IIRC, Portland traded Payton and received Knox. But they had a TPE they used to absorb Knox, leaving them with a TPE equal to Payton's full salary
Just played the "Tankathon" simulator again today 5 times. Got nothing lower than the 7th pick. 7, 7, 6, 7, 7. Why ya got to be such a downer. 8th pick???
There was a time this last season I'm certain a couple of us absolutely said "Do Not Trade Hart! He is the kind of player this team needs to keep!" I'm certain this was said by someone?
And had those people got their wish, the Blazers would probably have 8th-10th best odds in the lottery instead of the 5th best, would have one less first round draft pick to use, which might also allow us to make a bigger move on draft night, and we'd likely have less flexibility regarding roster moves due to budget/tax reasons. But, we would've won a couple more games!
But: imagine we lucked into the 2nd or 3rd pick last year. We would almost certainly have taken Chet Holmgren or Jabari Smith instead of Shaedon. And I still maintain we would've probably taken Joakim Noah in the Oden draft if we hadn't struck "lucky" and moved up to #1...
I'd rather have the chance at making the big homerun or the big mistake. And since I think Cronin will be trading any pick outside of #1, I'm not worried who is going where, I just want the pick that can net the team the most value in a trade.
I agree Cronin would trade the #1 pick. I suspect that list is no more than 5 players long though. I hope we get the #1 pick and can really have that debate though!
Dame made a comment earlier this year, something to the effect of being happy he wouldn't have to play against Wemby for long (because of Dame's age), because that guy's going to be a problem. I seriously doubt Dame would want the pick traded if we get #1.
Shaeden wants to lead by showing "the young guys the ropes"? Huh? He is the young guy and people need to show him the ropes. Me thinks someone has had a tad too much media training.
