12-12-2020, 09:34 AM
(12-12-2020, 03:33 AM)Mavs2019 Wrote: Giles had a nice debut for the Blazers. Wow.
18 pts (8-13)
14 rebs
2 blks
3 stls
Derrick Jones and Covington with great debuts, too.
Maybe time for a small wager on the Blazers for the title.
It´s basically their WCF finals team from 2019 plus returning Nurkic as the starting center, plus Melo as a 6th man and replacing Harkless with Covington, Aminu with Jones and Curry with Trent Jr.
Hard to argue they are not a much better team than the version that was the SuperWarriors away from an NBA title.
I like the names of who Portland got in the off season, but the decisions around terms a puzzling to me. Giles is a minimum contract. Portland won't have any type of hold on him. The second year of DJJr is PO. I suspect if he continues to hit 100% of his 3's he'll be back on the market next summer and Portland won't have any rights on him. They are $1.8mm under the tax and have Collins and Trent as RFA's next summer (when half the league will have significant space) and Kanter and Melo as UFA's. Nurcic, Roco and Hood are free in 22.
In fact, in 22, they will have $76mm tied to 32 year old Lillard and 31 year old McCollum and $40mm to fill out the rest of the roster. It is now or never for Portland, but their conundrum is if they play well this season teams will attempt to pick them clean in free agency next summer.