Wow! I don't think of Hedo as a Factor but geesh I cans see the Rockets sinking lower an lower in the west. Good thing is Morey will not settle I can bet he's letting everything play out before he makes a super deal
Wow, I'm really scared now. NOT. In reality, Hedo is on the decline. Hedo won't have the same go-to role he did in Orlando. I will be surprised if he put up the same numbers he did in Orlando. Yes it makes them better but everyone else is getting better. He is just another jump shooter to this jump shooting team.
Say bye bye to Outlaw, Webster, Fernandez eventually. I actually think this is a decent move. Continually having young players with "potential" is overrated. No team ever stays intact.
If Hedo doesn't slip too much, this is a good move for the Blazers. With Roy as the alpha dog when the going gets tough, Hedo can step in when teams clamp down hard on Roy. This gives the Blazers 3 guys who can score one-on-one late in games. With the ball in Roy's hands, he will have two teammates in Aldridge and Hedo to feed when defenses collapse. Other times, Hedo can initiate the play and allow Roy to save energy and play off the ball. Playing on the same team is a tremendous burden off both Roy and Hedo. Outlaw, Rudy, Webster and Batum. Hmm. Nobody will take Webster. Nobody will give them much for Batum, who is very cheap to keep. That leaves Outlaw and Rudy. Outlaw is a definite goner. Rudy is the question mark. I'm gonna guess that either Rudy or Batum will join Outlaw in not being a Blazer next season. Now the Blazers need to upgrade at PG and see what happens.
Agreed. These two guys aren't your typical ballhog. They both can create for others. They both can catch and shoot. Their offense will be a lot more potent next year, not to mention Aldridge having one more year to mature. We will see how their defense hold up though. That's why it makes sense for them to go after a guy like Battier.
This comment smacks of someone who IMO didn't watch (at least not analytically) much of this year's playoffs. The Rockets managed to send Artest and Battier in waves at Roy until they finally wore him down. He was ineffective from exhaustion. Hedo was the single reason ORL bounced the Cavs out of the playoffs. "Having the ball in his hands" was by design. He initiated the entire offense and all Alston had to do was stand at the arc. Either Hedo or Roy can/will intitate Portland's offense. And it will be tough to stop. Regarding the future, Hedo has far less mileage on him than Peja and Peja makes 40% more $.
looks like its pretty much done, heres the linky schwinky http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4304805
Since you bring up one of my favorite whipping boys of all time, Peja has no guts at all and is a choker while Hedo is Mr. Clutch. Peja is a decent dribbler but he never created for anybody. Hedo will attack the rim and draw fouls instead of settling 100% of the time. He is a physical player on offense. Peja abhors physical contact and is a sissy. Like you said, Hedo was the trigger in the Magic's offense when it got tough. Roy put up 27/5/3 and shot the ball very well against the Rockets. I wouldn't say he was ineffective from exhaustion. The main problem was hardly anyone else on the Blazers was worth a dime in the games in Houston.
hedo dosnt play any defense. the blazers were like #1 in off per possesion last year. they dont need hedo in my opinion. i guess they use him as a pg instead of blake.upgrade there.if blazers want to go somewhere they still need to be a better defense team.hedo is a defensive liability in my opinion and portland gonna pay big $$$ to get him .
No he's not. He is a point forward that can shoot, drive, P&R, and, like you would expect from a point forward, he is an excellent passer. Portland clearly is better w/this signing, c'mon.
