Plausible destinations for our vets?

Who said anything about what they think? I don't understand why such statements are made in the first place.

 

If Shams is right and teams are showing interest in Jerami, Rob and Ant right now then I fucking hope against hope that Joe moves all three right now. Don't wait for the deadline, just ship their asses off to whatever team will give us the most back for them. If you make those moves right now maybe by February 6th a market will have developed for Deandre.

 

Never been so excited to trade away players from our team.

I was fine with holding onto ZBo to try and get more value back. Yeah we had Miles too but he was kind of irrelevant and not daily involved with the team.

I'd probably be ok if we had ONE of Grant Ant Ayton still here.... It's just the trio of them that is unbearable.

 

Not Ant, not for me anyway. He's the guy who really hinders everyone on this team. Chauncey was talking about it the other day, that he can't get Ant to play with pace. Dude thinks he's Dame or some shit and it kills everyone's game... including the potential of his. Ship his ass off to a new team that wants to use him in a new way.

I'll be pretty furious if we hold onto Jerami too but that's only because we would hold onto him to sit him for the second half of another year of his quickly waning prime. Ayton is the only one I can stomach keeping for the rest of the season... and it sounds like at least from what Shams is hearing that there isn't much of a market for him. I'm just excited that Shams says there is interest from multiple teams for the other guys.

 

My hopes:

Trade Ant. Unlikely to get much return. I'm Ok with that. Coach giving him the ball to close out games? Let's just say I have a big problem with it. It's like the coach is holding back Sharpe because of Simons.

Trade Ayton. Unlikely to get much return. I'm also Ok with that. Has been great in the locker room. Wrecks team D. Playing ahead of better centers on the team.

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Trade Jeremy ONLY if you get a big return.

Ditto for Rob Will.

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Probably won't be able to trade Matisse. He won't get many minutes with Camara and Deni around.

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Keep or let go of Billups. Still on the fence. When we played our youngins, we were a very interesting team. Billups would rather lose than play young players ahead of vets. I wouldn't.

 

I think Matisse could attract interest because of his defense and pretty decent contract

 

Idea from the CJ to Miami rumor;

Trade1
Mia CJ and Thybulle
NOP Ayton
PDX Rozier, Duncan Robinson, and Jovic

Trade2
Grant to the Lakers for junk salary (not Rui) and a decent pick

Trade3
Simons to Memphis for Smart Kennard and a late pick

Trade4
Timelord to the Thunder for a late pick

Try to reflip those players acquired for worse player on smaller contract - or a worse contract but with a pick

Finally enjoy this team without any of our current horrific vets!!! The new vets that come in will clearly be told their backups and if they don't like that have their agent find a trade.

In the summer use the salary savings for some MLE type offers or to take on salary like the Spurs did with Barnes while adding picks/swaps

 

When you say late pick, what does that mean? Is that a lotto protected FRP and does it have some years of rolling lotto protection before it turns into a second? Does it mean with a team like Memphis that we would get the worse of their two picks in 2027 or 2030? It's very hard for a team to trade a "late pick" or a "decent pick" at the deadline.

 

I'd think late pick would be lottery protected and yeah probably in the 20s or convert to 2nds. Decent pick might only be top8 protected and not 2nds

 

Marang today in 1080 mentioned this Shams tweet and said it’s more likely that the Blazers trade Reath and Thybulle.

I rolled my eyes.

 

If that is all Joe can pull off, he really should just resign in shame.

 

Mike Richman talked about why it’s more likely that Reath would be on his way out due to minimum salaries being easier to move with all the new rules in place. It’s tougher to make trades now.

 

I can see trading Reath but I don't see how Thybulle has any market when he get outplayed last year by irrelevant scrubs on a 21 win team, and has now been injured this entire year. Maybe the Blazers just want to save a couple million and will ultimately be able to do that, which will be a very irrelevant transaction. Reath is probably only worth a late 2nd rounder.

If the Blazers don't trade any of Grant/Ayton/Ant/Timelord by the deadline it will be very disappointing to a huge group of Blazer fans. Unfortunately I am expecting there is a very real chance of this.

 

Maybe Cronin shouldn't have handed out overpaid contracts to Ant, Grant and Thybulle? Maybe he shouldn't have acquired Ayton on a max deal?

Its ridiculous that he thought these would be a worthwhile use of the salary cap. The Blazers would've been far better off just letting all those guys walk and use cap room to add draft picks like the Spurs did for adding Barnes.

I'll tell you one contract that would have value - Norman Powell! Oh yeah we gave that up for Bledsoe and Didi who are still on our cap.

This is a fail that goes back to the day Cronin took over from Olshey. But even more so to the day Dame was traded. This collection of overpaid vets Cronin has hoarded was a terrible decision at the time and now looks worse every month.

 

Yet teams will still make trades.

You trade those vets just to get rid of them. Minimal return. Even if it’s just an expiring contract. They need to be gone.

 

Doesn't even need to be an expiring contract, as those may have more value than our vets. A worse player on the same contract is fine as we can send them to the bench.

 

minimum salaries have always been easy to move because they are excluded from matching salary requirements; at least they used to be. For all teams who are not over the 2nd apron, the rules are actually easier now than before. The margins for salary matching have been increased in the new CBA

not only that, any team that did not use an exception for a free agent signing in the off-season can use the MLE (non-tax, tax, & room) and/or the BAE as trade exception(s). The non-tax MLE is 12.82M, so theoretically, a team with their full-MLE available could trade for Timelord or Thybulle without having to match salary. Not many teams would want to do that without reducing payroll, but it's possible

sorry guys....if Cronin sits on his hands thru the deadline, the excuse of 'it's harder to trade now' doesn't hold water. The only real obstacle is a sliding one: that being that this season, with the strength of the 2025 draft, teams will be holding onto their picks more than they were for last season's draft

 

I'd imagine that Ant can be traded away for sure. His salary isn't too high like Ayton. He still has some youth with the allure of a bit more upside. His contract doesn't have a bunch of years like Grant. He might not get picks or assets back but I can't imagine zero teams are willing to acquire him if the cost is just a useless contract.

He seems like the type of player the Bulls might go after for Ball's expiring deal. We give them a 2nd rounder but get our pick back. Our pick they currently own probably only looks like a 2nd rounder since were so bad, the value has never been lower. So this might be the best time to buy low and get it back. From the Bulls end its probably sold as just swapping 2nd rounders to take a flyer on Ant improving the next year and a half. Teams rarely can acquire a healthy player in their 20s that have scored over 20ppg for so little.

From the Blazers end it helps clear up our picks and most importantly guarantees we get the 2028 pick swap with Milwaukee. That's something we can benefit from but it has very little cost from Chicago end since they don't have the swap - so it makes sense to work out a deal.

I've always been against addition by subtraction types of transactions as a Blazers fan. I hated the ZBo trade. But this year might be the one time I make an exception. We really need to break up this horrific Grant Ayton Ant big 3.

Now will Cronin hold out for some high demand as he has overvalued all these vets for years? I tend to think that is the main reason why we may not see a deal.

 

Simons would be a perfect spark off a contenders bench.

There’s probably several takers.