Free Agents

He is strong, has height, and is a good rebounder. We need a banger. His 6 fouls keep Oden on the court longer as well.

as he’d give us a scoring threat in the frontcourt, which would be especially important if/when Nate decides to make Greg the starter. Wilcox can also play center fairly effectively, and would really give our second unit the option to get out and run.

I like both Wilcox and Gooden.
We’ll probably be able to get a good backup pf ( better than frye) for relatively cheap.
I’d go after Gooden.

If I had to pick one, it would be Bass just because he’s got the potential to be better than he has been thus far. I’d actually rather keep Channing than those other guys though.

Then again, I have this funny feeling that KP will be addressing this issue some time around the draft. I predict that there’s a 0.000000007% chance that Pritchard doesn’t make a trade that day.

I voted for Frye. – Elgin

Every team Gooden has ever played for was better after he left, and worse because he got there. He did absolutely nothing for San Antonio. The Bulls were terrible until they traded him. And the Cavs almost immediately became a title contender without him screwing up the plays and jacking ill advised eighteen footers.

If you think Nate doesn’t play Channing, I would love to see the DNPs rack up for Gooden. That would be a terrible singing.

Both Wilcox and Bass have promise. Both are better options than Channing (hate to say it – if Frye stays, it should be as the 11th-13th man). Wilcox will come cheaper, Bass will bring more offense to the second unit.

They might be a bit too close to starter material though. However, if LA went down we would be happy about that.

Trust me, you don’t want him. He’s lazy, doesn’t rebound or defend. The best part of his game is highlight dunks. Wilcox couldn’t get off the bench in OKC.

Gooden is rotten too as KP Corleone noted.

Bass is only guy I would consider in that poll. I rather have Outlaw play backup PF than the other 3 options.

But that was as part of a trade for Frye and Diogu. I wasn’t thinking about signing Chris beyond 2009 unless he really fit in well and helped the team win a playoff series or two

Of those 4 I chose Bass. He’s shorter but has a nice skillset that would compliment the current roster. The problem (as I’ve mentioned in the past) is that whoever the Blazers get to be LMA’s backup will have to be content playing very short minutes, unless there’s an injury or major foul trouble. This is not something a young FA like Bass will want to hear, he’d rather get a promise of a starting gig and that’s not going to happen in PDX

A better choice would be a veteran big man who can play PF/C and wants to win a ring. One name I thought of this week was Antonio McDyess. Somebody like that who will be content to play “only when needed” in the hopes of getting another sniff at the finals

because he is younger (24) and is the only player on that list that has a good amount of room to continue growing. Wilcox is a lazy player and Gooden is pretty sloppy a lot of the time. Bass can come in and bang for a good few minutes at a time and really be effective. Also I assume if we are bringing in a backup PF than Travis would probably be pushed out of the second unit since we want Batum to play and also Martell. This means we need quick offense to replace Outlaw and Bass can bring that. I would say DeJuan Blair would be good as well but I am not sure about taking on another young project at this point.

The good: Still only 23 despite in his fourth year. The guy cares for winning games and will play physical under the basket, he rarely takes a night off. Used to playing 15 to 20 minutes and doesn’t except a big role, but can do more if need be due to injury. Has stabilized/repeated his FG% and TS% from last year at about 50 and 57 helped by a solid midrange jumpshot (good form, somewhat inconsistent). Can dribble and finish well with either hand, allowing him to drive to the rim in isolation plays often over the left baseline side. Very quick and high second jump to secure a tipped rebound. Had four double-doubles this season. Very solid from the free throw line when fouled, consistently well over 80%. Not very foul prone for an undersized guy at somewhat around 1.5PFs per game due to his lateral quickness. Very strong especially in the upper body, you can’t easily push him out of the way on offense or defense in post ups.

The bad: At 6’8’’ he is a bit undersized for the PF spot. Unable to block or contest some shots taller athletes could. Doesn’t really have a go-to move that he can always rely on. Should never take a three point shot again (has missed every single one so far), but fortunately rarely tries (11). While he can find the open man when he gets stuck in traffic is just a mediocre passer. Good understanding of team defense, but makes the occasional dumb play.

