Trade Deadline: February 6, 2025

I think we get a pretty hefty dose of shit colored glasses to go with the rose colored, and even them out. People are excited about a win streak. Egads! But Simmons' trade rankings isn't some great perspective. I can nit pick so many choices of him over him, etc. And no, I don't think he has anything against us, even though he's joked about specifically that in the past. I just don't think he's actually all that good at NBA analysis, personally. I don't know, for instance, what Bilal Coulibaly has done to make himself the 68th most valuable trade piece in the NBA, grouped in the possible studs on rookie deals, that Shaedon Sharpe has not done. To be in honorable mention. And I like Coulibaly.
Devin Vassell at 61, but Simon in the just missed? What separates those 2 on a 20+ spot point ranking? Dyson Daniels at 37 should have Toumani Camara at like 55, then.

 

You're not wrong.

I'm just frustrated that we're on the cusp of missing such an incredible opportunity to add so much talent...

 

It might be our last chance to add a legit superstar. I don’t think we will be bad enough next season. We might even lose our pick next year to Chicago. We need to try to get the best pick possible this year. At all costs.

 

Could be a miss. Who knows. Am still hopeful for luck. Sucks as a sport fan. But also how many times have we seen some prospects like this be...not generational. And I don't wanna put down any of them, there seems to be a ton of great prospects. But Flagg a lot of times gets compared to like Kirilenko, but better. I dunno if that's a fair comparison. Does he have #1 scorer vibe? Or is he Deni+? Ace seems like an elite scorer. But is he, elite scorer that also helps you win? Or more Melo, ISO scorer? And none of that is bad to have, of course!

 

Odds are long we'd get Flagg, regardless of how bad we do. Maybe we'd be the team taking the leftover Jordan, Durant, or Bird this time.

You're a lot less likely to luck into those guys if you aren't picking high enough.

But the top 5 seem to be consistently considered pretty sure things as at least good NBA starters. That would add a ton to our overall talent pool.

 

What teams are a Jerami Grant away from championship and what can we get from them?

 

Wrong wording.

What teams think they are a Jerami Grant away from a championship?

He may not get them there but if they think he can, perhaps we can deal him and get something of value back.

 

We’re not going to tank, accept the reality

 

You're right, they're too good to be in the lottery, especially now that this young team is proving what they're capable of. They might not have a shot at a top-five draft pick for a while, but that just means they'll have to uncover their own Kawhi (15), Giannis (15), Jokic (41), or even a Drexler (14th). That’s part of the fun. The good news is they’re building a strong culture where players have bought into a collective vision. As fans, we get to enjoy watching our favorite players grow and develop. I know the idea of being the Wizards, and landing a #1 pick might seem exciting, but I’m happy with the Blazers' approach. Big game tonight, that I'm excited to watch. Can't say the same for the Wizard fans out there.

 

no

the rebuild started when Olshey was fired and a couple of months later, it started in earnest when 3 of 5 starters, plus Nance, were traded away. That season 37 different players saw action in Blazer games. That's correct....37. And 20 different players played in at least 20 games. That's rebuild 101

 

I think originally it was a restructure around Dame, once he said he wants out, it became a full time rebuild. That's how I see it. Either way it was going to be a multiple years process, once Dame left, that process added a 'find a superstar' element to it.

 

This team is not tanking, at this point.

 

it was a rebuild around Dame. They traded CJ-Powell-RoCo-Nance for short-timer Hart + Winslow + a giant TPE + a future 1st + lot's of cap relief...rebuild

the year before the dismantling, going by winshares, the 4 players traded accounted for 15 wins. You don't delete 15 wins from a 42 win team and end up in anything other than a rebuild; that's especially true when you trot out a new head coach who had a grand total of 1 season of coaching experience

pretending the rebuild is only 15 months long is nuts

 

While Grant doesn't seem a good enough player (certainly this season) to be a difference-maker, he could plug gaps if a team has a player out with injury for significant stretches, or even allow overworked starters to rest up for the playoffs.

Contenders that could use Grant:
Dallas
New York
Clippers
Lakers (debatable whether they're contenders, but they have no incentive to tank)
Nuggets
Orlando (they looked like a contender in the first third of the season, but not now)
Rockets

Sadly, though, I don't think any of the teams that could use him have matching salaries that wouldn't be worse than keeping Grant (or picks to make us want to take those salaries on).

In considering who wants our vets we should probably start with all the teams that don't have their own 2025 pick, because they won't want to tank. Of course, the main asset we'd want in trade IS a 2025 pick, but beggars can't be choosers.

 

Patty Mills is 36....time flies

Eubanks will help the Clippers a little bit

 

I guess it comes down to your definition. To me a rebuild means taking the house down to the studs and restarting from "scratch", a restructure / restoration means that the house has a valid foundation and needs better stuff on top of it. A team built around Dame's offensive proficiency is one that has the foundation built already, it just needed to have the support around him - which explains moves like getting Grant and moving CJ. To me, that's not a classic "rebuild". At the end of the day, this is splitting hairs, the process was a multi-year process either way (Thanks NeO) - it just became longer once Dame went out - because now that team needs a foundation star to build around and it did not before.

 

This is why I dislike Sidery. He doesn't really say much of anything here, and saying it'll "likely" be multiple teams...well, yeah. Milwaukee is a 2nd apron team. Lavine makes more than Middleton, which means they have to aggregate. Which means they NEED other teams to take on other salary to make the deal a possibility to drop them under the 2nd apron.
I mean, do you, and good for him, hopefully he turns it in to actually having sources and becomes a true "insider". But the taking other's stuff as your own looks lazy at best.