Official Jerami Grant trade rumors/ideas thread

congrats to your mental health

 

Agreed - yeah seems to me if there was a deal to be done it would've been done. Cronin has never done an offseason roster move after the draft, that is outside the highly unusual Dame situation, signing GPII, and minimum salaries.

If there is a Grant deal it will probably be that Vando type deal with worse players coming back and just cap savings. That would certainly be worse talent this year and might ultimately be a bad trade in the long run.

 

what’s your thought process on that? Honestly curious not trying to hate.
I think it will be when we have to extend tou, scoot and sharpe

 

His salary accounts for 21% of the team's salary for 2025-2026. Is he worth a fifth of the salary? He's still a starter quality player. We're fortunate that Deni and Tou are both so cheap.
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/portland-trail-blazers/yearly

Unfortunately he and Jrue make up 42% of our salary next year. That's not great.

 

ok then...Camara, Sharpe, Scoot

When all three will be on new deals that will be 2027-28. At that time assuming the 10% mandated increase, the salary cap would be around 187M and the tax line would be around 228M. So, those are the two numbers to keep in mind

Camara 22M
Sharpe 35M
Scoot 30M

Avdija 11.8M
Holiday 37M
Grant 36M
Yang 5M

that's around 187M....and that's with fairly substantial numbers for Sharpe and Scoot. The way things are going around the NBA that may be realistic, but it might be high; and if the Blazers pay more....that's on them. That's right around where the salary cap will be, but the cap doesn't matter as much as the tax line. Portland won't have cap-space. And that's 40M below the tax line. It's only for 7 players, but it's entirely possible the Blazers will have added two more cheap first round picks by then.

yeah, it will be tight if the Blazers want to have several MLE-level players. But without knowing who else is on the roster it's difficult to gauge, But I'm not seeing the major squeeze people are imagining. Sure, it would be better if Grant gets moved for a smaller salary. But in that regard, it would have been better if the Blazers had bought out both Simons and Ayton instead of trading Simons for Jrue and his contract

keep in mind that Timelord and Thybulle drop off the ledger next summer. And after 2027-28, Grant and Jrue will drop off the ledger....just in time for the Blazers to pay (overpay?) Avdija and Clingan

 

People get too fixated on the numbers. It's all about the %.

 

All good arguments.

Will the Blazers get good value deals on Sharpe/Scoot? Will the Blazers get off Thybulle contract or give him an extension? Will we make good salary decisions on other players?

I'll believe we have good cap management when we see it because it has never been a strength of the Olshey/Cronin regime.

That said when Booker is earning 75mil a season and the Thunder just gave their big3 deals over 800 million - Grant/Jrue salary even if greatly overpaid won't be debilitating.

 

The Avdija contract makes all this possible. I almost wonder what we could get for him on the open market right now. With the landscape of deals this off-season, having a starter+ player on that type of contract could be worth 4-5 firsts to the right team.

OKC just committed 140M per year to their big 3, and have a buttload of picks. Avdija also fits that team like a glove. Would they pay 5 firsts?

 

Yeah agreed Deni has the most trade value on the team. Toumani may have great value too if they are able to get him signed onto an extension. Now hopefully the Blazers play great at the start of the year, one or both of Scoot/Sharpe take a big step, and we are dreaming of playoffs.

But in theory if lets say Scoot/Sharpe both flop hard at the start of the season and the Blazers are at the bottom of the west standings yes strategically I'd think capitalizing on the Deni/Camara value now would be the best long term play for the Blazers. By 2029 or so Deni/Camara will both be on new contracts so they will have lost that huge underpaid value they have today. If the Blazers can't build a contender by 2029 its kind of a waste to have such good play in excess of their salary on our team. Don't get me wrong their great players either way - but other teams could use that production to help compete for a title while we'd just have a bunch of meaningless wins for a lottery team.

Trading them is probably too big of a pivot in directions for Blazers management to do until there is a new owner though.

