Here is something from ESPN on Ingram trade market which kind of shows how its harder to do these trades nowdays; No trade materializes. The financial landscape of the NBA makes it challenging to trade for him. Outside of the Rockets and the Oklahoma City Thunder, the top teams in either conference are in the luxury tax or apron and are restricted on first-round picks to send in a trade. (Five teams -- San Antonio, Brooklyn, Oklahoma City, Houston and Utah -- control 65 first-round picks over the next seven years.) Too bad we aren't one of those 5 teams controlling picks - seems that with tanking for 4 years we should have tried aggressively to join that group.
It’s like we aren’t even in a rebuild. But all those teams clearly have a much better GM. We’re really just in NBA purgatory with these vets and very few future picks outside our own. To make matters worse our top 3 pick look like he’ll fizzle out of the league in a few years. It’s why I want Cronin gone and someone with a clue replacing him.
There were multiple people in this very forum telling us we couldn't do any better because Cronin had no leverage.
Yeah the Blazers fans trying to justify this trade were so ridiculous. The other argument I remember was that we had to do this trade so Cronin could get more leverage to do the CJ trade - as if that was some massive haul. Then there were fans saying Cronin had to send Norm to the Clippers because he wanted to play in LA, and CJ to New Orleans because he wanted to play there, and Hart to NY because he wanted to go to the east coast. As if the Blazers are some travel agent just sending players wherever they wish. No wonder Dame thought he could demand a trade to one team. It makes sense that knowledgeable experts throughout the league were upset the Clippers were basically able to steal talent from the Blazers - and that actually led to the 2nd apron and other massive changes. It boggles my mind how many Blazer fans could support the team, Cronin, and Blazers management so obviously screwing itself.
We literally only have TWO first round picks we can fully trade. Our pick is encumbered until 2028 and thus Stipen restricted in 2029. We have ONE Pick left from the Dame haul we can trade. We can trade ONE of our own 2030 or 2031 pick. Compare that to those 5 teams - two at the top of the standings (OKC HOU) and one likely a year behind with Wemby (SAS) - controlling 65 first round picks! Just insane that 4 years into a rebuild with hard tanking every season that is the assets our franchise has. We started the summer in the luxury tax as well, needing to ship out picks/starters to duck that. Our two foundational pieces are Scoot who is shooting 27.9% from 3, which is actually higher than Sharpe. This Clippers trade was the beginning of the current era leading to nowhere - at this rate I'm not sure if it will ultimately be measured in years or decades.
Yeah, I still don't think those guys had much value after being here. And they had to go in order for us to hit the reset button. Portland had absolutely no leverage. I don't think it matters that we're still paying on some of those contracts. It was a tough, tough situation. Of course, it still is...
The video shows how the rest of the league thought Powell had value. The Clippers giving Roco an extension shows how they valued him. We literally got less than nothing in dead weight Eric Bledsoe type of contracts. Even if hypothetically Powell/Roco didn't have value at that time - just trade the other Blazers players on the roster that do have value! CJ, Dame, Ant all clearly had value. Norm was the only guard of that group that could play a bit of defense, and the best at playing off the ball. That trade made zero sense at the time and still makes zero sense today. Meanwhile Norm is today on the same contract scoring 23ppg 47% 3 leading the Clippers to a winning record without Kawhi. The other thing I remember Blazer fans saying is Cronin would have so much "Flexibility" to improve the team without those two. As if the Blazers were going to be able to sign some great bargain free agents. But those fans didn't understand there was never a way to get cap space from the Clippers trade. So predictability the Blazers ultimately couldn't even get salaries as valuable as Norman Powell. The Clippers trade was terrible when viewed in isolation - but I always have thought it was one of the worst trades for the Blazers in that it shut the door on the Dame era but didn't start building a path anywhere either.
Yeah, it wasn't a good trade. Anybody who thought we were ever going to get any free agents who were going to help us was out of their freaking mind. That's not how it works in Portland. Powell probably did have value around the league, but Portland didn't have any leverage to capitalize on that value. Powell was a bench player for the Clippers after that trade. He had to earn his way back to this position. That's how badly his stock was hurt in Portland. Yes, after the Clippers saw what he could do they gave him a contract. Yes, now his value looks fine. I do agree that if we could have kept Powell instead of CJ we definitely should have.
Clipper fans view things a little differently. They think their GM sucks. They are 2 games over 500. They are not happy with Harden or Leonard. They still owe OKC for PG who they lost for nothing. And their future draft picks are shit. Funny how some Blazer fans thought we handed them a championship contender with the trade.
For what it's worth Norm sucked in the Clippers early playoff losses a couple years running. He's having a great year this season but he wasn't when they first traded for him if I remember correctly. Norm was the opposite of clutch in playoff time.
