actually they do. http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=we6juop and draft picks can be included if need be. Harkless is expiring, Zubac is a serviceable back up at a very reasonable contract for 3 more years and JaMychael Green is a serviceable player with a player option he may or may not pick up and can be flipped if he opts in. Not a great deal, but not a terrible deal either.
The defensive issues are a whole lot more complex than Whiteside vs Nurk. Also expecting Nurk to return to his level of play immediately after returning is foolish. I fully anticipate that he'll need 3-4 months to fully get back into BEAST mode.
That's the thing about trade machines, that trade isn't valid because the Blazers only have one roster spot available and none of those guys fit into the Hood exception.
Clippers can't send out any 1st round draft picks for a long time (2028 draft). They do have some seconds that they can part with - but I'd expect them to be protective of those picks since they don't have much other ammunition.
3rd team can be included or even waive Hezonja to open up a roster spot.. Where there is a will there is a way.
Τhey will be just left with Patterson to play PF since Kawhi and PG don't want to play there. I guess Harkless, Zubac, McGruder, Robinson for Whiteside, Hezonja, Trent could work but when you have to go there it means almost 0% chance for a trade.
I have no idea what Leonard is willing to do or not do and they have Harrell that can play PF as well. I'm not saying that either team would do it but with a little creativity it can be done. Clippers also appear to have a $9+ mil trade exception from the Tobias Harris deal they could use to acquire another pf.
Is that Jason Petersen from the radio? I remember when that dude was just the recorder bitch for 1080 the fan.
I agree with a lot of what you say. The contending part I don't agree with, but I respect your opinion. The sweep narative implies that the Blazers were dominated from start to finish in that series, which is far from the case. Golden St had injury issues, but if Nurk is healthy, I think Portland wins that series. Teams don't get to the WCF by accident and dismissing them because they couldn't close out games seems far too slimplistic. Ultimately, we value Nurkic differently. I think he was better than CJ last year in terms of overall value. I think he provides a huge safety value when Dame gets doubled and he can be the play-maker at the top of the key, and he can punish teams down low when they go small. Will Nurk be able to get back to where he was or even better? Who knows! You're right I did undersale how much Olshey spent in 2016, I appreciate the correction!
I know... That's why I said, "Since Nurk won’t be able to play full minutes the two of them could be great together this year".
I hate to stick up for Cup, but we could ask for Harrel instead of Green and include Tolliver from our side.
but would they consider it for either Little or Simons instead of Tolliver? Nobody knows what the Clippers are looking to do. http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=ue57ee2
Um, no. This weakens the Clippers chances at a title. We can know what the Clippers won't do and that is this trade.
It's all just speculation by any of us so no reason to try and speak for the Clippers or any team for that matter. Draft picks can also be involved as well as a 3rd team. I never thought the Clips would do Outlaw and Blake for Camby, but they did as well as many deals over the years.
I don't know. It's mostly just expirings for expirings. Maybe they see their future as a defensive juggernaut. I think Cup might be right; we don't know what they are thinking. I think Cup is making a valiant effort to show that your blanket statement that it can't be done might be an overstatement?
but I didn't say they had an "easy" road....I said they had an "advantageous" road, and for me, there's a significant difference between those two terms. * they had HCA against OKC....that's even called an "advantage". And OKC didn't have the defenders or the inclination to do what teams have always done against Portland, and that's focus their defense on Dame. The result was Dame torched them. Advantages * against Denver, Portland was in the playoffs for the 6th straight season while Denver hadn't been in the playoffs for 5 straight seasons. Denver was the younger team, and several of their starters and rotation players had no playoff experience. And while Denver did try to double and trap Dame a lot, what they lacked was the length in the back court or the front court mobility to make the doubles truly effective. It wasn't like Klay & Iggy with Green, or Holiday & Rondo with AD. that's what I was referring to when I said advantageous. Portland's vulnerabilities were still the same as they've been for 4 years (still are), and until the WC finals they didn't have to face a team that could exploit those vulnerabilities. If they would have been in the other side of the bracket, with Golden State, Houston, and/or Utah. the playoffs would probably have looked a lot different
Why do you constantly discount any success the Blazers have Is it really that hard to be a fan of the team without constantly discounting their efforts? Try just enjoying some success and then we can hope for more and better. You remind me of the cartoon with the guy having the rain cloud always over his head.
