Trade Ben Simmons poll

not to mention trading for Holiday ensured Giannis would re-sign there. I suppose you can make those parallels with Dame's commitment here, but again.... sorta.

Dame/Powell/Roco/Simmons/Nurk with Ant/Nas/Nance is a great top 8 but not sure it can compete with the likes of BK or MIL quite yet. Would require internal improvement from Simmons/Nurk and Billups to figure out how to optimize everyone. And either one of Ant/Nas would have to pop to more than replacement quality players.

Regardless, a CJ + pick (s) for Simmons could get us closer to that contending spot than we are now just based on synergy between our top two players alone.

 

No, this is the worst Blazers team of my lifetime.

And really it isn't because it no longer has Melo or Kanter on it. Now if we could just get rid of CJ.

 

I guess I’m still not sold on that top 8 being one of the best teams in the west, let alone league. Lillard is awesome. Simmons is great defensively and distributing etc but can’t shoot. Rocos offense is usually shit. Nurkic is a gigantic puss half the time who can’t stop fouling. The rest are inconsistent role players. The reality is this team as constructed is a good team that makes the playoffs. That’s it. Switching out players is fine with me but it’s not much more successful than the current team.

 

I still think we should try to get in on a 3-way to send Simmons to SAC for Barnes/Davion Mitchell. At this point he's played so well in preseason that he's probably got more value than CJ. We'd be so much bigger, better defensively, and deeper. We'd really be relying on growth and scoring from Powell and Ant but it seems worth trying to roll the dice.

 

that's as far as I would go...2023 swap; 2024 pick; 2025 swap. And I'd like to see some protection on that 2025 swap...like top-10 or something. Dame will be 35 in 2025, but more important than that is 2024-25 is his option year. If he left in 2024, the Blazers could have a crap record in 2024-25

 

And I think at this point, jrue is the more impactful playoff player. Ben can get there fairly easily and is taller.

CJ and a pick for Ben is what id do. If we're throwing in Roco, I want back players too.

 

If we're throwing in RoCo we have to get back players too, that trade doesn't work without like 2.5M more coming back to us besides Simmons' salary.

 

Pretty sure it’s affect.

“Ben Simmons not reporting for training cap doesn’t affect (aka influence or alter) the 76ers cap (the thing being influenced or altered), which means there will be no resulting effects (changes due to something that “affects” the situation).”

Edit: Not worth it. I don’t care either way. Either way my life stays the same and you gotta go back to your… (Insert rest of LeBron quote here)

 

I think adding Simmons makes us a top 5 defensive team. That alone gives us a chance, add in one of the most clutch players of all time Dame gives you a shot to close out close games (defensively we should be close in all games). Simmons makes all players around him better so offensively you hope losing CJ is a wash.

I’d do CJ and AS or Nas plus pick/swap. If things don’t work out you blow it up trade Dame, and possibly even Simmons and end up with 5-7 draft picks and some good young players in return. It’s a gamble but giving up a pick isn’t that big of deal when you’re going to get picks back in other trades. Swing for the fence now and blow up later

 

Nah, I was asking for me. I still to this day am not sure which to use. It has Effected/Affected me for years.

 

Exactly right. Go ahead and put a top 10 protection on the final swap, but Simmons and Dame would net a mint if things didn't work out. The combination of top shelf defense and absolutely ELITE closing of close games is precisely why I’ve wanted to pair Simmons and Dame.

I’m also low-key excited again given the recent rumors. I think it might very well happen.

 

Isn't Danny Green better than Sexton? I'd think Philly is better without this trade even if Simmons stays in LA.

I don't see why Houston is involved in this.

 

uh no.

https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/s/sextoco01.html

 

I’m kinda off the Simmons train but one thing to keep in mind is that Billups is also a Klutch client as well as Olshey having long history with LeBron/Paul. Best believe that’s a situation the Simmons camp would be open to. Never bought that one rumor about him not wanting to go to Portland. He might prefer Cali, but that’s not the same thing.

No chance I’d add Roco on top of CJ btw.

I do think it’s interesting that both shams and Woj have specifically mentioned Portland in the past week or two, along with Quick. I think there’s enough smoke there to believe it, but I doubt Olshey wants to offer anything other than CJ straight up. And Morey probably knows he isn’t gonna get a better player.

 

I agree with all of that except your point about him wanting to play for Portland. If he resented being 2nd fiddle to Embiid, why would he be willing to be Robin to Dame's Batman? For that matter, the only Cal team he likely wants to play for is SacTown. I can easily envision him going to OKC or Houston and being blissful as the undisputed star on a 30 win team.

 

Scoring empty points on a horrible team that loses often while playing terrible defense?

 

different styles of game. Embeiid cant play outside. Which forced Ben out there. Dame can play outside giving the combination and Ben specifically, many more options.
A picknroll with dame and Simmons would work much much different than Simmons and embeiid

 

Embiid and Ben didn’t compliment each other that well offensively as both are better closer to the rim. In Portland he would fit better with Dame, who could also play off the ball more, which he has welcomed. Even Nurk is a better fit because of his playmaking.

 

Some people just can't be taught.

(Sidenote, the great punk/new wave band The Jam (seriously underheard over here - check out "Going Underground," "Town Called Malice" and "That's Entertainment") had an album called Sound Affects - which is a pretty solid pun.)

 

137 pages of Simmons and he still hasnt been traded? its been 90 days and his market value goes up by the month, right?