He's 20, not 19. The 20 year old is already helping us win. So playing him doesnt sacrifice anything.
100% disagree. You can have meaningful minutes from solid young players and win championships. They are not mutually exclusive at all.
meant to edit to 20 It is a sacrifice. We could get someone who is better than he is now (Kevin Love, Blake Griffin) if we trade him. Otherwise lillard is playing with a worse roster than he has to.
Oh yes they do, for example, last year at that time, Rockets fans on the clutch forum wanted to go full rebuild and trade everyone (including Harden)
(1) we need to take advantage of Prime Lillard and (2) we need to develop this 19 year old! these are basically mutually exclusive goals...By the time Ant is in his prime Dame will be far past his. Our best option is to trade Ant for someone like Love and keep CJ, and that is the most likely scenario. Sucks bc Ant really does seem like he has superstar potential... but the only other option is sacrificing Lillard’s prime years.[/QUOTE] So if we had Luka Doncic, we'd be trading him for Kevin Love? Doncic is only a few months older than Simons. edit: What Simons needs is playing time, not to be traded.
No way you trade someone with Ants potential. He’s our bridge for when Lillard is on his downside. At the trade deadline we have lots of other trade assets. This may unfortunately be a mediocre season since both Collins and Nurk are hurt. If we can slide into playoffs and get those two back we got a chance to make some noise
It’s not impossible to win with a young player as your 3rd option, but it’s much easier to win with a veteran like Blake Griffin as your third option (and Pistons would likely make that trade).
youre probably right. The point I’m making though is that Simons is not going to be in his prime for another 7 years or so. We can either keep him around and wait for him to develop, or we can trade him for someone who is more talented now. even if we make a trade for Griffin and don’t give away Simons, it doesn’t change the fact that we still have this young kid as a bargaining chip that we can easily use to trade for a player who is ready for a playoff run today, and not in 7 years. I don’t doubt Ant can play at a B+ level in the playoffs right now, but we can easily get someone who can play at an A level in the playoffs with years of playoff experience if we trade him - and that helps Lillard win.
I get what you are saying, but one other note: in the current NBA, you almost have to have a couple of A list vets like Dame and then great production from young 3rd or 4th year players to win championships. It's about money. You need a couple of guys who are still on early rookie type contracts playing beyond their cap hit. Dame and Ant line up fine. When Dame is still in his prime to late prime, Ant will be firing on all cylinders and not be costing the team 20m per. It's actually perfect. CJ is more likely to be traded in my opinion.
good point. I didn’t consider the salary stuff. but I don’t think it’s likely we trade CJ after giving him an extension, unless that’s another financial thing that I don’t understand
With Ant's emergence, I could see CJ flipped for a forward, which is a much more needed position. Think someone of CJ's quality but at the 3/4 or 4/5. I'm not sure CJ's extension actually hurts his trade value though. If a team likes him and needs a lead guard, they might even like the fact that he is under contract for a few years, rather thisn risk trading for someone who might walk as a free agent quickly. These are all just random thoughts though. I certainly don't know everything. Haha
Sinons doesn't need to be in his prime to help Dame. Nurk was only 22 when he was traded here and hasn't yet hit his prime yet. Should we trade him too?
Maybe he should have taken fans advice when he thought is was a good idea to leave Steph WIDE FREAKING OPEN all night long in Game 1 of last year's Blazers/Warriors playoff series.
SIMONS also has the highest adjusted field goal percentage on the team at 60 percent. After him is Damian Lillard at 58 percent and Rodney Hood at 58 percent. Followed by Hassan Whiteside at 56 percent, and and Collins and Labissiere at 55 percent. CJ McCollum is at a crappy 43 percent which is worse than Bazemore's 46 percent. CJ should not be shooting worse than Bazemore, that's a joke on us. Another reason CJ should be on the bench behind Bazemore and Simons. The rest of the roster is incredibly shooting below 40 percent adjusted. Our starting lineup should be Lillard, Simons, Hood or Bazemore, Collins and Whiteside (and someday Nurkic). It's a real shame that Collins is out. Because he could also be the center at times and put someone else at PF. Labissiere?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahhaah. Aaahhahhhhahahahahahahhaahahah. Trade CJ. He gets us a win now player. Sorry, but its the truth. Now, since your argument is done...