Trade Deadline: Thursday, Feb 20, 12:00 Pacific

Not a lot of discussion involving the Blazers so far but it's starting to pick up around the rest of the league. Philadelphia is smack in the middle with 3 players on the rumor sheets in Spencer Hawes, Evan Turner and Thaddeus Young.

Young - Spurs may give up Leonard. PHX also interested.
Turner - Bobcats are interested and have an extra pick (Detroit's) to use.
Hawes - Several teams inquired, none willing to give up a 1st round pick.
Waiters - recently moved to the bench but has been player better.
Deng - could be traded again. Several teams interested.
Gasol - Lakers would like to move Pau's contract...good luck.

Usually there is some movement or at least more discussion by now. Discussion should heat up in the next couple of days. Unless Portland want to likely fall out of HCA, they need to make a move as well but have developed almost none of their draft picks or traded most of their future picks away.

 

How connected are you to this FO as you were the previous w/ KP, Buchanan, et al?

 

Almost not at all. During Nash and KP, there were some great contacts. Now most of anything I get comes from other people around the league I've got to know over time and their teams and contacts. Nothing like the good old days I'm afraid.

 

Philly is also under the minimum, but it seems as if they are valuing assets too high to make a deal.

 

With the supposed depth of this Draft and the 'rental' status of the majority of the players in question, it seems unlikely they would get 1st round picks unless they were later picks owned by a team with multiple selections.

 

Turner is at least a RFA. Hawes is a UFA and there's no guarantees that he will re-sign somewhere.

 

My simple take here. The only player I would be looking to move is Mo Williams, not because of his play at all, but because of the contract situation. If he opts out the Blazers will have to use one of their exceptions to re-sign or replace him. If he doesn't they can use their exceptions to address other needs. Teams maybe looking to shave a bit more space for this summer might be willing to send is a player with a slightly longer contract on the assumption that he is going to opt out, which he probably would.

 

Which is a significant difference. Because of that, I think they can get a little more for Turner or they will keep him. Hawes will likely get moved IMO but it doesn't seem likely that Portland has what they are interested in unless they are willing to take young, lottery picks like Leonard, CJ or T-Rob and Portland would likely have to throw in some salary money.

 

they would take CJ in a heartbeat and no way we would offer that for a Hawes rental. They can have Trob or Leonard for Hawes and that's about it

 

Hawes would be a good fit here but I worry he won't resign here without a chance for a starting position

 

I would offer CJ, Robinson, Claver, and Leonard for Turner and Hawes.

 

I've thought about that but the $$$ aspect is too high and if we don't sign both of them then we gave up too much

 

Turner is restricted, so there's very little chance we don't re-sign him.

I think Hawes would stay too. He's a NW guy and we can offer him nearly starter minutes. If he plays both frontcourt spots, we can find plenty of minutes for him.

 

I get it but are you and Blazer mgmt willing to match what could be a 9-10 mil per offer for Turner and maybe 7-8 mil per with Hawes, we'd be adding huge salary. I don't think so

 

That is pretty damn temping. On paper Turner is a perfect compliment to Lillard. Why is he not working out in Philly? Too much of a duplication?

 

If he is dead set on being a starter, then no. If he is willing to come off the bench and still get 30 minutes a game (similar to what he is playing now) on a playoff/potentially contending team, then I think he would be a great fit. Would like more defense but he was getting similar rebounds and blocks to Lopez so far this season.

Player....MPG..Pts...Rbs...Ast..Blks...FG%....FT%..3Pt%
Lopez....31.1..10.7...8.4..0.8...1.5.. .537.. .799.. .000
Hawes...31.5..13.2...8.6..3.3...1.2.. .453.. .782.. .403

Hawes is the much better passer and obviously shoots the '3' but even though the blocks and rebounds are similar, Lopez is the better defensive player.

 

Get Dre. That's such an obvious move. Storyteller says his contract is not fully guaranteed for next year, but he's making 5 mil this season.

Mo and Wright to Den
Leonard and TRob to PHI
Hawes and Dre to POR

Open up time for Claver as well to fill out the bench. Vic seems like he's better at 4 anyway, and he spell both forward spots while Freeland's hurt.

A second unit of Dre/CJ/Vic/Joel/Hawes seems deadly

 

I love that trade idea from our end. And really it works well for Denver, since they get out of Dre's contract. Not sure why Philly does it.

Anyway, seems to me Dre just has to come to Portland for Mo. Just has to. I want it so bad.

I wonder what happens with Asik. I don't see him coming here, but you'd think the Rockets would deal him.

 

Denver is going to move Andre, but Nate Robinson is injured so they are left with no packup PG. To address the need I mentioned above, preserving out MLE this summer...

http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=l6luxgm

CJ becomes our primary scorer and Andre becomes a guy who can actually set up and get Trob, Leonard and Wright going as well.

 

I would love to add Andre. I think he and Dame would play well together.