Exclusive Ayton is agreeing to buyout

[Natebishop3]

1. More playing time pour Clingan and Hansen.
2. Flexibility ahead of the free agency for trades or signing
3. No money back from a trade for Ayto

Of course Joe was probably hoping for a 1st round pick and probably would have taken it if available. But as my man Jake Fischer said:

I wish Nate Jones would fuck off. We don’t want or need his opinion anymore. He can go annoy Bucks fans now, thanks.

 

[Blazer Freak]

This forum can be such a joke sometimes LOL every move gets critiqued on its own like these people entire careers isn't planning out and mocking how each team is potentially going to play things.

Cronin goes to my gym and I've talked to him quite a few times from which I can say he is clearly not an idiot.

They value their flexibility of their books, right now and my guess is that they shopped DA and only got offers for players with contracts past this year. Rather than taking back big money for more than a year, they waive him, save potentially on the buyout allowing them to use full MLE if they want to/find a good fit and open a roster spot.

We have a Camara extension coming, and new potential deal for Shaedon. We have Deni on an absolute steal of a contract that allows us some room to build out this roster as we grow.

We've all wanted Simons, Grant and Ayton gone. 2/3 are done before FA. Let's see what we else is on the agenda and evaluate the offseason as whole.

 

[Natebishop3]

This forum can be such a joke sometimes LOL every move gets critiqued on its own like these people entire careers isn't planning out and mocking how each team is potentially going to play things.

Cronin goes to my gym and I've talked to him quite a few times from which I can say he is clearly not an idiot.

They value their flexibility of their books, right now and my guess is that they shopped DA and only got offers for players with contracts past this year. Rather than taking back big money for more than a year, they waive him, save potentially on the buyout allowing them to use full MLE if they want to/find a good fit and open a roster spot.

We have a Camara extension coming, and new potential deal for Shaedon. We have Deni on an absolute steal of a contract that allows us some room to build out this roster as we grow.

We've all wanted Simons, Grant and Ayton gone. 2/3 are done before FA. Let's see what we else is on the agenda and evaluate the offseason as whole.

The depressing thing is how little-to-zero value they have/had.

Simons was dealt with picks to get an aging Jrue with a lot of money still on his contract.

Ayton was bought out.

Grant...... I'll be shocked if we're able to deal him without giving up a pick.

Simons was a little bit of a shocker. I figured he had SOME value. It's hard to say if Jrue has much value around the league. Ayton isn't surprising. I figured he'd walk after the season. I was surprised they cut him early but with so many centers on the team, it's not shocking. Grant never should have been re-signed. Or at least Cronin should have dealt him last summer when it appeared he had some value. They held the bag too long on Grant.

 

[KingSpeed]

How HAS Joe been building this team? That’s the question nobody has an answer for, including Joe.

By tanking and bringing in 5 players with All Star potential while getting rid of the vets in their way when they were ready. I like the team now much better than the team Joe started with.

 

[SwissBlazer]

1. More playing time pour Clingan and Hansen.
2. Flexibility ahead of the free agency for trades or signing
3. No money back from a trade for Ayto

Of course Joe was probably hoping for a 1st round pick and probably would have taken it if available. But as my man Jake Fischer said:

I was more quoting Jake's answer.

 

[KingSpeed]

Yeah... I dunno. There aren't a lot that jump out at me. Maybe New Orleans and Washington?

And in terms of the plan, I think it's been trying to split the baby: build a younger core while being competitive on the floor.

I think that's an impossible strategy because we're rebuilding against teams that are dedicated to a rebuild and competing for the playoffs with teams that are dedicated to winning now.... so you don't success on either front.

I also don't like most of the moves he's made in trying to do this strategy. We seem to be in love with wings that just can't shoot the basketball, we haven't drafted well except with our three lottery picks (and even then, our guys have been objectively less impressive than most of their peers, even if I'm excited we've got them).

We would be a lot better if we had San Antonio's luck in the lottery, of course, but the process and decisions have generally been bad so it's not just a matter of bad luck.

But it is! Dude, if we had won 4 more games last year, we would have gotten Flagg. Trying to win last year wasn’t a problem. We didn’t win enough. Take the season more seriously and we could’ve gotten into the play-in and won the #1 pick

 

[KingSpeed]

Brother, we have been seeing the same thing for years. Cheers!

This is the start of hoping I watch the team again in the next few years. But right now its a waste of time. Not holding out any hope they do anything to make us contenders in the next few years, but at least they got two of the worst players off of the team in Simons and Ayton.

You were wrong last year. We should’ve won more.

 

[Blazer Freak]

The depressing thing is how little-to-zero value they have/had.

Simons was dealt with picks to get an aging Jrue with a lot of money still on his contract.

Ayton was bought out.

