If Cronin’s dream is to flip #7 into OG—and it hasn’t happened yet—I worry that Toronto is trying to squeeze Cronin for more than 7 (which is already an overpay for a non-star player). Sadly I think there’s a good shot we give Toronto all of our assets on draft night for OG.
The Blazers have less talent now than before the trade deadline. They didn't get assets or means to replace that talent. I'd call that a fail. Maybe these fit benefits you mention would matter for Boston or Golden State or another contender. However, they have no relevance to a team so far away from contending as the Blazers.
I like Hart. I like Winslow. Hart isn't close to being better than CJ. Winslow and RoCo are comparable, but RoCo gets the edge because he's more consistent and can shoot the ball a bit.
There are 30 teams with 5 starting spots or 150 starting quality positions in the NBA. The Blazers were one of only a few teams to have 6 players ranked in the top100 prior to the season. They actually had a deep starting 5 and top reserve (effectively 6 starters), even before considering Simons. However they did lack the high rank for the 2nd and 3rd player of most contenders. Then obviously the season went off the rails with Dame's health and other factors. The Blazers lost 4 of those quality of players at the trade deadline and replaced them with only one in Hart. They don't have the assets nor the means to replace the talent lost in trades at the deadline. Lets hope sell low Joe proves me wrong on Thursday. I'm not optimistic.
You don't even have a real life example besides like 5 games to base the value that you're assigning to Hart and Justise. The idea that Josh Hart and Justise Winslow have more value in this league than CJ McCollum, Norman Powell, Robert Covington and Larry Nance Jr. is one of the worst takes I've ever seen posted on here. So until we see what Cronin does with the very theoretical flexibility this trade may or may not have provided and see what a pick that we could have tanked for with any roster yields, the reality is that you are wrong not the people that say CJ, Norm, RoCo and Larry are better than Josh Hart and Justise Winslow. Maybe I missed the green font in your post and if that's the case, I apologize.
Raptors fans are intrigued by the idea of squeezing Cronin’s desperation: https://forums.realgm.com/boards/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=2197909&start=1240
Hart's a much better at everything besides scoring than CJ. Better defender, better rebounder, better pushing the ball up the court, better motivating his teammates to play hard on defense. In the backcourt with Simons, Hart is the better player. With the Trail Blazers, Winslow turned Nurkic into a first-rate offensive threat that teams had difficulty stopping. Nurk was cutting to the hoop for feeds from Winslow, and getting perfectly-placed passes for easy scores on layups. Winslow's defense is clearly better than Covington, who loves going for steals instead of just staying in front of his man. Winslow stays in front of his man and tries to bully him, as he did to Kevin Durant and Julius Randle. Covington's only advantage is shooting 3-pointers. How is Covington more consistent? Doing what? Fucking around on defense?
There is the Olshey pitchfork crowd and the blind homer Blazer optimists that delusionally support the terrible deadline moves. The trades were terrible, as the consensus from knowledgeable non Blazer fans, and rational Blazer fans has shown. But we will see this displayed even further with the follow up moves Joe makes in the days ahead. I would love to be wrong and see Joe put a contending team around Dame. Sadly there is no realistic chance for that to happen.
I don't blame them. The sad part is if we did something like Hart + 7 for OG, you STILL would have folks defending Cronin saying we are improved and can make some noise next year.
Ok, lets assume your statement is true. I'm not sure how that helps when the Blazers will be worse with Hart and Justice than they were with CJ and the others. When the Blazers have no chance at contending, and no way to build a contender around Dame, why do we care what marginal role players have "more value to the Trail Blazers"???
You can intentionally miss my point if you prefer. I'm saying Hart and Justise have more value with the Trail Blazers than CJ (made expendable by Simons), Nance (always hurt), Powell (didn't buy in) and Covington (very over-rated).
Yeah it'll be spun as we don't need rookies anyways. Hart was too limited as a backup. Dame can unlock the star potential of OG. Neil forced Cronin to do this, etc etc.
Not exactly what they were saying here. The #23 is the asset that the 76ers were shopping. They are basically using Green's salary as ballast to make a deal go through. If they don't find a trade partner, 76ers just cut Green and walk away drafting someone at 23. It is an extremely small trade market they are shopping in. Basically looking for a team trying to reduce long-term salary with a player making between $5M and $15Mish.
The Blazers are better starting Simons than McCollum. You believe McCollum is the better starter than Simons. Different opinions.
To repeat what others have said, team fit does not equal asset value. You can simultaneously say that we both made the team more cohesive with our trades AND that we left a lot of value on the table because other GMs took advantage of Cronin’s desperation and naïveté.
Still basing this bullshit take on a handful of games and the only reason you're saying it and the only reason it's true is because the deal is done and now CJ, Norm, RoCo and Larry have no value to the Trail Blazers, so of course Hart and Justise have more. That being said, if we're talking about the abstract idea that any player can be placed on any team at any time... Hart and Justise have nowhere close to the value to the Trail Blazers that CJ, Norm, RoCo and Larry did. The guy that you're doing a terrible job of trying to defend characterized the trades as a necessary step backwards in order to take steps forwards. Not even Cronin buys your nonsense that Hart and Justise have more value. They don't have more value to our team or any team in this league.
