If I were them, the Blazers are starting to look appealing and certainly better than my crumbling and aging MIL and SAC teams. Would this be a true superteam? Rumors have flown about both coming to the team, but seems a pipe dream. I think it would be a scary team if it happens. Blazers trade Ayton, Grant, Williams III, Banton, Walker, Murray, Reath and 10th pick this year plus additional future picks in 3 team deal to add these two stars. Who would we start? Who are the subs? What's the rotation, it's all hypothetical. Deni is our best player and where does he fit in this? He needs to start. Maybe we flip Jru to make it happen but Jru is the bait for Giannis and Domantas. Pg: Jru/Scoot Sg: Shaedon/Jru Pf: Giannis/Deni Sf: Toumani/Matisse C: Damontas/Donovan Who else do we have for the bench? We'd have to get some players back in such a deal. I think we should just go after Saboner and start Deni over Giannis (meaning we don't get Giannis at all and keep Murray and someone else.)
Am I reading correctly? You think there is a scenario where we have Giannis and Sabonis and keep Shae and Scoot?
Not going to happen. We might be able to get Giannis as I detailed in Giannis trade thread - but theres no way to get him and Sabonis. Certainly not while having all of our top6 players stay here in Clingan/Deni/Camara/Sharpe/Scoot/Jrue. If we want to bring in multiple allstars maybe we could bring in Sabonis and Garland or such. Giannis is going to need a mega package on his own. Really not sure the Blazers will trade a boatload of their picks as if theres a big injury or bad chemistry it could turn into a Phoenix situations very quickly. Blazers are going up for sale and that could be polarizing to new buyers. New buyers aren't going to be worried on the Jrue addition significantly. Losing all your picks for 7 years is totally different. Instead of the Phoenix model - seems like the Blazers may want to emulate the Rockets model where they get some key vets while keeping most of the teams youth/picks.
I can see Giannis. Perhaps Jrue was a key cog in making that happen. I think Giannis alone, depending on what we keep, puts us deeply in the conversation. Top 4 in West for sure
Yeah Giannis would make us a contender next season for sure. But how will Giannis age over the next 3-5 years? Wouldn't shock me if his best years are behind him. His play is based on athleticism. If he drops from an MVP candidate to borderline allstar thats still a great player but we would drop from being a contender very fast. Giving up all that draft equity we'd need to bring in Giannis could look horrible in ~5 years. Similar to the Paul George deals. I'd probably do any of those trades for Giannis if we don't need to gut our youth on the roster. But even if we can't do any such trade - just holding onto all those Bucks picks could ultimately turn out to be the much better option.
Cleary our trade targets should be Sabonis and Pippen, we already have Grant. I don’t know about any other matching last names TBH. Is there even an O’Neal in the NBA?
I actually think we could get Giannis and Sabonis if we wanted to right now I just don't think we could keep all of the guys that the OP says we could. If we want to compete for a title this next season then we could probably bring those two on. Giannis for Ayton, Deni, the best of the 2029 FRPs and the swaps back might be enough for the Bucks. Domantis for Jerami, Rob, pick 11 and our pick in 2031 unprotected might just work for the Kings. It works as far as salary matching goes. The rotation would be Jrue, Shaedon, Tou, Giannis, Domas, Scoot, Tisse, Clingan and we'd probably sign some ring chasers.
The only way they're getting Giannis and Sabonis is if they're trading for Thananis and legally change his name and Žygimantas
No - were not getting Giannis for Deni and a pick. Zero chance Milwaukee entertains that. While we might be able to get Giannis - it would need to be a huge haul of picks like 5 or 6 of them. Or some package of our youth with Scoot+Sharpe and still multiple picks. There is just no realistic way to have both Giannis and Sabonis plus enough players to contend. Even just getting Giannis on his own is highly questionable as we'd have to gut so much of our picks/youth we risk turning into the Suns 2.0. I'd lean towards it would be worth doing since we'd be a contender next season. But its a lot of risk that could blow up in a very bad way.
Even ignoring the obvious issue with not having the assets to acquire both Sabonis+Giannis... they seem like a horrible pair on the same roster? Both are best controlling the ball themselves and getting into the paint. Giannis is good sliding into center for closing lineups. Sabonis only plays effectively at center. Either one of them would be the big in a two star lineup - paired with a perimeter star sidekick. Just doesn't make any sense on so many levels to try and get them both on the Blazers - or on any team.
