This will be nonobjective because I love what I believe Crowder would bring to this team. 26 years old 6/6", 235 lbs, 6'9 1/4" wingspan .463 FG% and .398 3-pt% 5.8 rpg 2.2 apg Ability to hit the outside shot, plays with toughness and can guard up to 4 positions in certain situations. Very friendly contract and currently buried on the SF depth chart in BOS with Hayward, #3 pick Tatum and last year's #3 pick Jaylen Brown. The problem for Portland......they are over the cap so limited to being with 125% for the trade. That however doesn't create the cap room BOS needs to clear to complete the Hayward trade. Can someone come up with a realistic trade for the Blazers that accomplishes both of those things? Combine Crowder with Dame, CJ, Nurkic and Vonleh and that is a dangerous lineup. Crowder can stretch the floor and guard multiple positions. Vonleh also plays good D when getting switched out onto the perimeter and doesn't need the ball to be effective. He can board and thrown down ferocious dunks when any defender helps out on the other four. That front court also has bulk and attitude to cause all sorts of problems for the small-ball oriented teams of the NBA while being able to score enough to open up things for Dame/CJ. Please someone figure this out!
The only way it happens is if Ainge happens to really like Vonleh. That's about the only player Portland has that makes sense to trade for Crowder and still achieve Boston's mission of cutting salary. I personally don't think Vonleh is a particularly good young player, so I wouldn't expect Ainge to. But you never know. I'm sure he has all sorts of different opinions on players than I do and perhaps Vonleh is among those.
@Minstrel ... I agree about Vonleh. Even if Ainge liked him, how do you make a trade that works within the 125% but also clears the ~$3M in Cap Space that BOS needs to get Hayward. It would seem there needs to be a 3rd team involved.
Option 1: Trade Layman + a Future 2nd Round Pickfor an unguaranteed contract of $900K+ Trade Vonleh, '18 1st, Connaughton (UGC), and the newly acquired UGC for Crowder. Option 2: Trade Aminu to a team for a $7M Traded Player Exception and $75K Cash. Use TPE to trade a 2018 1st (and filler, if needed) for Crowder.
Okay....where is a list of UGC? I'd like to see what teams have those left after HOU used so many in the CP3 trade.
Pat C is a Boston guy all the way. Was raised there. Has a last name that would look legendary on the back of a Boston jersey. I just realized we have 4 guys on our team that grew up in Boston. Patty, Layman, Napier and Vonleh. That's got to be a recahd
I'd love it, but I'd give it a slim chance of it happening. I just don't see us being very active with the lack of flexibility or bargain talent we have.
Portland sends Aminu to Atlanta and a protected 2018 1st to Boston; Atlanta sends M. Dunleavy and and D. Stone to Boston (Boston waived one or both); Boston sends J. Crowder to Portland ESPN TRADE MACHINE APPROVED Boston sheds salary and picks up Portland's 2018 draft pick... Atlanta picks up a legit player in Aminu... Portland gets a legit SF that will share minutes with Harkless
I feel like Atlanta should be throwing a pick boston or portlands way as well. They're pretty much getting Aminu and his great contract for free here.
If we hadn't handed out these silly contracts last year, we would be able to get him now for Vonleh + protected pick I believe. They need rebounding.
Maybe Portland could have pulled this off if they had simply carried over the cap room. You never know what opportunities will arise. So tired of the fools on this message board that are like, "But we couldn't have used it anyway...."
From the thread title I thought you were commenting on the actors in some new show for Netflix done by the Wachowski siblings.
Without those 3 contracts on the books, the Blazers would be 6.5 mil under the cap. We'd simply need to cut Pat C in oder to free up enough space to absorb Jae Crowder's 6.8 mil contract. (or include Vonleh) Or we could open up even more room by trading Davis/Harkless/Aminu who all have very tradeable contracts. Those 3 simply aren't worth the boat anchors they are to our flexibility.
Remember the movie Waterworld? Where Kevin Costner has gills behind his ears and he finds glass bottles full of dirt or paper and that is valuable for some reason? These contracts are our bottles of dirt hiding under the ocean. Just waiting for the cap space apocalypse to occur. Then, bam! Neil Olshey rolls up on a jetski with an eyepatch and an antique revolver. Also I think there's some kind of ancient map tattooed on Jake Layman's back that will take us to Championship island.