If Cronin keeps the vets past the deadline, it might actually be the right move today. Hard to know what crap value these players have. The failure isn't what he does these two weeks. The failure is getting the roster to this point over the last few years - where he assembled this $100million group of irrelevant vets in the first place.
NO there is no excuse that at least one of the vets are not gone by the time the deadline ends -- stop it -- just stop making bullshit excuses for Cronin -- that is Nates job he does it so well.
Of course they're subjective, they're my opinion. There's no such thing as an official rating of trades It all hinges on whether you believe that Cronin was actually trying to put a winner around Dame. I think the trade for Grant and the signing of GP2 would say that yes, for a time he was trying to build a winner. But I think he abandoned that and shifted towards rebuilding before trading Dame. I think re-signing Grant and matching Thybulle is simply about retaining assets and extracting value out of them. I don't think it had anything to do with winning games. He didn't want to lose Grant and Thybulle for nothing. It makes sense in theory, but if we won't trade them until Cronin gets what he has imagined in his head is their true value, they will continue to lose whatever market they maybe once had. If the Lakers truly offered a first round pick during the summer for Grant, we should have taken it and ran. But Cronin has imagined that Grant is worth two firsts. So we're fucking up the development of our young guys while he insists on hitting that mark.
I thought I heard a while back that they think he's stubborn about sticking to his guns on what he thinks a player is worth.
Whats the point of trading one overpriced guy of little value for someone else's overpriced guy of little value? Thats the market. Sure every Blazer fan would love for Joe to pull a magic bunny and some 1sts out of his ass in exchange for those vets, but that doesn't mean it's remotely possible... you can't post it into existence STOMP
What about trading one overpriced healthy vet for one overpriced unhealthy vet for this year to get a few more losses?
It's not unreasonable to perceive that our "overpriced guys of little value" can be of greater value to other teams than ours, particularly for those teams seeking to contend with their present rosters. Nobody's realistically expecting "a magic bunny", but an even-less-valuable player plus a still-in-development youngster or a draft pick is not unrealistic
He seems to have a relationship with Houston, Clippers, Lakers, Knicks, Nets, Wizards, Celtics, Bucks and Suns so far. I think he's held his own and actually like the way he blew off Miami and worked the Suns, Bucks, Celtics deals around Dame.
I wish I shared your optimistic views. You really think Grant or Ayton are viewed as the missing piece/difference maker for any wanna-be contender? They are average starters at best being paid like they're perenial All-Stars. In the era of salary cap tiers we're in, I'd be somewhat surprised if Ayton could even be moved for just an expiring deal & no picks and he's only got one year left on his contract after this. I would be flat shocked if they were able to move Grant for anything but similar overpriced longterm mediocrity as his contract is awful and runs well into his 30s. STOMP
I'd be all for it as long as the contract doesn't run any longer then the guy we're sending out. These are big contracts we're talking about though, so pretty limited options to make trades work STOMP
I don’t think it’s fair to hold it against Cronin that Grant isn’t nearly the player we thought we were getting. He seems to have lost that drive to be good & productive on the court on a consistent basis. Crushing his trade value now. But I guess it’s part of the job to gauge that personality trait when evaluating players.
Team chemistry and player development. If they have a player getting in the way of one of their up and comers, it behooves them to trade for a guy you don't have to give as much minutes and or usage to.
As has been mentioned multiple times, Sacramento (for one) could easily package a pair of less-than-mediocre players (with shorter contacts) for Grant--I just doubt Cronin's willing to sell that low (even though he should). Orlando could easily do something similar for Simons. Ayton... he's probably the least movable of the three.
I went through your original post Nate and while I can agree to disagree on some things but three things stood out that you called a W even though I am thinking it was more of a L --- also a TBD one is a loss too -- the Hart / Thybulle trade mess was a loss - CJ trade -- We turned Hart into a TBD trade ( in your own words ) -- so how on earth can this be considered a W -- this is what I am talking about you talk out of both sides of your mouth just so you can pat Joe on his back. - Hart Trade to NY -- Thybulle is NOT even close to a TBD he worked with Dame on the team to a lesser degree but only when his shot was hitting but now what the hell does he do on this rebuild -- Zip , Zilch , Nadda , Nothing -- WTF are you talking about - Dame Trade -- He got lucky cause of Camara turning into something and not going to lie that is prolly not on Joe that is on the assistant GM / Draft guru forget his name sure as fuck is not on Joe but Ayton runs hot to cold to wtf is he doing out there at times -- how is this a Win i might buy its a TBD but no way in living HELL is this a WIN
The CJ trade was the best value we were ever going to get for CJ. We got off his awful contract. It was a win. Period. The Hart trade was a win because we could have let him walk for nothing in the offseason. That's what Neil's dumb ass would have done. We got a first round pick and Thybulle. That's a win in and of itself, but I put it at TBD because I want to see how Murray turns out. Dame trade (and by proxy the Jrue trade) - we ended up with three firsts, some swaps, we got Ayton, RWIII, and Camara. We did that with Dame trying to hold us over a barrel. And we also got Deni by using two of those picks and Brogdon. I would say getting Deni and Camara ALONE was a win. Sorry you don't agree.
