D
Deleted member 365
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Meh.
Not that the Trailblazers are in the business of helping the Jazz (although they did in the Deron Williams trade), but I think the Jazz should propose a side deal with the Blazers. Utah will not match the Wesley Matthews offer sheet, if Portland is willing to trade Rudy Fernandez for the Eric Maynor Trade Exception ($1.3m) and maybe a future second round draft pick (or better yet that European player that Utah got in the Maynor-OKC trade). Utah gets a quality small forward at an extremely affordable price ($1.2m) , who is in the doghouse with Portland and wants to go elsewhere. Portland gets Matthews, a player they obviously want and for whom they are willing to overpay. The Jazz, in theory, have the leverage, as they could threaten to repeat the Millsap match, and the trade exception to do this. Utah just has to somehow convince Portland to it. I think it is a nearly perfect plan. Utah would still have the full MLE to sign Ronnie Brewer and Udonis Haslem, or the like.
Dumb idea. It would be like trading Matthews straight up for Fernandez ... not sure though of the money involved. But look at it this way: they want to get rid of Fernandez but we don't want to get rid of Matthews. So we would be giving them what they want, not what we want. We can't let ourselves be bullied by them, or this will continue in the future. Some people are saying let Matthews walk. But is that really in our best interest in the long term? Next year, AK will be off the books, and if Matthews performs up to expectations, his contract won't look so bad.
Wasnt Rudy in the dunk competition? I think he is a pretty good athlete. I think its a great idea, but no way Portland just gives us Rudy.
Yes, he can jump, but if you saw the playoffs, he's not very strong and gets pushed around when defending, like AK. Also, Matthews is faster and quicker.
I watched some of the Blazers summer league game last night and the announcers were saying this was a big summer league for Patrick Mills to make the team. The Little Dude almost had a triple double last night. Have the Jazz bluff matching for Matthews and they say OK we won't and give us Mills and Fernandez for the trade exception and us not matching.