Ric Bucher Says Portland Is The Best Destination For LeBron This Summer

The more I think about it how fucking cool would it be if we won a championship in the era of super teams with homegrown talent!? Seriously, I think we hit a homerun with Zach, why can’t we do it one more time with a wing? They identified Zach as s player they wanted and traded up for him, so do it again!

Mikal Bridges would be perfect in this lineup, is it hard to trade up 16 spots? Fuck yeah it is but it’s doable, throw in next years number one and a few million in cash considerations if they identify a wing they like as much as they liked Zach last year. I don’t think Zach or Mikal/Knox are gonna take 3-5 years to contribute. Look at Zach, he could be our starting PF next year.

How sweet would it be, in the era of superstar pussies who have to join forces, to have our superstar lead a team of drafted players and after thought players we traded for to a championship.


I’ve been drinking

 

Never mind, get Lebron if it’s possible.

 

Those are both good thoughts @LayneStaley .

 

Two other teams getting involved to allow Blazers to get LeBron is unlikely enough. Knicks can't take Aminu and Harkless without sending anything back and they don't really have much to send back, maybe Courtney Lee but it makes little sense.

Of course if Cleveland had the chance to get nothing or two picks for LeBron, they would take two picks but Rockets could not even find anyone to take Anderson to facilitate Carmelo deal. We won't have it much easier.

It's not happening. He's either staying, going to Philadelphia or going to Houston (they have the same problem we have though).

 

I'm hoping Mikal drops a little simply because he's a redshirt junior. Last year Utah moved up to 13 from 24 with Trey Lyles.

Hopefully there is a team like Philly who currently has pick 11 via the Lakers who doesn't want to add guaranteed salary to hinder their run at LeBron so they offer 11 and Bayless (using the TPE) for pick 26 or something along those lines.

 

I honestly hate this kind of analysis because LeBron dragged a sorry ass of support members to the finals so many times - and we penalize him for that?

 

If LeBron James wants to play with the league MVP and have a real shot at a championship, then he definitely should come to Portland.

Make it happen Bron!

 

1. Just reminding everyone the Olshey did two favors for the Cavs (absorbing Brendan Haywood+Mike Miller and then later absorbing Anderson Varejão's shit contract). Can Neil cash out on those favors?

2. In the summer, Lillard criticized Kyrie for not being content with going to the finals each year with Lebron. Good play by Dame.


No way in hell it happens tho

 

It's not to allow Portland to get Lebron, it's about what their getting. Teams aren't going to turn down a deal to spite Portland.
Rockets couldn't find anyone to take Andersons $20M a year contract, and had no young players or picks to do so.
Houston is impossible. They don't have the assets to move contracts, they have horrible contracts that they can't swap for LeBron, and they don't have cap space. That isn't happening.

I guess Kanter could opt in, I was assuming he wouldn't. Knicks (or someone else with cap space) would take Aminu, and the Knicks would have space for him. Chicago would probably take back Harkless, Leonard, and picks for Asik.

Or we could do this:
CHI Gets: Evan Turner, Ron Baker, POR 2018 1st
CLE Gets: POR 2020 1st, POR 2022 1st
POR Gets: LeBron, Omer Asik (TPE)
NYK Gets: Maurice Harkless, Jake Layman

Or

CLE Gets: Al-Farouq Aminu, POR 2018 1st, POR 2022 1st
NYK Gets: Maurice Harkless, Meyers Leonard, POR 2020 1st
POR Gets: LeBron, Courtney Lee (TPE)

Or something of that combination. It's feasible.

We could basically send out $11M by swapping Leonard for a bad, similar contract that's under $12M as it could be absorbed with our MLE.
Some team with cap space would take a flier on Harkless. That's another $10M
And Aminu is a good player on a cheap contract, that could fit under some teams TPE's, and would have value across the league.

That's $28M in outgoing salary. When you consider Swanigan and the 4 future 1sts we could trade accordingly, we could make it happen. Would take creativity and a mindset other than "it's impossible, so why try".

 

Shit. That's a great idea. I'd even toss in a future 1st and take back one of their early 2nds this year. (It'd probably take that, as Chicago currently would have the 24th pick and they'd definitely use their cap space to send 24 for 11 and Bayless.

POR Gets: 11th Pick (Mikal Bridges), 36th Pick (Chandler Hutchison), Jerryd Bayless (TPE)
PHI Gets: 26th Pick, 2019 POR 1st

 

That works too. We'd have to make some other trades to create some roster spots depending on who's kept from our free agent class. Although the Bulls are notorious cheapskates (we had to pay them to take Vonleh) so they might not be interested in salary dump trades.

 

Is this thread going to turn into another Summer Melo 200 page thread? lol

 

Mikal Bridges is gonna be a star.

 

Completely agree! Plus he's been playing with good guards throughout his time at Nova so our situation would be a good fit for his game.

 

I'd just love to see LeBron get to the finals and win championships on a ton of different teams.

A few years ago Bill Simmons said we should just call his team The LeBrons, and that always stuck with me. It implied that sometimes the LeBrons played in Miami, sometimes Cleveland, and maybe sometimes somewhere else. His cast of teammates would always change, but hey, we all know it's just about LeBron.

Ideally, you know, LeBron just walks the earth, meets people... gets into adventures, wins an ass-load of championships. Like Caine from "Kung Fu." When he retired his jersey could hang from the rafters of a half dozen arenas.

I'd be more than happy for Portland to be one of the whistle stops on his way to beating Jordan's trophy count.

 

Just got confirmation that Michael Jordan is coming out of retirement for the 8th time, and he's signing with our blazers. #2018blazersnbachamps