 

In regards to OKC - they don't have any salary issue until 2027-28 as SGA extension won't kick in until then. I think they run the team back as is the next two years since they are the favorites theres no urgency to do anything.

But yeah I could see them making a big move year 3 from now. Wouldn't be shocked if they trade one of SGA/Chet/Jalen at that time. They could trade one and give a team like us a haul for a Deni type and still probably get a few more pieces for themselves. Kind of also depends if any of their players in depth spot #4-12 break out as that might give them a new big3 too. They have Topic rookie year and drafted Sorber in the lottery.

But Golden State or the Lakers or Atlanta or Spurs or Mavs or many other teams yes all could fit that model where they pay a ton for a Deni/Camara type.

 

Honestly, at this point, I don’t need Grant gone right away. In a year where we are competing, does it hurt to keep a vet like him?

Start him, play him his 28-30mpg. Play Avdija as the 6th man, but give him 34mpg. Camara plays his 30-23mpg. All three guys are capable shooters, it’s possible that shooting doesn’t end up being an issue at the forward spot.

Then see what the options are at the deadline.

 

Summer League just predicted that the starting unit will be Jrue/Sharpe/Deni/Grant/Clingan.

If Tou doesn't start I might riot.

 

me too!

 

mostly correct, Tou in Grant out. We hoping Scoot plays himself into the starting 5 at some point, not because Jrue is injured

 

Not starting an all-nba defense guy is inconceivable

 

Hey, if you were ever bored, I’m wondering if you could put something together for me. These are who I consider foundational pieces, what does our cap look like, say, ‘26-‘27.

So we know Deni will make $13.125m that year, with one more year left on his deal.

Shae, I’m hoping will accept a contract around 5 yrs/$200m this summer. What would that be in ‘26-‘27?

Scoot, depending on how he progresses, I’m hoping to retain for 5 yrs/$150-175m. But he’s also a rookie scale contract this year.

Camara would be in year 1 of his extension, probably around $24m I’m guessing?

Clingan would be eligible for extension but still on his rookie scale.

Yang will still be on his rookie scale.

I’ll assume we keep Holiday if he doesn’t build enough value to warrant a 1st, but could still be a Gary Payton type of player during his Heat years. $34.8m in ‘27-‘28.

And while I know we won’t have a 1st if we make the playoffs, I’m going to project that Cronin finds a 1st for Schmitz and we have another rookie scale contract.

That’s like eight guys that I can see being on a championship run after 3-5 years together like how OKC has been. Can you let me know how much of the cap that year is left assuming Grant is gone? I am curious to know how much available cap space there is left to land a star two years out. Would that even be feasible? Very little money would be tied to both our wings (between Deni, Toumani, and I’m assuming at least one or two more guys down the line) and Clingan/Yang both being on rookie deals that I would have to assume that we could realistically fit a guy like Scottie Barnes or a player of his archetype on this team?

 

There is no way in HELL Shaedon is getting $200M lol. He's an RFA next season, and Jabari just got $125/5 from the same draft class. If you are not a clear cut star, made an all-star/all-nba/all-defense those contracts are going to be much harder to get with teams wary of the CBA. Scoot also isn't getting $30M either at the moment.

I think the Blazers would likely offer Shaedon ~$20M-$22m for 5 or the same as Jabari and see if he'll take it ahead of RFA. If he doesn't we let the market dictate.

 

Somewhere between 20 and 25 mil a year for Sharpe and Camara seems appropriate 120 mil for 5 years with year 5 team option would be fair

 

Camara we are lucky with him being a second round pick, I believe the max we can offer him is 4/$89M which if his offense continues to develop will be a steal of a contract. He might not take it, but as a second rounder I'd think he'd take the guaranteed $90M and a contract that allows him to be a FA again around 30 to cash out again.

Deni's deal and Camara's will be huge boons for our future flexibility if Scoot and Shae take jumps. Both of those will end up being under market value--I mean Deni is already probably one of the best if not the best contract in the NBA. $11M in 2028 LOL