Plausible destinations for our vets?

I think another year after this one could be enough for tanking, if we get good draft picks out of Grant and Ant.

If Ant and/or Grant is on this team playing big minutes the ball will not move. The offense will not flow the way it needs to.

Ant will not likely help this team develop into a winner. He will more likely prevent that development by being the wrong kind of player for this team at the wrong time.

I haven't posted about Ant in well over a week. Maybe two. That doesn't change the fact that he kills the offensive flow and flat out kills any chance of us playing good defense.

The fan base is already gone. They left with Dame. They'll come back when we're in the path to championships.

 

If that were the case, then that is a coaching problem, not a player's problem.

 

We're not going to get a good coach until we have a great young team.

We're not going to have a great young team if 2 of the top players are Ant and Grant.

Is the solution just changing coaches every season until we luck into a good one so that we can hang on to two flawed players with significant problems in rebounding and defense?

I think that's a great way to suck for a very long.

*Edit* And what is the coach going to do? Bench Ant and Grant while playing less capable players ahead of them?

That ought to tank their value pretty good...

The smart thing to do is get the best value possible this season for both Ant and Grant. The sooner the better.

 

You keep grouping them together. Grant and Ant are two different scenarios. 5 years is not a huge difference but in this case, it makes sense to trade Grant's contract.

I don't think Ant is thee top player on the team, he is just one of the good young players 26 and under (Ayton turned 26 yesterday) that I would keep unless a good deal came along. That can be said about all of them.

I also was not advocating to fire Chauncey. I was just saying if the ball movement really was an issue then it is his responsibility to fix it. But I also think the more quality players you have on the court the better shot distribution will be. We saw that with Dame as well. When he was surrounded by Aminu, Harkless, and Plumlee, he needed to shoot.....a lot!

 

I think if Ant is still here? He will/can play off the ball more as we also have Deny. Imo, the way the game is reliant on the three, you can never have too many gun slingers, just ask Dallas & Boston.

 

None of our players will be top 3 at their position within the next five years, so should we just get rid of everyone?

 

YES! Simple answer. I think our best hope might be Sharpe, but he’s got to play for this to have a chance at happening within the next five years. But I said that I don’t think Scoot will ever crack the top ten point guards. In five years Clingan might be a top ten center.

 

LOL

 

Needing to move Simmons for the best draft capital around is dumb as hell. You keep pushing this narrative over and over and repeating yourself over and over lol.

 

Preach bro, these guys are big time Ant haters and try to push a narrative on this board. Basically him and one other guy lol

 

Not only that, but maybe it’s there were forced into that kinda basketball because of the poor talent we have surrounding them. Grant wasn’t like that in his first season with us when we had Dame. It’s more of product of what little talent is around them. People are weird in here lol.

maybe, just maybe if Scoot and Sharpe improve, they can take the load off those two. But no one is saying that lol

 

So basically let Ant run like Dame 2.0? Everybody stand around and watch him do his thing? Portland has the wrong personnel for that. They need knock down shooters that can also defend to make up for the lead offensive player being the worst defender.

 

You completely missed the point. Grant and Ant had better usage in less shot attempts in the season they had with Dame.

Basically, if Sharpe and Scoot improve, we can depend less on Ant and Grant, and it opens things up for everyone. Part of the problem last year was not Grant and Ant, is was the poor players around him forcing them to do more than they should.

 

So Grant and Ant dont want to be the number 1/2 options? Goes against everything I know about human nature. They want to defer to younger players and have their numbers go down? Not buying it. They are very ball dominant players on offense. That is their game.

 

Can we hear your rationale?

 

I'm not OP, but sheds a ton of long term salary, and Cam is likely flippable for a few more small assets. Shaves 46 million off of the payroll next year. A lot of rebuilding teams have been able to use cap space to take on salary and assets to help in a rebuild. We're near the tax and have been so far unable to do so. This would provide that opportunity for us as soon as next offseason.

 

If Ant is not traded by season start I could see Chauncy starting him at the two with Scoot running the offense. Shae would Start at three, and also back up Simons. He can play off the ball and giving Scoot the pg reins keeps Ant form controlling the ball as a pg. His natural position imo, is off guard anyway.

 

I think we will see a Scoot, Ant, Shae, Deni, and Ayton lineup at times, but I would not start the games with it.

 

I guess for those who don't like Ayton it would be a good move. I am not one of those. I think dumping Grant and Thybulle's 40 million this year would make more sense. Although I would imagine Thybille will opt out in 11 months, so I guess he won't make much of a difference for next summer.