Notice Chad Ford has the Blazers going heavy on international prospects in mock draft.

watching Justin Jackson reminds me a lot of Durant, needs to improve outside shot but kid is smooth. Love to see us get him

 

I agree that 3 1st round picks wouldn't really help this team improve much next year but with the Blazer salary cap the way that it is, it is one of the cheapest ways to fill roster spots with players of at least some talent who aren't just cheerleaders.

 

Yeah the 3 picks are for the future, not next year. But if this draft is as deep as they say, it would be worth keeping them. Although the 3 "cheerleaders" on the end of the bench combine for 2 million while the 3 draft picks would combine for about 10 million (3.5, 3.5. 2.5) unless we stashed one.

 

That's the problem; first round draft picks are kind of expensive. I'd prefer we try to combine a couple of picks and trade up or trade them for a useful vet.

 

3 players for the cost of Meyers Leonard's contract for likely much better talent doesn't seem that expensive. The only reason it is even an issue is because we are pushed up against the Luxury Tax due to Turner/Crabbe. That is $35M for 2 bench players. Add Meyers' $9M, $8M for Aminu, $7M for Davis and $7M for Ezeli and you have a very expensive bench that you're not getting a lot of production out of.

After Dame, 7 of the next 8 highest paid players weren't starters. That is squarely on Neil. To have the 2nd highest payroll in the league to barely make the Playoffs only because of a trade you were force to make that worked out well......yuck!

 

How are they expensive? All of them together will barely by $10M a year.

Trading them for a useful vet is idea that I've found ridiculous for months and still hate when I see that suggested. We badly need a back up center, a good prospect power forward and possibly another forward or backcourt player we could develop.

In this draft, we will likely have two picks between 15 and 21, and one around 26-27. Between 15 and 21 there will be talented forwards and centers: Patton, Jarrett Allen, Collins, Hartenstein, Rabb, Giles, Leaf and Adebayo will likely be available there. All of them have good potential. At 26 there are actually a lot of small forwards and shooting guards projected: Kurucs, Kennard, Mitchell, Grayson Allen and in some mocks even Justin Jackson is projected to go low too. We will definitely have a shot at most of these players.

Trading our picks for an average player who will maybe give us +3 wins, rather than getting someone young and talented and developing them further from here, is a ridiculous and frankly a terrible, terrible idea. If the best players available with our picks were point guards then maybe trading them would be decent idea. Trading picks with which you can get a power forward, small forward or a center that could possibly play for you in the future, is a dreadful idea. Those players will make $2M - $3M per year, and then if we want to keep them after 4 years, we will be able to do that - with "decent vet" we'd probably lose that player after his contract ends because someone would just offer that Wilson Chandler $20M a year.

Keep all three picks, get three players with them, develop these players. If we could somehow get a combination of Patton/Allen, Collins/Hartenstein/Giles/Rabb and Jackson/Ferguson, it would be absolutely incredible for the franchise and would spell great future. Get those players, develop them, form a good team here rather than trade all your picks for someone who's proven average.

 

I agree. Teams like Denver have shown that multiple draft picks can fill the pipeline without having to have a top 3 pick.
Faried at #22, Fournier at #20, Gobert #27, Jokic at # 40, Nurkic #16 (via Chicago)

We won't hit a HR with all of them, so maybe our odds are better with 3 first round picks rather than the normal theory that the higher pick has the better odds. Either way you are guessing on how a player projects 3 years out.

 

Sounds like Roddy Beaubois

 

I was thinking long, lanky French dude with an ok jumper and average playmaking ability. Could be remembering Roddy wrong

 

Exactly. If we can trade one or more of our expensive backups those rookie deals become bargains.

 

First year salary for all 3 picks will be less than $2M each. Much closer to $6M instead of $10M.
http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/info/rookie_scale/2018

If you hit on one of the 3, they are a very cheap option for a few years.

 

Thanks. I was going off of this and didn't realize it was for 2 years.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonb...round-rookie-salary-projections/#7ba751923395

 

Apart from the "great BBIQ" part...