Grant...... I'll be shocked if we're able to deal him without giving up a pick.

Simons was a little bit of a shocker. I figured he had SOME value. It's hard to say if Jrue has much value around the league. Ayton isn't surprising. I figured he'd walk after the season. I was surprised they cut him early but with so many centers on the team, it's not shocking. Grant never should have been re-signed. Or at least Cronin should have dealt him last summer when it appeared he had some value. They held the bag too long on Grant.

I don't disagree on Grant...that has not worked out for sure. I will withhold complete judgement until we see what the return ends up being.

Simons I would argue (and others have) we got the better player--just on a worse contract. However, if the plan all along was to buyout Ayton and trade Grant in today's CBA you always need a $30M to make potential big moves happen. Factor in his vet leadership, defensive abilities and I don't think in the end it was bad value--just shocking to all of us.

If in today's NBA a normal starter salary is ~$30M and the Blazers have Deni at $14 (ending at $11 in 2028), Camara around $22M, Shaedon with potentially a Jabari Smith contract, we would have 3 long term positions under market value with Scott and the centers remaining, and a multitude of draft capital. If the lotto had gone our way and we got a star we would be set. However it didn't so right now we sit on the roster that features a young player at every position, and hope one or two pop and we can use some of our talent and capital to land a star if we don't get a home-grown one.

Has it been perfect, absolutely not but I can see the vision.

 

[Blazer Freak]

The depressing thing is how little-to-zero value they have/had.

Simons was dealt with picks to get an aging Jrue with a lot of money still on his contract.

Ayton was bought out.

Grant...... I'll be shocked if we're able to deal him without giving up a pick.

Simons was a little bit of a shocker. I figured he had SOME value. It's hard to say if Jrue has much value around the league. Ayton isn't surprising. I figured he'd walk after the season. I was surprised they cut him early but with so many centers on the team, it's not shocking. Grant never should have been re-signed. Or at least Cronin should have dealt him last summer when it appeared he had some value. They held the bag too long on Grant.

The other thing to think about when it comes to extracting value and these trades is that things are fluid with the CBA and how teams are approaching things. When Simons signed his deal, $25M looked like a pretty solid value, now with it expiring and a team potentially facing resigning him at that number or more--tying up those kind of funds on a Simon type player is seen as an absolute negative.

Did we trade him 1-2 years too late, yeah I would say so. But I would need to see or hear what kind of offers he was receiving before I absolute bashed him for it.

I get we're all fans in our own ways but man it feels like everyone just hates this team sometime LOL.

 

[GoZers]

By tanking and bringing in 5 players with All Star potential while getting rid of the vets in their way when they were ready. I like the team now much better than the team Joe started with.

Tanking? Since when? This week?

 

[KingSpeed]

Tanking? Since when? This week?

Three years in a row, we ended seasons by playing players like Bouyea and John Butler Jr (in one game at PG down the stretch!) at the end of seasons to secure Sharpe, Scoot, and Clingan, all 3 of whom have All Star potential. Last year, the team naturally developed and won more games. Not enough though. 4 more wins and we would’ve gotten the #1 pick.

Deni, Camara, and Yang all have star potential too.

 

[inconceivable]

Can someone please succinctly explain, how is our cap space affected by DA's buyout?

 

[SwissBlazer]

Can someone please succinctly explain, how is our cap space affected by DA's buyout?

This buyout will open one roster spot and the ability to spend the full non-tax payer MLE without being in the tax. We weren't before.

 

[inconceivable]

 

[andalusian]

i dunno how you excuse these moves?

they put themselves in these positions. and they waited too long before realizing their mistakes.

ending up with nothing in return is not something i find acceptable.

I explained it before, no one can bat 1000, especially in a non exact science like team building. I judge on the product as a whole, not individual parts.

My lovely old 1993 Mazda Miata is a lousy highway car, mostly because of the short wheelbase. I understand however why the short wheelbase was chosen and love the car overall. Same thing here.

 

[kjironman1]

Just incredible how far this #1 pick has fallen. I remember when he was drafted most were calling him a can't miss player. This is the same thing that was being said about Williamson.
Think about Risacher and Cunningham as well.
Ayton, Fultz, Ben Simmons.

Crazy look at the last ten#1 picks.

 

[inconceivable]

perused the laker reddit, they are salivating for ayton

 

[Mediocre Man]

Three years in a row, we ended seasons by playing players like Bouyea and John Butler Jr (in one game at PG down the stretch!) at the end of seasons to secure Sharpe, Scoot, and Clingan, all 3 of whom have All Star potential. Last year, the team naturally developed and won more games. Not enough though. 4 more wins and we would’ve gotten the #1 pick.

Deni, Camara, and Yang all have star potential too.

With your list of players we have with allstar potential, everyone in the league has allstar potential then.

