Blake v. Hinrich pt. 24: The Contracts

We lose $1.9M in capspace should we swap Blake & Outlaw for Hinrich. If we do it before a free agent signing or lopsided deal, we lose that flexibility – if we do it after – it’s within the allowed limits of both teams being at or over the cap.

Money dictates all that surrounds me. CREAM!

should’ve read “defensive SG”

Norm van Lier was the Bull’s PG. They played the Blazer’s extremely tough in the “best of 3” first round series back in ‘77. Chicago finished that season on a 17-3 run and would’ve knocked the Blazers out of the playoffs, if Portland didn’t have the home court advantage…

Butler for Rudy, Batum, Bayless, 1st rnd pick, and cash may do it though.

was slightly injured this year, playing backup (or off guard) and not having a career year (a la Blake).

Blake’s career year </= Mediocre Hinrich year

except with one more turn over.
Okay, and better defense…

Every fast PG we’ve had troubles with scored more than their average against Chicago this year?
Only one fast PG, (Nash) scored under his average:

Tony Parker
Aaron Brooks
Chris Paul
Rajon Rondo
JJ BAREA!
Kept Steve Nash in check though!!!!

Scroll down to the games against Chicago. They are all listed, and all but Nash posted above average scores on a so-called defensive PG. He didn’t even defend to the mean of the NBA.

The only response: crickets.

1)In the context of the rest of the league, and how we can spend our cap-space. Hinrich’s contract is huge and long. We could get other players who would change the face of our franchise more, for a lot less. See noted examples.
2) Length is never an advantage that means less flexibility. We would be logged into Hinrich’s salary at a high rate, for a long time. If the salary were shorter, that is always a benefit, so you can make changes in the direction your team is going quicker. And since older point guards don’t get traded very often, instead they get swapped in free agency, it will be just as hard (if not harder) for us to move his contract than it has been for Chicago.
3) 28 and in his prime? And his drop off this year have to do with injuries that have nothing to do with the fact that he is getting older.
4) Once again this contract goes on for a long time. Which means he will be older and will continue to lose the athleticism his defensive “skills” need.
5) That’s my point. He isn’t nearly as fast or as strong as he was, when he was able to assert himself with the handcheck rule. Right now, it is extremely difficult to be an effective PG defender, by giving up two of our strongest offensive players, we need to realize that his defense might not be enough to make up for the obvious shortcomings we are giving up in any trade (proposed Outlaw and Blake).
6) But you need to be able to stay in front of your man to be a good defender. Not being able to stay in front of your man, makes you an abysmal defender, and if you are saying that Kirk can’t do this but can still be an effective defender, that’s simply wrong.

7A)Other players have been able to stay defenders later on in their years, but no PG defenders. There is a reason for this, wing defenders can protect the cuts, Centers can stand in the middle, PFs can work the baseline, but PG defenders need to be active, quick, and smart ot be effective. Kirk is no longer nearly as active and quick as he was when he earned the title of PG defender. And the rules have changed so now a PG defender has to be even more active and quick (Without being able to handcheck).

A PG defender seems to be an impossible title to contain currently. Without the ability to handcheck a pg defender has little ability to force a man into any sort of situation. Correct? And so by wasting money in this type of area, it seems we are acting along the lines of Don Quixote. What we are searching for is no longer there, the rules have changed, and by spending our time searching for a damsel in distress we are wasting our time.

What other good PG defender’s can you think of whose reputation was not built during the time of the handcheck? And what do they have in common? Speed. Pure Speed. Something that some people apparently still think that HInrich has in bunches. Or that somehow despite the fact he can’t stay in front of a man, he can still be a defensive presence.

Look I’ve tried to point to the evidence. Just by repeating that Hinrich is a solid defender, or making excuses for the last season, we are acting as apologist. Why? I have no idea. Because we have made our mind up that this is the case?

He dominates poor PG’s, yes. That is the case. But we beat those teams already. If we are going to add something it needs to help us against the other good teams in the league. And by throwing our third best offensive weapon (Travis) into the offering we had better get a better 3rd option. Which we’re not. Yes he can just a hair worse than Steve Blake. But since we’re giving up Steve Blake and Travis, we’d better be getting something commensurate in return.

We are always point to his vaunted defense. And last year, those numbers were FAIL. A big and complete FAIL, when dealing with fast PGs. If he can’t guard them why are we adding him and his salary to this team?
Because we want to make some moves?
Because people hate Travis?
Oh, because his defensive talent is totally there! Only don’t look at that game, he was hurt, don’t look at that game he surely wasn’t guarding the fast PG (THEN WHY THE HECK DO YOU WANT HIM ON THE TEAM? If he can’t or doesn’t guard them, then he doesn’t SOLVE OUR PROBLEM!)

I’m not saying that everyone should be swayed by this reasoning. Only that just saying he can help us on defense, shouldn’t be a rock to hide under anymore. To help US on defense requires specific skills (read speed). Our biggest achilles heel is the fast PGs, if he wasn’t guarding them in Chicago, then why the heck not? And if he was, they burnt him to Captain Kirk Crisp.

Interesting to me that in the Hollinger piece you use as evidence of his defensive prowess, you did not mention that Hollinger states he leaves his feet too much, and that he gives Andre Miller equal defensive props. I know that the feeling around here is that Hinrich is Bobby Jones reincarnate and that Andre Miller is a sieve so I found that to be rather interesting. To me someone like Andre Miller would be a far better addition since he can get to the hole, can pass, and shoot (just not 3’s too great).

all Hollinger says is he’s one of the better defenders. And Pelton doesn’t say anything, but give a smiley face.

Oh yea, Hinrich’s a smiley face and nothing for Stevie Blake. He might as well jump off the St Johns bridge.

arguement is only about stats. Your hours and hours of actually watching teams other than the Blazers means nothing here.

He’s paid a lot for as often as he’s injured. If he stayed healthy, it might not be that bad a deal.

Hinrich+Deng for Outlaw+Sergio+RLEC (there may have been other mutations of this, but that was the basic idea)

And I pretty much wrote off KP acquiring Cap’n Kirk after the deadline, because the chance to take Deng’s contract off the Bull’s books (which was probably the main attraction for Chicago in the proposal) had evaporated when KP decided to stand pat.

If the deal had gone down and Deng had still gotten injured it would’ve been a net “negative” for Portland’s W-L record in March-April (no backup to Batum, a lot of Roy playing SF, etc) But they would’ve still made the playoffs and lost in the first round (probably)

And we’d have a whole lot less uncertainty about the roster, right now