as many can testify, especially RR7, I have advocated for trading CJ a long time. I think he's significantly overrated around here but the trade, if it happens, has to make some sense and a lot of the ideas I see just don't. I mean, Josh Richardson?....wut? making an equal talent-for-talent trade is a tough needle to thread. Making a better-talent-for-better-fit trade is easier, or at least it's more common. The most common seems to be trading better-talent-for-financial-relief-and a-different-direction trade. going into the future, CJ essentially has a 4 year deal for 33M/year. Considering his production and efficiency, that's not a good contract, but as time goes on, it's probably not a terrible one either. Personally, I think Portland could do a much better job of allocating that 33M/year; but that's not going to happen as long as Olshey is GM (unless he gets orders from Seattle). He's totally invested in the Dame/CJ experiment. I wish that wasn't the case, but every 'report' we see always says Portland is making CJ untouchable in trade talks. And it seems Ant is untouchable too. whenever I fantasize about CJ trades, I can come up with dozens that make sense. But as soon as I take into consideration the other team, the dozens of options drops to 2 or 3, and very seldom does one 'move the needle'. I probably would not trade CJ for Kevin Love, even though I believe Love is the better player, when healthy. I might trade CJ for Blake Griffin, depending on what the rest of the trade looked like (I think Nurk & Griffin would be a great fit), but again, there's the problem of Griffin staying healthy. I might trade CJ for Otto Porter. I would trade CJ for Jrue Holiday in a heartbeat but why would the Pels make that deal?
CJ is a really good player. He would be an all star in the East if he weren't playing with Dame. The fact is he is not good on defense, that hasn't changed. Dame has been getting better on D but CJ has been static. CJ's offensive game gets better every year as an iso scorer. He adds new wrinkles and ways to get the ball in the basket. The thing is, he won't take open spot up threes. Dame and now Nurk suck defenses in, kick the ball out to a wide open CJ who is more than capable of getting his shot off and sinking it but CJ decides to pound the rock and set up his own iso play with often less than ten seconds on the shot clock. Don't tell me you haven't seen it, we've all seen it so many times, every game for five seasons. That's how long we have seen Dame and CJ stepping on each other's toes offensively and neither one being a defensive stopper. CJ needs to be a lead guard on a team with a defensive stopper next to him, just like Dame. Maybe Richardson wouldn't be enough for CJ but I do think if it were possible to get Richardson (it actually isn't without the Sixers shipping off one of Embiid, Horford or Harris or a package that includes Simmons and others) that we would be better. Richardson is a lockdown defender and a great team defender too, the guy can also hit the spot up three, especially when open. So Richardson doesn't matter, also Philly wouldn't be the best fit for CJ because while they could use a guy who can get his own shot CJ is a lead guard. I did look at Tim Hardaway Jr. and thought he might be a good fit and that would definitely be a better fit for Dallas and CJ. I doubt you even have to worry about any of this because although CJ is an extreme threat to score from anywhere he hasn't shown himself to be a great distributor and his defense is so bad that I don't know if his contract is justified and that points to the fact that Olshey severely overvalues him so, like you, he would not be willing to take less talent to get a better fit and cut salary for the team. For the record Ant is terrible.
hmmm...this again: Khris Middleton Kyle Lowry Jaylen Brown Kemba Walker Jimmy Butler Victor Oladipo Malcolm Brogdon Ben Simmons Kyrie Irving Bradley Beal Zach Lavine Trae Young Spenser Dinwiddie Devonte Graham Gordon Hayward Eric Bledsoe Duncan Robinson Collin Sexton Fred Van Vleet John Wall Terry Rozier I suppose you could assume that 1 or 2 of those guys on that first list will be classified as forwards. Keep in mind though, that the forward candidate list already would include Giannis, Jayson Tatum, Pascal Siakam, Tobias Harris, Otto Porter, Bam Abedayo.... anyway, if 1 or 2 of those guys on that first list were selected as forward(s), that would still require CJ to beat out 6-8 of those guys on that list while also holding off all 9 guys in that 2nd group. He's not better than 7 guys in that first group, and it's quite debatable if he's better than every guy in that 2nd group (and he's not better than any of the forwards listed either) this "CJ would be an all-star in the east narrative" has never withstood any scrutiny, IMO
i think the sentiment is that on the east and away from Dame, gives him more freedom aNd depending on the team, his stats may increase to do exactly what you lined out. With that said, i tend to disagree with that notion. I think a team would need to be built around him for him to accomplish that. Not just separate him from Dame and the West.
CJ is a Top 10 player (as a #1) in the East no question. Certainly better than Lavine, Young, Oladipo, Brogdon, and Lowry (with all due respect to his championship ring). CJ is a sensational player as a #1 option. Even in the West!
LOL....no, he's not a top 10 player in the east..that's fucking ridiculous Giannis Khris Middleton Jayson Tatum Jaylen Brown Pascal Siakam Jimmy Butler Victor Oladipo (healthy) Damantas Sabonis Joel Embiid Ben Simmons Tobias Harris Kyrie Irving Bradley Beal Trae Young there are 14 players right there and no way in hell is CJ better than 5 of them. The only one he might be better than is Oladipo and that's only because Oladipo hasn't been healthy for several months. And there are several young players in the east on the way up the ladder let's compare CJ and Zach Lavine: Per: CJ 17.4....Lavine 19.5 TS: CJ .543....Lavine .568 Ast%: CJ 19.3%....Lavine 21.7% Winshare/48: CJ .079....Lavine .092 Box plus/minus: CJ 0.9....Lavine 2.5 VORP: CJ 1.6....Lavine 2.4 pretty big advantage for Lavine. I think you'd have a choremaking an argument CJ is as good as Lavine. But to say he's better doesn't make sense unless you're a Blazer homer
Here is my dream offseason. Trade CJ, Collin, and Simons for Ben Simmons Trade Ariza and 1st for Kelly Oubre Sign Whiteside to a 2 year 20 mil deal. Whether you like him or no we need a starting caliber center backing up Nurk in case of an injury. And nobody is going after him anyway Sign Dragic or Jeff Teague to a full MLE Sign James Johnson to a vet minimum Bring back Gabriel on a cheap deal. Draft Payton Pritchard with second round pick Dame/DT/Pritchard Trent/Hood Oubre/Little/Hezonja Simmons/Johnson/Gabriel Nurkic/Whiteside Now that would be a good deep team. They would be a two way powerhouse. That’s the kind of team that would scare the rest of the league
I think they're scared of us already but I do admit, it'd be nice to have Ben Simmons at PF esp now that he shoots threes. He would transform our defense like Pippen did. But I don't like giving away CJ. Remember- also... about that 1st you're trading away with Ariza? That could be a lottery pick if we miss the playoffs. So don't get rid of it so soon!
The only reason why the rest of the league would be scare of us is because of Dame. They’re not really scare of the team, they’re scare about Dame going off. Nobody out of this draft will help contribute right away. If you’re scared about the future, don’t worry we will still have Nurkic, Simmons, Trent, and Little all under the age of 26. And Oubre is welcome to come back after his deal is up. Dame has given us everything, it’s up to Neil to give Dame the very best team he can possibly have. And this is the team the rest of the league will lose sleep over with
