Notice LONGTIME NBA ANALYST (MARK STEIN) PREDICTS BLAZERS WILL TRADE MCCOLLUM

Man, idk if thats what this team needs. Realistically I’m ok with the fact that we are gonna have to ride out ML and ET until their contracts are up or until next season around deadline maybe.

I’d prefer we traded CJ for a real wing.

 

I totally get that. I'd counter with a couple of things.

1) The Blazers could still make trades to balance out the roster more.

2) I know it's stupid to think of free agents and cap space, but if Dame could just convince one guy to come here next summer they'd potentially have enough to offer a max contract. They could go after a guy like Jimmy Butler, Klay Thompson, or Khris Middleton.

 

I’ve sadly given up on free agency. The only way to improve is draft and trades. I’d be very willing to try and swing CJ for Butler though. I think it makes sense for both teams.

We need a stopper, and someone who can put up at least 18-20 a night. Minnesota shows little to no interest defensively so, why not just get another pure scorer to go with KAT and Wiggins?

 

Well it sounds like Cousins was willing to come here.

 

Yeah, but he didn’t. And the only reason I think he was open to coming here was because we were willing to pay him to sit and recover.

 

I kind of like the thought of a Dame, Hield, Middleton, Collins, Nurk lineup. I'm with you on free agency being a terrible option but worst case scenario we have reset our salary situation.

 

I say no. A huge no.

After two years, you end up trading CJ for Hield and WCS. So a much lesser version of CJ and an average 3rd/4th big man. I wouldn't even take Hield over Curry. We need top end talent, and thats reducing it.

 

I agree about the top end talent thing but getting rid of Turner and Leonard (plus CJ's money) without giving up picks to do so does open up the possibility of adding that top end talent a different way that isn't available currently. What if we got a 1st rounder from Minnesota and Miami's 2021 2nd back in the trade too? We'd be loaded with decent players on expiring deals we could combine with picks to bring in a wing during the season.

 

Still no. Why downgrade to try to hit a homerun in free agency in 2019 when we could keep the core intact and try to hit a home run in 2020 and have something to fall back on? It makes no sense to me. In 2020, we could likely get two future 1sts and cap relief.. future 1sts in drafts that are better than 2019, and we could have MORE flexibility because the cap should be $116M instead of $109M, and itd only be a year later.

 

Klay wasn't Klay when they traded Monta.

They traded Monta during Klay's rookie season. He was averaging 12.5 ppg, shooting 44% from the field and 41% from three.

Monta was averaging 22 ppg, 6 assists, and 1.5 steals per game.

Do we have a Klay? I don't know. But it's not like Klay was a sure thing when they dumped Monta.

 

I'd love to have a young, 6'7 SG who plays defense and gets 18.5pts Per 36 on 44/41/87 splits. You used Klays stats but didnt mention he was inly playing 24 minutes per game co.pared to Monta, who was playing much more. We don't have that guy (unless Trent exceeds even his highest expectations).

 

People can't shit on per 36 sometimes and then use it when it fits though.

 

When have I ever shitted on "Per 36 stats"? I use them constantly.

 

Any time I have brought it up, people have just completely shot it down.

 

I haven't. Don't generalize me with others.

 

Even if we were willing to do a trade for CJ (I doubt we are, I think he is borderline untradeable at this point) it would be difficult to find proper value for him. What is realistically the level of small forward or power forward that we should be looking to acquire? We will not get a player like Porzingis or Davis, we won’t get Giannis etc. Paul George is more or less the level we should be aiming for but we already had that chance and passed. Right now the chance is gone.

Maybe I could see us taking less than we should and bring someone like Blake Griffin or trade him for a package that will include a decent player, a young player and a pick.

 

I'd look to trade him for Tyreke at the deadline.

IND Gets: CJ McCollum, Meyers Leonard, Jake Layman
POR Gets: Tyreke Evans, Bojan Bogdanovic, Cory Joseph, Alize Johnson, 2019 IND 1st

A McCollum/Oladipo backcourt makes a ton of sense, as Oladipo is a good defender and that combination would be lethal. Tyreke is a possible rental for them, and all those guys are expiring contracts.

Use the IND pick to shed Turner (Sacremento?) And then we'd have apx. $22M in space to add to a lineup of Lillard, Tyreke (Cap Hold ~$15M), Harkless, Collins, Nurkic, Trent, and Simons.

If we want Cousins we could send out Nurkic for picks for full space, or we could go after a guy like Middleton and trade Harkless elsewhere. Sign Middleton to the MAX, bring back Aminu for the remaining $3M-$4M in space, and resign Curry for the Room Exception would be ideal.

Lillard (36) / Evans (12)
Evans (20) / Curry (28)
Middleton (28) / Trent (20)
Aminu (27) / Collins (14) / Middleton (7)
Nurkic (32) / Collins (16)

The switchability between Evans, Middleton, and Aminu would be nice, and we'd have more planning with 5 elite shooters (Dame, Tyreke, Middleton, Curry, Trent).

I dunno.

 

But we would essentially be getting half year rentals of Evans and Bogdanovic, a mid first round pick and a player we would never use back in this trade. The most valuable commodity would be cap space.

Of course Evans or Bogdanovic could re-sign here but you never know.

I would probably trade him for Middleton and change if Middleton had a longer deal.

 

Seriously? The Warriors have a couple of guys named Durant and Green at forward. It's not exactly an area of weakness for them. Not sure you can compare the front court of Durant/Green to Aminu/Harkless.....where there is a MASSIVE need for an upgrade.

 

It's the offseason so I'm obviously forgetting, but could you remind me the name of Portland's Lotto SG coming off of his rookie year? Clearing PT for promising young talent is a smart way to go, which is why I supported letting Ed Davis go even though I liked him as a player. Btw, Klay was the 11th pick in the 2011 draft while Collins was the 10th pick.

On the OP, I can recall plenty of Blazer predictions by Mark Stein but not one of them coming true. Pretty much all of his speculations have had Portland giving up their top talents for scraps to big markets (to have a fresh start!). Not surprised that this one didn't happen like he called it either. As far as reworking the roster around a CJ trade, I continue to generally support the idea for the oft-mentioned reasons about being undersized in the backcourt. However, it's not like the current backcourt's chemistry sucks. What they really need is Zach to blossom, Nurk to improve his focus & conditioning, and to somehow land an athletic SF who can stroke it from the outside. Those things could happen without dealing CJ.

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