Jan 15th trade Nurk or Simons

can anybody say with certainty that Simons will be significantly better than prime CJ? I think he probably will, if for no other reason than style. At the same time, I've seen him start to channel MeJ on some of his possessions and he's as inconsistent as CJ

the point being that CJ has never had the talent to be a 1st or 2nd option on a contender. He's a supporting level talent, nothing more. If Simons has a ceiling similar to CJ then he's not "the future" of the Blazers, except by default because they have nothing better. Seeing Grant and Simons on the same floor for more than 30 games has convinced me that not only is Grant a better player right now, he has the length to go along with talent that makes for a quality wing. And quality wings is what makes for contenders. Not undersized tweener guards

in other words, if people want the Blazers to make moves to escape the perceived purgatory of mediocrity, settling for Simons as the future of Portland is the opposite of what should be done

meaning that Cronin doesn't have to trade Simons at this point but he absolutely should perform his due diligence and explore trade options for Simons. Nurkic too. Nobody should be held untouchable, even Dame. That's especially true if the Blazers are still hovering around .500 five weeks from now

 

Could have the "4J's" then.

 

Why should he have to be good enough to be the 1st or 2nd option on a championship team? His new contract doesn't even put him in the top 50 highest paid players and some top players are on rookie deals still.

 

what difference does that make?

if he's a supporting role level player, he shouldn't be untouchable in trade talks

 

I didn't say he was untouchable. I said I wouldn't trade him unless it is to rebuild. I like watching players develop or contend. This team has no route to contend so please don't trade our players that have a chance to develop.

The point is that letting him develop shouldn't be a problem because he isn't paid to be a 1st or 2nd option on a contender. CJ was.

 

and....?

I never suggested you trade him for a bad return. I suggested he hasn't demonstrated enough talent, certainly not enough consistency, to be considered the "future" of the Blazers, especially when gauging him against Lillard. Dame as a rookie was pretty obviously the future of the Blazers. CJ was never the future of the Blazers, except as the object of the GM's ego-driven imagination

You say "don't trade players that have a chance to develop"....that's a really restrictive standard. Watford? Little? Keon?

 

Is a trade centered around ant and Anunoby at all realistic? Toronto has a pileup of good forwards (Barnes, Siakam, Boucher, Porter Jr, Achiuwa…). They’d have to move VanFleet somewhere…but we would be a more balanced, better defensive team with Dame, Hart, Anunoby, Grant, Nurk…

 

He is not a "face of the franchise" type talent, imho. He is part of the future.

 

This is the problem with this board. You know damn well what I meant and you also know the obvious differences as prospects between Simons and Watford/Little/Keon and yet this is what you post. What is the point of responding to you when you're going to post troll semantic crap like this?

 

Ant like CJ is the perfect Jamal Crawford Jason Terry 6 man....score in bunches off the bench. If you don't use him that way, you have to hide two smallish guards on defense and you can only hide one of those guys. I slide Hart to the 2 guard with Payton to back him up and let Hart start shooting some 3s. I'd trade Ant for an impact player and move him to Florida or the east to be closer to his family. People act like Ant is a rookie but he's going into year 5 next season and he's a vet now. He's had 4 years to figure out how to play pt guard and he seems better at it when Dame is off the court. He also is probably our most tradeable asset and one that other teams could use. I'm hoping we can have a defense that keeps opposing teams under 100 pts a game.

 

Not sure he is a key part of a future I want to see. He screams MeJ too much for me to believe he is a component of a championship contending team.

Yes, he has some great offensive skills - when he is on. However, brings very little else to the table and those offensive skills are irregular and cannot be relied upon for success.

Yeah, I'm in the trade him if a good deal comes along category. I didn't say trade him period, just if the right deal comes along.

 

this

 

No. Toronto already has serious buyer's remorse about the last undersized gunner we traded them

 

What's up with GTJ?

 

He is what he is

 

And I greatly appreciate it.

 

Ant has what looks like a reasonable contract given his performance and likely, future performance. Nurk got a contract that may be longer than optimal given how many games he’s missed and that he isn’t a 32+ minute guy. But Nurk got a contract that is tradeable — enough dollars alone or in a package to make a good trade.

Ant and Sharpe as a future, starting back court? Pretty good.
Trading Ant and getting OG or other quality SF where Toronto is not deep at guard but is with forwards?
Good luck and good hunting to Cronin.

 

It's been reported that FVF's knees are in terrible condition and he probably doesn't have much tread on the tires (cartilage) left.

STOMP

 

Trade both. Blow it up man. Just being meddling team is the worst position to be in