Notice 2023 Blazers Free Agency

Every action Joe takes (again with the exception of trading for Jerami) says youth rebuild but his words continue to say build a winner around Dame and usually he says as soon as we possibly can. Fuck, after the draft he said he'd be looking to push all of his chips in on a big deal right now. I'd be very pleasantly surprised if we made a big deal.

I wouldn't be surprised either way with Dame either asking out if we do nothing or him staying. Hopefully if Dame does stay after we do nothing he doesn't continue to try and pressure our front office through the media. I think some negotiators wouldn't allow that to hamstring them but I don't think Joe is aggressive enough to overcome it.

 

I think it's a better idea to keep your salary numbers low until we fully acclimate to the new CBA. Get young guys. Hopefully sign smaller deals. Etc

 

or maybe, and I know this is a radical idea...Cronin actually had discussions with Hart since he was in the position to do so, and got a good sense of what Hart was inclined to do...and acted accordingly. Of course that won't fit the 'Cronin is a total fucking idiot' narrative

that said I'd rather have Hart at 18M than Ant at 18M. Ant at 25M....ouch

 

Yes its good if were rebuilding, in that sense I like #23 more than Hart. But then we should've got Duren instead of Grant. We should have signed anybody or nobody instead of GP2.

Trading Hart for 23 is very bad if we want talent to win with Dame this next season. If we add Green or even just Cam Johnson it'll be bad to not have a proven two way player like Hart instead of 23.

Blazers have so many moves the last two years that fit into only one bucket short term or only one bucket long term. This two timelines thing is losing out on good moves available from going the other direction. Blazers need to do one direction all the way or the other.

Maybe they made that decision and we'll see Dame request a trade next week.

If we do crap like overpay Grand and have Dame walk and other continuations of these suboptimal split decisions I'm going to be furious though.

 

so now, unlikely = never?

 

This is MY OPINION, but from reading the tea leaves, having Hart at 18M and Ant at 25M is non-tenable. That is 137M (basically the salary cap) for just 5 players Ant/Dame/Hart/Grant/Nurk - who aren't even good enough to be a play in team. That I agree with. They chose to keep Ant over Hart - that's why I think they made the trade.

I'm going to continue being salty we shipped Hart off instead of looking for deals for Ant around the trade deadline.

No way they could have known they would be in a position to draft Scoot at the time.

 

Boy you really like arguing semantics sometimes.

 

But it wasn't just #23.

It was Hart for #23, Thybulle, and Reddish. We are opting not to retain Reddish (unless he signs for a lot less), but Thybulle is an All-Defense caliber player. You guys are acting like all we got was a rookie.

 

The Grant acquisition instead of Duren was not a rebuild action. The signing of GP2 wasn't a rebuild action. The acquisition of Hart and other pieces in the Clippers/NOP deadline deals weren't rebuild actions. Overpaying Nurk wasn't a rebuild action.

I agree that there have been more rebuild actions than win now actions - but this threading the needle crap has seen the team miss out on opportunities that they would have if they committed to one.

 

Portland extends qo to Badji & Butler....

 

$50k for 2way contracts

 

Is it at all possible that plans dramatically changed once we realized we could get Scoot?

That's a MAJOR crossroads. We could have been operating under the impression that we wanted to build around Dame, but now we have a potential superstar who is only 19 years old. We can move off Dame and start over, building around a couple rookie studs.

 

Back to legit options:
Center: Mo Bamba, Jock Landale or Mason Plumlee (in that order for me)
PF: Jalen McDaniels, Christian Wood, Harrison Barnes (in that order for me but Barnes is more fools gold then Wood I say)
Yes, I am all about moving Jeremi Grant to SF.

 

Or maybe not? Your speculation and assumption Cronin had real insight here is just as meaningful as anyone's random speculation he misread the situation while lacking clear direction.

Even if what you said was true its the wrong approach if the team wants Hart. You don't go to a player and ask him his position to staying in the relationship at a future time. How do you think it would go over with my wife if I ask her what intentions she has of being together next year? No I tell her how it will work out between us and ask her if theres anything I can do to help.

 

Richmond likes McDaniels, and thinks Philly might let him go. He also thinks Oubre is a possibility, though he doesn't like him much.

 

If he was a great asset he would not have to opt in as a ufa, if he is at the top of the impact of your roster, that's a bad asset for the condition.

 

Thybulle was acquired for GP2 and Reddish is as you say irrelevant.

 

Wow ok I'm totally good with that, thanks.