He says the right thing even if you know he doesn't mean it. His very first interview, he talked about the Blazers having no bad contracts. Then yesterday, talked about how the move gave them more cap flexibility, etc...and we still have CJ.
That was a terrible trade no matter how you cut it. We should have been able to dump those contracts, gotten under the cap and ended up with a couple of first rounders in return. If you really like Johnson then great, I don't but we should have got a first along with that second. The fact that it was done this soon means we didn't explore all options and pulled the trigger too soon. It's yet to be known if this sets up a good deal or a couple of good deals but no future move will change the fact that we just made a trade that was extremely lopsided in value going the other team's way and you can't spin that.
Not only do you have no way of knowing that's the most we could have got for those two but no one including our interim GM can either because it was the first meaningful deal of the trade season and everyone (besides you I guess) knows we traded a lot more value than we got. The idea that the 6M in cap space we opened up somehow ends up with us having two better starters for less money is beyond me and just let's me know how logically you're thinking about this. Just ask yourself if we got better or worse from that trade, just as a collection of talent. Then ask yourself if the Clippers did. Then when you come to the obvious answer ask yourself if a 2025 second round pick that likely could have been bought during the draft is worth the difference. IT WAS A TERRIBLE TRADE!!!
They were definitely not we have two contracts that are fully guaranteed (unless for some reason Justice opts out) for next season when we only had one guaranteed for next season before the trade. Every time someone tries to spin this trade as being a good one besides the fact that it got us under the tax and cleared 6M more dollars from our books for next season, they're completely full of shit. I guarantee you a veteran GM would have waited a little longer, called around to other teams seeing if they'd exceed the offer and would most likely have come up with more return for us with just as much savings when the deadline got closer or taken the trade we got later. I can't know anything for sure but with the idea that NOLA wants CJ being out there... it's hard for me to believe that if CJ wasn't available to them that they wouldn't take Norm for one of their like 20 first round picks they have and no player in return with their TPE. That would have actually freed up a roster spot and saved a ton of cap space going into next season and we would have had a better return in value... and we still could have traded RoCo to one of the seven teams who were rumored to be interested in him.
This is true. It's also possible, we are the desperate ones. The league knew we badly needed to shave salary and if there were no serious bidders, the offers might have somehow got even worse! Hard to imagine though.
Keon Johnson was the 21st pick. So right now he has about what, 20% of the value Thomas Robinson had when the Kings traded him? Teams don't trade away a first round selection months later if it was a great, good, or average pick.
Dude. RoCo sucks and Powell is overrated. You say riverman has no idea what was available but neither do you. I like the trade. Winslow has more potential than RoCo. Same with Keon over Norm.
Of course they have more potential. They're younger and not established.... Ya know, unlike established players like roco and norm....
That's not true. They might still have less potential. As an aside, I have a really hard time believing anyone with below average wingspan on the perimeter will become Ron Artest 2.0(a shorter, weaker version on top of it).
Johnson just isn't that good. Brandon Boston Jr was the Clips 2nd round pick who played in over twice as many games, averaged twice the points, in less than twice the minutes. Boston has been playable for them getting 16 mpg. Johnson has been unplayable and gets mop-up, garbage time for the injury decimated Clippers. For Gary Trent Jr, Trevor Ariza and 2 1st round Draft picks, we got a guy who may never play (Bledsoe), a guy on his 4th team in 8 years (Winslow) and a rookie who was being outplayed by his 2nd round counterpart. All the sunshine and silver lining in the world doesn't alter the fact that the Clippers are rejoicing, the rest of the league can't believe how badly the Blazers got fleeced, Blazer fans got screwed, and Jody saved a few bucks and will now get Cap money paid to her instead of having to pay. Not impressed.
Sounds similar to the Gary Trent -Anthony Simons comments a couple of years ago. And to a lesser extent the Watford-Greg Brown situation now. Only time will tell.
What cannot be disputed is Brandon Boston Jr. has outperformed KJ by every metric. The Clippers did not trade the guy that has proven to be their top budding prospect. They unloaded a guy that underperformed a second rounder. Can that be disputed?
