Exclusive Ayton is agreeing to buyout

I saw some fantastic pick n roll situations with Scoot last season. With DA finishing on an ally pop or a nice mid range j.

 

Were you not able to find any positive screen setting videos? I never hunt and peck for highlight packs to prove a point. You think there are any out there?

 

I’m sure I could find an Ant Simmons steals pack somewhere.

 

There was some synergy at times for sure. Ayton had some really good games. But honestly he is not great at setting a screen. When he can drop off his screen and break to the basket he is pretty effective (not Affective) but if you need him to stand firm and make the defender guard around him the ballhandler is in trouble.

 

Whether Ayton was bad or not, if they don’t use the MLE that they freed up then this was a stupid decision. He was an expiring contract. Maybe he has somewhat better value at the deadline. Unless they felt that he was so toxic that he had to go, the move doesn’t make a lot of sense.

 

I'm actually a bit of an Ayton defender, but what part of this doesn't make sense? They have said they want to commit to the defensive identity. Swapping Clingan for Ayton does this.

They had enough of his antics and didn't want him polluting the youth and they seem excited about their draft pick so this opens up minutes for him as well.

All the while saving money and creating flexibility.

 

If they don’t use the MLE then they gave up an asset for nothing. Actually, not nothing. They paid an asset to go play for one of the teams that they’re competing against for a playoff spot.

If Ayton is so bad, tell him not to come around and just hold onto his contract as an asset. Teams did call them about Ayton. They chose not to take on contracts. But our center rotation is fairly dubious right now.

Clingan - can’t play 30+ minutes.

Yang - unproven rookie.

RWIII - Will he ever be healthy?

Reath - fine as a third center.

Yes we have a lot of centers but it’s not clear yet what the rotation will look like next season. We can only speculate. What if Yang is god awful?

 

Not necessarily. They can do things in a trade that they couldn't previously do with Ayton.

Do you have another example of a team telling another player not to come around for a full season? Doesn't really work like that.

The Blazers shouldn't be operating from a place of fear (what if?). They may ultimately be proven wrong, but obviously they have confidence in Yang if they pulled a stunner and drafted him ahead of consensus. He may be terrible, but he needs to play and develop regardless. I argue for the same thing with Scoot/Shae. Take the training wheels off, let them start and bring Jrue in behind them.

 

Which would you rather have:
1) Luka + rest of Lakers
2) Luka with zero teammates, but with over $100 mil in cap space?

There is such a thing as addition by subtraction.

 

Imagine if we would have done that deal for Barkley in the 90's. We would have had Drazen and Cliff fill in for the players we lost.

 

I'm a little worried about JJ Redick's mental health next season....

 

Luka is gonna be a free agent soon. If they don’t add players he might just leave. But there aren’t exactly any big name free agents anymore, so teams would have to voluntarily trade them stars for cap space. They don’t have any picks or young players to trade out. 100 million in cap space isn’t that great.

 

Wasn’t that Clyde’s fault.

 

Chuck says it was Petrie's.

 

I think they got rid of Ayton because Yang is ready now.

 

they got rid of Ayton because of Ayton

 

Do you think they would have gotten rid of him if they didn't have Clingan?

Clingan has to play some part of it.

 

I said the entire time he was just another LMA

 

I'm no fan of LMA.... but LMA was miles better than Ayton.

 

I think he was talking about the screens. LMA’s weren’t miles better.