Keep Dame and Nurk. Give Melo the MLE. Keep Trent. Start him at the 3 if Hood ain't ready. Start Melo at the 4. Let Hassan walk. Let Zach backup Nurk at the 5 and hope he gets better. Either let Ariza walk or renegotiate a smaller deal. CJ isn't going anywhere. Give Little and Gabriel time in the rotation. Most important. Fire Stotts.
I believe you wouldn't. Despite everything you just said, the Lakers wouldn't even consider a Dame for Lebron/AD trade for a split second either.
If Lakers don't win title this fall and Collins or GT2 are in the trade, Lakers would take that deal and run with it. Does LeBron have no trade clause? He wants to retire in LA since he's doing all his movie producing.
I think he is a decent player with good potential, I only list him in tradeable because he could help bring in a big talent as filler in a trade.
Every player on the team (with the exception of Dame) is expendable and replacable. Dame is our only player who is top 5 at his position. (IMHO he is the only one who is top 10, but I know the CJ partisans won't accept that) There is always room to improve! As for Dame - there was a time people said Walton, or Clyde, or Roy, or even LMA was "untouchable". Look where that got us! The reality of the NBA is that players almost never spend their careers with one team.
You don't think Nurk is easing into a top five center? Id like to add, how was Portland's overall play before with Dame, but before Nurk? If Dame is untradable, so is Nurk, for the mere fact of cohesion and a small and a big as a one two punch. ala Kobe/Shaq Walton got a title! CLyde was traded.... Roys knees gave out. LMA is soft. None of these equate to Nurk.
I guess I'll be the first (only?) to say that with his combination of size, strength, shooting, defense, youth, and affordability, GTJ is basically an untouchable in today's NBA.
Dame has said that he wants to be like Dirk and stick with one team his whole career as long as the Blazers want him. The only reason we traded Clyde is because he requested it. Dame is untouchable. I don't see us moving Nurk he's too good and young but obviously there are deals that would pry him away from us, I wouldn't want to see Gary go right now either so those two Nurk and Gary are in a class I'd put above expendable or replaceable because their upside and contracts make it very unlikely that we would get fair value in return... expendable is the wrong word to use for any player you wouldn't just let walk or any player that you wouldn't amnesty. I want to keep Zach because he's so athletic and energetic especially for his size, right now he's just rusty. If I was Neil and Jodi I wouldn't care about the luxury tax so I'd pick up Ariza's option and I don't think his trade value is as great as his practical value, so I'd keep him. I'd keep Nas because of obvious upside. Wenyen is an unknown but worth keeping around at like 2-3 mil a season for 3 years. Due to our cap situation, if Hassan is ready to come off the bench I'd re-sign him for up to 10 mil since we have Bird exception for him. Obviously Rodney is going to pick up his option so we've got to keep him. I would trade CJ for a 3 and D wing hopefully shedding salary. I would trade Ant for the best available prospect out there and see if someone else can develop him better. I'd pay Melo the vet min or let him walk, so he'd probably walk. If Rio wants to pick up that option cool but if he doesn't I'd let him walk. I'd draft the best player available at our pick unless we can get an all-star level defensive stopper wing by including the pick with CJ. I'd pick up the best backup PG possible with the full MLE and fill the rest of the team with min players.
Only parts of this I disagree with are keeping Hassan and using the MLE on a backup PG. If we could swing a deal sending CJ for a legit starting forward, I think the MLE would need to be used to get some scoring punch for the bench, since GTJ would now be starting at 2. If CJ isn't traded, that MLE should be used on a true stretch 4 (Collins isn't it). Either way, I think Zach needs to be in the "first big of the bench" role; I just don't trust him as a starter, which is one of several reasons why I wouldn't keep Whiteside.
I think it's a simple difference of talent evaluation. I think Zach is going to be a very good starting PF in this league, his shot isn't falling but his mechanics are good and he wasn't able to get shots up while injured since it was a shoulder injury. Other than his outside shooting, he's really good. He has stellar footwork on defense, he is aggressive, hard working and very athletic for his size. So I think he only gets better and is already a good starter right now, just a little rusty. I think we should be able to get bench scoring from whoever we get for Ant, from the PG we get with the full MLE, some from Nas and if we don't use our pick in a CJ trade then we can get more bench scoring there. I don't know if Hassan will stay but if he doesn't then that would force us to get a backup big in the Ant trade or with the MLE which we could split between a backup big and a not quite as good backup PG or we give the full MLE to the PG and go smaller if Wenyen progresses to where he can be in a three man front court rotation with Zach and Nurk.
If he's healthy, Nurk is a Top 3 center. I think health and consistency are the only things between he and Jokic/Embiid.
Well after his prime and only when Kobe said it's either him or me, while forcing Shaq out. Apples/oranges.
Yes, after winning three rings in a row as a small/big duo and he wanted out. But look. Then he joined another small in Dwade and got 1 or 2 more? When you have an all star small and an all star big.... You don't fuck with that if they have chemistry, in my opinion.
if nurk can sustain this level of play while remaining somewhat free of injuries, and on THAT contract, you keep him at all costs. He's on exactly the same contract Curry was on that enabled GS to land KD. 4 yrs, 44 mil. For his level of production? that's absurd value and makes up for overpaying CJ.