Trade Deadline: February 6, 2025

this may be what you're referring to?

https://nateduncannba.com/podcast-episodes/jake-fischer-assesses-the-2025-deadline/

Blazer talk starts at the 32:20 mark

not sure I agree with how you assessed their valuation of Simons. They did say there would be some interest. I didn't hear Fischer say Portland hadn't shopped Simons yet, but I'd tend to think that's entirely possible

earlier in the podcast they both talked about their thinking that the Blazers sat too long on players, especially Grant, who they thought Portland could have got more value around last season's trade deadline when he was playing much better. They did theorize for players like Grant-Simons, Cam Johnson, Kuzma, etc. there was a hard ceiling on how high their value could go, but a very soft floor on how low their value could drop. Seems like we're seeing that all across the league

they both agreed that Ayton + his contract had no value....which = negative value with Portland's situation

 

I really don't know why people are so concerned about Ayton. He has one year left. I don't care about him. If he becomes a locker room problem, cut him. We already won the trade because of Toumani.

I'm more concerned about getting some value for Simons and Grant.

 

100% agree. I mean, I want Ayton gone, but he seems easier to sit

 

There are nights when he is dominant so I will be happy with that if he can keep it up

 

Sheesh. Reading through these last few pages just reminds me of how many assets Cronin has wasted.

Got effectively nothing for Roco, Norm, Bledsoe, CJ/Grant, Nurk/Ayton, Josh Hart, Brogdon, etc etc. All while creating yet another shit cap situation where we can't use space to acquire assets/picks.

Complete and utter mismanagement. Yet people still defend him. Boggles my mind.

How does this idiot still have a job?

 

Deni and Camara are two of the best wings we've had in a long time.
We got out of bad contracts for what would be backups.

 

What??

We gave up 2 picks for Deni. We had to eat Ayton's apparently untradable contract for Camara.

Why do you want to defend this guy? He's been objectively bad and has made idiotic decisions every step of the way. For a team so bereft of assets his management of what we have has been unquestionably awful

 

I don't believe Fischer and Duncan were concerned with Ayton. They were just pegging his value as a player and contract as part of a broader discussion about the confusion over what Portland is doing over the last couple of seasons

 

We took on ayton to land Camara. I'm ok with that. Many here want cap space so that we can take on bad contacts for assets. That's what that is.
I'm thrilled with the Deni trade, personally. Improving player on a great contract. 14 in a bad draft and a pick 5 years from now. Cool.
Got out of 5/90 Powell contract for expirings and a recent 1st round pick. Keon ended up busting, but if we got that for Grant right now everyone would be thrilled.

 

I must just be in a dystopian world, man. This is the sorta defense of fucking awful management of assests that just baffles me.

 

This continued incompetence has conditioned people into thinking getting nothing of value for most of our roster is acceptable.

 

We got Hart and a 1st for CJ. That's good value. I dunno why you would think it isn't.
We turned around and got another 1st for an expiring Hart who had no interest in staying in Portland. That's good value. How many expiringa are going for 1sts currently?
This continued whining about his entire body of work while ignoring the many good deals he's made is fucking stupid.

 

And then we turned that 1st into dead salary in Thybulle and a fringe rotation player in Murray. But let's just ignore that.

WHAT GOOD DEAL? Does he have even a single deal that has worked out without overpaying?

 

I just named 2 trades he made that were great value for us. Sorry you allow all the negativity to make it so every single thing he's done has been shit.

 

Lest we forget the multiple times the same front office passed him over in the draft. Maybe if we didn't waste our first round pick on murray instead of tou, we wouldn't have to eat Ayton's shitty contract?? But nah, this logic is a step too far.

 

Does it look like we've gotten great value out of Camara by taking on Ayton? Could we have had any other small salary player included instead?

 

You need salary to match salary.

RoCo was pretty worthless by the time we traded him. So was Nurk.... and Bledsoe.

We actually got pretty good value for CJ. Not sure why you're lumping him in. That deal was a win.

The Hart trade has been litigated many times. You either believe he would have re-signed here or not. I don't believe that he would have.

We needed Brogdon's salary to match Deni. That trade is looking like a major win. Deni is a stud.

Ayton was a gamble. It didn't work out. We gave up nothing. Nurk sucks. Keon sucks. Little sucks. We gave up NOTHING. We got Toumani. It was a win. Ayton is gone after next season. We needed matching salaries anyway to get Nurk off this team and I really don't think Nurk had much, if any, value around the league.

The Norm trade was the worst one. That's true. That one is the biggest black mark.

 

Just curious. Are you genuinely happy with what is happening in this "rebuild" and our supposed direction?

We have our top three draft picks in Scoot/Shae/Clingan that we tanked hard for sitting behind guys who apparently have little or no trade value while looking down the barrel at year 4 of tank city.