How's everyone feel about Smokin' Joe Cronin now?

Pat Riley and the Heat, thought that they would own him,
But thanks to Smokin Joe, instead they got a bone'in
Now the whiney Heat fans, be a moanin and a groanin,
And you can lay it all....on Smokin Joe Cronin....

 

Like Boston did to Brooklyn and ended up with Brown and Tatum.

 

I think it might be better than OKCs. Quantity does not equal quality in the NBA.

 

Just proof that you could not be Olshey's burner account.

 

Respectfully, I am not as excited about the pick swaps as some others are. 5 and 7 years is a long time from now and they could be worth zilch. Since I can't look forward in time though, I'll just wait until Jrue is dealt and make my decision based on that transaction. The end of the Dame Era could have been dealt with more gracefully, but Joe at least got us all some sort of resolution before the season started. Overall offseason grade, B.

 

Trade destination that puts Dame in a real contender- A
Trade value accounting for Dame's contract, demands, willing teams to trade, and career timeline - A
Size of wheelbarrow to haul those jewels around in by waiting amidst massive pressure - A
Stayed cool during the entire process - A

 

Joe trading him to his 2nd destination is different than how he handled things before this. Now let it go.

 

Because Joe trading him is different than how things were handled leading up to this. But we can't even move on from that.

 

Anytime you trade your franchise super star you can't realistically grade it an A.
Id say this trade overall is a c+
What they've done is a tactic in trying to meet an objective goal down the road.

 

But it's not done yet... how can you grade it?

 

Thats why I give it a c+, maybe they can go to a B. For me, when you consider blowing it up with the trade of your super star and apparent rebuild how can you grade that an A from the beginning?
I hate grades anyway....

 

Okay, so you're wrong about the lead up instead of the trade, that's fine too.

 

Here's the thing for me, I break the trade up into pieces.

Ayton for Nurk/Nas/Keon/Allen - this is an A for me. That's a very low risk potentially high reward move. Nurk needed to be traded anyway because Dame is out, and I'm not even sure if Nas would have cracked our rotation this year. Keon was in danger of being cut. We got a guy who was a #1 pick just a bit ago, he fits our window, and he's in need of a change of scenery. This is a Bob Whitsitt move.

2029 unprotected pick and 2 unprotected swaps - I consider this an A. Those picks could be worth a lot because of the age of most of the Bucks roster and the fact that they have no picks, no young talent, and they're not a free agent destination. They could be REALLY bad in six years.

Dame for Jrue - just at face value, this is an A for me because we punted. We moved Dame for an All-Star who has a much bigger market than Dame. He's on a shorter contract, and we have created an urgency for other contenders to try to keep up with Milwaukee. Jrue might bring back the same value that we would have gotten for Dame just because of the crap market that Dame had fostered with the demand. Imagine getting essentially the same value for Jrue while still getting the Milwaukee picks and Grayson Allen to help move the Ayton trade along. I think this was done masterfully.

The trade can't be completely graded until Jrue is moved, but so far, at this point, I give it an A.

 

Any win win trade is an A for me and this fits that bill. Joe has really shown he can work around one of the nastiest media spins ever thrown at him. He calmly crafted a great situation for Portland after the demand. Other than Ant he's washed his hands of the Olshey era

 

Also, just wanted to add, that there's no real urgency to trade Jrue. We have at least until the trade deadline. We wanted to move Dame because we just didn't want to deal with having Dame come into camp and all of the negativity that would have brought with it. So again, to use that term punted, I think we kicked the can down the road and we can hopefully move Jrue for the kind of haul that we wanted to get for Dame. Or at least closer to it. Nobody wanted to see Dame back in camp. Nobody wanted to see him at media day. We wanted to turn the page and hand the keys over to Scoot. Now we can do that, and Jrue can chill while we find a new home for him.

 

Sure, lets go with that.

 

I actually worked with the guy they based Ryan Gosling's character on in "The Big Short". We both used to work for the Principal Transactions Group at CSFB. His real name is Greg Lippmann and Gosling's impersonation of him is spot on.

 

Those picks are great assets for whoever will be our GM in 5-6 years. I know Cronin’s planning on it, but doubtful

 

Holiday/Grant trade package at the trade deadline might net us a budding young star from a team that could possibly going all in because they started the year hot. We shall see.