Does Turkoglu's Switcharoo Change Things?
by Seth on Jul 4, 2009 7:50 AM EDT
in News
24 comments
Hedo Turkoglu looked good and ready to sign with the Trail Blazers, leaving little room for Portland to scoop up David Lee. Now that he's pulled a Turkish Two-Step and made a beeline for Toronto, things may change. Here's Marc Berman in another brilliantly-headlined piece:
The Blazers have long lusted after Lee, who also seeks $10 million per season, exactly the amount the Blazers are under the cap. Bartlestein said because Lee is restricted, the Blazers were fearful of waiting 10 days to see if the Knicks would match and instead jumped at the surer thing in Turkoglu.
With Memphis and Detroit making other moves and Portland involved with Turkoglu, the Knicks' chances of re-signing Lee for $7 to $8 million had seemed to increase.
Bartlestein claims he's talked to nearly 15 over-the-cap teams who have proposed sign-and-trade deals with the Knicks for Lee. But because he is a base-year compensation player, it is difficult to make the math work under the CBA.
Turkoglu leaving Orlando also affects their other free agent, Nate Robinson. As the Knicks await word on Jason Kidd's decision, they are anxious to see if Robinson will sign an offer sheet on July 8 with another club. The Knicks would have 10 days to match -- and that obviously would depend if they sign Grant Hill or Kidd.
According to a person familiar with the situation, two of Robinson's five most serious inquiries have come from the NBA Finalists -- the Lakers and Magic. If Turkoglu winds up in Toronto, Orlando might get serious with Robinson.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if the Blazers quickly turn their focus to Lee, who doesn't seem to have been getting as many homerun offers as expected. As some consolation, it was reported yesterday that Toronto was in the running for Lee, so I guess we can scratch off one suitor while re-introducing another. As for Nate, it seems like the Knicks and other teams are in a bit of a game of chicken. With most of the free agent point guards still up for grabs, nobody's willing to throw a number Nate's way just yet. Next week, we'll see if that changes.
All of this sorta makes you miss the days when NY was fiscally irresponsible and had no money to spend in free agency, doesn't it? We didn't have to worry about these things. Just kidding. I don't think anybody misses that.
Maybe a little?
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IF
IF nate has to go, the kid deserves to be on a contender. On a team like orlando or LA, he could really show the world that he’s just not a dunk contest freak show spectacle, and that he’s actually a legit 6th man game changer.
As for portland, i never understood how they wanted Lee so bad….isnt Aldridge a PF? Wouldn’t moving him to center take away their defensive presences of Oden/Pryzbilla? I guess they just want to have a real deep team…
reppin NYC, and my clothing line, Recruit Zero !
www. recruitzero.com !!!
by Prezs2ReprsntMe on Jul 4, 2009 10:40 AM EDT reply actions
Portland needs a backup PF and i'm not seeing Lee fit that piece either.
Lee’s too good and will be paid too much money to come off of the bench for someone.
Roy Tribute
Treat people well because Karma can hit you at any second.
agreed
i’m glad Toronto and Memphis are out of it. i’m not completely sure if Portland will make a serious play on Lee or not.
Ewing with the step...YES! and the foul!
by Anthony Masons Haircut on Jul 4, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions
Free agency is a waiting game
Its a waiting game for everyone involved. Athletes, agents, teams, and especially the fans. With Turkoglu going to sign with Toronto that means that Toronto will have to let go of some of their 6 free agents, including Shawn Marion.
No with no deal for Marion from the Raptors he can start getting offers from others. Since Portland lost a SF in Turkoglu there is the possibility that they go after Marion. This is where we Knicks fans need to wait a little more and see wat happens with that situation. As a HUGE Knicks fan and even bigger fan of David Lee I hope the Blazers do go for Marion.
Plus I have heard the Knicks are looking to hire Charles Oakley. If they do hire him and Lee stays I can see a very strong front line formulating with Lee and Hill. I would have to guess that everyone here would love to see that happen.
