Bridges as an all NBA defender? Yes, and that while scoring around 20 per game. The Blazers as a contender in the West with those 4? Depends on center, to a degree, but more about the bench. The West has NO dominant team. Being a contender in the West like Memphis can get you out in the first round due to injuries to a couple nice but not great bigs. And if Portland was in the mix close to the All Star game, as the 2nd best on the team, Bridges can get that Star-plus-one treatment of the near-all-star on a good team. We may disagree on the above.
my current care points dame - if we can retool via the below, then keep him if he believes and the moves are needle movers. if the options are limited and the moves a small, id move dame and start the rebuild properly. im over being fuckin mid. ant - as literally everyone with eyes has said, he's just another CJ type and we know how that goes. move him 100% nurk - lotsa promises, limited results, lotsa injuries, and zero consistency. move him 100% grant - i like him, but not a max - sign n trade or whatever - 50/50 depends. im pretty much down to build around sharpe, gut everything, load up on picks and just start again properly, not just putting band aids on things that need stitches.
I think you & I are in the same page, but I think Portland could squeeze more out of the trade: Dame Nurk (into TPE) Walker Simmons Claxton (into TPE) #21 pick '25 (highest of Brk/PHX) '27 (highest of Brk/PHX/PHI) '29 (highest of Dal/Brk/PHX) The nice thing is there's more than 1 team that may hit hard times & be bad in the future A lineup of: Ant, Sharpe, Grant, Simmons, Claxton isnt bad (with some high draft picks coming off the bench)
Portland won't trade Dame before the draft, and Brooklyn can't trade their pick until after the draft. Normally that wouldn't be a big obstacle but I think it's extremely unlikely that Dame will say "trade me" before the draft. And even if somehow, that happened, Grant wouldn't re-sign in Portlan and for fuck sakes, again, the idea of trading Dame for Simmons is insulting and repugnant
Brooklyn has 2 picks this year, so the trade CAN happen prior to the draft. And Portland isn't 'trading FOR' Simmons. He's strictly salary ballast. If it helps, think of it as: Nurk/Simmons swap. followed up with Dame/Claxton+picks swap I also don't agree that Grant would not resign. I really think his primary driver is $$$. If Portland offers ~$30m/yr, he stays
Do you have a link that says that Dame is currently restricted from being traded? Both Fanspo's and ESPN's trade machines have him available to be traded.
Pretty sure it's some time in July, gotta wait a year after that extension I believe. Found this paragraph in a Bleacher Report article" " Even prior to Haynes' report, there's been nothing to indicate a Lillard trade was a plausible scenario right now. The two-year, $121.8 million extension he signed with the team hasn't even kicked in yet, which means he can't be traded until July."
In all honesty, I think Portland should draft the stud in 2023 and work things out. Seeing as how it was depth that Portland needed, drafting a quality player, giving Sharpe a bigger role (many of those wins last year were when Sharpe played well), and making some key role player signings...may be all that Portland needs. If by the trade deadline, it becomes clearer that it's just not going to work, Portland can push for an established player or a rebuild. Simons+2023+future picks can go for Siakam/Bridges OR Dame can go for Ayton, Michael Porter Jr+picks, Tyrese Maxey+pick(s), Jordan Poole+picks (all of which make the teams that acquire Dame an instant title favorite while providing a young talent in return). In the latter case, Simons for OG may be a possibility, as well. And thus, for a rebuild, you put one of Porter Jr/Maxey/Ayton/Poole around Sharpe+the 2023 pick and either OG or Simons.
“In all honesty, I think Portland should draft the stud in 2023 and work things out. Seeing as how it was depth that Portland needed, drafting a quality player, giving Sharpe a bigger role (many of those wins last year were when Sharpe played well), and making some key role player signings...may be all that Portland needs” To me this should be the default course. I don’t think Dame will leave if the Blazers look like a playoff team. They don’t need to be considered “contenders” or he would have left long ago. Dame wants an end to the tanking and to get back to making the postseason every year. Cronin needs to get it right in the draft and to add legitimate role players.
sorry...I wasn't clear in my response....and it looks like it has been covered: Dame can't be traded till July because of his extension. And I do not believe Dame would ask for a trade till after he sees what the Blazers do in the draft or might line up during July. Those 2023 pick(s) the Nets have won't be a factor, IMO and "trade Dame for ballast"...LOL I'll say again if Portland trades Dame they should trade Ant, Nurkic and either S&T grant or let him walk. The best assets the Blazers can get from a Dame trade would be the draft picks from being a shitty team for 2-4 years
You don't think trading Dame for Simmons accomplishes that goal? I would posit that a Simons/Sharpe/[2023 FRP]/Simmons/Claxton lineup would almost definitely be in the lottery next year.
I would posit that almost any team that has Simons as a key component has a fair chance of being lottery bound. The guy is one-dimensional and that one dimension is streaky, which means sometimes he is one-dimensional and others, just non-dimensional.
why Simons then, and why Claxton? Trade Simons and Nurk (for draft assets) and instead of Claxton get Mills, or O'Neal. Mills/Sharpe/Thybulle/Simmons/Eubanks...now there's a team that could finish top-4 in the lottery for 2 or 3 years. Probably longer since Portland got jack shit for Dame has it come to the point where the trade-Dame crowd is so far off the deep end they are actually arguing that Dame for the corpse of Ben Simmons and 3 or 4 draft picks in 2027-2029 is a good trade?
I don't see anyone suggesting it is a good trade. Simmons is just to match salaries. And most of the Draft pick trade scenarios I've seen include picks that occur sooner. I don't think any trade involving Dame will bring back great value. But I also don't think the Blazers will be able to bring in veterans that will put this team into a serious contending window. The nonsense of trying to straddle both lines between Dame and the youngsters is silliness. So if we aren't going to be able to be a legit contender, then it seems some people are resigned to go with the other option of building around youth and seeing what happens. It might not be great.....but it hasn't been great yet either.
trading for Simmons is specifically what I was talking about; that and the fact that Brooklyn has really shitty draft assets and for matching salaries...why the fuck match with Simmons? He has massive negative value Spenser Dinwiddie and Joe Harris match salary even better. And they each have one less year on their contracts and are also the type of players who could be flipped for more assets. Simmons isn't
Of course, I would take him in a heartbeat. I love the kid. I was being sarcastic because this forum spends more time discussing size than any other topic.
I'm not advocating for Simmons.....must what some of the posts used for matching salary. Some of Phoenix's picks might not be too bad as they dumped all their youth for a short-term window built around KD. Paul and KD are getting up there. Ayton is a mystery. That leaves just Booker in a couple of years. Those PHX picks might be valuable. In a big 'F' mood today?
not in a mood other than, after all the 'excited' chatter about what Portland could get for Dame, it devolved to be Ben Simmons and a few picks 4-7 years from now Brooklyn is a lousy trading partner for Dame
When does this happen, even to Portland? Aldridge eight years ago? No, a rebuild won't fail because players will leave. It will fail because we won't commit to it, so we'll never have more than one or two actual good young player at a time and instead will keep trying to get veterans to make our oldest (by three years) player happy.
