What if we trade nobody?

I am curious why do some of you want to trade Ant -- he is the team's best player well neck and neck with Grant but I would take Ant over Grant any day of the week if I was asked who I should keep between the two. Now I am not saying Ant does not have problems but instead of jumping on Ant maybe look at the coach who still coaches like Dame is still on the team only with Ant ,Grant etc so maybe the blame should be on him over the player.

 

The problem like i said is the coach over the players cause he is not putting them in the best spot to succeed cause Grant is a ball stopper a lot of the times but again how much is that on Grant and how much is this on the style we play cause of the coach. Also I like Billups but it's clear to me he is the problem on this team since we should be running much more then we are hell we are 29th ranked team on offense at least last i looked last night.

 

Why do we assume that then?

I'll take whichever 2/3 develop into the best player. There's no need to move any of them now, there's time to evaluate which ones to keep.

 

Yes. This is another reason to get a legit coach in ASAP.

 

I don't think Simons ceiling is high enough to be a starting guard for a deep playoff team. And I don't think he'll be interested in coming off the bench here in Portland.

It would be cool if he proves me wrong, but I just don't see it.

But, I also agree. There is no need to fire sale him either. There are plenty of minutes for Simons, Sharpe, and Scoot. As long as we don't have another guard who needs big minutes.

We can trade the odd man out the next time we get a great offer.

 

Sure I agree with that, but the underlying assumption here is that we don’t know, but we have time to figure it out.

So I just don’t see the need to trade Ant right now, or operate under some assumption that Scoot/Sharpe are the 2/3 you decide to keep.

 

Yeah, those rankings tend to take a shit when you're playing most games with 2-3 rotation players injured on the bench, but sure, you can blame the coach.

 

agree because if our young guys pop in the starting lineup and we are near playoff ready we need a seasoned legit bench. Id rather move Simons and some for a young front court guy like a Wagner from Orlando.

 

Then my post wasn't directed to you, Plat.

I think you'd admit that there are people out there, though, that will hate on the FO (or a person, organization, ideology, duck-billed mammal, etc.) regardless of the data and outcomes, especially when the outcomes haven't yet been realized. There is a group of people that won't be satisfied with anything other than a championship won on their own parameters leading to said championship. Which might be fine, but just own that POV. If one wants to be a fountain of negativity or pick the low-hanging fruit, OK, just don't try to costume it as something else.

 

It's no worse a gamble than trading him for spare parts and letting the young guys figure it out on their own. Six of one, half-dozen of another. There's room for nuance.

 

Yeah.

There are any number of reasons to play this either way. There are varying degrees of validity to all of them. Being meh on Cronin does not = the reverse pollyannaism we see here (or, in fairness, every fan board I've ever been part of). He got a better return on Dame than most fans (and pretty much any pundit) said he would in the midst of that send-him-to-Miami nonsense. He got Matisse and Camara for nothing, a first for Josh Hart, discovered a playable backup C in 27-year-old journeyman Duop Reath. None of those are major victories, but they still should go into his plus column. That alone should earn him a certain amount of latitude.

 

I don't think a first round pick is spare parts.

And I think a first would be a far better risk to take.

 

this summer reminded me that GMs don't like to broadcast their intentions. so if we're unclear on what the direction is, that's often intentional. as fans we project our anxieties onto that lack of certainty and will sometimes read it as a 'lack of a plan.' I think GMs have general ideas of where they want to go, and players they want to monitor and make a move for, but often times it's about being hyper-flexible and keeping movable value players on the books so that if you do need to pivot, you can.

a firesale team isn't going to get great offers if they're believed to be selling items at a discount—everything must go—and the other teams know that.

a tax team is going to leveraged by the market because the other teams know they intend to get under by the deadline.

a team with an expiring player who will very obviously not re-sign will probably not return full value because there's not as much team control baked in—and the other teams know that.

the mystery is intentional.

 

It's going to drive Sly crazy, but it depends where and when. I'd counter that, first, that's subjective in valuable compensation, and, second, a first-round pick would do nothing in regards to changing what I said about leaving a bunch of young, inexperienced players to try to figure it out by themselves.

In that sense, I'm not sure where your disagreement is with my post. A first-round pick might in a vacuum be a reasonable return, but it's still a gamble, is it not? And the deeper you get into the first round, the bigger a gamble it is, is it not?

I don't think your response to me really is addressing the point I was making. If I wasn't clear, my bad. I just don't see what you feel about the worth of a hypothetical future first that I never even brought into the discussion has to do with what I said.

 

I honestly think unless Joe and Chauncey have just been posturing all season in regards to Ant it would take more than that for any team to pry Ant away from this team at this point. Do not get me wrong, I think he makes both Scoot and Shaedon much worse when either young guy shares the floor with Ant and I wish we would trade him for a reasonable offer like your idea, I just think Joe is really in love with Ant's game and who knows how big of a role Joe had in drafting Ant.

I guess my biggest wish is that a team would blow Joe away with an offer and we would trade Ant and come away with a ridiculous haul. It's the only way I see Ant leaving right now no matter if any of us like it or not.