I headed over to Storytellers salary cap site to try and get a better grasp on the situation the Blazers will be facing this summer.  I was curious how the team options for Steve Blake and Travis Outlaw would come into play with the amount of cap space.  Here are the numbers:

Continue reading this post »

 

As much as I love debating our 3rd string pg situation, I found myself pondering something different today.   So, I figured I would throw it out for the community to discuss.  We all know the blazers big 3 consists of Roy, Aldridge, and Oden.  So imagine that you are KP and for some crazy reason, you had to choose two of those players to keep.  Who would you let loose? 

 

Option 1: Let Roy go…

Roy has been our best player in his first two seasons, but he has shaky knees and a (so far) incurable heal injury.  In the nba, good big men are a rare asset and we have two of them that can’t be let go.  The addition of Rudy and Roy will cover up the scoring and leadership void that letting Roy go would leave…

 

Option 2: Let Oden go…

Oden has appeared to be injury prone in his early basketball career and we have a pretty dang good center in Joel Pryzbilla.  Oden has also been underwhelming everytime us PTB fans have seen him play for our team. Letting Oden go will open up minutes for Frye and possibly even give Steven Hill an opportunity…

 

Option 3: Let Aldridge go…

Aldridge has had a very nice start to his young career, but he tends to be more of a perimeter-oriented pf, which is replaceable.  Frye is sort of a poor man’s Aldridge with just as sweet of a shooting touch and Outlaw also played well at the pf spot last season.  They should be able to fill the scoring void that Aldridge would leave…

 

Now, I know everyone will want to say don't let any of them go!  But that defeats the purpose.  Personally, I can't make up my mind...

Poll

You can only keep 2 of our big 3, who do you keep?

21%

Aldridge and Oden

40 votes

44%

Oden and Roy

83 votes

33%

Roy and Aldridge

63 votes

186 votes | Poll has closed

B-roy at his all star party

 

 

 

 

Poll

How do you feel about Jack being traded???

2%

Bad move for the blazers

6 votes

74%

Good move for the blazers

169 votes

22%

I am going to miss his bubble butt

52 votes

227 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

I figured I better start a junk drawer so TiH has a good place to get all of the off topic out of him. I was checking out youtube and found a video of Chuck Hayes that is pretty funny, but also kind of sad.  Also, the one of Charles Barkley's golf swing is an instant classic for anyone familiar with the game.  What I think is funny, is that they are both equally bad, and they sort of resemble each other.   Other than that, I really don't have much else to say at the moment...

 

 

Poll

Which video makes you cringe more?

32%

Charles Barkley

11 votes

20%

Chuck Hayes

7 votes

47%

Cringe? I just laughed and moved on

16 votes

34 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

Jason Quick was on primetime and had some juicy tidbits about what the blazers are trying to do.  Isaac Ropp recapped what Quick said on his blog:

"Jason Quick, Oregonian:
Blazers in serious talks with 4 teams about trading out of the #13 pick
The four teams: Phoenix, NY Knicks, Toronto, New Jersey
Players targeted: Barbosa, Malik Rose or David Lee?, TJ Ford, Devin Harris
Offer on the table from one of the above or another East team
The deal involves the #13 and a Blazers reserve for an unnamed veteran
Potential exists for the Blazers to trade down targeting Brandon Rush @ #21
The players garnering the most interest: Frye, Webster & Outlaw
The players garnering very little interest: Rodriguez, Jack
Significant news: Nate has decided to play Travis Outlaw exclusively at SF
McMillan also committed to more Brandon Roy at PG
No word from James Jones on his player option"

Link:   http://1080thefan.com/Daily-Blog/2312225

There is a lot of good info in there.  Quick also said that Paul Allen commented that the proposed trade was "intriguing".  I wonder who it could be for???

Nate saying that Travis is going to be primarily a small forward is also sort of interesting.  That must mean they plan on keeping Frye?  How does that effect Jones and Martell?

On your mark.....

Get set.....

SPECULATE!!!!

 

Poll

What should the blazers do with #13?

52%

Trade up

124 votes

6%

Trade down

15 votes

36%

Trade out

86 votes

3%

Make the pick

9 votes

234 votes | Poll has closed

I just saw video of the celtics and hawks incident on espn.  They reported that there will be no suspensions after the altercation.  Here is a link to the article:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/news/story?id=3374218

and a quick summary of the incident:

"The confrontation started when Garnett cleared out Zaza Pachulia with an elbow, and the Hawks forward went forehead-to-forehead with the Celtics star. A referee grabbed Garnett, but he, too, got a push as Garnett struggled to break free."

