Agreed. I think Portland made a smart deal. It's tough for them, but it was probably the right move. They also got an upgrade for Afflalo as well imo.
He will be an ufa not restricted. And hes not a max star. His bird rights arent worth that much since almost every team will have millions of cap space to throw around. At least the east will be better next year. I have no idea who will make the playoffs from seed 5 to 8. There will be around 7 teams fighting for them.
Also let's not forget that Batum is coming off the worst year of his career. It was not a good year for him.
Vonleh is near the top of my draft board last year. I don't know what happened in Charlotte, but a former allstar is labelled as garbage after playing over there one season...talking about culture/fit/recency effect. BTW, Vonleh would be one of the youngest prospects in THIS year's draft, so at worst it's way too early to write him off. On the other hand, Batum just had probably his worst season with below average PER. IMO Portland made a smart bet on the future.
At first I was like.. Whoa, Portland is blowing it up. Then I kept thinking about how people were saying the Rockets were going to implode after Parsons left. Maybe the Blazers FO knows better.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">On POR/Sixers discussion, league sources say Blazers are interested in using No. 23 to acquire an established big man, not get more picks.</p>— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) <a href="https://twitter.com/JakeLFischer/status/614081370546118656">June 25, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
What former All Star went to Charlotte, and after one year was labeled as Garbage especially with respect to the current Hornets staff and ownership group? Vonleh might prove me wrong but he's way far off from being a contributor on an NBA roster. Best wishes that he gets there but he's not too close today.
Probably to the Timberwolves IMO. Too many Big Men on that team. Pekovic has been on the block for a while now. Sending him and maybe Budinger to Portland for 23 and some future picks/current bench players may help in both teams favor. Especially the T-Wolves since they'll have A LOT of cap space.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">It's been an honor to be a Trail Blazers for 7 years.</p>— Nicolas Batum (@nicolas88batum) <a href="https://twitter.com/nicolas88batum/status/614137362512220161">June 25, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Thank you to all the fans, my teammates, the coaching staff and all the Rip City community. Thank you again <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RipCity?src=hash">#RipCity</a>.</p>— Nicolas Batum (@nicolas88batum) <a href="https://twitter.com/nicolas88batum/status/614137583954694144">June 25, 2015</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
