so, like KP and Larry Miller said, it’s better off that he’s in Toronto

but Nate and KP must’ve wanted him, badly. And those players yolu named who “wouldn’t get minutes” because of Turk being on the roster might not haveall been Blazers for the life of his 5 year contract. (Of course, Hedo himself may also have been redealt, in a couple of years)

but if the team had won with Turk, even the most skeptical fans of the signing would’ve eventually come around. That’s because we like to see the team win, and it’s not like Turk is a gangstah, he’s just a capitalist who’s wife prefers living near the east coast

But it definitely seemed like the Blazers were overpaying for an average player near the end of his prime. Rather than making the Blazers worse, the Hedo signing would have meant missing an opportunity to make the Blazers better, especially in the long-term. Miller does not make the Blazers better long-term either, so you could say that the Miller signing also represents a missed opportunity, but at least Miller’s contract isn’t as big as Hedo’s would have been.

He had some impressive drives in the Spain vs Turkey highlights.

you’re suggesting that it was the personnel and not the offensive strategy that explains why we ran a static, isolation offense. Guess we’ll see this year with Miller whether it’s the players or the coach.

Philly might’ve taken Trout and Blayless for a freshly-signed Andre, etc. (Miller probably wouldn’t be making 7 mil/year right now, though…)

Paul Allen has enough of it, and he said to spend.

We’ll be over the cap forever, anyway. Way over the cap. So the cost didn’t matter if Paul wanted to spend.

I don’t get the “too expensive” complaint at all. Turk was going to cost approximately $3 million more than Miller this year. That makes a difference only to Paul Allen’s bank account, it has no impact on team strategy. Zero.

Next year, the same, though theoretically we could trade Andre as an expiring contract next year (since the third year is team option). But the money aspect is irrelevant.

Third year? Well, if we decide not to keep Andre he costs us nothing, while Turk would have still cost us $10 million. But guess what? We’ll still probably be in luxury tax zone that year, even if Andre is gone, because in that year both LMA and Greg will be on max or near max contracts, as will Brandon. If Joel is still around, he’ll be earning, Martell will be around, we’ll be paying another PG (if we let Andre go), etc., etc.

Fourth year? Sure, Hedo would have cost us in the fourth year, but by then Nic will be extended, possibly Bayless, possibly Rudy. Luxury tax to the max, whether you have Hedo or not. Same with the fifth year. Under any reasonable scenario, we’re going to be in luxury tax land even without Hedo in the fourth and fifth years, which means he was going to cost us $20 million plus a year, and have absolutely no impact on team strategy — your in the tax zone with or without him.

Did Paul Allen know this? You can bet your bottom dollar, which is a lot closer than his bottom dollar, that this was all fully explained to him — and he gave the go ahead to sign Hedo anyway.

KP knew that Hedo was going to have little impact on strategy in the last two years of that contract, because we’ll be in tax zone anyway. Paul Allen knew Hedo was going to cost him $20 million a year for the last two, almost certainly last 3 years, of the contract, and said to go for it.

The fact that he was expensive was irrelevant. Paul Allen said he would put up the money.

Objecting to the cost of Hedo is like objecting to signing a free agent every year for the MLE when you are already in the luxury tax. The only guy who has a right to object is the owner, and if he’s willing to burn the money, fans should just say, “Thank you very much, we don’t really deserve an owner like this.”

he’s a 3 point specialist who can slip behind the defense for alley-oop dunks

and make some fancy post-entry passes

(but on defense he can only defend average SGs, and Portland has this guy named Roy who is entrenched at that position)

But don’t expect him to penetrate like Ginobili and get to the FT line, or run the P&R like Hedo. Rudy is a complimentary player who is at his best in an uptempo system, and it’s difficult to see him making progress towards NBA stardom with Portland