I agree we might need to trade CJ, but if we could land Noel for Crabbe, it would be interesting to see how Dame and CJ work with a rim protector before we had to go to step 2 and trade that big of a player. I also would like to see Vucevic and Noel somehow, not sure how that would work out on the floor.
PHI tried that last year by forcing Noel to play out of position at PF. While he is athletically capable of chasing smaller stretch 4s around the perimeter (and was still 8th in the entire league in DBPM), it negates his biggest advantage - elite rim protection and weak side shot blocking. Vucevic is too plodding and slow to guard modern power forwards. So, once again Noel would be forced to play out of position. And while Vucevic has a midrange game, neither have 3-point range and both are most effective in the low post. Not a good fit in any system and especially not a good fit in Stotts' system. BNM
Portland doesn't have the trade ammo to get Ibaka (assuming you don't want to swap McCollum for him). Even if Philadelphia will sell super low on Noel and give him up for just Crabbe and a draft pick, there isn't much Portland has to tempt Orlando. Lillard is obviously off the table, I assume most/everyone would take McCollum off the table, Harkless is the only other good trade chip and Plumlee is an okay bit of trade filler. Even if Orlando wanted Harkless back, Harkless and Plumlee (and a pick) doesn't seem sufficient to convince Orlando to sell on Ibaka.
I really don't want to trade a Crabbe because I think trading CJ is the best way to really balance out the roster, but if we must trade Crabbe for Noel, I hope Neil has another moved lined up for a shooter, maybe someone buried on a depth chart somewhere. (Mclemore what's good)
They won't give him away that cheap. Has to include Crabbe, and perhaps another one. Actually it would be cool to get Luwawu or Stauskas in return to balance a roster a bit.
