Plausible destinations for our vets?

Pacers ? They need help. Two bigs out with Achilles injury. Ouch

 

Because I have a ton of respect for any person who dedicates themself to mastering their craft, and find it sad when avatars try to tear them down with personal attacks. I assure you, the man has put in the work to become great, and that takes heart. He has some weaknesses that make him a bad match for our current lineup, and that's okay.

 

Heres an idea;



Thunder throw in whatever salary to make it work and whatever FRP they least value

Bucks get out of Middleton contract and a legit starting level player to make a final run with Giannis/Dame. If they do trade their 2031 pick probably best to have us own it since it would be simpler if they ever do a Brooklyn Nets Bridges style trade and try to re-acquire their picks.

Bulls take on some salary and give us our pick for younger healthier players.

Any of these trades could happen independently.

 

Trying to come up with ideas of where Thybulle could end up? Dallas signed him in the 2023 summer and their defense has some issues this season, maybe they'd be interested in getting him. He wouldn't be worth a FRP - but maybe a top10 protected swap or something;

 

Certainly will be a lot more players available to be traded next month on Dec 15th, so maybe we hear more talks of trades then or even get some deals done.

There is a seperate "deadline" before that.... players traded can not be traded for 60 days. The trade deadline is Feb 6 2025. So any player traded by Dec 6 can then be traded again right at the trade deadline. This Dec6 is the "Daryl Morrey" early trade deadline as he always tried to get a first wave of trades done at this time.

 

Anyone hate this trade in January or close to the deadline?

Grant + Thybulle + third depth piece from an Ant deal

for

MPJ + Saric’s expiring, no picks

For Denver, MPJ is not a max contract player, and they know that, that’s why he’d be available. However, he IS an elite shooter. He may shoot it as shoot as he touches it sometimes, but he won’t stall an offense. He would be a major piece in the development of our starting backcourt and the anchor of our defense.

MPJ is an elite #3 that isn’t worth a max contract, but we are bad and can afford to give him a bit more opportunity to see if he can become a primary option. You don’t want him to stifle Shae’s development on offense, but give him the chance to really make a team want to give him another max, and you can trade him with other pieces for a major upgrade.

Scoot (6’9)
Shae (6’11.5)
Camara (7’0.5)
MPJ (7’0)
Clingan (7’7)

That’s a lot of wingspan, and a composition of guys that would all complement each other well in a starting lineup.

 

Add a 3rd team to take MPJ for picks to POR. He is a helluva shooter though...

 

Can y’all get off that Ben Simmons band wagon?

When are you going to accept that Ben Simmons is a bust and will never amount to the player he looked capable of becoming (for a short time)?

 

Who is wanting to acquire Ben Simmons the player? I haven't seen that in a long time.

Now if we acquire Simmons expiring contract and get a pick or cap relief that's different, as those are the items of value. Simmons might be bought out and never even step foot in Portland.

 

Man I don’t even know what his contract is. I just get worked up when I see him in trade machine trades.

One things for sure, he’d help us lose games… If he ever played.

 

No matter how badly we want to open up real PT for the youngins, we still need to maximize value of the vets. I don't just want to dump them. Need real assets back.

 

Would it not be a little bit funny to pull off a trade sending Grant and Ant to the Bucks for Giannis? I think Dame might just retire.

 

We got a stack of chips, Joe is waiting patiently for real value. My guess is he's after a targeted prospect, not just picks.

 

i'd be happy with future picks. this roster is about to get very expensive in a hurry. having a steady line of rookie scale deals coming in every year will make it easier to sustain the cap burden

 

Yup. Just send em out for first rounders.

 

Hoping for this as well. I think that attaching RWIII to Grant should bring back player + good 1st (or two 1sts and salary dumps), which I would do during this whole RWIII euphoria.

 

I honestly don’t think they need to be packaged and I think we get better value if they’re split up. They account for a lot of money together.

 

I'm not sure any of Ant Ayton Grant are worth a first rounder. If so then great I'll be in very pleasantly surprised.

If not I hope they're dumped for whatever Cronin can get as I'd prefer a different vet that doesn't have an expectation of a starting role/touches as these guys feel entities too.

Also I really want to dump Grant's contract as that could be a boat anchor in a few years.