Ant and the pick for who?
The conflict i see is who is trading a young proven player for an unproven pick and a solid player with flaws like Ant?
young proven players are super valuable. It would likely require multiple picks and Ant, at minimum.
probably depends on what the current level the "proven" player is, and what the upside level is. But I tend to agree that any good young player, especially one still on his rookie contract is going to have nearly '
untouchable' value compared to Ant+pick. And I'd say that Grant would have wider value than Ant, and he still wouldn't be nearly enough leverage. I mean, Orlando wouldn't trade Franz Wagner for Ant/Grant and a 5th pick meaning the Blazers would have to aim lower or add a lot more to the offer
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I'm beginning to wonder if the "
this draft class sucks" narrative is becoming like so many internet narratives and that's simply it's repeated so often it becomes a '
fact' even though it might be false
just because there is no clear cut #1 or #1-3 doesn't mean there won't be talent in the class. Portland will have a top-5 pick (
probably) and there is going to be talent in the draft. The Blazers just have to identify the talent accurately and that's what Schmitz is paid to do.
right now, before changes and coin flips Portland owns the
5th -
13th (
maybe down to 18th) -
34th &
40th picks. Yeah, it's a bad draft to have that collection of picks in if the goal to use them as trade leverage. But if the goal is to simply roll the dice and add talent....and Portland desperately needs more talent...then the Blazers have 4 rolls of the dice and that's a lot better than they have had lately
if you look at the last 5 drafts and see who was taken outside of the top-10:
11 Cameron Johnson
12 P.J. Washington
13 Tyler Herro
21 Brandon Clarke
29 Keldon Johnson
30 Kevin Porter Jr.
31 Nic Claxton
38 Daniel Gafford
44 Bol Bol
46 Talen Horton-Tucker
11 Devin Vassell
12 Tyrese Haliburton
14 Aaron Nesmith
15 Cole Anthony
19 Saddiq Bey
21 Tyrese Maxey
25 Immanuel Quickley
28 Jaden McDaniels
30 Desmond Bane
42 Nick Richards
49 Isaiah Joe
15 Corey Kispert
16 Alperen Şengün
17 Trey Murphy III
18 Tre Mann
26 Bones Hyland
27 Cam Thomas
35 Herbert Jones
38 Ayo Dosunmu
12 Jalen Williams
13 Jalen Duren
14 Ochai Agbaji
15 Mark Williams
22 Walker Kessler
31 Andrew Nembhard
34 Jaylin Williams
37 Jaden Hardy
that's a lot of talent taken outside of the top-10. Granted, most of it is role-player level talent, but there are some all-star level players in that mix. And with no clear-cut #1, there might be some trade movement in the top-5 of the draft. Could the Blazers leverage #5+#13 for a #2?
