Friday, May 19, 2006

State of the Blazers...part 1

In honor of my days playing NBA Live at the Kay house, the first thing I need to say is that the Blazers are paying Derek Anderson $9.7 million next year to play for the Heat. So that's good news.

Other salary type news: only two guys come off the books this season. Voshon Lenard is one of them, and I don't think we should resign him. The other is Joel Pryzbilla. I really don't know what we should do about him, since he played really well for the team this season, but he doesn't like the attitude of a lot of guys and is going to probably go for more money than he's worth.

Some more important salary info: the top three paid players for the Blazers have dealt with injuries the last two seasons, which has really hindered their contributions to the team. Zach Randolph was healthier this season, but I am a bit worried that the injury could hamper him in the future. More on Randolph when I actually talk about which players they should keep. Ratliff is overpaid. The Blazers knew they were taking a risk when they traded for him, that he had a history of injuries. The first season he was in Portland he stayed healthy and was fantastic. But since then things have gone the same way for him that they had been going since he came out of Wyoming. So if someone would be willing to take that big contract, I think we should dump him. The third player--besides Derek Anderson, bravo management--earning top dollar for the Blazers is Darius Miles. I'm still torn about Miles, because I like his game a lot. I think he could be an incredible player, and that he brings a ton on each end of the court. But I'm beginning to wonder if the problems he had with Cheeks are going to keep coming back. More on him later, too.

So which Blazers are not being overpaid? Sebastian Telfair, who is only making $1.79 million next year. Victor Khryapa, a very good SF from Russia, who is making $1.14 million next year. Juan Dixon, who I would think is overpaid at $2.7 million next year except that he was one of the few bright spots on offense this season for Portland. Travis Outlaw, who is a phenomenal athlete and a pretty good basketball player, who made 900K last year and will make $1.53 million next year. Here is my statisticall backup to these statements, thanks to 82games.com.

The fair salary, which is based on the Roland rating--something I don't yet understand--and what the player brings to the team on and off the court, is as follows for each of the players I just said wasn't overpaid.

Telfair: $1.93 million
Khryapa: $1.26 million
Dixon: $3.09 million
Outlaw: $430 thousand

So I was wrong about Outlaw, but right about the other three, for the sake of comparison, here are the actual salaries and the fair salaries for the rest of the team:

PlayerFair Salary(in millions)Actual Salary(in millions)
Randolph$6.50$12.00
Przybilla$3.78$1.56
Dixon$3.09$2.70
Miles$2.36$7.75
Blake$2.08$1.08
Telfair$1.93$1.79
Khryapa$1.26$1.14
Jack$0.89$1.14
Webser$0.63$2.78
Outlaw$0.43$1.53
Lenard$0.21$3.52
Skinner$0.17$5.40
Seung-Jin$0.08$0.74


More to come later, it looks like I was wrong on a few other players...

3 comments:

Mac said...

Carlton, it's good to see your blog isn't completely dead man. If you can pan out any mistakes, which might require non-stream-of-consciousness writing style on this one, we could have you as a guest contributor on the Village Tavern.

hope all is well, later

Lewis said...

Thanks for obliging me on the state of the Blazers. You've actually really peaked my interest, and I look forward to reading your next installments. As the draft approaches, I plan on doing a similar state of the union for my Atlanta Hawks (with hopes of getting the PG we need). Keep up the good work.

Mac said...

Carlton, i hope that the recent draft lottery will inspire you to continue with part 2 of your state of the blazers articles. are you dissapointed witht eh #4 pick, or have u just come to expect it?