What do you all think about this?  I saw the video and KG clearly shoves off a ref and Perkins and Marvin Williams clearly step onto the floor.  Shouldnt all 3 be suspended, since Stern always follows "the letter of the law"?  I am sure Pheonix thinks so, its not like they ammended the rule last offseason.  Besides, even if you let the guys stepping off the bench slide(which I think is very appropriate), KG still pushed a ref.  Isnt that worthy of a suspension in itself? 

Poll

Who should be suspended after the Hawks and Celtics altercation

32%

Kevin Garnett

24 votes

52%

Garnett, Williams, and Perkins

39 votes

14%

Nobody should be suspended

11 votes

74 votes | Poll has closed

I stumbled upon some surprising stats today on 82games.com.  I have openly questioned why Blake isnt seeing time in the fourth quarter, and I believe I found some stats that should only add fuel to this fire.  My point in all of this is that we are better when Blake plays over Jack, most specifically in the 4th quarter.  So I will just jump right into it.  

For those who arent familiar with 82games style, they use a lot of + - stats that are broken down by the possesion rather than by the minute.  They then magnify the stat over 100 possesions to get more useful numbers.  This helps even out different styles of play and gets to the nitty-gritty of what happens each possesion, or rather, every 100 possesions.  

First the on/off court stats of Jack and Blake.  Jacks are here , Blakes are here .

You can see that our team gets outscored by an average 4 points per 100 possesions when Jack is playing and our team outscores our opponents by 2.3 points per 100 when Jack is on the bench. Blakes are just the opposite, we out score our opponents by 1 with Blake on the floor and get outscored by 4.5 with Blake on the bench.  People often cite getting to the basket as a reason for JJ to play, but we only get 3 extra freethrows per 100 possesions with JJ over Blake. And when you consider we turn the ball over 1 extra time per 100 with Jack over Blake, it diminishes the value of those 3 freethrows.  As a team, we shoot a higher percentage with Blake and also outrebound our opponents with Blake on the floor.

NOW THE MIND BOGGLING STAT

I found what 82games refers to as the "crunch stat".  It basically takes a players + - during the overtime or the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter WHEN the game is within 5 points either way.  So lets see how our team does in crunch time with Blake at the helm as opposed to Jack. Jacks stats are here , Blakes are here .

Now, did everyone catch that?  When Jack plays in crunch time we give up 100.4 points per 100 possesions and only score 94.7 points per 100 possesions.  With Jack playing, our record is 12-15 in these close games.  Now onto Blake.   With him on the floor we hold our opponents to a rediculous 86.1 points per 100 possesions and score an even more rediculous 120.8 points per 100 possesions, and our record is 17-9 in those games!.  In all of Jack's crunch time minutes, we have been outscored by 15 points.  In all of Blakes crunch time minutes, we have outscored our opponents by an unheard of 54 points.  Blake's +54 is by far the best on the team, while Jack's -15 is convincingly the worst.  You also might notice that Jack's scoring and passing numbers are all better than Blakes, and this is the problem.  Too much JJ1 and not enough Roy.  When Blake plays late, Roy gets the ball, the defense spreads, and we win 2 games for every loss. When Jack plays late, he controls the ball too much, the D collapses around his drives, and we lose more than we win.  Can we please see Blake finishing some games? Please?

Rant over, and I promise to never say "per 100 possesions" again...

Poll

should blake be playing more late in games

2%

no

2 votes

2%

I refuse to question Nate...ever.

2 votes

94%

yes

63 votes

67 votes | Poll has closed

I dont know what to say, that 3rd quarter officiating really didnt give us a chance in my opinion.  There were so many bad calls, so, many.  Its no surprise that boston outscored us 32-17 in that quarter.  It carried into the fourth as well but only long enough to make sure boston had locked down a win.  How much did the refs influence this game?

Poll

How bad was the reffing vs Boston tonight?

0%

fairly even, edge to the blazers

1 votes

45%

bad in the celtics favor

54 votes

11%

fairly even, with a little celtic love

13 votes

2%

refs were pulling for the home team!

