What are you talking about. I've heard it's hanging in the Smithsonian as an example of extreme early 21st century optimism.
He already has! After drafting with their lottery picks, the Blazers are projected to be $9M+ into the luxury tax (give or take a couple million depending on where their pick ends up).
Banton plays defense? The guy who went 0 for 15 from 3 in a single game and is a career 29% 3pt shooter replaces Ant? This team can't shoot as it is...
He's way more consistent on both sides of the ball than Ant and rebounds. The guy had one bad shooting game for us...Ant had a few...Banton also plays all 4 qtrs on the court and Ant goes ISO in the 4th....I'll take Banton next to Scoot over Ant and next to Sharpe as well....purge the Olshey era once and for all. Ant doesn't want to be here from what I see in his body language. You want cap space...you can shed a lot of it with an Ant trade
Bari, Murray, Camara and Rupert all know that 3pt shooting is the priority over the off season. Hopefully we replace Ant with a scorer....only a bigger one. Ayton can score, Reath and Grant can scor...Sharpe can score and it looks like Scoot will be able to improve his shot if he keeps it up.
The 4 vets mentioned absolutely do not "have to go", but should be shopped.... but not aggressively. The one's in the "have to go" category are more like.... Moses, Jody, Billups. Note: we have FOUR draft picks this year. Who's actually gonna go is a more interesting question. Again, obviously Moses can't be saved (see what I did there ).
Even if the Blazers lose SOME value on these players, they could recoup it by getting so far under the cap that they can take players with bloated contracts attached to draft picks for their troubles. They shouldn't be so short sighted.
Being a bottom 3 team in the 2025 draft is more important than getting an additional pick for a guy like Grant, Ant or Brogdon. Check Dejounte Murray being traded by the Spurs and turning his loss into three 1st round picks and the opportunity to pick Wemby.
the Blazers "rebuild" looks more like the Hawks on paper, then it does the Spurs, Wizards, etc etc Atlanta, a former playoff contender and ECF team, tweaked roster, a couple new starters. New coaching staff. Max salary contracts. --- ATL beat a bunch more teams then Portland. Folks in Atlanta got to watch somewhat decent basketball, and Hawks fans have an exciting play-in game this afternoon. Portland, a former playoff contender and WCF team, tweaked roster, a couple new starters. Same/New coaching staff. Max salary players. --- POR had a difficult time beating anyone. Folks in Portland got blasted with embarrasing losses. Blazers fell off the cliff, and landed in the draft pick safety net. The only saving grace is the Wizards might be worse then Portland, which will be used at nauseum until the Blazers can improve in the standings.
Brogdon has to go. He's in the last year of his contract. His value isn't going to go up. Timelord should also go. If he's healthy and someone will take him, dump him. It's much too risky to roll the dice again that he'll stay healthy.
I've been saying that about Ant for 3 seasons now....I'll take Banton's future all day over Ant returning and being mr 4th qtr ISO guy
