tho, what if we signed Lee w/ the intention of using him in a trade in the future?

how legit these reported ‘talks’ are…
I’m itching for us to make a move and at this point I’ll be happy with whatever move that is so long as it doesnt mess w/ team chemistry too much. If that means moving Joel, then I hope we get something special in return b/c Joel’s strengths go much further than just what he does on the court. He’s turned into the enforcer and a solid veteran leader…plus I hear he makes a mean 3 bean salad.

He’s got to have the highest trade value on the team.

“You Can’t Have Too Many Bigs.”

People need to stop thinking conventionally about the bigs. You don’t need just 3, to share the playing minutes equitably so everyone can rack up numbers and look like a star…

You need AT LEAST……..1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5.

Injuries happen, play in the paint is foul-intensive and players are rapidly lost to the whistle. Low post play is physical play and effectiveness is rapidly lost as court time increases beyond about a 25 or 30 minute stint.

David Lee would be a MASTERFUL addition to the Blazers. And Pryz wouldn’t be going anywhere.

A team needs to cover all the possibilities — one of which includes Greg Oden NOT becoming less foul prone and NOT becoming more effective.

Lee has the one thing you can’t really teach: DESIRE to play low. He hustles. He rebounds. He’s a great fit for Portland.

Here’s hoping (although I do expect KP to spend his money on a wing, not a big).

I don’t think it is the best move to make this year. It would be tough to let him go and then see Oden struggle through his sophomore season. I prefer keeping him.

But I see where you are going. Having a strong 3 big man rotation set up for the next 5 years (Oden, LA, Lee /Millsap /Bass) plus bringing in a player like Prince and signing a back up center (Steven Hill or some such guy) could make the Blazers quite a bit better. Joel is a stud though and it would have to be for the guy that they think makes them a contender.

Plus timbo is right…you can never have too many bigs.

rather than Lee. Odom can and does bring the ball up, and taking him from our biggest rival(threat) to the WCF would be a bonus. He can play the 3, 4 or 5. Put him in as the starting 3 and you have one helluva front line (Oden/LMA/Odom).
Odom is definitely not my favorite player, but the man can ball! And just think of the confusion announcers would have keeping Oden’s/Odom’s name straight.

Everyone compares Aldridge to ‘Sheed (basketball-wise). He’s got the same build, prefers to face the basket, is athletic, and is an intelligent player. Both players have a perhaps-undeserved reputation for being “soft”, mainly because they are average-at-best rebounders for their size. LMA isn’t yet at Sheed’s level defensively—OTOH, ‘Sheed defense is a bit overrated, as he is routinely abused by strong post players—Zach Randolph, for example, has owned Wallace for his entire career. LMA doesn’t hoist the 3 very often; but in the current Blazers’ offense, playing the 4, that isn’t his role. He is a credible threat from deep, though.

During the five-plus years that Wallace has been in Detroit, he’s been a post player—mainly due to the presence of Tayshaun Prince, the closest thing to Scottie Pippen in the modern NBA. Likewise, when Pippen himself was in Portland, ’Sheed played the four, or came off the bench backing up both Pip and Brian Grant.

But prior to Pippen’s arrival—in particular, the strike-shortened 98-99 team, Wallace was our starting small forward. The ’03-04 season, prior to Wallace getting shipped out, he formed a nasty frontcourt tandem with Z-Bo; playing the 3 on offense and guarding the better of the two opposing forwards on defense.

What if the Blazers sign Lee—and move LaMarcus to the three? He could still play big minutes at the four if the Blazers want to go smaller—such a move would give the Blazers lots of flexibility. In the current offensive scheme, the SF waits in the corner for the ball and then drives or shoots if open, which would be a waste of LMA’s talents—but looking at recent Blazer SFs (Batum, Webster, Jones, Udoka)—we’ve generally had guys for whom this is a reasonable role. Aldridge has shown an ability to defend the perimeter—he has an easier time containing most NBA SFs, it seems, than he does guarding the David Westss of the league.

Could Aldridge play alongside Oden and Lee in the front line?

OH GOD! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

KP might be looking at this like draft; take the best player available and maximize your assets. Perhaps Lee is higher on their board than any other FA remaining, and he figures he’ll figure out what to do with him later. He could play here for a year and then be traded for a stallion, or maybe Joel gets traded. Tons of teams lust after Lee, so maybe he’ll be a blockbuster trading chip.

I would love Lee on the team, but I doubt we’ll be paying 10 million per for a bench player, no matter how good he is. I think it’s more likely that the Blazers are talking to Lee’s agent and the Knicks about serving as the third team in a sign-and-trade deal. Because Lee will be a BYC player, the Knicks can only take back 5-6 million if they trade his new 10 million dollar contract. This means they can’t send him to a team over the cap in a straight up trade, but rather need a third team who is below the cap to absorb some salary.

Something like this makes sense: Lee signed and traded to Charlotte, Gerald Wallace traded to Blazers, Outlaw traded to Knicks. I’m sure some other compensation would be involved, like draft picks, foreign rights, and cash. Or how about a deal that sends Lee to the Rockets and Battier/Landry to the Blazers? The possibilities are endless in this scenario. The Blazers just have to find a team that values Lee more than the player the Blazers are targeting and convince them to make a deal.

http://www.blazersedge.com/2009/7/4/938080/prince-and-lee

Trade Joel, Travis and Blake/Bayless (whichever one of the 2 pg’s the other team wants) for a higher quality starting point guard (Devin Harris, not Hinrich; I don’t see what the lovefest with Hinrich is all about). There are 96 minutes per game at power forward and center combined.
Aldridge: 35 min.
Oden:30 min.
D. Lee: 31 min. ………these minutes would be tentative. They could possibly slightly decrease minutes for Aldridge and Lee to get Pendergraph some time (not Oden, he needs as much time on the court as we can get him; he’s our 2nd most effective player).

Lineup with these moves….
PG: Harris/Bayless or Blake
SG: Roy/Fernandez
SF: Webster/Batum
PF:Aldridge/Lee/Pendergraph
C: Oden/Lee/Aldridge
not bad

kidding, but we all know he could if he felt like it. He just knows it’s not what’s best to help the team win.