Keep Grant. Turn him into Lauri Markkanen. Make him an All-Star. Keep Ant. Turn him into Dame Jr. Make him an All-Star. Then? Keep or trade—either way you'll have appreciated the assets, and for once be in a position of leverage in a negotiation.
Yeah this is an easy no. Get every asset you can, figure out the vet leadership and culture stuff as you go... Between now and 2 trade deadlines from now (ie. before he gets too old) there WILL be teams wanting switchable, starting wings...
I'm kind of torn. Having a bunch of rookies kind of negates the cost of his huge salary, and we need a veteran presence, and he's proven that he isn't really going to help you win more games (as he showed in Detroit), so he won't completely screw the tank. But I'd really prefer to go full-tank mode, get Kris and Jabari as many minutes as possible, and sign some over-the-hill guys who are on their way out of the league shortly to be a veteran presence. I wonder what it would cost to get Ricky Rubio, Taj Gibson, Wes Matthews-type "players".
If his contract decreases over time, I can see value in holding onto him for a couple years. In a couple of years, his contract will be smaller percentage of the salary cap (assuming it goes up) and we're not going to be in a rush to spend money to obtain players. Play him 28 minutes a night. I'm not worried about him winning us too many games we shouldn't.
I was counting Clowney as one of the picks. As I said elsewhere, I'd prefer, for instance, the 2027 Phoenix pick over Clowney is that was the choice Portland had
I hear you about getting the young players minutes but the new CBA rules about the salary floor mean that we need to have some salaries on the books.
It would be 3 1sts + 2 pick swaps from Miami. Then ideally 1 1st + Clowney for Herro, and another 1st for taking the remainder of Ben’s contract.
No. It's a waste of money that we should be using in other ways. I'm hopeful we can get something for him, but I'm not very confident. He is rarely healthy and him getting injured again seems unavoidable... as does him being on the wrong side of 30. As a player, he's fine but overpaid. As a Blazer, his acquisition was a waste of time and resources and keeping him is throwing good resources after bad.
so, is the assumption that Miami will work out a deal with OKC to give back their 2025 pick? Blazers getting 2024? As for swaps, I'm assuming one is 2029. Blazers couldn't trade another swap unless they work a deal with the Bulls and I'm betting Bulls won't sell their leverage cheaply maybe the Blazers could get that much out of Brooklyn, but I'm really skeptical they want Herro that badly