3 votes

37%

disgracefuly in the celtics favor

44 votes

2%

even

3 votes

118 votes | Poll has closed

Apparently there is another report out of Zach being Zach.  Here is the juice of it:

"According to the New York Post, Zach Randolph and Nate Robinson had to be separated during a timeout in overtime after Randolph threw a cup of water over Robinson, then Robinson responded by throwing a towel back at Randolph before the two were separated. "

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap/

I couldnt figure out how to link the actual New York Post article, so I just linked the realgm wiretap.  You have to scroll down a little way but its there with a link.  

Poor Zach just cant stay out of his own way, I kind of feel sorry for him.  

Poll

Are you glad Zach is gone?

1%

No

1 votes

7%

Who cares?

5 votes

90%

Yes

59 votes

65 votes | Poll has closed

Chris Brousard just reported on nba coast to coast that portland is indeed involved in the jason kidd talk, but as a third party.  He said the talk was about Stackhouse going to NJ, Harris coming here, and Kidd going to dallas.  This is a trade that makes sense for portland, depending on who we give up...

Any thoughts???

Well, at least our road MVPNNR(most valuable player not named Roy).  Since the teams turnaround that started in december, outlaw has been killing people in their own arena.  His late game scoring has kept us in, and won the blazers several road games, two of which ought to be quite obvious.  Here are his road game stats from December and January:

17.4 ppg, 52%fg, 65%3pt, 5.8rpg, 1bpg

and his stats for our current road trip:

18.5 ppg, 54%fg, 71%3pt, 5.7rpg, 1bpg

Thats big time for a bench player, not to mention he has 2 game winners during this stretch.  His ceiling just keeps rising higher and higher.  How sweet it is to see the potential start to turn to consistency...

So, how good can Outlaw be???  How will he fit our team in 2 seasons??? 3rd option? 2nd option? 1st option? role player? All star? Nba finals MVP???  How much better will Outlaw get and how will he fit the team???

Poll

Who is the MVPNNR for the first half of the season

8%

Jones

7 votes

1%

Joel

1 votes

2%

Sergio

2 votes

0%

Jack

0 votes

0%

Frye

0 votes

3%

Blake

3 votes

7%

other(I like to sabatoge polls)

6 votes

11%

Aldridge

9 votes

0%

Webster

0 votes

64%

Outlaw

50 votes

78 votes | Poll has closed

Freeman is reporting that Miles returned to 5 on 5 drills today for the first time.  It sounds like it was just light halfcourt workouts but it is still a nice sign.  Right now Miles is saying and doing the right things, I am interested to see how this plays out.  Here is the link:

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2007/12/sunday_surprise.html

I was watching nba coast to coast and they were picking people for worst performance this season.  The first dude picked Mchale for shipping away kg for a bunch of nuthin. Guess what the second guy picked???  Zach Randolph's defense.  The clip they showed was even better. Zach was arguing with the baseline official while his man Murphy is setting up and draining a wide open three, there isnt a pacer within 8 feet of zach. Classic Zach. I mean, if you are averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds and STILL finding yourself at the top of the quarter season worst performance list, you are doing something very, very wrong.  

ps   there were multiple mentions of the blazers, all very positive.  Nate got some credit for his coaching job, the blazers got credit for having one of the best team performances, and roy got credit as a breakthrough player.  Jalen Rose said that "Roy is a quiet star about to become a superstar".  Nice.

Imagine the blazers go into Salt Lake city to take on the jazz and the following happens:

-The blazer commit 20 turnovers

-The blazers shoot 22 less fg's than the jazz

-The blazers grab 13 less rebounds than the jazz

-Roy scores 16 points on 5-12 shooting and only plays 30 minutes

-LaMarcus never logs a single minute of action

-Boozer drops 29 points and grabs 13 boards

-Oden still has a bum knee and doesnt play

Thats a blazer loss everyday of the week and twice on Sunday. Right???  

What happened???  How did the blazers control the majority of this game??(The jazz never led after the 1st quarter was over!!!) How did we get the most unprobable victory of Nate's coaching tenure???

WHAT A GAME!!!!

Quick is reporting on the blazer beat that Taurean Green will be sent to the Idaho Stampede for an undetermined amount of time.  His first game will be a matchup against Aaron Brooks.  It should be interesting to see how he does down there, I would think he would get pretty significant minutes.  There is also some other good stuff posted yesterday about Jack being unhappy with how he is being used.  

