But whats done is done. The seasons over and Raymond Felton is hopefully back in Carolina at an Izzy's waiting to take down their lunch time buffett. I on the other hand, am busy playing NBA 2k12 while figuring out exactly what the fuck these dudes should be doing to rectify the situation.
It's actually not that hard, really. They need to resign Batum, and pump money into a point guard and center. Never fear, they have Batum's bird rights, four draft picks (2 in the top 14), and near 20 million in cap to play with.
A wild card rests in our an arbitration case we are participating with alongside the Knicks come the end of June. What's being arbitrated is Jeremy Lin and JJ Hickson's birdrights. If the teams win, Portland and New York will be able to sign Jeremy Lin and JJ Hickson and go over the salary cap to do so. This is HUGE as JJ Hickson was Portlands best player the last 10 games or so.
For the purpose of this, lets be optimistic and assume we get the bird rights to JJ. Obviously we either sign him or make a shitty offer so some team like Phoenix has to pump a stupid amount of money into him. Oh Phoenix you do want to pay JJ 10 million next season? Be our guest.
Dealing with the draft first, the pick to me is obvious. With the 6 pick we draft Andre Drummond. He is the best athlete in the draft and a potential franchise center. What makes him fall to us at 6 is that he hasn't really proved he is as good as his potential says. A lot of people are worried about him being Kwame Brown 2.0. That being said, an equal amount of people believe he could be Amare Stoudimire or Dwight Howard. For a team with a horrid record with centers, law of averages says we are due to pump a good center out. DO IT.On to the 11 pick. Time to address the point guard situation. Kendal Marshall or Damian Lillard would suite us just fine. Damain is better, but could get swipped up by then. Either that or trade the 11 pick to Boston for the 21 and 22 picks. They need to get young in a hurry and if you aren't in with Marshall or Lillard it could suite us to trade down.
Especially if we acquire the main target of the free agent class, at least as far as we are concerned: Goran Dragic.
He started 20 games for Houston and averaged 18 and 8 in those games. He played two seasons behind in the Steve Nash basketball camp. He can knock down wide open shots. Basically he was the complete opposite of Fat Felton. Portland's going to offer him a substantial deal and pray the Rockets don't get drunk before considering to match it or not.
If they do match it, you better hope they are open to trading Kyle Lowry because Nolan Smith and Johnny Flynn aren't taking us anywhere this year.
Again, thinking optimistically, lets assume we drafted Andre Drummond and Daminan Lillard (because thats who I drafted on my 2k12 franchise). Lets also assume that we signed Goran Dragic. If he works out, delicious. If he doesn't, we have another potential franchise dude in Lillard. I'm ok with this problem.
The last issue we have is the starting center. Andre Drummond for as great of an athlete he is (and he is, supposedly the fastest runner in the draft AT 6'10") he has no business playing meaningful minutes at the start. What I would do is call up New Orleans and say, "hey, we will offer you very little for Emeka Okafor. Let us pay him that awful contract you gave him 3 years ago." They will probably say, "is this a joke? Absolutely." and that will be that.
Here is your opening night lineup:
Dragic
Mathews
Batum
Aldridge
Okafor
Bench:
Hickson
E.Williams
N. Smith
Babbitt
Drummond
Lillard
and then whoever we draft in the second round.
Is it perfect? No. It's not going to win a title next year. But it's a hell of a start. Drummond will get good minutes dunking on 2nd stringers this year, and hopefully by the trade deadline NEXT year we can deal Emeka's expiring contract off and Drummond can step in and do a Andrew Bynum impression ( not the shit head act, more the 30 rebound act). I will go to war with that team any freaking night.
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