Because the Blazers waiting gives random sportswriters the opportunity to posit half-baked unrealistic scenarios?
Because in the playoffs every team will MAKE you give up the ball and it would be nice to have two players who can create? I mean, not to be fucking obvious or anything.
The obvious thing is to keep Giddy next to SGA.....which is what they will do. Now if they are not winning 60% of their games then it might be a different discussion.
Expectations are that OKC is a playoff team this season. However, if the Trail Blazer are not in tank mode, the Western Conference should be more competitive than ever. The two cellar dwellars: Houston is as athletic as any team in the league, with a new coach and veteran point guard, and San Antonio added Victor Wembanyama to a decent young roster coached by Greg Popovich. Definitely not a season to count on anything if you're looking at a 5-8 seed.
Neither Giddey nor Shai are particularly strong outside shooters. I honestly don't see how Giddey and SGA work together long term. Dame's shooting means you can play him off the ball and he's still effective. But OKC has so many picks that they could offer the best package for Dame without giving up any of their young core (unless you count Dort as "core")
Fair point about their lack of 3-point shooting. And I don't disagree at all that OKC would be a good trading partner for us, I just don't think we are a good trading partner for them. They have a nice young team and if they are winning 60% of their games at the deadline I do not see why they would trade 4 players plus a lot of picks, for a 33-year-old guard when a big is what they need. We want Giddey right? Why wouldn't they? He is still only 20 years old
If Dame is effective off the ball ala Steph, trade Ant+ for a very good strong rebounding PF, Idk who's available Scoot / Dame Dame / Sharpe / Tisse / Keon Grant / Nas / Knox / Rayan 4 / Kris / Walker / Nurk / Reath?BackupC If we add precious picks to Ant and get said very good strong rebounding PF, maybe it's a playoff team Ideally, we get equitable return for Dame, like a legit front court starter who rebounds (because Grant) plus picks
I just read all the comments to get to this one. Yes, Chet. Chet with Scoot and Shaedon in two to three years ooh wee. A lineup of Scoot Shaedon Grant Chet and Nurk. Or even with Ant at the 2. That sounds like a fun team to watch. I actually think OKC says no.
sure, OKC would likely kabosh the deal. I'd have to see Holmgren perform for a season against actual NBA players before wanting him to be the centerpiece of a deal. And I don't think there's any way that OKC would ship out Chet for Dame at this point, I'd much rather land Giddey in a Dame trade as #1 target. With Dame and SGA, Giddey becomes rather redundant. Jalen Williams would be the #2 target. If OKC was willing to lob a whole passel of good draft picks Portland's way instead of their top young talent, maybe, but it would have to be 5 or 6 guaranteed 1st round picks. OKC has a lot of picks but just about every pick they own is protected
Yeah OKC could give up more assets than the Heat and still have a great core with probably a dozen extra picks. I think odds are very high ONE team will have their situation change and make a big push to trade for Dame during the season. Odds are probably low its a specific single team if we just analyze them on their own such as OKC, or Spurs, or Raptors, TWolves, 6ers, Knicks, Nets, Celtics, etc. But add all those small odds together and it becomes likely one of the teams gets that itch to throw more assets in a trade. Also December will have 100-200+ players available to trade that are not now. Even with the Heat it would make it easier to match dollars.
