I would take the remaining two years of Ben’s deal. Sharpe and #3 are on rookie deals through the rest of Ben’s contract, require 3 additional 1sts. For Dame and Nurk, I want Claxton, Johnson signed-and-traded for Ant, Simmons, one of their 2023 draft selections, and 4 1sts. Claxton, Johnson, one of their rookies, and seven 1sts is quite a haul, all things considered.
Going off this, I feel like if a Dame trade happens, it stays under wraps. By draft day, Scoot might be gone, at which point I’m swinging on Amen’s upside. By FA, we may not have done enough to keep Dame or we decide it’s not worth leveraging assets, at which point we get major draft capital and two good fits for our team. At #23, draft BPA or move up and get better prospect—apparently, the 2024 and 2025 class isn’t very good. I would just overpay to keep Grant here for four years because he fits a need, and not worry about tanking. Sign another guy who can actually play PG to run sets, Tre Jones comes to mind but I know he’d be another non shooting PG on the team. Try and win as many games as we can, a lotto pick is a consolation prize. Amen/BPA/Mays Sharpe/BPA/Thybulle Johnson/BPA/Nas Grant/Johnson/Watford/Walker Claxton/BPA/BPA The BRK rookie and #23 will just have to be BPA. Then I would try and sign some veterans or players that might fit the team. At this stage of his career, would Lopez be down to sign an overpaid deal to play for a team that might not compete? I would do it if he wanted to be here. We would need a microwave scorer of the bench at a decent rate, I feel like Malik Monks aren’t that hard to find. We could bring in someone like Tre Jones to come in and compete with Mays for backup minutes. I think this starting unit could learn to become a really good defense, and Amen would have at least 3 shooters (6 if we sign one in FA, go the Lopez route, and Watford keeps developing as one) that can be plugged in with him for spacing. Plus 7 1sts, and all of our own. No sweat to unprotect that pick or get it back.
You accept it because the Nets give you the most draft equity if you take Simmons. Have to look at what makes sense for both teams. It doesn't make sense to have Simmons on the Nets if they're trying to win with Dame and doesn't matter if he's overpaid on the Blazers. Thus there's mutual benefit to moving him back to Portland for additional value. The draft value is a positive much, much larger than the 1 additional year of Simmons contract.
Yes, exactly. I mean if the Nets instead gave us players on better contracts and less picks I guess we could consider it, and flip those players to 3rd teams for negative contracts and assets. Would seem to make more sense for Nets and Blazers to directly work something out with their worst contracts though.
I don't believe that; not at all and even though the Nets do have some future picks, it's not like they are OKC or Utah. Every one of those picks has debatable value. They don't have any of their own picks available till 2029. They have the Phoenix picks in 2025-2027-2029; a protected Philly pick in either 2027 or 2028; and the Dallas pick in 2029 so...5 total 1st round picks and one contingent 1st, that may or may not convey. If Portland is trading Dame and settling for less than 4 of these first round picks they are fucking up big time because not one of those picks is a certain lottery pick. They have just as much chance to be in the bottom-10 of the first round as the top-10. I just don't believe Brooklyn would add a 5th first because the Blazers took Simmons. They'd eat his contract themselves and preserve a first or two. In fact, they are the team that traded for Simmons so they may very well determine that the chance he rehabilitates is worth keeping around Dame & Bridges... in fact, Dame-Bridges-Johnson-Simmons-Nurkic might offer them their best chance of being a contender....assuming Simmons can get it together so if Portland is not getting another 1st round pick, why would Portland take on Simmons when instead they could take on Dinwiddie & Harris. The Blazers would have a much easier time extracting value for those two in trades than they would extracting further value from Brooklyn for Simmons. At worst it would be a push, but the Blazers could get out of that 37-40M in salary a year earlier
Yeah, being bad a drafting more young players is the easy part. Picking the right young players, developing them, and retaining most of them into their prime is what very very few teams are able to do.
Pretty obvious Dinwiddle and Harris are worth more. I'd assume the Blazers would get a better return by taking back Simmons. If the Blazers can get the same picks by taking Simmons or Dinwiddle&Harris yes obviously take the later.
Why would the Blazers want Claxton? They aren't winning and hes an expiring contract so will either than bolt or no longer be underpaid. I guess its the same idea as Simmons posts above - if the Blazers can get the same picks yes take the better players. I'd similarly assume the Nets would give up more other assets if they retain Claxton.
I'm not sure. For two reasons... one, as has been previously mentioned, being better on the court as we tear it down isn't in our best interest. If Simmons never steps on the court, the team may lose more games (and get a better pick) and our younger guys would get more minutes, making it easier for the Blazers to identify which youngsters to keep. Dinwiddle and Harris are solid NBA players, but... they don't help us in the near term and I don't think they would have much trade value. The second reason? I know it's crazy, but there is a chance that something clicks for Simmons and he becomes a good player again. We would definitely be buying low, and there's a CHANCE to sell high in a way that isn't common in bad contracts. It's definitely not likely but it's not like this is a John Wall contract.
Dinwiddie and Harris are a fuck of a lot better than Simmons. They can be re-routed to other teams right away for draft capital. of they can be held onto and moved at the trade deadline as solid players on expiring contracts...for draft capital I'd make the trade Dame + Nurk for Dinwiddie + Harris + Claxton + 2025 PHX 1st + best of 2027 Phx/Philly 1st + the 2 best of 2029 Phx/BKN/Dallas 1st's Blazers keep Claxton and get 4 future 1st's for Dame, even though not a single one is even guaranteed to be top-20 let alone lottery I'd also trade Ant and Grant for draft capital. Blazers rebuild in the draft by being really shitty for 2-3 years
Not that I love this plan at all, but if we were to start over and drafted Amen, he'd be a great fit with Ant as a shooter.
Simmons is better than y’all think. Nets had an 18-2 stretch and Ben looked great during it. Don’t know why Kyrie/Nets broke it up. They might’ve won the whole thing. They could’ve beaten Miami.
Harris is probably worth a couple of seconds. I don't think Dinwiddie is much draft capital at all. No, the inference above was no Claxton. All garbage and future picks. Though I like the sound of Grant doing a S&T but I think he'd just sign with another team outright. This is all sort of moot because I think Joe would be crazy to make this deal.