I don't see how Lee fits the Blazers
Aldridge is pretty damn good…and I think they are still waiting on some guy named Greg Oden to pan out. Why aren’t they interested in Marion?
Check out nickandroll.blogspot.com
agreed
with a team consitently in the top 3 in offensive efficiency, it makes no sense to take out the one position on the roster dedicated to defense (center—oden and pryzbilla) in order to make room for a secondary PF who would be getting starter minutes and money (lee)
reppin NYC, and my clothing line, Recruit Zero !
www. recruitzero.com !!!
by Prezs2ReprsntMe on Jul 4, 2009 9:20 PM EDT up reply actions
if you ask me
the blazers will not chase marion. it’s not a sf they are after it’s a secondary ballhandler (pause) after roy. they probably would rather a ballhandler who could score a little something and be reliable on defense. thats why turkoglu trumps andre miller.
their next move is to go after probably miller, who is very much reliable… and if he costs much more than the midlevel – then they go after lee. and they’ll go hard (pause) after lee.
i think portland is dangerous because they have cap room right now. and they want to get a strong complementary player because they are willing to pay the luxury tax later on down the road. the other thing that makes portalnd dangerous is that they always seem to have 8-15 draft picks per year, on top of multitudes of manageable contracts.
portland is dangerous.
twitter.com/aighttho
Why the Blazers...
I’m a Blazer fan (Only clicked on this article through a link with Yahoo sports, and I saw it had something to do with Hedo, so I figured “why not?”). I think David Lee intrigues the team, because he would allow them to go big at the 3, and he can handle the ball decently. They need a 3rd scorer, and rumors that I’ve seen say we’re looking to sign a guy to play SF, then trade away Travis Outlaw and Steve Blake (Maybe 1 other) for Kirk Hinrich. Then they will proceed to resign Roy and Aldridge to long term deals.
So, if they are going to shoot a deal to Lee, look for it to be about a 9 Million Dollar deal, for 4-5 years. And expect it to come soon. Because they need to sign a free agent before they can pull a trade, because you can’t go over the cap to sign a new free agent, but you can go to 125%+$100,000 for a trade, and you can go over as much as you want to resign existing players. We’ll see if the Blazers do have any interest in David Lee soon, because time’s a ticking!!!
On a final side note, I loved the terms and conditions required to post here. Made my day.
I just wanted to comment on your last note. I want to leave the blog just to rejoin because those are T&Cs we should all live by.
Jason Clinkscales
A Sports Scribe
http://asportsscribe.blogspot.com
by Jason Clinkscales on Jul 5, 2009 2:09 PM EDT up reply actions
just went back and read the terms and conditions
glad you guys appreciate them!
Posting and Toasting: "Say yo Oak, what's the dish tonight? A couple steaks on the grill and we season it right."
Keep Lee
I would love to get this guy to the Nugs but honestly it aint happenin and he’s one of the few free agents who deserves cheddar this offseason. He goes hard at the best bigs in the game and scores w/ contact a lot. Makes the pick and rolls so easy that Duhon appears legit (no offense). I think he’s a a quick, underrated defender too its just that the Knicks roster is flush with poor team defenders. With Hill possibly being another guy who can protect the paint the Knicks will improve and Lee could become dominant with some work on his jump shot.
Honestly I’m not sure that he’ll play enough in Portland to be worth the salary. Plus the Blazers want a playoff performer to mix with their ridiculously good young core.
a few thoughts
on turkoglu: i think he actually makes the raptors worse. they’re giving up a lot of their rotation because there’s no cap room, and whatever toughness they had left to boot. who rebounds on that team? who comes off the bench? this move is terrible. it’s just a quick band-aid to the problem of retaining bosh, which is now 100% not happening. i think the knicks will have a better record than the raptors next year, for sure.
on lee: i think portland should be taken seriously. their GM pritchard has shown that he’s willing to acquire assets at any time. i think their stance may be that, while lee isn’t a perfect fit, he’s the biggest asset they can land with their cap room. so the knicks can’t lowball lee if they want him to stick around.
