Event Around the 2025 NBA Draft & Offseason Madness!

Nah….. the think we have a sleeper in Rupert!

 

crazy for an aging PG with a torn ACL.

 

What a weirdly specific thing to say

 

How about trading for a 35 yr old pg for 3 more years at 105 million?

 

Boston is the only playoff team to still have its own 1st round pick



Yet every team in the top12 has their own pick;

 

Being on a $300 million contract and them being better served by tanking its probably the smart move. Especially if they can get a Desmond Bane or better haul of picks.

Also unclear if Tatum will ever be the player he was.

But pretty shocking to think of how dominant a title winner the Celtics were 12 months ago to now this being the correct strategy.

Really wishing we had kept that 2nd pick we gave Washington in the Deni trade. Those BOS/MIL picks in 2029 might both be at the top of the lottery.

 

can we somehow get involved so we can get out from under that damn Chicago pick hanging over our head?

 

Can someone explain the situation with the Chicago pick in a couple sentences? I don't want you to try and include every aspect of it. Just a quick if-then type explanation. I feel like I've heard so many descriptions that I don't know what is true.

 

That's very simple to do - just make the playoffs.

We didn't do that this season in 2025.
Nor in 2024
Nor in 2023
Nor in 2022

Will 2026 make it a full half a decade of us being in the lottery?

 

Chicago gets our pick the first year we make the playoffs. That would have been in 2022.

But we've been in the lotto every year so every draft we instead keep the pick and the pick Chicago is owed gets deferred to the next year.

In 2028 if we are in the lotto for the 7th consecutive year Chicago will only get a 2nd round pick.

However 2028 is also the year we have our first option to swap picks with the Bucks - so to keep the swap we need to either

A. never convey it to Chicago or
B. Chicago get our pick in 2026 or
C. Chicago gets our pick in 2027.​

In other words if Chicago gets our 2028 pick, (because that were the first year we made the playoffs) we would lose the 2028 Bucks swap.

 

Great explanation and thanks for keeping it simple.

 

Additionally owing a pick ties up your pick the season after. So this Chicago pick debt makes it more complicated for the Blazers to send out picks. The Blazers are guaranteed two picks in 2029 so they are free to trade 2029-2032 picks.

 

The scary part is if we don’t make playoffs in
2026
2027
But make playoffs in 2028 we lose our 1st and can no longer swap picks with Bucks.

 

Your welcome. Yes the first four sentences are simple. Then when trying to explain Milwaukee swaps and Stipen restrictions there's just no way to keep the rest simple.

 

It seems very unlikely to me that we would be bad enough to miss the playoffs in both 2026+2027 but then unable to tank in 2028.

If it did get close to that point I think we'd just figure out some deal with Chicago months prior. There is no mathematical way they can currently get a pick better than the 15th pick. Also if we go down that rabbit hole their in real danger of the pick turning into a 2nd rounder. Finally if the Bucks have a better or even similar outlook than us once we are in 2028 the swap isn't worth much anyways.

 

That is the important point and why getting Jrue could help the team get to the 8th seed. POR seems to want to have a defensive identity. They have it: Tou, Jrue, and Matisse are all nba defense guys. Donovan has a chance to be there in a couple of years too. Rupert puts a lot of effort in to defense too.

 

if that was happening and the Milwaukee pick was going to be a great one, I'd anticipate a boatload of mystery injuries to Blazer rotation players in Feb. and March of 2028