Trades possibilities....and what teams are open for business

Isn't this ancient history?

 

yes

Amico is recycling a rumor that Highkin posted 10 days ago

 

I believe Utah got a FRP from the Lakers for Jarred Vanderbilt. If that's the case, Jerami is worth at least 3 FRP's from the Lakers.

 

to be accurate, the Lakers were able to dump Westbrook while also adding D'Angelo Russell and Malik Beasely to Vanderbilt. A bit different then just trading a 1st for Vandy

 

blame Westbrook, got it. Russell is approaching a Neil Olshey amount of wrecking the Lakers future.

 

So, when are we gonna trade Jerami? Any update?

 

I would normally 100% agree with you. The one exception is this draft is really good. Think 84’ draft potential, you spend the last couple of years tanking this is not the year to switch course. Trust me makes me sick to even say that…….

One other note, I’m glad our asking price is high for these players we have don’t have to trade them yet. Let teams like the Lakers struggle to start the season and watch them cave. If they don’t so what you play them and eventually trade them for their true value. The other part to consider there is a great likely hood some good playoff team gets an injury and desperately needs one of these guys.

 

This

 

If so, Joe needs fired and Jody needs to sell.

 

that statement seems to contain some major assumptions

the first one is the "true value" thing. Is there any such value, really? Since we're talking about trade value, if the market consistently says their value is low, wouldn't that be their true value? How do we know it's a case of teams low-balling offers rather than Cronin demanding unrealstic prices?

the second assumption is that somehow, Portland's vets can raise their trade value by playing; as if the vets haven't established who they are. Ant-Grant-Ayton-Thybulle have combined for 1800 games and 50,000 minutes. The rest of the NBA knows exactly who these players are and what they bring to the floor. There is no mystery and 40-50 more games isn't going to change that. Miami has been trying to trade Tyler Herro for a couple of years and there isn't much of any market; and Herro is very similar to Ant, only taller

the other part of that assumption about the trade value being higher in-season is that the Portland players will not be the only ones in the auction. There will be other players available from other teams, and some will quite possibly not have flaws as notable as the Portland vets, or salaries as high

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you said two things that are in conflict. One is that now is not the time to give up tanking because the 2025 draft has such high potential. The other being the notion of setting a 'high' (unrealistic?) price on trade value and play the vets if the price is not met

look at last season; average minutes:

Anfernee Simons 34.4
Jerami Grant 33.9
Deandre Ayton 32.4
Matisse Thybulle 22.9

if they are available, Billups will play them significant minutes; that's obvious

and, winshares:

Deandre Ayton 3.9
Jerami Grant 2.7
Anfernee Simons 2.2
Matisse Thybulle 2.2

right there are 11 of Portland's 21 wins (if you credit the winshare stat), and those 4 players only averaged around 55 games. If no team offers their "true value" and Portland keeps all 4 and plays all four big minutes, they could generate 15 wins. Last season, the difference between 1-5 in the lottery and 10-14 was 10 wins

I think pretty clearly several teams agree with you: the 2025 draft is well worth tanking for. I think there will be several teams, mostly in the East, who will start the season dedicated to the tank. The schedules are usually loaded up on inter-conference matchups in the first half of the season. Meaning if Ant-Grant-Ayton are combining for over 100 minutes a game, the Blazers are likely to grab some early season wins that will put them back in a pack for lottery seeding and not be able to make it up with a blatant tank over the last 30 games like the last couple of seasons

but isn't that just like Portland: going full tank mode into one of the worst drafts in years, then getting confused about which lane to take and doing a half-ass Hamlet 'to-tank-or-not-to-tank' into one of the best drafts in years

 

Right before training camp.

 

the Hawks got the #1 pick with the #12 lottery ball. Perhaps winning a few extra games will help team chemistry ??

The Blazers GM is famous for tossing grenades at the trade deadline. Moving a Blazer for future picks would tremendously effect the loss column.

I've already seen Ayton gaslighting by Cronin's housekeepers. DeAndre is expensive, and Jody doesn't need him anymore.

The best time to lose is the 2nd half of season. That's when the stupid teams play harder to make the boring playoffs.

The pinwheel shaped ping pong piñata is hooked to the tree. Eventually the thunder sticks will be replaced with wooden bats.

 

The odds are Joe will get fired either way. If he gets rid of Ant and Grant for future picks and they end up drafting a good player, but not a star, the team could be stuck in lottery purgatory for years.

 

1. Not getting a star in the 2025 draft has a good chance of getting Cronin fired.
2. Not seeing a leap by Sharpe and Scoot (and hope for Clingan) this season has a good chance of getting Cronin fired.
3. Being in the lottery for years to come is better than mediocrity by staying with the current veterans — even to February. Cronin or no Cronin.
4. Good teams don’t want to wait until February — and would be foolish to do so — to integrate new players for a playoff run.

So while it’s a quiet time in the NBA from now until the end of August, September trade winds NEED to happen both for the destination teams AND for the Blazers. Get the best returns. Give Billups a young team.
IMHO.

 

Great write up (wholly shit that was a lot lol), I probably didn’t do a good job of getting my point across.

as far as true value what I’m saying is the market probably isn’t 2 1st rounders for Grant the market is probably a protected 1st rounder and player (prefer younger but most likely another older expiring veteran). Of course this is just my opinion my point is as teams get closer to trade deadline they’ll be teams that will choose to improve their team so a player like Grant might get you more value than he’s worth. Not sure what your point was about vets increasing their value I never said that, I agree with you they won’t increase their value “they are who they are”.

 

I actually agree with you about Grant's projected value...a protected 1st round pick (maybe top 10 or so) and filler contracts perhaps a young player if the pick is more protected rather than less

personally, I think Grant would have the highest value of Portland's vets...higher than Simons and Ayton IMO, although all thee players have flaws and limitations as well as big salaries

 

Lottery purgatory is a much better place to be than when he took over. And a much better place than play-in purgatory.