I want to concentrate on the point guard situation because it is truly puzzling to me.  We know that Jarrett is struggling and Blake is playing his normal ho-hum 6-10pt 3rb 5asst basketball(which I do like).  Nobody has won the point guard job, although I would argue that Jack has lost it at this point, but thats not my question or point. I want to concentrate on some of Nate's decisions with the point guard rotation.  

Why does Nate afford Jack such a long leash? Sergio comes in during the 2nd quarter of the NOH game and provides a legitimate and noticable spark.  Sergio scores on 3 consecutive plays and then dribbles the ball off his foot. The result: yanked, jack back in the ball game to finish the 2nd half.  Jack continues to struggle in that quarter and Nate continues to play him.  Nate even gives Jack the ball to end the half when he has done virtually nothing right, and Roy is on the floor!?!?!?  

On to the houston game, Jack plays awful and Green comes off the bench before Sergio. How does Sergio not get into the game when we clearly needed an offensive punch and change of tempo?  I was utterly confused and then something hit me. I think we are shopping Jarrett Jack.  His situation reminds of magloirable last year. He would come in and struggle, and Nate would just let him play(at least before the trading deadline when his play was less than good).  Nate's pg rotation has me baffled and the only thing that makes sense to me is that they are showcasing Jack right now, and maybe Jack knows it or even quietly asked to be traded behind closed doors(learn from this Kobe).  He is the only point guard that doesnt fit into the upstyle game, and he has shown why in these 1st 3 games.  So please give me some insight if you have it.  Are we shopping Jarrett Jack?  Whats up with Nate's pg rotation? Why does Sergio recieve DNP's after solid play the game before?  

ps  I have a unrelated poll but I was curious what the results would be. Simple question: Who has been the most consistent blazer so far this year? (I purposely left out Jack for pretty obvious reasons)

Poll

Who has been the most consistent blazer so far this year?

0%

Frye

0 votes

1%

Joel

1 votes

0%

Jones

0 votes

0%

Outlaw

0 votes

0%

Green

0 votes

0%

Roy

0 votes

1%

Blake

1 votes

6%

Aldridge

5 votes

4%

Sergio

3 votes

86%

Webster

62 votes

72 votes | Poll has closed

I think we are still a better team than last year(yes I heard about Oden).  I am trying to compare last years starter and backup players to this years projected starters and backups.  This is how I see it breaking down:

1ST TEAM

06-07 lineup        07-08 lineup(projected)

1.Jack        vs.    1.Jack (upgrade) Jack will improve upon last year, he could be a big surprise
2.Roy         vs.    2.Roy   (upgrade) I think Roy will be MUCH better this year, expect him to  lift                                                      the pressure off Mr. Oden with his fabulous play.
3.Ime         vs.    3.Travis (even) Travis brings better rebounding and scoring, but Ime brought                                                       better defense and the 3 ball.
4.Zach       vs.     4.LMA  (downgrade/even) LMA probably wont bring 23 and 10, but                                                                    defense and team chemistry will definitely improve.
5.Joel         vs.    5. Joel  (upgrade) Joel was a non-factor last year, I hope/expect that he can                                                          contribute a little more, possibly a lot more.

2ND TEAM

1.Sergio     vs.    1.Blake     (upgrade) and I think a very important one.  Point guard play was                                                     very sketchy last year, we will have much better players at                                                       the point this year.
2.Webster    vs.    2.Webster (upgrade) Webster will be a better player this year than last,                                                          perhaps a breakout guy.
3.Travis     vs.     3.Jones     (even)  defense is about even with a slight edge to Jones, Scoring                                                       and rebounding should be about the same with a slight edge                                                       to outlaw.
4.LMA        vs.     4.Frye       (upgrade) LMA was hurt and only put up 9 and 5                                                                                last year, Frye can do better than that.
5.Magloire   vs.     5.Raef       (downgrade) Mags was fairly important last year. I hope and                                                                    think that a healthy Raef can be a factor, but to be safe                                                             I will assume he wont be.

3RD TEAM

1. Dickau    vs.      1.  Sergio   (upgrade)  Dickau played ok, but Sergio can change a game                                                      when he is feeling good.
   
2. Dixon/Jones  vs.   2.  Green    (even)  Green probably wont get much time,                                                                       but neither did Fred Jones and when he did get time,                                                          he was very unimpressive.
   
3. Miles      vs.    3. Miles     (even/upgrade)  Probably wont be a factor, but anything he                                                           could give us would be an upgrade.
   
