Portland has signed Chris Kaman, formerly of the Lakers, to a 2-year, $10 million dollar deal, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. This--though it has not been confirmed yet--uses the team's mid-level exception for this year. The second year is partially guaranteed.
Kaman has not played much over the last year due to a mix of injuries and the vagaries of Mike D'Antoni's Laker system, but he is a solid, capable scorer and can swat the ball away with efficiency.
Fans can be sure that it is a good move for Portland, and shores up their defensive flexibility while not sacrificing any offensive capabilities. One of the main reasons the bench has suffered in previous years is that it cannot put up any offensive pressure with Freeland or Lopez in from the 5 spot. This corrects that problem. It shows that Portland is trying to improve its defense through better spacing and through better offense, rather than through better individual defense and the pure use of matchups.
First, with Kaman comes the ability to switch Lopez out and not lose offense. It would would allow Aldridge to play more minutes, potentially, still at the 4-spot, if need be: he wouldn't ever have to play the 5. And if Lopez ever gets in foul trouble, Kaman is there to do the same job. A Kaman/Thomas Robinson lineup can work more like Aldridge/Lopez than Freeland/T-Rob. A Lopez (at 5)/Kaman (at 4) lineup (going huge) would protect the rim entirely while not sacrificing as much offense as a Lopez (at 4)/Freeland (at 5) would. And he can simply be benched alongside Lopez if the Blazers go small, but stuck back in instead of Lopez to conserve the latter's energy for the later part of games.
In many ways, it fixes the real unfortunate hole in the Blazers' bench, which was Joel Freeland. The Blazers tried to see if he could work this year, but with this signing have given indication that he is simply not moving along quick enough, and has to become a defensive specialist instead. His lack of experience (compared to Kaman) and his inability to put up offensive numbers make the Blazers stick, when they should flow, and makes subbing him for Lopez difficult. They need someone who can fit in an offense and keep it from stalling and substitute in for Lopez if he gets fouls. Quite simply, Freeland can't yet do that.
From a strategic standpoint, then, there's more flexibility, there's more offense, and more offense solves defense--or at least helps.
It is a decision that may frustrate some fans: why can't we just get a crazy defensive powerhouse, a bigger name? Or someone who could completely blow people away offensively, like Hawes?
They take solace two thoughts. First, that of Dwight Jaynes, at CSNNW: namely that Kaman is about as close as you can get to either of those things, in this free agency market. Second, there are signals that, far from settling for what is out there, this may be very sophisticated signing. Portland has an analytics staff who have entirely different views of the court than the rest of the league. We all remember that moment during the playoffs when everyone in the NBA watching Aldridge rip into the Rockets suddenly realized that their offense was based on a rather simple, but rather radical proposition: that the long-two was actually statistically viable and even crippling for other teams, when the rest of the NBA (with the exception of Dallas) had been pushing towards eliminating it. They may well be seeing Kaman fit into part of this strategy and others we're not aware of yet. To remember this is not to practice blind faith: rather, it is to remind oneself that the Blazers solve problems now holistically, rather than by just collecting a bundle of good pieces (as they have in the past). This makes for fascinating, rather than triumphant solutions.
They can also remember that Portland has been strangely good at finding personnel that have secretly always been destined to be in Portland and love every minute of it. Looking at Rolo, we simply ask: how on earth was that guy never here before, when everything about him screams that he would be a great fit in Portland? It is very possible we could be saying the same thing about Kaman in the future (and highly unlikely that we would be saying it of Hawes). Kaman keeps Portland weird, as John Canzano of The Oregonian excellently put it. It is, indeed, the chief reason Kaman said he was looking forward to coming to Portland, Joe Freeman reported: "This was about fit. I know I have 3 or 4 good years of basketball left. Really good years..." Kaman says, and continues:
I wanted to find the right fit for myself and the team. Portland was that fit. I want to be back in playoffs and help the team get back to wining the title. I think the Trail Blazers are right at that level.
Given the level of chemistry between the players last year, Kaman's likely ability to blend with the group now in the locker room is a crucial factor. And given, in general, the type of holes that needed to be fixed, this is a very satisfying move by the Blazers.
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