Trade Deadline: February 6, 2025

Bro! I land tonight in Atlanta to meet Clint for my newspaper. He better keeps his ass there for 36 more hours.

 

With how much Doncic whines to the refs, I can totally picture him sobbing, "why me?" like Nancy Kerrigan. Except that he's probably happy to be in LA. Other than the $50-100M he just lost on his next contract.

 

Id be happy to get 2 more 1st rounders out of this trade deadline. We may not have superstar (I think Scoot and Sharpe could still reach that level) but with draft picks and swaps it’s proven you can get a star/superstar player. Keep grabbing those assets to consolidate in future trade.

 

Just ran into Nance in our hotel lobby in LA. Just had surgery in his shoulder or somewhere…..that would help The Tank.

 

I would have been interested in reading the source article by Sean Highkin. I'm assuming he may have actually heard some tings? But it's behind a paywall

I understand the Blazers still being high on the idea of Timelord. But the reality has been injury after injury and that won't change. A C tandem of Clingan and and a healthy Timelord is intriguing, but healthy & Timelord don't belong in the same sentence; maybe not even the same paragraph

as for Simons and Ayton, I think the notion they will have more value as expiring contracts is false. Portland will need operating room under the tax line and apron as Sharpe, Scoot, & Camara will all be due for new deals in a 1 year window; and Clingan will be due a year later. The main value of expiring contracts is for taking on longer contracts, often for no upgrade in talent. The Blazers will be juggling those rookie extensions and having an albatross contract or two is going to make it difficult

 

Why I have been saying to dump him for expiring contracts and if you get any pick, bonus.

 

The post has the meat:

 

[Goldsberry] The names most commonly linked to the Los Angeles Lakers after the Luka Dončić trade: Robert Williams III and Nicolas Claxton.

Goldsberry said he'd be surprised if one of the two wasn't on the Lakers by the end of the week.

 

a quibble, but Fox didn't net 3 first round to Kings. It was two. The Charlotte pick won't convey. And Fox was an all-star player who has averaged nearly 26 & 6 for 3 straight seasons. He's a bit of a lower efficiency chucker, but he's a pretty dynamic chucker. By the way, Fox, as a PG, is averaging 5 rebounds; Grant is averaging 3.3

I think the Spurs essentially stole Fox. I know the chatter is that they gave up 4 first's but obviously that Charlotte 1st won't convey. And there's a very real chance that Chicago 1st wouldn't have conveyed either. The Bulls are 9th in the lottery and that pick was top-10 protected. The next two seasons, it's top-8 protected. But the Bulls appear to be heading for a full rebuild. They are trying to dump Vucevic and are reported to be shopping Patrick Williams. After the trade deadline their best player might be Coby White

in other words, the Spurs may have only given up two last 1st's and some low-level role players for Fox. And they still have 8 first's over the next 7 years and 4 of those first's could be in the lottery

 

My feels are still the same, if we can’t get fair value which IMO is still a 1st for any of JG, Ant, RWill - you just keep them and let them expire as Blazers. It makes zero sense to dump any of them, and this is coming from someone who cannot stand Ant and Grants games.

I just don’t see their replacements being “ready enough” to dump any of them.. and currently the contracts work with our timeline for a couple more years.

Warming up to standing pat versus taking an L on anything

 

Just out of curiosity, if Capella were to be traded, could he re-sign with Atlanta this summer when he becomes a free agent? There is no waiting period for that correct?

I ask because If he likes it there and they like him, seems like it would be a no-risk trade for them. Capella at this point is not going to get a big payday as a free agent.

 

We ended up netting 1 pick as the ultimate end result of the Dame>Deni swap. I'm not hopeful of getting a 1st rounder this week but would be very happy to get one for any of our vets.

I'm mostly just hoping we trade Grant for a player with fewer years on his contract.

 

Right, I was thinking about the fact that the Spurs had to send four FRPs out but one of them went to the the Bulls and you are right one of the so called FRPs is Charlottes in this draft and will not convey as a first but as their second in this draft which will be like a late first and their second in 2027. Good catch there but the Spurs did send one future first to the Bulls as well and then the FRPs they sent to the Kings and three other second rounders to the Kings.

So really the Kings are going to end up with two FRPs and 5 SRPs from this trade, along with LaVine and Sidy Cissoko who I don't know a damn thing about.

 

"ready enough" for what? to damage Portland's lottery chances? To not make the play-in? 3-4 weeks ago the Blazers were 5 games out of 10th seed. They have won 7 of 8 games and are 4.5 games out of 10th seed. In other words after an unsustainable winning streak, the Blazers, while featuring those 3 veterans have gained a grand total of 0.5 games on 10th seed. In the last game, Ant-Ayton-Grant combined for 96 minutes; Scoot-Sharpe-Clingan combined for 61

this narrative around here of "well, you know, just let Simons and Ayton walk after next season" rather than potentially getting something for them now, is weird. Even if it's only second round picks and some cap/salary relief, that's better than nothing. Nothing is what they got for Aldridge

either Ant-Ayton-Grant are part of the future or they are not. If they are, they will be resigned in 2026, likely for higher salary than now. If they aren't part of the future, then dump them for something. There''s really no logical middle ground unless they have no value at all

 

The idea with Ant or Ayton having more value on expiring deals would not be from Portlands end but from the trade partner end.

If they were on expiring deals they could be in a Butler type of trade or traded for someone out with an injury the rest of the year and have value there. Not saying its a ton of value or that I'd even try to go that direction if running the Blazers. But it wouldn't be a horrible gamble to try and roll the dice on. Theres a chance they could get some nice 2nd rounder or maybe a very weak first rounder if combined with other pieces. Worst case scenario they just expire next year anyways.

 

again, that Chicago first may have very well never been conveyed. Those protections are borderline considering the apparent direction Chicago is heading

I think this one of those trades where all three teams won by getting exactly what they wanted

 

Fox actually netted four FRP in the trade. The Kings decided to flip one of those picks for LaVine. As you say one of the FRP is effectively two seconds.

 

Were your travel plans changed sir???