Exclusive Ayton is agreeing to buyout

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by MickZagger, Jun 29, 2025.

  1. BoBoBREWSKI

    BoBoBREWSKI BURP!

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    very true
     
  2. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    Wouldn't have Toumani if Ayton never wore the uniform. So...... I still disagree about the regret.
     
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  3. cheesehoff

    cheesehoff Well-Known Member

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    Compare that to Deni and Jrue's first visits. Not to say their intro to the facility really means anything...but that should have told us something.
     
  4. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    I know you do. But in the NBA, a clear and obvious definition of regret is dead salary. Ayton is 25M of regret. Portland is paying Ayton that money to play for the Lakers
     
  5. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    Well, it's two separate things that aren't necessarily the same thing.

    You're associating regret with the decision to cut him. We don't know that. Here is what we know or what we have at least seen reported:

    1. The Blazers center rotation was extremely jammed. Ayton/Clingan/Yang/RWIII/Reath. Something had to be done because they couldn't possibly find minutes for all those players and they can't play multiple positions like Grant.
    2. We know there were reports that they had offers for Ayton but Cronin didn't want to take back longer deals. So we know that Cronin still values that expiring money. The 25 million that they kept on their books is still expiring money.
    3. Ayton was reported to have asked to be bought out - so reportedly this was his idea. Not the Blazers.

    Here is what we can guess:
    1. The team probably wasn't going to re-sign him after the season.
    2. He didn't have much value in trade and we would have had to take back a lot of matching salary.
    3. The team most likely wanted to start Clingan this season anyway and they wanted to clear the runway.
    Here is what they have done by cutting him:
    1. They have opened up the starting position for Clingan and they have opened up minutes for Yang.
    2. They still have $25 million in expiring money.
    3. They now have a full MLE that they can trade for a player, which means they can take back SOME money that isn't expiring but not $35 million worth.

    Personally I thought the move was hasty and I'm not convinced they will actually use that money. I would have kept him until the trade deadline, but I guess if he was asking to leave, they removed a potential chemistry issue but retained some flexibility for trades down the road.
     
  6. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    More like Portland is paying 25 mil to play two rookie centers all Ayton's minutes and more. Value systems....addition by substraction....Deni's salary also offsets any overpaid Ayton salary on the books.they also saved 10 mil on Ayton's deal so in my book, they are way ahead of the game. It's not dead money...it's reallocated money spent on time for two players...not salary for one. We could easily be paying 35 million for Ayton this season and still have him on the bench
     
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  7. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    oh for chrissakes....I'm bailing out of this one. You're expending way too much effort into trying to convince me my definition of 'regret' is wrong and yours is right. You're never going to convince me of this...you know that, right?
     
  8. Strenuus

    Strenuus Global Moderator Staff Member Global Moderator

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    Said no one ever.
     
  9. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    Can't convince you of something that we will never know for sure. Unless you run into Joe. I don't know why this bothers you so much though.
     
  10. BlazerWookee

    BlazerWookee UNTILT THE DAMN PINWHEEL!

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  11. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    wut....you're the one that seems bugged. You just wrote an essay.

    it's simple for me: in the NBA, significant dead salary = regret
     
  12. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    I'm just debating a topic. Doesn't bug me at all. You know how sometimes you don't agree and you want to discuss? You do it all the time.....
     
  13. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    Great job with the...
    upload_2025-7-9_11-24-11.jpeg
     
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  14. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    aren't we both just "debating a topic"....don't know how you concluded I was bugged and you weren't

    all I said that got you going was "My regret is that Ayton ever wore a Blazer uniform. I think the Blazer front office shares that regret". And I said it before the thread was merged and the thread title said "Blazers will regret letting Ayton go". I just did a little innocuous riff on the thread title
     
  15. andalusian

    andalusian Season - Restarted

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    Regret is being sad/upset about a decision made. Unless you know for sure that there were better options for the Dame trade - how can you argue that the Blazers regret this?

    If the question is - do the Dame trade at all or not, I am pretty sure the Blazers do not regret having an injured super-max Dame on the roster and not having Tou, Deni on the roster.

    If the question is do the alleged Dame to Miami trade or the one involving Ayton, I again, am pretty sure they do not regret it.

    Any other transaction we can come out of our rear-end with is pure speculation.

    I think there might be disappointment that the chance they took on Ayton did not materialize, but regret? I doubt it very much
     
  16. Natebishop3

    Natebishop3 Don't tread on me!

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    Because of this.
     
  17. blazerkor

    blazerkor Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, I think seeing if Ayton, with all of his skills and talent just needed a change of scenery along with getting Tou made the Phoenix part of the Dame trade (Allen, Nurk and Nas for Ayton and Tou) very worthwhile and I'd never regret taking the chance on both of them when giving up so little.

    I'd trade Allen, Nurk and Nas for Tou straight up and we got the bonus of seeing if we could get something different out of Deandre. We gave it two seasons, it wasn't a match and our cap is clean this season so it virtually cost us nothing to get his attitude away from our young guys.
     
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  18. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    I'm fine with acquiring Ayton. Thought it was worth checking if being on a new team would help. It didn't.

    The regret the Blazers/Cronin should have is giving Nurk, Ant, and Grant the stupid contracts they gave them. All of those contracts prevented the Blazers from acquiring talent. Once Nurk was on his deal having him or Ayton the last two years isn't very relevant to recent Blazer regrets.
     
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  19. SharpesTriumph

    SharpesTriumph Well-Known Member

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    I don't understand why people try to correlate these.

    Camara was a throw in to the Ayton deal, he wasn't a key piece of the trade so shouldn't be judged as a relevant one to Ayton in hindsight.

    Blazers could have still sent Allen to PHX for some other pieces to get Camara. Or done a completely separate deal to get Camara. Or just drafted him.
     
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  20. riverman

    riverman Writing Team

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    My understanding is that Phoenix didn't want to include Tou and the Blazers insisted he was included...they wanted Tou before Phoenix got him. It was a calculated trade, not a throw in from my understanding. Smart trade by the front office...some of the guys we dumped in that trade aren't in the league today.
     
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