I don't remember anybody saying Portland shout trade this years top-6 pick + the 23rd pick + 4 future first's + 4 future swaps for some combo like Siakam & Derozan. That is a figment of bad imagination Portland would have to trade over 50M in salaries to add those two guys while Ant + Nurk only combine for 38M
I agree with everything here. Right now everything is ambiguous. What I think is an important discussion is how many NBA seasons does Dame want to play, and how effective will he be at the end of his career. I believe he has five seasons left, possibly six, but the last two I doubt he will be option 1. If he were to stay in Portland, Sharpe becomes a first option, maintain Grant, use our lotto pick to add a potential star three years out and use Ant and moderate assets in trade for a "needle mover" along with filling out the bench, Dame would still have three seasons left. Is it ideal? Who knows. Is anything ideal? Will only know after the results are in.
Yes, you are correct, lots of salary would have to be included and Portland has nothing of value in these type of trades other than Ant and of course Dame. Many argue as to the actual value of Ant in comparison to CJ. Of course trading Dame kills conversation. Nurk is certainly negative value due to length and value of contract. And you have not been paying attention to the crazy trade proposals in these threads to acquire 'needle movers" to help Dame get a chip here obviously. I have no need, want or desire to scour these pages for all the proposals that support what I am pointing out. If you have the time you can check it out. I would like to continue, but youth soccer is calling.
Just a minor point but... Ant + Nurk can bring back close to 51 mil in salary in a trade (125%) after July 1. Before July 1, they bring back 48.5 mil in salary. And don't forget the salary of the draft pick as well. A trade can be agreed upon and executed after the calendar turns. Ant + Nurk + Nas = 44 mil. That can bring back 53 mil salary in return before July 1
I really don’t think Siakam added to the current team makes us much better than maybe the 6th seed. We don’t have as much talent as some posters think. We have ONE ALL NBA talent, a few guys with “potential” and a lot of guys that would be bench pieces on good teams. Dame is probably my favorite player all time but I just feel that his era of blazer basketball is getting to the end and that with 3-4 more years of high productivity left he will bring back enough assets to help with a quicker rebuild. Trading our future in a desperation move or two to become contenders seems like a bad idea, I don’t trust this FO to formulate and execute a plan like that. I hate the idea of him playing somewhere else but the idea of Sharpe/Top 5 pick/Dame assets seems like the best course of action in my opinion.
I wish people would stop including Shae in trade scenarios. That would be the Blazers' dumbest move since drafting LaRue Martin over Bob McAdoo. And no team is going to send us someone like Imbiid, period. (And before someone brings up Jordan, I said dumbest, not arguably worst. Bowie was the real deal, at a position of need, so not a dumb pick. Personally, I was worried about Bowie's injury history and I wanted the Blazers to pick the Round Mound of Rebound.)
A quicker rebuild to get back to a 8 spot maybe. Look how long it's taking OKC. Obviously if the Blazers get the first pick, Wemby is that pick, unless a rare , Lakers acquiring Kareem type move, is made to get Giannis (highly doubtful). But the ability to add a player like Bridges with pick 2 / Ant has possibilities if Brooklyn needs a flashier player to build around. Then the Blazers have access to their other draft capital to make potentially a couple more moves for top bench depth. That makes the Blazers intriguing IMO. It's not about 1 move with the capital they have. It's about multiple moves. I doubt Reddish is brought back , unless on a very team friendly deal. Surely not at the 17 mil, cap hold. The Blazers want that space to bring in multiple face changing moves. As far as a team offering 3 1st for OG, maybe it was Memphis. They've got their young core , and were probably offering those future late 1st. Right now, because of injuries, and poor performances, our future 1st are , potentially , a lot more enticing. Most likely able to be used to acquiring real team changing talent.
there are different forms of purgatory Sacramento spent 16 straight seasons in lottery purgatory; Minnesota spent essentially 17 straight years in lottery purgatory when they appeared in the playoffs one time and won 1 game; Phoenix spent 10 straight seasons in the lottery; Golden State spent 17 of 18 straight years in the lottery this belief some of you have that somehow the best path forward is trading Dame doesn't make sense to me. A couple of posters here who are the biggest advocates for it have admitted it probably means, at best, it would be 7-10 years before Portland could build a contender. The most realistic trade scenario I've seen, at least from the perspective of another team is Dame to Brooklyn for Ben Simmons, Claxton, and 3 or 4 first round pick 5-7 drafts from now. In other words, the Blazers probably fail to re-sign Grant, lock themselves into that worst kind of purgatory of late lottery picks and 1st round exits, and hope to land a couple of elite players, in the draft, in 2027-29 period, with the chance they will be veteran enough to contend by 2033 again though, there is really no realistic template for a team trading away their only elite franchise player and parlaying that trade package into a contending team
Some of us, including me, may not be around in 2033. I hope we're all still around, but longevity is not guaranteed. as much as we are saddened that the Schonz is gone. He got a pretty dog gone good run. Fingers crossed.
Did anyone catch his game on the nba app today? My God. I only saw the first quarter and then caught highlights. He had one move where he did a drop step from like 15 feet out and finished with a lefty dunk. Totally and completly sold on him. Also caught a fan in the stands a blazer shirt on. Need that energy!!
Yes indeed. Hopefully we can be this Gen's Spurs with Tim Duncan. Wemby and Dame could be a very special tandem.
Blazers said the reason, the only reason, they traded Malone was because they couldn't afford Walton, Lucas, and Malone at the same time. IIRC, Larry Weinberg was the majority owner at the time and he was not rich like Paul Allen. The NBA also didn't have media deals to defray payroll costs like they do today
A lot of people would've said similar things about Aldridge his last few years in PDX. If the Blazers had swapped him for a number of good draft picks and also improved their own pick, maybe there would've been a few more qualify starters on the roster with all those years of Dames prime and he'd already have a ring. If the Blazers can contend in the next 3 years then keeping Dame makes sense. If they can't; then the talent as you say 7-10 years from now should be much higher if they trade Dame. I'm fine not trading Dame right now. But I don't want the team shipping out lottery picks and future picks if the result isn't immediate contention. That would be mortgaging the Blazers future such as Sharpes prime years in a stupid gamble with no realistic upside.