4. Raef       vs.    4. McRoberts (even/upgrade)  Raef played 27 games and averaged 3.5pts                                                             and 2.5rbs.  I think Josh can match or beat                                                                that, most likely beat it.
   
5. Gingerbreadman  vs.    5. Oden      (even)  Come on.  Oden has more of presence and                                                             impact while sitting on the bench with crutches           

So basically, my only downgrades are a Zach for LMA swap, and that could turn out to be an upgrade if Aldridge can approach 20 and 10 while playing good defense.  I also have Magloire for Raef as a downgrade, but not much of one.  If Raef is healthy he can provide shooting that will be important to stretching the d, this could actually be even or possibly an upgrade if Raef is healthy.

Now here is a very important part, we have guys that could be surprises this year and tip the scales.  Just look at Outlaw, Jack, Blake, Webster, Jones, Frye, or even  Joel, Mcroberts, and Miles(left out LMA because I expect him to take a big step forward).  I don't see any of these guys taking steps back on last year, and they could all easily take big steps forward.  

So what do you think?  Am I anywhere close? Please feel free to dismantle my argument in any way you like, I want to accurately gauge how our lineup will look without Greg Oden.  My opinion is that we are still better than last year, and with a couple nice surprises, we could be in a playoff race come March and April

Poll

Will the blazers win more games this year??

76%

yes

19 votes

24%

no

6 votes

25 votes | Poll has closed

Nba.com put up player rankings up in regards to how well they do in the "fantasy" department.

http://www.nba.com/fantasy/draft_kit/home.html

Its not that informative since its purely stat based but he are some interesting things:

Roy is their #10 shooting guard, right behind joe johnson and tracy mcgrady, and ahead of manu and ben gordon.
Aldridge is listed as a center, and is #7 in that category
Oden is #14 on centers list(behind Biedrins and Bogut)????
Jarrett is #27 on pg's list
Blake wasnt in top 45 for pg's
Travis barely made small forward list at #40
Webster is #44 for sg's
Frye is #38 on pf list

According to the top 150 list, they would have had Aldridge after Sheed and before Bargnani on the power forward list, which would have been the #13 spot.

I was watching the spain vs. croatia game live right now. It started at 12:30.  You can watch eurobasket games through this site: http://www.mediazone.com/channel/basketball/eurobasketMen2007/index.jsp#    

Sadly it isnt free but 4 bucks isnt a complete rip off, or maybe it is.

RRRRRRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDYYYYYYYYYYYYY

I believe that I stumbled on  some video highlights of Rudy and Sergio from the spain team this summer.  All the video's say are "pre eurobasket 2007".  Isnt the eurobasket the olympic qualifying event that spain is participating in??  the highlights seem to be from 5 or 6 different games, so I imagine its the "friendly games" KP has refered to.  Regardless it looks to be new footage to me.  

I love Rudy's video, he shows real confidence shooting the 3, I think he is gonna be a really good player.  The ginobili to our duncan if you will, and I dont compare him to manu because they are both foreign born, its cause rudy's game seems to mirror ginobili's.

Sergio's video is full of him dropping dimes as usual, but he did have a couple strong finishes around the hoop that are encouraging. Last year it seemed like he could get by his guy but always was looking to pass it rather than finish.  Its good to see him scoring some buckets.

Rudy's video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAfyd0u70JI

Sergio's video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjPEZAy2hL8

ps   Dave, you might want to mute the rudy video unless you feel like havin a nervous breakdown.

First, I want to say how happy I am that none of our core is playing for team usa.  Prince went down at the end of the 1st quarter with some kind of knee injury and I think we should all hope and pray that rudy and sergio come away unscaved.

Watching usa play has made me realize something that is likely not the majorities opinion...  I am not sure I ever want the blazers to be the  favorite to win a championship.  It sets the bar so high that your season either ends in a championship, or a failure.  I was watching USA play Brazil today and they were up 5 after the 1st quarter and I thought to myself, whats wrong with these guys, and they were winning the game!!  I just watch team usa as a formality, I cant get excited about a team usa win because thats what I expect.  I feel for a spurs fan in a wierd kind of way.  The spurs winning their 4th title was probably more of a collective sigh of relief across san antonio than a overjoyed outburst of victory.  I mean, they were supposed to win it all, they didnt surprise anyone.  They had everything to lose and little to win(a championship and nothing less). There is something about being the underdog that is very compelling to me. I just dont ever want to see the blazers win a game and think to myself "they should have played better", or "phew, I would have been really PO'd if we didnt win that one".   The bitterness of losing is something that I can tolerate, but the bitterness of losing when you should have, and could have won takes it to a whole other level.  Have I gone completely insane???