last thing – i think nate is a perfect fit in portland, and the blazers should really use their cap room on him instead. hopefully they won’t be smart enough to figure this out.
by latrell chokewell on Jul 5, 2009 5:21 PM EDT reply actions
i agree with most of the above sentiment
i don’t think aldrige can play the 3; kid can’t move his feet quick enough to keep up with melo or any other premier SFs. i also don’t think lee can be an effective 5 in the west. against many teams he’d be fine, but isnt portland trying to overtake denver and LA? I just dont see lee guarding the manchild bynum or even nene.
and really anything above the MLE is too much for a backup, unless he’s a 6th man whos an integral part of your team. when he’s backing up your 2nd best player, it doesnt make sense to shell out the dough for dlee
well...
i think lee comes in as a 6th man for portland and gives them a shorter rotation up front. frye becomes a practice player or a swing player gettin 5-10 minutes a game. pryzbilla can keep his minutes down. he is not without merit in that rotation. the thing is, portland seems interested in spending their cap money to acquire assets. as long as they haqve good products – they have moveable parts, and i think that’s the whole story.
twitter.com/aighttho
The Blazers 2009 off-season moves.
I agree with most of the above comments. Lee will have to be the 6th man off of the bench but moving outlaw in the process, I question this. I would rather they move webster but i know he is coming off surgery so his value is down and Batum hasn’t showed enough to have any value yet. But they have a lot of SF such as Outlaw, Webster, Batum, and the two new rookies Claver (playing over sea’s this year) and Cunningham. Even Fernandez can play SF. SF is not a problem we have talent there. PG is were the focus needs to be and back up PF. I agree Lee may not be willing to be a backup and why would they pay him starter salary. Channing Frye was mentioned above but he is no longer in there plans and he walked via free agency but was not signed by anyone yet. Andre Miller, Mike Bibby, Nate Robinson should all be considered. Bayless is going to be very good but it will take a few more years and I love the Pat Mills pickup in the second round. He may be a steal.
i think bibby is a good fit in portland
he can hit the three and doesn’t dominate the ball. because he can’t. but it might tke some stress off roy. thats what he did for joe johnson. i wonder if bibby struggles in the slower tempo of portland. but he can definitely knock down some 3’s and bring the ball up his fair share.
lee is depth. i don’t see why they pay that much for depth either. but to have on eof the best frontlines in the game wouldn’t be so awful. and the blazers have moveable parts. so lee having a big contract won’t mean too much in the long run.
the mismatch is that the knicks have plenty of wings. the only one i could see fitting in would be fernandez. outlaw is a chandler double. webster can shoot, but never really struck me as the type of high iq guy our style depends on.
nate would be good in portland. but he’d be better in new york.
twitter.com/aighttho
Its funny you say that...about Batum...because he is pretty much untouchable. Every GM has called about him and KP turned down a Gerald Wallace trade for Batum.
He was 19 when he played his first NBA game. He has shown great defense and a outside shot already. He started 76 games on a 54 win team. You are correct about PG and backup PF being the areas in need of upgrade. I’m glad we didn’t get Hedo.
They would pay him to be a backup to Aldridge
The Blazers are in great need of a ‘banger’ PF to play behind LaMarcus. Who knows if paying David Lee that much to be a 6th man is worth it….
yea i hear that
lee and aldridge is a real nice one two punch. not many teams would be able to handle. plus oden-przybilla is a real nice tandem. and as for your comments on batum- i agree, every time i saw that kid play i was very very encouraged. he’s great. with outlaw, and rudy fernandez, the wing position is stacked in portland. if martell webster could ever get it together again… whew! the blazers are a good team. good young team.
twitter.com/aighttho
We just need a point guard...
I love Blake to death…and he is great for his price…but we just need a starting point guard….Bayless could be that player. Huge year for him.
got a head nod of acknowledgement from nicolas batum at the draft.
so he’s cool in my book.
by far my favorite blazer anyway.
Posting and Toasting: "Say yo Oak, what's the dish tonight? A couple steaks on the grill and we season it right."
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