Official Jerami Grant trade rumors/ideas thread

Did you help Olshey in 2016?

 

The problem will be how to maintain Deni once/if POR is a solid playoff team? His salary will skyrocket and will POR be able to match the best offer sheet? Joe should be very worried about this and plan accordingly. Are Shae and Scoot worth big paydays?

Deni will surely become an UFA in 2028. Why will he want to stay with POR? If you know he will not then trade him. By then he may well be worth >3x his current salary.

"Because of the nature of Deni’s contract, value vs his worth on open market and descending in value, limits (120% if I recall) on extending from that contract and his years of service (can make up to 30% of cap, approx $56mil) POR will need to be somewhere in that vicinity under the cap in order to sign him

Hard to predict what other salaries will be on the books by then. Camara (if he does not take the 4yr/$89 deal) will be at\north of $30mil, Sharpe (if he doesn't take the Smith Jr 5yr\$122 deal) will also be north of $30, Scoot will be at $30? $35, Yang @ $7.5, Clingan's cap hold will be @ $29m, 1-2 or more draft picks at anywhere from $10-15mil is ikely & it is doubtful they would not have a few other contracts on the books as well 3 years from now

That is roughly $146 or so, not factoring in any other salary on the books 4 years from now, leaving $36+ mil or so, likely not enough. So doable yes, but the big part you are ignoring is that he will be free to go wherever he wants and POR has no sway, that is a huge risk and signing him a year earlier is just as\if not more problematic given the $73+ mil owed to Jrue & Grant"

 

Deni's greatest value is to a team contending to win now, who already has some big salaries. Deni is going to have more value to teams like OKC, Boston, etc. than us. If Cronin were trying to maximize value, I'm thinking he'd trade Deni this season for the reasons you mentioned.

 

I know but he's been great. Sucks

 

We dont have any great players so im down for this. Hes the best mid player we have. Nowhere near great.

 

So now Deni is too old for this team?

 

I'm expecting the first "Clingan is too old for our compete window" sometime today.

 

looking at the current contracts (Jrue/Grant mostly) plus the timing of players needing new deals (Sharpe/Camara,Scoot) and the rest of the roster, I have a hard time seeing the Blazers having any cap-space between now and forever. If they do, it will be minor space

and after seeing the value Portland got for Simons and Ayton, expecting to move Grant for an expiring contract is foolish; won't happen

maybe start with pairs:

* Jrue/Grant will combine for 65-73
* Sharpe/Scoot will probably combine for 60M; it would be great if it was 50M but the way salaries are escalating make it unlikely
* Camara at 22M....but I'm wondering why it isn't done already

anyway...for those 5 players + Avdija/Clingan/Yang the 2027/28 payroll would be around 180M, with 6 more roster spots to fill; and the cap that year will be around 185-188M (est). So, no space

I think the initial hope was to have some cap-space in 2026-27. Right now the Blazers are scheduled for 116M with 8 players: Jrue/Grant/Deni/Scoot/Clingan/Hansen/Murray/Camara. Ok now, the first thing about that is that doesn't include Sharpe. So you'd need to bump the payroll the payroll up to 140-145M with 9 players. The big problem with the cap-space assumption with this is that Camara is at 2.4M. That would mean he hasn't signed an extension; which would mean in the summer of 2027 he becomes a free agent. And the hitch is he'd be an unrestricted free agent, not restricted. Portland would not have the right of first refusal

assuming Camara is on an extension would add 20M to the payroll and that would put the Blazers up to around 160-165M range; and the cap will be around 170M. And of course, there would have been decisions about Thybulle, Rupert, Reath that might add another 20-25M. And it's probable the Blazers will have added one, if not two more 1st round picks; both might be in the lottery

now, right now, there is only one player, Hansen, under contract in 2028-29. The cap that year could be well over 200M. But in your fever dream about the Blazers morphing into OKC, they would already have Sharpe, Camara, & Scoot under contract and would be adding Avdija and Clingan. It would add up in a hurry

besides all that, roster change in the NBA has accelerated under the new CBA so it's really difficult to project rosters 4 seasons from now

 

So the only way to keep Deni is to pay someone(with draft capital) to take Grant or Jrue for expirings in the next 2 seasons. Assuming we keep Camara and Sharpe also. Is that what I’m getting from this?

