This is fiction and I don't think it will even be something that comes close to happening but... Supposedly the Kings want to contend now. What if they could offer us this? The Kings go absolutely all in to put Dame as the superstar with Sabonis, Davion, Barnes, Holmes, probably a re-signed DiVincenzo, Holiday, probably a re-signed Trey Lyles and probably a re-signed Damian Jones. I think that's a better, more complementary team than we can put around Dame next season... and it's in NorCal so Dame should be happy. For us it's a youth rebuild, obviously. Without getting fancy with the draft picks we take Murray at 4, we take Sharpe at 7. We build our bench with 12 (let's say Dieng), 30 (let's say Terry) and 36 (let's say Orlando Robinson) it's really hard to know who will be at those spots but those guys are a pretty good bet to still be available. Then we sign and trade for both Bridges and Ayton... if we don't just sign them straight up, giving each of them the max. The sign and trades would be Hart and the Bucks pick for Bridges at the max and then Justise and the Kings 2024 FRP for Ayton at the max. If we did that and got Ant to wait to sign his deal, we would still have 15M under the cap that we could offer Jalen Smith, which I think would get the job done. Ant, Sharpe, Bridges, Murray, Ayton, Smith, Nas, Dieng, Terry, Robinson, Keon, Trendon, Greg, Didi. With pick 57 joining Williams as our two way guys. That is probably a better team next season than we can put together with Dame right now and for sure it has a brighter future with all of those players besides Nas locked up for the next few seasons and we could probably get an extension with Nas done without worrying about the luxury tax for the next four seasons. I don't think the sign and trades are a question. I don't think either team wants to pay either of those guys as much as the max and they each get a solid player on a solid contract and a future first along with a big TPE. The question is, would you do it? Would the Kings give up that much for Dame? Would the Thunder do it?
For me no, not at this point as Im wanting to see what Chauncey and Joe can do with a healthy Dame Dolla. If Dame approached the Blazers with that idea and he wanted to relocate to NoCal, yeah Id do something.
Green font? Because picks 4, 12 and 30 along with total relief from his salary that makes us able to sign two max players in Bridges and Ayton, seems like a lot of value. The other question I would ask is, would that be a better team next year than the one we will put around Dame in real life because I don't think this trade is a real life thing.
That's why it's fiction for me because I think we owe it to Dame but if Sac came to us with that it might not be so fictitious because the next move would be going to Dame and asking him if that was a situation that he would rather be in, if the answer was yes... yikes. I do want to see what we can do this off season with the roster and see if we're getting close to contending with Dame and Chauncey though.
Only picks right now would be extremely risky. I want to get back a young player as well. How happy are you going to be about that deal if we end up drafting two busts at 4 and 12? I want another building block.
I think the gambling that two out of 4, 7 and 12 will be at the very least productive starters is offset by the acquisitions of Bridges and Ayton who we know are close to all star talents.
Dame is heading into a career year and I want that to be in Portland....not at all interested in an unproven rookie G league level team for the next 3 years.
I'm not really either, it was just an idea. That being said, a team starting Ant, Bridges and Ayton isn't G League level. When you add to that the most NBA ready prospect in this draft (Murray) and the guy with the highest upside in this draft (Sharpe)... it's probably a playoff team. Especially if you're bringing Nas, Jalen Smith, Dieng, Dalen Terry and Orlando Robinson off of the bench... not to mention Trendon, Keon and Greg all of whom I expect to get better than we last saw them. It's not worth arguing over though because it was just for fun. We're going to do our best to build around Dame and I'm hoping we make some big big improvements to the roster.
it's a fairly crappy return for Dame and before you try and argue otherwise I'll point to the TONS of posts in this forum that talk about how the talent in this draft completely craters after the first 6 0r 7 picks. So the Blazers get the 12th and 30th picks in a draft with questionable strength. Oh, and a 2024 first on a team with Dame & Sabonis on it and of course there's the little problem that the trade assumes that OKC will be fine with cooperating with the 'dream', roll over, and take on the bloated 4-year contract that' pays Fox 33M/year. They will very likely want a lot more that a lottery protected 1st five years from now wut...suddenly the Blazers have morphed into a free agent destination a week or so after trading a top-15 player? Both Ayton and Bridges will first have to want to sign in Portland. Then, Charlotte at least, would have to not match the offer sheet...not much chance of that.
You might gauge the interest of their teams in those deals and what I wasn't thinking about was the fact that we could send Phoenix a signed and traded Nurk in that deal as well. I think before you pull the trigger on something this wacky, you would have to run some hypotheticals by the Phoenix and Charlotte front offices.
I think Joe and Chauncey will explore all potential opportunities, and we'll never know about them, unless they pull the trigger on a blockbuster.
Lol if that was offered Cronin should literally laugh the other GM off the phone horrible, horrible trade
