Exclusive The Blazers Offense is Stepping Up Without McCollum & Nurkic

I’m starting to think Seth Curry may be a better player than CJ. He is certainly way way more efficient offensively than CJ. He also looks more apt to find teammates and less likely to pass up so easily on a semi open 3 pointer.

Also Dame, as of yesterday, had surpassed Steph Curry in offensive RPM for the first time ever I believe. Today Curry is again ahead by 1/100th of a point.

 

I personally really like the fliw of the offense right now.

Hood starting with Curry off the bench. Trade CJ for Blake, and I think we have a MUCH better team.

 

That would make us better. I’m not that hot on Blake. He’s a very good offensive player but not much defensively and I think Collins will be better in two years. But I don’t have a better alternative for CJ in my head.

 

Cj/zach/Simons/2 1s for AD

 

Dump Harkless for nothing
Our 1st and Turner dumped for nothing.
Meyers and 2nds for Taurean Prince.

That opens up $24M in cap space. Apx. $21M counting Laymans cap hold.

Resign Curry, Hood, and Aminu for $21M combined. Resign Jake as well. Could try to bring back Enes for the cap room exception, but I dont think that's possible. Sign a backup C for that instead (O'Quinn?)

Then you could trade CJ for Blake.

Our lineup w/ CJ.

Lillard (36) / Seth (12)
McCollum (34) / Seth (14)
Prince (24) / Hood (24)
Aminu (30) / Layman (18)
Collins (28) / O'Quinn (20)

Our lineup trading CJ for Blake:
Lillard (36) / Seth (12)
Hood (30) / Seth (18)
Aminu (15) / Prince (22) / Layman (12)
Griffin (25) / Aminu (15) / Layman (8)
Collins (24) / O'Quinn (14) / Griffin (10)

 

I think smallish, poor defense shooting guards who can take and make a load of threes aren't really that hot of a commodity in the shoot-first PG era. There's only so much size that it makes sense to sacrifice. It's more about putting them on their own team and hoping they turn into Damien-Lite. So I'm not really sure CJ or Seth are worth that much.

If we could get Blake for CJ, I'd be all about that. Jrue Holiday is the other guy that'd really interest me.

 

Not really surprising. CJ makes the offense stagnant, and Kanter is as talented offensively as Nurk

 

Liked for Jrue not Blake. Had to make that clear.

 

I think we'd have to sweeten it with a pick to get Holiday. It's not the worst gamble for them--CJ has put up really nice numbers when he's been slotted into the Dame role in the past. I'm as curious as anyone to see what he can do when handed the keys for a season. TBH, if we had literally a clone of Dame at SG he wouldn't look as good playing next to PG Dame. So it's really hard to know what we have in CJ even after all these seasons.

It's kind of funny how similar Jrue/CJ overall statistical production has been this year. .55%ts, 21ppg, 68 games, 17fga. You're basically trading a more well-rounded passer/defender (Jrue) for a much better perimeter shooter/shot creator (CJ).

 

Maybe scoring and on the offensive glass, but Nurk's passing makes that statement incorrect.

 

LMA


CJ and picks for LMA.


LMA has better D than Blake. Offense is different but kinda the same.


Ive turned the corner. If we could trade CJ and a pick or two for LMA, I think we can weather the next year without Nurk and then be a powerhouse for the next 5.

 

The next 5 years? You mean the years when Aldridge is 34-38 years old? That would be a terrible waste of CJ as a trade piece and you want to give up picks too?

 

He will be coming off the bench when Collins becomes the starter.

Yep. I don't think its that terrible. It gets rid of our redundancy as well as fills our biggest need and evens the roster out. LMA got his max and has his money. He will resign for much less to play and win with Dame, Collins and Nurk.

 

Getting offense isn't a surprise. I've been of the opinion for several years that CJ (while very talented offensively) actually negatively effects the Blazers as a whole over time when he turns to his often ISO preferred mode. There is more team movement without him although to be fair, no one has the ability to create his own shot as well.

Replacing Nurk's offense, they have somewhat but it's his missing defense that will hurt Portland in the Playoffs.

 

Switching out CJ for Aldridge does nothing to help our salary situation and is questionable whether or not it's even that much of an upgrade considering age. So we'd still be almost guaranteed to lose 2 out of the 3 between Curry, Hood, and Kanter maybe even all 3. So we'd have Aldridge but a weaker bench and no CJ? That doesn't sound promising to me. If that's the case I'd rather wait 2 years to sign him without giving up anything or try to trade lesser pieces.

Trading CJ should either be for a long term answer or to create salary room to sign someone else.

 

It will when LMA resigns for much less. Not sure about Curry, Hood and Kanter though. Not sure of options, but I think they are gone regardless right?

 

Aldridge has the same amount of time left on his deal that CJ does so it doesn't really do much of anything to improve our cap situation.

 

Exactly. And from what I have read, we have little to slim chance of retaining any more than 1 of Kanter, Hood, Curry.

CJ has been proven to be redundant on this team. Trade him for a bigger need in another position and figure the rest out. Whats the diff between Griffin and LMA?
LMA is a higher percent to resign for less. Has openly stated he wants to return and has less salary than Griffin.

My point was if were gonna trade CJ for a PF, id rather trade for LMA than Griffin. Both put us in the same position and that's what I was responding to.