Not happy we weren't in the mix on this. How on earth does Ezeli only get $7 mil in this market? I have to say, with Marjonovic and Ezeli signed to reasonable deals, I think Houston really missed out. Both those guys could have been real difference makers for us. A little frustrating.
Only $7 million for 1 year? THis guy needs a new agent. Other stiffs are getting $30 to $40 millions for 3 to 4 years!!! He could have made the same money by signing with the Warriors!!! 1 year at $1 million for minimum and then get $6 million from all the Playoff bonuses money!!! His agent is dumb! Plus Portland likes to play small plays so he's not getting much player time. Only bigs that will get minutes is Plumbee and Lenoard and he ain't playing ahead of those 2 Centers
At this rate, I'm seeing $5 million for one year. Early birds and crappy players took up all the money
Ezeli is terrible. The last 2 years, JVG lost cred every time he said Ezeli would be a good starting C for several teams. In game 7, my son and I counted each of his 6 complete blunders in the first 3 minutes. It was laughable. Same thing for the first 2 minutes of the 2nd half. In 9 mins total, he was 0-4 and his +/- was -11. Ball game.
FWIW he underwent a physical before signing the contract. Those knees could have hazard signs on them, which would have played a part in his contract, and could explain the team option for the second year.
Yeah, he was absolutely terrible in Game 7, but we all know players aren't judged by one (or even multiple) poor performances (see H. Barnes). Ezeli is a smart, young, athletic, defensive big. As in the Ian Clark thread, nobody is saying these guys are great players. The surprise is the contracts they got compared to what other, seemingly inferior, players got. Mozgov = 4/64, but Ezeli is only = 2/15? Wot?
Spoiler <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Blazers' projected depth chart<br>PG: Lillard, Napier<br>SG: McCollum, Connaughton, Montero<br>SF: Turner, Crabbe, Harkless, Layman<br>(1/2)</p>— Jason Quick (@jwquick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jwquick/status/751237344850694145">July 8, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Blazers' projected depth chart (2/2)<br>PF: Aminu, Davis, Leonard, Vonleh, Alexander*<br>C: Plumlee, Ezeli<br>*7/25 deadline to make guaranteed</p>— Jason Quick (@jwquick) <a href="https://twitter.com/jwquick/status/751237900876984320">July 8, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Make-good contract. Ezeli ideally plays two healthy years for Portland and gets back onto the market quickly. If his knees fall apart, at least he gets $7.5-15M (depending on when they fall apart) as a nice insurance policy. Pretty sweet deal for Portland. Their risk is limited to a year at a time and, if he's healthy, he's been one of the best rim protectors in the game on a rate basis.
I'm not judging Ezeli by one game. Seen him plenty of times. The reason he only got 1/7.5 is because he's terrible. Mozgov is serviceable.
Kerr played Varejao way more than he should've because Ezeli crapped the bed during the finals. Stone hands like Asik and poor finisher @ the rim. Shot 47% on layups compared to Asik's 46% this season. Why would you want Boban when you know we're going to play with pace?
