Plausible destinations for our vets?

Marang today in 1080 mentioned this Shams tweet and said it’s more likely that the Blazers trade Reath and Thybulle.

I rolled my eyes.

 

If that is all Joe can pull off, he really should just resign in shame.

 

Mike Richman talked about why it’s more likely that Reath would be on his way out due to minimum salaries being easier to move with all the new rules in place. It’s tougher to make trades now.

 

I can see trading Reath but I don't see how Thybulle has any market when he get outplayed last year by irrelevant scrubs on a 21 win team, and has now been injured this entire year. Maybe the Blazers just want to save a couple million and will ultimately be able to do that, which will be a very irrelevant transaction. Reath is probably only worth a late 2nd rounder.

If the Blazers don't trade any of Grant/Ayton/Ant/Timelord by the deadline it will be very disappointing to a huge group of Blazer fans. Unfortunately I am expecting there is a very real chance of this.

 

Maybe Cronin shouldn't have handed out overpaid contracts to Ant, Grant and Thybulle? Maybe he shouldn't have acquired Ayton on a max deal?

Its ridiculous that he thought these would be a worthwhile use of the salary cap. The Blazers would've been far better off just letting all those guys walk and use cap room to add draft picks like the Spurs did for adding Barnes.

I'll tell you one contract that would have value - Norman Powell! Oh yeah we gave that up for Bledsoe and Didi who are still on our cap.

This is a fail that goes back to the day Cronin took over from Olshey. But even more so to the day Dame was traded. This collection of overpaid vets Cronin has hoarded was a terrible decision at the time and now looks worse every month.

 

Yet teams will still make trades.

You trade those vets just to get rid of them. Minimal return. Even if it’s just an expiring contract. They need to be gone.

 

Doesn't even need to be an expiring contract, as those may have more value than our vets. A worse player on the same contract is fine as we can send them to the bench.

 

minimum salaries have always been easy to move because they are excluded from matching salary requirements; at least they used to be. For all teams who are not over the 2nd apron, the rules are actually easier now than before. The margins for salary matching have been increased in the new CBA

not only that, any team that did not use an exception for a free agent signing in the off-season can use the MLE (non-tax, tax, & room) and/or the BAE as trade exception(s). The non-tax MLE is 12.82M, so theoretically, a team with their full-MLE available could trade for Timelord or Thybulle without having to match salary. Not many teams would want to do that without reducing payroll, but it's possible

sorry guys....if Cronin sits on his hands thru the deadline, the excuse of 'it's harder to trade now' doesn't hold water. The only real obstacle is a sliding one: that being that this season, with the strength of the 2025 draft, teams will be holding onto their picks more than they were for last season's draft

 

I'd imagine that Ant can be traded away for sure. His salary isn't too high like Ayton. He still has some youth with the allure of a bit more upside. His contract doesn't have a bunch of years like Grant. He might not get picks or assets back but I can't imagine zero teams are willing to acquire him if the cost is just a useless contract.

He seems like the type of player the Bulls might go after for Ball's expiring deal. We give them a 2nd rounder but get our pick back. Our pick they currently own probably only looks like a 2nd rounder since were so bad, the value has never been lower. So this might be the best time to buy low and get it back. From the Bulls end its probably sold as just swapping 2nd rounders to take a flyer on Ant improving the next year and a half. Teams rarely can acquire a healthy player in their 20s that have scored over 20ppg for so little.

From the Blazers end it helps clear up our picks and most importantly guarantees we get the 2028 pick swap with Milwaukee. That's something we can benefit from but it has very little cost from Chicago end since they don't have the swap - so it makes sense to work out a deal.

I've always been against addition by subtraction types of transactions as a Blazers fan. I hated the ZBo trade. But this year might be the one time I make an exception. We really need to break up this horrific Grant Ayton Ant big 3.

Now will Cronin hold out for some high demand as he has overvalued all these vets for years? I tend to think that is the main reason why we may not see a deal.

