Trade Idea Vote After #3 Pick - Blazers first off season priority

Siakam makes 38M and is expiring, so he's going to cost 40M+ moving forward. You need Ant + Little + more salary to even make it work.

Bridges is on a bargain contract holy shit:

 

Similar things were said about Wiseman, Barrett, Ayton, Bagley, Fultz, Simmons, Okafor, among others.

Most likely Miller/Scoot will become good NBA players. The likelihood that they become All-NBA level players is <50% (still a high probability). The likelihood that they become significantly better than a Siakam or Brown is <15% (IMO).

Yah, people are going to complain (regardless of what Cronin & co decide to do). In this case, I think the saying "1-bird in the hand is worth more than 2 in the bush" is very applicable.

 

Yes, you make a solid argument that keeping the #3 pick is most likely path to contend with Dame.

Hit on it, which very often happens at #3, and Blazer get the rookie stud plus veteran starter to fill that salary spot.

Wheras trading the pick has us losing likely Ant, the pick, and that other starter salary spot. So possibly 3 starters for Siakam? Former sounds like much more realistic path to contend with Dame.

That's not even considering the long term upside of having younger players like Ant or Miller over Siakam in 5 years.

 

Good argument if Blazers were a Siakam away from contending.

But the problem is they are not, they need to hit some of that big upside. An older veteran player with a lower ceiling and higher floor doesn't get them to contend.

Drafting a rookie very well may not either, but if it does hit, it has a chance of much greater value.

 

True unless one of the players is on an ending contract or unhappy. Granted he would be on an ending contract with us as well, but the premise of the discussion was based on assurances he would resign. Whether or not that is a possibility is another discussion. The point is Siakam is an all NBA player for a reason and he is in his prime.

 

If that's true then we're safe - there's no way Ujiri would accept only the #3 pick for such a paragon.

 

Assuming the Blazers pick at #3, their first off-season priority is figuring out what to do with pick #23

 

Couldn't agree more. If this team was around a #3/4 seed and were a just a player away (a'la Buck), I'd be much more on board. But we aren't close. 3 of the last 4 years well under .500 and that 4th year took a major winning streak in the bubble to prevent it being a 4-4 bad run.

Trading high lottery picks, young talent and possibly future picks just to be perhaps a 2nd round team for a year or 2 with an even more bloated contracts situation just does not seem wise long term.

 

Lebron didn't win a title till his 9th season; Giannis his 8th season. Jokic is in his 8th season and hasn't won yet; Embiid is in his 8th season and hasn't even played in a conference finals game. And those two guys have won the last 3 MVP's. It took Curry 6 seasons and the construction of an incredible roster. Kawhi was in his 8th season when he won in Toronto. Durant was in his 10th season when he won in Goldent State

and they all had all-star teammates; often more than one.

even if Portland is lucky enough to land an elite prospect, and land another elite prospect to pair him with, it would probably be 2030 before they'd be ready to legitimately contend. Which is 3-4 years after Dame's contract is over. 4-5 years after Ant's contract ends. There are way too many variables that could alter trajectory over the next 7-8 seasons for anybody to be able to predict trading or keeping Dame is the best path

 

Has anyone changed their mind?

 

I think Kris Murray is better then Jabari Walker. Only 1 way to find out. B2B summer league champions !!

 

I would say trade veterans like Nurk and Anf, maybe along with future picks, to try to get guys who fit better.

 

This

 

just for my own amusement I'm going to define era in a manner that may be different than yours, adjust it a little, and be off to the races....mainly because it's my morning for high octane coffee and I'm 57% insane

[caffeine rant mode on]

* 14 of the 15 players on the 2013-14 Blazers team that won 54 games and beat Houston in the playoffs are gone. That was a different era

* the next era was the 2015-16 team, which was the one that replaced the Aldridge team, and only had 4 players from the previous season; and 15 of the 16 players from that team are gone. There was a 2nd era

* the next era was the 2018-19 team. It only had 5 players from the previous era of 2015-16, and Aminu-Harkless-Meyers were 3 of those. 16 of the 18 players on that team are gone; only Dame & Ant remain

* that off-season, Aminu, Harkless, Kanter, Curry, Meyers, Turner, and Layman were gone. That's 5-7 rotation players depending on your criteria. This was a summer of Olshey implementing a new era and his ideas for that change were Melo, Whiteside, Bazemore, Hezonja, Tolliver & Skal.

* there are only 4 players left from that 2019-20 Covid/Bubble team. And of those 4, most people have spent weeks calling for 3 of them, Nurkic, Ant, Little to be traded. And of course, many of you are calling for the 4th, Dame, to be traded ASAP

the nature of the NBA is that eras come and go fairly rapidly. If Nurk and Ant are traded before the season, then it may be that only 5 players who were on the team when this season started will be on the team when next season started. I know some will try and say Dame is the problem; try and draw an equation that doesn't withstand any logical scrutiny. It's a false connection

since Dame has joined the Blazers...

* Portland could have drafted: Draymond - Khris Middleton - Giannis - Kevon Looney - Josh Richardson - Caris Levert - Pascal Siakam - Dejounte Murray - Ivica Zubac - Malcolm Brogdon - Donovan Mitchell - Bam Adebayo - John Collins - Jarrett Allen - OG Anunoby - Kyle Kuzma - Derrick White - Dillon Brooks - Robert Williams - Jalen Brunson - Devonte Graham - Kelden Johnson - Kevin Porter Jr - Nic Claxton - Saddiq Bey - Tyrese Maxey - Immanuel Quickley - Desmond Bane

* Portland could have traded for: Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Lauri Markkanen; but either the Blazer refused to even try or dismissed the opportunity outright

* Portland made max offers to Roy Hibbert, Enes Kanter, Greg Monroe, Chandler Parsons, and Hassan Whiteside. And a max-MLE to Spenser Hawes

* Portland wasted seven first round picks on Afflalo, Zach, Swanigan, RoCo, and Nance.

depending on how liberal your definition of era is, or how singularly focused I suppose, Portland has had 3-4 era's since Dame arrived. And those eras have not been defined by Dame's presence as much as they have been by a failure of vision, imagination, and evaluation by management; by a lack of courage that compelled endless reboots of fence-straddling incompetence and terrible roster balance. By refusal to acknowledge the value of defense, height and length. And of course by penny-pinching dipshittedness by ownership

Portland is moving to a new era; the inevitable loops back around. Expecting that a new era without Dame will yield better results than the previous eras when the same ownership and essentially same management is in place seems like wishing in a well

[caffeine rant mode off]