 

in a narrow mercenary perspective that's true. But Cronin's M.O. so far isn't very mercenary. He's almost been a player's GM moving players to preferred destinations and, arguably, overpaying his own free agents

so if you project those CBA-mandated 10% cap increases, in 2028, when Deni will be a free agent, the salary cap will be around 205M. Deni will be a 7 year vet, and an unrestricted free agent. He could be an all-star by then. So, he'd be eligible for a 30%-of-cap payday. Meaning his max base salary would be 60M. If he's the player some people here are fantasizing, then, get this: his max contract would be around 5-years/350M....70M/year. The first thing is....holy crap! the second thing is it's unlikely that any team would have 60M in cap-space; but possible I suppose

it does illustrate why there's no friggin way that Deni and his agent will agree to a 20M/year extension

and of course there's always the possibility that Deni just doesn't want to be in Portland

 

Wouldn’t Joe take this into consideration before taking on the Jrue money? I don’t see him trading for Jrue and having to plan for Deni other than he’s gonna walk in 2028.

 

Since Portland is stuck with Grant, they should trade either Deni or Camara. Simple truth is they screwed the pooch resigning Grant and are now stuck with him for three years. Having Deni or Camara coming off the bench is ridiculous. An excess of riches they do not need. Trade one for as many picks as possible. Then draft Grants replacement to sit on bench on a rookie deal. Same with Scoot. They brought Jrue in for a reason. Scoot is a player that they are not committed to, obviously. But he will want $30 mil per season. Not coming off the bench. Trade him and draft Jrue’s replacement and let him sit on the bench until Jrue is gone. Of course they should have bought out Ant and did not. They need to move on and realize value for Scoot and one of Deni/Camara before it is too late.

 

Portland can keep Deni in 2028 by giving him a massive contract as UFA. They won't have the space to give him an extension big enough

 

No. All this is fear mongering.

Portland has Deni's full bird rights & can sign him to any contract that they agree to (up to the max).

Yes- Portland may need to go into the tax to accomplish that (but they can). Alternatively they may need to trade a player.

But it 100% comes down to what Deni wants. If he's enjoying Portland and is committed to the franchise you keep him & pay the man.

If he's wishy-washy (LMA) or expressly says he wants to move on (Hart) -> you trade him.

But there is no urgency to do so. Let it play out for another 2-2.5 years... but Blazers absolutely CAN pay Deni what he's worth

 

No - Blazers can pay Deni fine in 2028 and Jrue/Sharpe deals will have expired.

Since the Blazers currently have two players on the roster (Sharpe+Grant) that have been here more than two years - I think fans are worrying too much about how we afford all these guys 4 years from now.

Now if the Blazers totally fail at becoming a winning team this year I can see trying to flip Deni/Camara for picks ... But that's a totally different strategy and for totally different reasons.

 

Breaking News: Jerami Grant demands trade out of Portland. His agent will discuss with the Blazers front office regarding his desired destinations. jk

 

I'm fine with trading Deni/Camara if the long term return makes that worth it.

But I would not trade them because of some short term concern for fitting with Grant. Grant being overpayed is a completely separate issue.

Makes zero sense to trade away a starting forward and with Grant playing like a backup still not have one. Then as you say the Blazers try to scramble to draft one for 5 years from now? This makes zero sense.

 

Deni isn't a free agent until summer 2028 at which point Jrue/Grants deals are over. These aren't related issues at all.

 

Can you please stop with the "jk" posts? They aren't funny and I'm sure some fans are confused.

 

Agreed... Which is why he's probably most valuable to us as a trade asset today.