At first, it makes no sense. Why would the Portland Trail Blazers pay Hedo Turkoglu $50 million? Thanks to his position as a key ballhandler on a conference champion, Turkoglu has become one of the league's most overrated players: a 30-year-old forward who has had league-average PER numbers the past three seasons. Clearly, he isn't worth $50 million, which is the rumored price, and in a couple of years he might not be worth half of $50 million. Yet in a roundabout way, it makes a lot of sense for Portland to offer him $50 million. Let me try to explain. First, here's the most crucial thing to understand about salary-cap space: It doesn't mean you're getting a superstar, or even a star. Teams are limited to the players that are available on the market, and those players are often available for a reason -- and in fact, this year there isn't one bona fide All-Star in the bunch. Additionally, teams have a limited window of opportunity -- often cap space is only a one-year phenomenon. As extensions kick in for younger players, it can be gone a year later, especially in the current environment in which the cap is expected to drop a year from now. In Portland's case, the likely extensions for Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge mean this year's expected $9 million in cap space will be gone next year. The time horizon can shrink in another sense, as there's a league-wide blitz in the opening days of free agency to get players to commit to deals. Options for teams quickly become limited, which is why the strategy that has worked best in recent years is to pick one guy and go overboard after him. Finally, signing a player who doesn't fit the team's needs makes no sense. In this year's market, on July 1, some of the best players happened to be power forwards (David Lee, Paul Millsap, Charlie Villanueva) who would play behind Aldridge, or a shooting guard (Ben Gordon) who would play behind Roy. Clearly, that wouldn't be a great use of the cap space asset. What Portland needs instead is another player who can create off the dribble and take some of the burden off Roy offensively, and that player needs to be able to defend either the 3 or the 1 to fill in the Blazers' softest lineup spots. Make a list of free agents available on July 1 who meet that criteria and you get: • Hedo Turkoglu • Ramon Sessions • Nate Robinson • Allen Iverson • Flip Murray • Andre Miller • Lamar Odom • Ron Artest Here's one thing you'll quickly notice about those eight players: In a vacuum, not one of those players is worth $10 million a year, or anywhere close to it. But we're not in a vacuum, we're in a bidding situation, and sometimes in those situations it pays to overpay -- as we saw last year with Turkoglu and the Magic riding the $122 million Rashard Lewis acquisition to the NBA Finals. In particular, it pays to overpay for a player who is the right fit. Artest is the best on paper but committing to him for any time period longer than a week is folly unless you have immediate title aspirations. And from the rest of the list above, Odom is a nice option, but the odds of winning a bidding war against the world-champion, revenue-raking Lakers are slim; Sessions would tie up Portland's money for a week while the Bucks decide whether to match, after which the other desirable free agents might be gone. Ditto for Robinson. Which basically takes the competition down to Turkoglu, Miller, Iverson and Murray. And when we talk about players you'd even remotely consider giving more than the midlevel, you can narrow it further to Turkoglu versus Miller. In that competition, Turkoglu is clearly a better fit. Miller is an up-tempo point guard who would be joining one of the league's slowest-paced teams, and he's a poor floor-spacer on a team that thrives on spreading the floor around Roy. He's also 33, making a long-term deal risky. Turkoglu is no spring chicken at 30, but he has a couple of advantages. Because he is big and can shoot, his game should age well; he's not overly dependent on his athleticism. Additionally, he allows the Blazers to line up in a way no other free agent does. Because he handles the ball so well, he and Roy can do the ballhandling and allow the Blazers to play large chunks of the game without a true point guard. It's not like they'd be missing out on transition buckets -- they already play at a snail's pace. That takes us to the other story, Rudy Fernandez's reported unhappiness with his role and the pursuit of Turkoglu. But actually, a Turkoglu acquisition should be a godsend for Rudy. In a traditional lineup, it was going to be hard for him to see much daylight behind Roy, but in this set-up he could play extended minutes alongside those two provided he can defend quick point guards. If there's an odd man out, it would appear to be Travis Outlaw. The Blazers would lead the league in oversized wing players with 6-10 Turkoglu, 6-9 Nicolas Batum, 6-9 draftee Victor Claver, 6-7 Martell Webster and Outlaw. Outlaw, with a cap-friendly contract that has one year and $4 million left, is easily the most portable of the bunch, especially since his shot-creating skills with the second unit wouldn't be in as much demand with Turkoglu in the fold. In fact, Portland can seek to turn him into an upgrade at its other position of concern, point guard -- possibly by combining him with Blake or Jerryd Bayless in a sign-and-trade deal. Regardless, Portland's approach makes sense even if the dollars seem excessive at first glance. Yes, they're overpaying Hedo Turkoglu, and given his age it's possible they'll end up eating the last two years of the contract. But the way cap space works is that a team might get only one shot at using it, and must take advantage by making the best, strongest move it can for the best fit available. Turkoglu for $50 million is an imperfect solution, certainly, but it's a far better one than squandering the space by waiting, or by paying similar money to jam a square peg into a round hole. And as Turkoglu's soon-to-be-former teammates in Orlando showed last month, even in the current economic situation overpaying for a part that fits can work out awfully well.
man portland just became the 2nd best team in the west along w/ the spurs after the lakers portland built their team so well. we just stayed stagnant for years
Hedo is on the wrong side of 30. I think they would have been much better off trading for a guy like Battier.
Hedo Turkoglu rejects Blazers, ends negotiations I guess trying to get Rudy Fernandez or anyone else on Portland is out of the question..... http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/07/hedo_turkoglu_rejects_blazers.html The Oregonian has learned that free agent forward Hedo Turkoglu has rejected an offer to sign with the Trail Blazers and has ended negotiations with the team. He will leave town tomorrow morning. More to come.
You, I and a bunch of people may get our wish. http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/07/hedo_turkoglu_agrees_to_join_t.html
