https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/...-skal-labissiere-to-atlanta-hawks-report.html The Portland Trail Blazers are set to trade Skal Labissiere to the Atlanta Hawks, according to multiple reports. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thursday that the Blazers would send Labissiere and cash to Atlanta in a trade, but Yahoo’s Chris Haynes then reported that the Blazers would receive $2 million in cash for Labissiere. This story will be updated as the accurate details of the trade become clear.
I tend to think this means we not doing a Whiteside trade... just one more small move or trade Hood if he agrees to get out of tax completley
Shame, I liked Skal. Hopefully means that Zach is getting ready to get to action before the playoffs.
Plus probably want something to sign a rest of season min salary.... maybe Hood agreed to allow trade.
So Portland trades Skal and then basically pays the tax savings they are getting from shipping him off. Seriously? Neil....not exactly impressed.
It’s worse now because he doubled down on 2016 with CJ’s 30+ mil extension for the remainder of Dames prime... we literally have no contracts to trade now to improve and minimal cap room.
C: Whiteside, Nurkic, Swanigan PF: Melo, Collins, Gabriel, Nassir? Ariza? I liked Skal obviouslyyyy that’s my child, but I don’t see where his playing time would’ve have come from with everyone healthy. Pretty sure they’ll want to bring the same unit back next year as well, minus maybe Biggie, so I don’t really have an issue with dumping a pending free agent that wouldn’t have been in the rotation. And as far as development goes, I think Wenyen is the more worthwhile project.
Skal would be ahead of Biggie at the 5 if healthy and ahead of everyone but Melo and Collins at the 4 if healthy. That's if Nurk and Collins themselves are healthy. Gabriel's got a long way to go to show he's at Skal's level, IMO. I'd say maybe Gabriel has more upside, but that's not really true, either. Skal was a contender to be a top five pick early in the season he came out. He's taller. If Gabriel does have more reward, it's marginal, and it comes with a lot more risk.
The other thing is looking ahead to next year. Presuming Whiteside moves on, you have Nurk coming back, Collins coming back, MAYBE Melo who is another year older. Are you going to just play Nurk at 5, Melo at 4 and Collins gets half his minutes at each position? Not sure how that would work. Skal was an ideal insurance policy big.
