Game Thread 2024-25 GAME #4 - BLAZERS @ KINGS - OCTOBER 28, 2024 - MONDAY - 7:00 PM - KATU 2.2 - BLAZERVISION

Cronin should have traded them all once we traded Dame, there was no reason to have vets with trade value at that time.

Timelord we missed the boat on and are probably stuck with. Since Ayton isn't listed in the top100 of NBA players and is on a max contract I just don't see him having much if any trade value. Maybe he has a small amount next year on an expiring deal. He's basically will have the Whiteside role for us from a few years ago. Just like Whiteside he will have a massive paycut on his next contract. Simons and Grant may have some trade value, in which case we should trade them ASAP. I question that we will.

Instead all 5 of these vets provide virtually no benefit to this team and stand in the way of opportunities for young players. So depressing to watch Blazer games and have to see this horrific "big 3" of Ayton/Grant/Ant jacking up bad shots, playing bad defense, and leading this team to nowhere.

 

They also take up about 2/3rd of our salary cap. But they must stay here because we "don't want to lose an asset"

 

The Blazers were in the luxury tax and had to send out picks in the Deni-Brogdon trade to get salary relief.

Instead we should have not had these overpaid vets on our cap and used the cap space to ACQUIRE PICKS while giving other teams salary relief.

 

The way the cap works in the NBA, you have to spend that money. It's better to spend it on something that might give you an asset than pure garbage.

 

Yeah that is one thing I do really like about this team, except for the very few minutes Scoot/Ant share the floor we have a very long lanky team that has defensive better than any Blazers squad in about a decade.

We're currently 17th in the NBA in defensive efficiency 113.6 pts/100 possesions
However we're 28th in offensive efficiency (106.4)

 

A rebuilding team like the Blazers should spend it like the Spurs did a few months ago acquiring Harrison Barnes type of veterans and getting a FRP. This is the same path the Thunder did to build their current squad the few years of their rebuild, they took on overpaid vets for picks.

Spending the cap space by having Grant/Ayton/Ant taking up 2/3rd of the cap along with Timelord and Thybulle at $12 million each provides zero long term benefit, and any meager short term benefit is worthless during the Blazers current long rebuild.

You'd think Blazer fans would've learned from the cost of the 2016 offseason overpaid contracts. It basically prevented this franchise from ever being able to put useful talent next to Dame and build a contender. But we hear the same stupid arguments over and over to justify bad contracts.

 

I was baffled by Cronin's decision to match the Dallas offer sheet to Thybulle. The justification offered for it was that he'd be a tradable asset with that contract, but tradable for what? maybe a 2nd round pick and a worse contract?

what Thybulle represents, in part, is Portland having to let the 9M TPE's of Payton and Dame expire. At minimum those TPE's could have yielded the 2nd round pick(s) that Thybulle supposedly will generate. Blazers have let 3 solid TPE's expire in the last couple of years: Hart-Payton-Dame. And they now have a 7M TPE from Brogdon that will probably expire because Portland is only 4M below the tax-line mainly because of relatively high-priced veterans that have no compelling future with the Blazers

 

So, basically, that transaction was the Bulls sending a good player on a large salary to the Kings, since the Bulls did not have the cap space they used the Spurs cap space so they (the Spurs) got a large salary of a less desirable player + pick.

And your argument is that the Blazers should have not signed players they believe could be useful and trades and allow them to do a 2 team trade, but go for the cap space and hope there is a 3 team trade that materializes?

Potato, Tomato...

 

In a 4-way tie for #3-6. We have to do better/worse.

 

And if we traded them all and got bullshit back youd probably complain about that too, takes two to tango and what we got right now isnt great so we arent getting decent offers, maybe teams will be more desperate come trade deadline but its the start of the season so people are still figuring out what they got. Do I think grant and ant need to go? yeah but do i want peanuts for them either? not really.... and with ayton we traded albatross for albatross in hopes that a new change of scenery for ayton would do him some good, i wouldnt say its done him bad but we probably broke even there.

 

100%

 

Went to the game with my SiL's BF (huge Kings fan). Was impressed with Scoot's speed. Even though his handles need tighten up, he doesn't seem to have much difficulty getting to any spot he wants. Wanted to see more of DC, but he was breathing hard after the few minutes he was on the court. Also wanted to see Rupert get some more burn. I'll be at the game against the Clippers tonight. Hopefully we'll pull off an upset!