Poll

Does myemic23 belong in a small padded room???

34%

yes

9 votes

46%

no

12 votes

19%

I plead the 5th

5 votes

26 votes | Poll has closed

I have noticed a lot of use of the phrase "book it" recently. Well, you have heard people say it, and this is it, this is THE book.  This is the place you make your bold predictions for next season, or even past then.  

I will have to pay my royalties to fatty for bringing the phrase book it into full use here at blazersedge and I am hoping we can get people making predictions that put them out on a limb, but arent completey silly and impossible.  Fatty's claim that the rockets will win it all is the perfect example.  We all go: come on, thats a long shot. but in reality, it could happen and fatty would look like a prophet.

The point of this is to do some sort of time capsule which we can revisit next offseason when we start turnin on each other again from boredom. I want to emphasize that the point of this is not to call out other people, its for fun and laughs a year down the road(as in:  what the heck was I thinking? steve blake with more than 8 apg?) but now the term "book it" has some consequences to it. Someone might tell you to put it in THE book if you are getting a little too wacky with your predictions or you use the phrase "book it" a little too seriously.

I will start off by saying that Steve Blake will average at least 10pts and 8assts next season AND Brandon Roy will be without a doubt the blazers best player by the end of the season (if we did a poll here he would get 80% or more of the votes) and you can book that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yTjebH2fLU

I wont blame ya if you dont watch the whole thing but one thing is for sure, Stephon Marbury is a wierd dude.  First he says he will average 20 points, 12 or 13 dimes, and 2 or 3 assists.  Arent dimes and assists the same thing?? He then rambles on about some other stuff that makes no sense.  he then ends the interview with a cell phone call and persistent yelling while the host is trying to do his job and move on to the next segment.

I am assuming most have seen this other stephon Marbury interview(I believe it was Damir that posted it in a previous diary), but it is also very amusing.  Something tells me that Steph liked the trade...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYY338_JgvI

yes sir!!

ps. Starbury doesnt seem like the sharpest tool in the shed, but he seems to do a lot to give back to the community. that makes him ok in my book.

Poll

How does obtaining Zach effect the knicks this season??

10%

worse, expect alot of noise from the knicks, in the 2008 draft!!

9 votes

20%

madison square garden will be sucked into the depths of the universe after the two black holes converge. this will be the end of the new york knicks as we know it.

18 votes

1%

championship!

1 votes

33%

playoffs!

29 votes

34%

same as last year.

30 votes

87 votes | Poll has closed

I havent been keeping up heavily with the blazers news since the summer league ended but I have seen anything about whether Ime has signed or not.  I heard that he is likely gone from Pritchard, but havent seen news of where he signed and nba.com doesnt have anything on him.  If he hasnt signed yet, do you think it is possible that he is having trouble signing somewhere other than portland.  Maybe Ime hearing KP say that he was going elsewhere got to him and he is considering less money to stay in portland. Or maybe I just missed the article that talked about Ime signing for the spurs.  Please update me!!!!

Thats how much money Rashard Lewis is going to make over the next 6 years.  Is it just me or is that a little bit on the crazy side, I mean, 19.5mil/year for Lewis?? I wanted him in a blazer uniform but not for more than half of that. WOW. Did they really need to give him that much money, thats KG, Kobe and Shaq kind of money.

Heres the story: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orl-lewis12a07jul12,0,7850468.story

What is really crazy about Lewis's deal is that it is scaled to get bigger each year. He is due to make 15.6mil this year but it sky rockets to 24mil in his 6th year!! He will be aproaching 34 years old before his 6th year of the contract and has already tended to be a little injury prone. Do they really expect him to get better every year?? He strikes me as someone who is peaking right now and ready to start the down turn. What all of you guys think about the deal?

Poll

Did Orlando pay Lewis too much money??

0%

Orlando just stole Lewis for nothing.

1 votes

90%

Orlando paid way too much

93 votes

5%

Orlando overpaid a little

6 votes

2%

Orlando paid just the right amount

3 votes

0%

Orlando underpaid a little

0 votes

103 votes | Poll has closed