Financials: Attainable. He is an unrestricted free agent. Dallas likes him a lot, but they are way over the cap even if they let Kidd go for nothing. They only have his "Early Bird Rights" to go over the cap to re-sign their own free agent, since originally he was drafted by the Hornets who gave up on him (he had entered the draft clearly too early) and he signed with the Mavs in 2007 as a free agent. Which means they could offer him 175% of his previous salary (which is very low at $825,000; so not interesting) or the average player salary (whichever is greater). So no matter what they use, the most they can offer him is effectively a salary the size of the mid-level exception. Which in a simplified form is also what he is worth, a little more than the average player, with a current PER of 16.5 ;-)

P.S.: I would definitely try to bring Joel Freeland over anyway no matter which other player is retained or acquired for the big men out of Frye, Shav, Ruffin. I assume if KP can convince him to come over, the Blazers will do it, if only to have an upgrade in training to pitch guys against and give spot minutes to. The guy is younger than e.g. Hansbrough, has much better athletic abilities and has more upside (still learning the game).

I would also agree that looking at Charlie Villanueva as stated above is worth a try even though he might not be terribly interested to be the backup to LMA and thus might have trouble accepting such a role. Offensively he is currently one of the better ranked PFs (#12 in PER), and as was discussed before the deadline Milwaukee will have big trouble to keep Sessions AND Jefferson AND Villanueva. So he could be the odd man out.

In Bass’ case, he’s just too slow laterally, barely over 6’7" in shoes, and has an average standing reach of 8’10.5" for someone his size.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/?page=&year=2004&sort2=DESC&draft=0&pos=0&sort=

My other problem with Bass is that he’s not a banger — such as Paul Millsap, even though he’s pretty much unavailable this off-season — but rather a mid-range jumper shooter. In fact, 59% of his field-goal attempts on the season were jump shots.

http://www.82games.com/0809/08DAL13.HTM

Now, with regards to Gooden and Wilcox, those are probably two of the laziest post defenders in the entire NBA. I’ve already dealt with Wilcox as a fan during his tenure with the Seattle SuperSonics, which is I don’t want to deal with another time. As y’all probably assumed, I was a heavy Nick Collison supporter back then.

Tyler Hansbrough. He is one of the most intense players in college basketball history & brings a similar game that Joel Przybilla brings, defense & rebounding.

Good players but they would just do a Shav here,Freeland is more NBA ready,with a higher ceiling and cheaper

has gotten better AFTER he left.

I say either Bass or Jason Maxiell. But thats only if Detroit starts rebuilding.

I thnk Birdman would be perfect for us.
Tough-check
makes good with limited minutes- check
good D- check
doesnt want the ball-check
negative
annoying-double check but I still think he’d be perfect

immage a 2nd unit of Przy and Anderson- good luck getting a shot up or a rebound

Are not going to be happy with what the market is willing pay for their sevices

david lee-1.7mil, hedo turkoglu-6.8mil, charlie villanueva-3.4mil, grant hill-1.9mil, matt barnes-797k, louis amundson-797k, stromile swift-201k, paul millsap- 797k.

Effortless solutions for KP.

Joel is contract ready and Antonio wants a ring.

There isn’t much of a market for 34 year old PF/Cs even if they are outstanding citizens and selfless players.

I think the two give us all we need to compliment our three main bigs.

Dude hustles like crazy
Always givin 110% when I see him

fairly easily. Teams may trade out rather than pay top 5 pick money for him.

Could someone (perhaps Storyteller or Dave) answer this question. Is it possible to resign Frye by first renouncing him and bird-rights thus making him an unrestricted free agent. Then Portland signing him to a deal that does not have all the strings that the unrestricted free agent contract has such as making a minimum qualifying offer, and a long window of time with cap hold space of 300% times current salary?

I like Frye. I know he had a down year but even in a down year whild playing the third string PF position he was arguably the best 3rd-string PF in the league and better than a lot of 2nd string PFs. I think he just had a down start to the year followed by no playing time but we did see flashes of the better player Frye can be near the end of the season. Given the down year, he proaably is not worth the qualifying offer and players certainly won’t want to clog up their cap space but if could renounce the bird rights and thus the qualifying offer and simply sign up to a light weight contract, I don’t think we can find a better third string power forward who can deal with being a third string.

That said, Freeland seems to have had a good year in Europe. Anyone think he is better than Frye already?