Chris actually makes thoughtful posts about the team though. Sly is only here to make jokes, plagiarize Reddit, and pad his "like" stats.
Yes, I think the fact that you made the 6 additional draft picks at the end UNprotected is insane. Portland is not LA or Miami where they can get rid of everyone and rebuild quickly with free agents. We need our picks. What if Dame got hurt and Giannins doesn't re-sign after 2 seasons? The scenario is not that far-fetched. As I said I am good with short-term risks but not long-term risks. Our fans can barely handle tanking for two years for a high pick. How about being in the lottery every other year and not having your picks? I would be much more inclined to make that trade if the picks (other than the two this year) were protected.
Thanks for articulating this. Not an unreasonable stance at all, I actually voted no for the trade as well, just too much long term risk and I don't know Dame/Giannis/Grant with zero bench can contend. But it goes against the assumed absolute fact some posters are claiming that the Blazers don't have enough to trade for Giannis. Now I'm not saying the Bucks would agree to it, maybe they won't, I'd find it unlikely they consider any Giannis trade right now. But I'd say its much more likely they consider a trade now with how the season ended than if the Bucks made at least the ECF. If they did eventually decide to trade Giannis, this offer has enough legit young talent and potentially massive lottery pick value to be a realistic consideration.
I think this is probably one of those occasions where two seemingly opposing things can simultaneously be true. The Bucks aren’t likely to accept any trade Portland can offer simply because Giannis is so good AND he isn’t asking for a trade. Giannis’s injury, combined with some incredibly hot play by Butler and some bad coaching by the Bucks, is why Miami was able to win their series. It’s not any inherent shortcoming on Giannis’s part. At the same time though, for the reasons Pinwheel noted, giving up that many unprotected future assets would leave the Blazers hamstrung if they had to rebuild. I don’t think either team would do the deal the way you’ve outlined it.
The Bucks getting bounced probably isn't enough for them to trade Giannis on its own. I haven't checked their pending free agents, but for the sake of argument lets say Middleton and a good role player leave in free agency, then the Bucks have a horrible draft pick and strike out on all other free agents. All the sudden they could be sitting there without the talent to contend and decide to sell high on Giannis in just a few months to start off a rebuild. I don't actually think its going to happen, but you add up that small chance with the Bucks, the chance Embiid has a similar situation if Harden leaves, add that maybe Siakam finally becomes more attainable on an expiring deal, add the chance Jaylen Brown asks out from the Celtics, and add that all together. The chance of any of these players on their own leaving is pretty low, but we see every year and normally a few times a year a superstar is traded... so odds are some star we haven't identified with certainty will be available for the right price this summer. The trick is when that player becomes available do the Blazers have the assets to get them, with Cronin having the skill to successfully negotiate such a large trade, and afterwards still have the talent to realistically form the rest of the roster into a contender? Well I hate to bear bad news but;
The farm, the tractors, the beef cattle, the orchard and the parking lot where the dairy trucks pull up.
Nets gave up 4 unprotected 4 swaps, Jarrett Allen, and Caris Levert for Harden. That didn’t work out really. Bucks gave up 3 unprotected for Jrue and they won the title immediately. and there’s Toronto who gave up their franchise player for one year of Kawhi and won a title I would’ve made all 3 of these deals even though Harden didn’t work out. We’d get two years of Giannis and he wants to play with Dame so he’d prob stay. Kawhi always wanted to be in LA.
I can't believe there are 13 in here that wouldn't trade the farm for probably 1-3 best player in the world. Trading potential for the Greek Freak if he wanted to play with Dame is a no brainer, imo.
