The analysis I see also says it was a Blazers salary dump, since Powell had a decent 5 year deal, and we can free up room to keep Simons, and extend Dame in the offseason. And Roco was on an expiring contract.

However, previous analysis indicated Powell intentionally signed a very team-friendly contract to show his loyalty to us. I dunno what to believe anymore. Love Norm, glad he gets to return to his native Socal, but darn, it does not feel like we got an equal return for him. He's the 35th leading scorer in the National Basketball Association and we got peanuts for him.

And if we are trying to shed salary and produce a crappier team so we can give Dame that big 2 year extension he wants, is his loyalty to the team/city or the money we can give him? I loves me some Dame, but I remember Kobe's last couple years in his loyalty contract extension in his mid-late 30s: he was injured a lot of the time and could not contribute as much as as his former self. Actually, I feel horrible even thinking that. Dame is awesome and has given us so much.

I guess my feelings are so raw right now. I need to sleep on it and process this. Not happy with today's events currently.