Tee Minus NINE more days until the NBA Draft. For most teams, they will have strategies going into the draft that will work with the moves they plan on pulling once free agency opens in July. These are exciting times again for the Blazers as they have two lottery picks with-which they hopefully make Magic with. One of both of those players could become starters, stars or super-stars... or they could both be out of the league in five years. Doubt that crap hits the Blazers again, in fact, I am definitely drinking Blazers-aide right now and thinking PDX rolls out of the 2012 Draft with four impact players. Not that I think Neil Olshey is the smartest GM since K-Pritch, but it just looks like this deep draft is a great place to pluck half a rotation for a team whose core is YOUNG. Aldridge 26 years old, Matthews is 25, Batum is 23, Hickson is 23, Nolan Smith is 23, and EWill is 22.
OF COURSE THE DRAFT IS NOT the quickest way, as some development time/seasoning is required by the freshly-drafted, so Portland will also need to mix-and-match at least three key players out of Free Agency to fill up the roster. I have a condensed list below, though it is not all inclusive of the 2012 Free Agent class. The list below is primarily made up of the younger players available in free agency.
Your mission, is to leverage the estimated $15M in cap space into THREE players for the Blazers roster. Try to be as realistic as possible
1. Which players you target and what you think Portland has to pay to sign them.
2. Any specific strategies in signing or trades that need to be made to get "the guy"
3. Answer the poll.
Here is the short list of potential free agent targets:
Point Guard
Ramon Sessions – UFA
Randy Foye – UFA
Jonny Flynn – UFA
Goran Dragic – UFA
Aaron Brooks – RFA
DJ Augustin – RFA
Jose Calderon – RFA
Shooting Guard
CJ Miles – UFA
Terrence Williams – UFA
DeShawn Stevenson – UFA
Nick Young – UFA
OJ Mayo – RFA
Power Forward
Troy Murphy – UFA
Jordan Hill – UFA
Marese Speights – RFA
Center
Spencer Hawes – UFA
Chris Kaman – UFA
Jermaine O’Neal – UFA
Hasheem Thabeet – UFA
Joel Pryzbilla – UFA
Brook Lopez – RFA
JaVale McGee – RFA