I think the plan is to trade the pick

We're not trading our pick. No way.

 

I’d guess the target is Sabonis in a pick plus vet-based trade.

#9, DA or Ant plus one of the Mil swaps.

 

No way Sac does that. Throw in Sharpe and I'm not sure its enough.

 

I think Joe might have paid Grant so quickly after Dame asked to be traded, because he had already promised the contract to his agent. Was that smart? No. Would pissing off Cluth Sports come back to bite the Blazers in the ass if he hadn't? I guess we'll see what happens with other Clutch Sports clients. (i.e, Sharpe)

I'm sure some will say...... so he wouldn't fulfill his promise to Dame, but he did to Rich Paul?

 

Ayton, 9, pick swap for Sabonis is not that unrealistic.

 

The darkhorse team to keep an eye on these playoffs is Milwaukee... if they get swept there might be serious thoughts of trading Giannis and rebuilding. If they ever look at trading Giannis the #1 team their calling is PDX with us controlling 3 years of their picks unprotected. The organizations also were very happy to work with each other and had a positive experience with the Dame trade.

We send them #9, 2029 best of Mil/Por/Bos, unprotected Blazers 2030+2032 picks, 2028+2030 swaps, Scoot, Sharpe, and Ayton (contract)

Dame medically retires then comes back to PDX for the 2026 playoffs

Blazers would have a rotation of;
Simons <Dame>
Camara - Thybulle
Deni - Rupert
Giannis - Grant
Clingan - Reath

Milwaukee gets
4 picks
2 swaps
Sharpe
Scoot

If Milwaukee makes some noise in the playoffs they probably just see if Dame can get healthy to run this group back another year. But I tend to think Milwaukee and Giannis is something that potentially has the Blazers slow down on sending out multiple picks for a different veteran.

 

Shaedon plus filler OR multiple lotto picks plus filler/immediate replacement in DA.

Shaedon plus multiple picks feels like a huge overpay. Either way I don’t think Portland wants to
Part with Shae enough so I suppose it’s a moot point. I just really want to get Domantas somehow.

 

Ehh... I don't see it. But it is Sac...

 

I'm not saying it's adequate. I'm saying the gap is closer to Kris Murray than Shaedon Sharpe

 

sure it's possible: if one of the teams with an 11-14 seed jumps over PDX/PHX into the top-4; then Suns and Blazers slide back one place

 

I wouldn't be surprised if a general agreement on a new contract happened a year earlier during any extension talks between Grant and Cronin. IIRC, in the old CBA, the maximum raise in an extension was 120% of his previous salary. He had a 20M salary, so the max base salary he could have secured was 24M. By becoming UFA, Grant was able to bump up his base salary by nearly 6M

now, that extension would have been a much more reasonable salary for Grant. If it was a 4 year deal, it would have been for 107M; about 27M/year. It's too bad Cronin didn't hold the line at that. And too bad he ended up agreeing to a 5 year deal rather than a 4 year deal

 

Not enough minutes between him and Ant.

 

Not enough minutes on the floor without Ant. Same problem Sharpe had.

 

Afflalo was exactly what we needed at the time. He wasn't enough to replace Wes once he went down.

 

vhaddya know from funny, ya bastahd...

 

he signed before Dame had demanded a trade..just before.

 

Oh, that is right. I remember now thinking Dame waited until his friend got paid. At the time, I thought it seemed calculated.

 

Ayton, Scoot and #9 and a future first for Sobonis? Then we keep Ant.

Ant
Sharpe
Deni
Grant
Sobonis

Would that starting 5 be good enough?

 

Not sure I would do it, but it does demonstrate that we have the assets to make a deal.

 

They're a desperate franchise to win now and gave up a 21 year old Tyrese Haliburton for Sabonis.

Their certainly going to want the biggest piece of the trade return to be much more than #9, a swap, or Ayton's negative value contract.