Trades possibilities....and what teams are open for business

We have no business having Grant and Simons on a roster that is a complete rebuild.

 

Yes, but it doesn't mean just trade them away for the sake of trading them away.

One of them will be traded, likely Jerami, this summer, for 2 firsts

 

Because people are under the illusion that we can be patient, but we can’t slow play the tank next season. There will be so many teams going full bore tank. If we roll out the same starting lineup I could see us being the sixth worst team and missing out on a superstar caliber player.

 

I’d take 1 first if it meant a top 3 pick next year personally.

 

Amen. Get value in trades that’s in line with the Trail Blazers’ priorities.

 

That's pretty obvious. Lakers won't be that bad next year though.

 

To me, taking slightly less value on Grant and Simons is worth it to get a top 3 pick.

 

mega losing ping pong percentages will discover their own fate. Portland was supposed to draft ~6th last summer, and the ball bounced up and landed Scoot.

 

I think the move will be to scour the leagur for a Rob trade.

And in order to showcase him and get any value, Clingan will lose minutes early.

Not a great situation.

The Pelicans have no centers and three 2025 firsts. If we can squeeze just one of these picks from them, it would be a win.

 

To NO:
- Rob Williams
- Norman Powell

To LAC:
- Ingram

To POR:
- Terance Mann
- 2031 1st from LAC

 

Not convinced the team will move off Grant and Ant just yet as may want to see if offers improve up to deadline. If the right deal comes before camp they will but I dont think they feel any pressure too as they are on a 2-4 more year rebuild journey.

 

it does seem like there's a good chance the Blazers will fall down those stairs

part of me keeps thinking that they won't be that dumb. But Cronin was the one that signed Ant for 25M/year when no team would have even offered 18M/year; or maybe even 15M/year. He signed Gary Payton and hard-capped the Blazers to do so. He signed Grant to a 33M/year deal and it's doubtful Grant could have got 22M/year on the open market. He coveted Ayton for a couple of years and finally landed him in the Dame trade and Ayton is kind of an empty-calorie big man, IMO. He matched a bloated offer sheet to Thybulle

I like the Avdija trade, but there are enough similarities to the two-first-round-picks-for-RoCo-treading-water-cover-the-Gm's-ass trade that dovetail into those other moves to make one wonder, especially if the Blazers keep Grant

those all look like the moves of a GM who would be OK with years of play-in tournaments. Not of a GM willing to roll the dice on a string of lotteries while keeping his powder dry. Maybe a GM seeking shelter among the section of Blazer fans who are trotting on the 'tired of losing/missing the playoffs' treadmill. Those fans wanting to extend a futile season by 4 or 5 games followed by a lousy draft pick

 

I believe he's talking about Grant traded and then the Blazers organically tank next season.

 

the question I have is "slightly less value" than what? If Portland is demanding two unprotected first's for Grant and his real, around the league value, is one somewhat protected first, slightly less is still way over blue book

my hunch is that a lot of people here are either over-estimating Laker desperation or under-estimating Laker intelligence (the front office, not the fans)

 

The worst three teams all have the exact same odds for the top 3 picks. There is no way to guarantee a top 3 pick even if we lose every game.

The only real control we have by tanking is top 5 if we get the absolute worst record.

 

Pelicans just signed Theis for the minimum.

Takes them away from the Rob destinations I think.

 

they don't have a Timelord matching contract to trade anyway. Doubt they were ever a TL destination. Doesn't take them out of the Ayton destination sweepstakes though

 

We don't need to lockup the worst record, but we should try to have one of the bottom records. Yes that gives us the same or similar odds to #1/#2... and will stop us from dropping too far.

I'd expect the tanking is MUCH more competitive next season so if we go into the year with our current roster and win a number of games early on it might be difficult to drop below #7 spot or so. That would be a disaster and potentially push us to the back of the lottery picks.

Blazers should just get rid of all (or nearly all) our vets with any trade value and try to win all year with our youth. That probably locks up a bottom 4 record, and it would be much more enjoyable than the prior 3 years of wildly different phases when trying hard/vets/tanking/phantom injuries/G Leaguers starting we've had to put up with.

Trading our vets should get us a couple long term pieces too, though I think many posters here are overestimating those returns.

 

All of the Ant, Nurk, Grant contracts were very odd, and odd how they sat out so many games months prior. Makes me wonder if we had handshake agreements with them. Can't imagine a player volunteering to sit out when they could pad their stats with huge scoring numbers during a tank and right before they hit unrestricted free agency.

 

it could be that Grant had a verbal agreement with the Blazers before the trade was made