 

Simons would be a perfect spark off a contenders bench.

There’s probably several takers.

 

Simon’s is on a bad contract? News to me
Jerami Grant has value. His contract won’t be an issue to trade to a contender

I’m confused as to what your point is? You talk about Norman powell being a good value contract. Great…Norman Powell is not bringing you back more than Simon’s or grant. What are these contracts doing that is hindering the blazers from doing anything? You want cap space? that would be an odd decision to the free agency route.

Aytons contract is a max salary slot. In order to make a potential trade for a big name you’re gonna have to have one.
You look at this through a very small lens.

between those 3 we’re getting more positive assets, like it or not.
We have sharpe, clingan, toumani and I’ll still count scoot for now.
we have another lottery pick in one of the best drafts in a long time.
The pick we got from the bucks is rated the highest valued future pick and we have another pick we traded for in the top 5 most valuable.

ther is something to say for good vets in the locker room to help the young guys.

Hold onto your shorts bud…it’s a part of the process.
They’ll all likely be gone by the summer

 

I'd be surprised if any team traded for Simons and his 27M/year contract in order to make him a 6th man. Looking around the league most teams don't have any backups or 6th men making over 15M; most are 10M or less

 

My point is smart teams like the Thunder or Spurs didn't acquire vets like Cronin did in a rebuild.... they use cap space on getting assets that help the franchise build long term. Or they take time to flip a useful two way vet like Powell for a pick.

Powell is leading the Clippers in scoring on great efficiency and somehow has them with a winning record. He is certainly worth more in a trade today than Grant or Simons. If you have such rose colored glasses you can't see that I'm not sure what else to tell you.

 

Good point. I think the hope with trying to trade Simons is another team has a similar sized contract for an injured or irrelevant player(s). Then Simons deal which expires next year doesn't cost much as they are just exchanging it with a sunk cost. That was my idea with the Bulls example as Ball is injured and it doesn't appear they will have any cap space next summer. Not sure who else is injured around the league - or we'll have to see who might get injured by the deadline. Those could open up additional options.

The Blazers are not going to find a team with good contracts like the Thunder trading for Simons.

 

Exactly. A rental.

Teams every year are looking for that player at the deadline that can get them over the hump.

 

I absolutely hated that we traded Powell for nothing. Go back on here and you can see that I was one of the biggest proponents of Powell. I thought it was one of Olshey’s best trades.

When Cronin traded away Powell for the return he got was when I really soured on Cronin. Such a stupid trade. He has a reputation of getting fleeced by other GM’s. Once they know they can walk all over a GM they’re like sharks in water.

 

I mean I get what you’re saying but…
We signed Simon’s to a solid deal when he was 23? Grant we signed because Dame wanted him back. Dame kinda screwed us there

Ayton came back to make salaries work in the trade that we got toumani in…seems like a good deal to me
You can’t tell me Nurk for Ayton and Camara was not a smart move

Norman Powell is not more valuable than jerami grant. Absolutely no chance..we’re not gonna see eye to eye there

 

Starting to seriously wish the Blazers would have the balls of Stan Van Gundy ten years ago and just waive Anfernee and eat his salary.

 

Yeah that was crazy the Pistons did that. Thats why you don't give a coach GM powers though. Josh actually played well for the Rockets later that year and the Pistons were just as irrelevant before and after.

I certainly wouldn't waive Ant/Ayton. Lets say we get past this trade deadline and they are still here - we could ask them to agree on a large buyout and if they don't agree we say were going to bench them.

They might be able to be traded next summer so a full $ release this year would be horrible strategically. I certainly think next year if we still cant find a trade we would explore buyouts or releasing them. Horrible to think of them both still in Blazer jerseys 14 months from now though.

 

Not many Lakers trades make sense as it won't make them a contender. About the only one I can see them maybe being interested in is a Jimmy Bulter deal. We should try to get in on a trade and do something like this;