I love CJ, but you can't fall in love with your own players. IMO, Trent's played well enough for long enough that he's shown he's not a fluke. He's not the explosive scorer CJ is, but he can create his own shot. He's Wesley Matthews but better and still young and improving. I think he's good enough for a team to win in the playoffs with him. That's the important thing. So you can trade one of them, and trading CJ is more cost efficient. It also gets you a better return. Even though I'm sure people would argue John Collins is worth more than CJ straight up (not looking at the contract matches), CJ's proven that he can thrive on a winning team and come up big in the playoffs. That trade intrigues me, and the Blazers might be able to get something else back that would help. Maybe a backup guard. Maybe a draft pick. Maybe both. John Collins' addition opens the door to moving or letting go of Zach Collins, too. The way I think John Collins would fit this team really interests me. Let's just say I don't think with the way things have developed, I don't think you can dismiss it out of hand.
IMO, Olshey would NEVER admit he made a mistake and traded 2 1st's to move up and Draft the wrong Collins.
That's pretty easy to explain though. CJ, with all of his faults at point guard, is still a much much much better distributor than Simons. Right now Simons is playing significantly better when we actually plays off the ball, which isn't a surprise. We don't have a backup point guard right now.
Another fun fact. Gary, Ant, RoCo and Melo have all improved (some quite significantly) since CJ went out.
This assumption is such baseless conjecture. I don't think a good GM would consult with Dame about a trade and if they did it wouldn't determine their actions. Dame has said so many times that this is a business and has been fine when losing some of his teammates he's been closest with. He's also talked about how the team has the final say, not him. However Olshey is stubborn and unrealistic about the value of guys he picked. So as long as Olshey is here, I don't see CJ going but hopefully I'm wrong.
I have noticed that as well. However, I don't see how either Roco or Melo's improvement has anything to do with CJ's absence. Trent plays better with the starters. As for Simons, it was obvious to anyone who watched him play as opposed to watching his PER, he was getting better each game from the start of the season. Who I don't think has played better is Dame. At least not his shooting percentage. He still comes through at the end, and he is averaging more points, but I doubt his shooting percentage is any better. Sometimes he is hot sometimes he is not. The biggest thing to me is Dame does not force the ball to Kanter like he felt obligated to do with Nurk. Some liked the offense running through Nurk, I am not one of those. I like the efficiency of Kanter with the first team. He doesn't try to do too much.
Everything is baseless conjecture unless we have facts and/or an event has taken place. I was being sarcastic but at the same time you know Dame was/is influential in Cj signing a long term deal right after Dame did with the same time frames. I think Dame is and should be influential.
Maybe CJ will be the one requesting a trade and he probably by now realizes a bigger market like Philly or New York would be better for his long term media profession. Isnt his Bride from NY or back east?
The guy will be worth 75-100 million when his career is over. Will he really care about which market he works in after he retires?
He should Dame's defense and redundant skill set with his, holds him back even more than CJ holds back Dame because Dame is the superstar.
Well I don't see us trading CJ even though we are winning without him and Nurk too. But I believe we need Nurk more then we need CJ. Dame going be Dame no matter who out there with him. I like CJ and he was having a great season before the injury but I see now everyone is playing better due I think everyone is more in involved in the offense and I think it translating down to the defense. But again due think Olshey trading CJ no I don't even though it helps us financially maybe not this year but next year if we take back expiring contract. This the chance keeping Trent and still haven't gave up on collins. Then don't be dumb and over value your own players. But I don't know what ownership telling Olshey maybe there telling him don't go over the cap at all and that will tie Olshey hands by what he can do to keep us completive because we definitely will start loosing key players if that's there route. So he might not have any choice trading CJ if that would be the case because right not without him we are completive. But I don't see it happening especially this season but if it does maybe the off season.
If Anfernee is extended this summer, how much could it cost? Extending Gary for 4 years and Simons for 3 years would make Dame/Gary/Simons all free agents in 2025. Continuing to develop Simons into a PG on a cheap extension and re-signing both for the long term with Dame back on a team-friendly deal after his supermax would be ideal. Exciting to think about what what our backcourt can become. I’ve seen reports that KAT is unhappy, with with 3 years left on his deal, would he be remotely available even if he demanded a trade? Would love to see a deal this summer like CJ, Nurk, Little, and 2 1sts for KAT and Culver. Would there be any team that could outbid that haul (assuming CJ continues to average around 27pt/5ast and Nurk goes back to averaging close to 15pt/10reb)?
I haven't seen this trade put out there yet but I think it makes a lot of sense. Of course we'd have to guarantee our first rounder this season to Houston but here it is:
Right, in order to convey all three of the first rounders in the trade (23', 25' and 27'), we would have to take the protection off of this years pick so Houston has it outright. That protection goes through 2027 making it impossible for us to trade any first rounders until we take the protection off and Houston agrees to that or the pick is made.
