The Center position and Rob/Ayton/Clingan

If RW plays well and is healthy I believe he'll get a FRP in trade. That's why I'd hold off trading him this summer as I highly doubt he has that value now.

 

Next year he'll be an expiring contract. It's also a very inexpensive deal. We don't need to prove he will be healthy, we only need to show he currently is and he may be for the remaining ~18 months of his deal.

Worst case he can't get healthy and we're stuck with the bag. Then he's salary filler next summer, not a huge problem.

It's a risk worth taking if the only asset available today is near worthless second round picks.

 

I'd listen to Ayton offers but I'm fine hanging onto him.

 

Bobjan was sent to Nets.

 

Makes logical sense, I haven't seen any other logical counter argument.

 

Agree we should have moved him last summer.

Disagree on the high risk, why does trading him for filler and a 2nd round pick help us? It's an inexpensive contract that will be expiring, much much better to role the dice its worth actual value later then cash out for pennies now.

 

Early in the season? Clingan.
He's a classic project center. I think he's way ahead of the typical project center mentally. I think physically it would be beneficial to sit and watch the speed of games while getting stronger and more fluid with his movements.

 

IMHO get Clingan out there. In Summer League and in camp and in pre-season, he’ll get initiated. But he won’t know what he doesn’t know. Come regular season and being a draftee national championship winner … when dudes are giving him the business and going by him and thru him … he can really get down to work.

He’s got to get so much better and has a short time frame — 2 years. He needs to become the starting center.

 

I agree. Blazers need to play their 7th pick

I especially don't agree with the notion of sitting Clingan to play Timelord more and showcase him. Based on history, the more Tiemlord plays the higher the odds are he'll get injured

 

Play timelord at the 4

 

yeah I know...that would be a fall-back position on an unbalanced roster. He'd likely be better than either Clingan or Ayton at defending on the perimeter so maybe, at times, it would work defensively

but it would fail on offense. For his career, 72% of his shots have come at the rim; and 93% have been inside of 10 feet. He lives in the paint

his average shot distance over 6 seasons has been 3.5 feet. Ayton's has been 7.1 feet (Nurkic 5.8 feet). I think Clingan's shot distance will be closer to Timelord's than Ayton's. Playing two of those 3 guys at the same time is just going to clog the paint terribly when Portland is on offense. There won't be good driving lanes or off-ball cuts. Minny's twin towers worked for a couple of reasons. One was that Gobert is one of the premier defenders in NBA history; a 4-time DPOY and 7-time all first team. The other is that KAT can spread the floor. His career average shot distance has been 11.8 feet, but it's been 13 feet the last 2 seasons with Gobert. The Blazers don't have a Gobert on one end, not a KAT on the other

 

A team might be willing to take on RW3 salary, but I really doubt in exchange for any assets.

 

Why would we do that? Reath is making only making $2m/yr over the next two years. I’m not saying Reath is some un-tradeable piece, but to sell him off rather than an oft-injured guy?

DA/Clingan/Reath is actually has a diverse set of skills that I really like. I’d really like a player like Vando, that would really set this big man rotation off.

In a game where DA doesn’t play and it’s Clingan/Vando/Reath, I’d be really interested to see how a lineup of Ant/Shae/Deni/Vando/Reath would fare, or replace Ant with Scoot if he can ever shoot. The amount of spacing could be immense for someone like Rob, but he’s unreliable. I’d package with Grant in any deal to the Lakers and demand Vando back.

 

League is loaded with talented guards and wings right now. Minnesota has two of the best bigs in the league. There’s not as much talent at the C/PF position. A lot of them are on rookie contracts (Wembenama, who is probably going to win a championship one day) or recently signed and considered a part of the teams core.

 

I'm changing my stance on keeping Ayton.

I kept thinking we need to protect Clingan and bring him along slowly.... But... Why?

Let him get his lumps and foul trouble issues out sooner rather than later. I want us to win a max of 20 games next yr anyway. Might as well start the tank early.

We have Rob Will and Reath as veteran support if DC really needs it. Bigs usually translate to the NBA sooner compared to PGs anyway.

Can we do a three way with the Pels to move Ingram for Ayton, and send BI to another team for picks?

 

Yeah I'd certainly look at moving Ayton if we can get the equivalent of a good FRP or more.

Ayton to NO makes a ton of sense, but yeah Ingram doesn't make sense here. I think Ingram to Cleveland for Garland is good to but then where do we send Garland? Probably would need something going back to Cleveland as well.

I'm just not sure if the Blazers want to move on from all of Grant/Ant/Ayton. IMO it's clearly the best way to build up our long term assets and then push to contend with Sharpe/Scoot. But I could see the Blazers pursuing another dumb dual timelines. This year with more teams tanking it could greatly hurt our draft pick.

 

I don't see any issues in this. Is Deandre really adding anything to the culture as a "vet?"