Clingan can’t make a layup,

Yang hasn’t even played a damn summer league game yet

Scoot hasn’t shown anything near allstar potential

Sharpe has talent, but is super inconsistent

Camara is a great defender, but all star?

Deni, yes

 

[Mediocre Man]

Can someone please succinctly explain, how is our cap space affected by DA's buyout?

His buyout allows us the opportunity to give the full MLE and stay under the tax apron….I think

 

[inconceivable]

His buyout allows us the opportunity to give the full MLE and stay under the tax apron….I think

is full MLE the same name for "non-taxpayer" MLE or ~$14.1 mil and the not full MLE the same as taxpayer MLE or ~$5.7 mil?

 

[Mediocre Man]

is full MLE the same name for "non-taxpayer" MLE or ~$14.1 mil and the not full MLE the same as taxpayer MLE or ~$5.7 mil?

I shouldn’t have tried. I’m way too stupid with this stuff

 

[Graduate32]

is full MLE the same name for "non-taxpayer" MLE or ~$14.1 mil and the not full MLE the same as taxpayer MLE or ~$5.7 mil?

We could spend up to $14.1mil as a starting salary, yes (assuming that the buyout does in fact cut enough from the Blazers books).

 

[Blazinaway]

I think it's fairly obvious. Put together a roster that is within the Vulcans budget while not tanking for 4+ years. He's missed on some draft picks, missed on some trades. Had some good draft picks and had some nice trades. The Blazers have a bunch of young players on decent contracts and some draft assets moving forward. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

Not a bad situation for a team that is for sale, keep that in mind

 

[BigGameDamian]

 

[Graduate32]

All this tells me that Milwaukee is unlikely. Marks is awful when tried to act like an insider.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

If this is true, a slap in the face because Cronin trading for Jrue makes it seem like he wants to win.

Makes me wonder if taking a center was viewed as a slight by Ayton.

I read this as Ayton knew he wasn't the Blazers long term option and wanted a spot he could claim the main franchise center role.

He's never going to say "I want to go somewhere else for a bigger role" It sounds selfish and shows the Blazers didn't want him.

Saying it's to go to a winning team is agent speak - but easily justified with Blazers being in the lottery 4 straight years.

I don't understand why posters here try to literally analyze what GMs or agents say. They never speak straightforward.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

This forum can be such a joke sometimes LOL every move gets critiqued on its own like these people entire careers isn't planning out and mocking how each team is potentially going to play things.

Cronin goes to my gym and I've talked to him quite a few times from which I can say he is clearly not an idiot.

They value their flexibility of their books, right now and my guess is that they shopped DA and only got offers for players with contracts past this year. Rather than taking back big money for more than a year, they waive him, save potentially on the buyout allowing them to use full MLE if they want to/find a good fit and open a roster spot.

We have a Camara extension coming, and new potential deal for Shaedon. We have Deni on an absolute steal of a contract that allows us some room to build out this roster as we grow.

We've all wanted Simons, Grant and Ayton gone. 2/3 are done before FA. Let's see what we else is on the agenda and evaluate the offseason as whole.

Again, thats all great and dandy, but the whole flexibility and cap stuff for Ayton was not handled the same way for Ant. We took on an aging PG who is owed 105 million through his age 37 season.

If everyone waited until the end of the offseason to judge any moves, this place would be a ghost town.

Completely normal for fans to direct moves and state their like or dislike for the moves one by one.

Someone can love the trade down in the draft to accumulate more assets and still scratch their heads on the Ant deal, but end up loving the overall offseason the team has.

 

[TBpup]

This forum can be such a joke sometimes LOL every move gets critiqued on its own like these people entire careers isn't planning out and mocking how each team is potentially going to play things.

Cronin goes to my gym and I've talked to him quite a few times from which I can say he is clearly not an idiot.

They value their flexibility of their books, right now and my guess is that they shopped DA and only got offers for players with contracts past this year. Rather than taking back big money for more than a year, they waive him, save potentially on the buyout allowing them to use full MLE if they want to/find a good fit and open a roster spot.

We have a Camara extension coming, and new potential deal for Shaedon. We have Deni on an absolute steal of a contract that allows us some room to build out this roster as we grow.

We've all wanted Simons, Grant and Ayton gone. 2/3 are done before FA. Let's see what we else is on the agenda and evaluate the offseason as whole.

I would submit not every move. Moves like Tou and Deni have been very good. But in the case of Ant, Grant and Ayton, didn't Joe re-sign Ant, re-sign Grant and trade for Ayton? So it seems reasonable to question why he did that for quite a bit of money only to let 2 of them go so far for even a more expensive contract, or to let them walk for nothing but some unknown cap space, yes? And yes, Tou came with Ayton but no one had any idea Camara would turn into what he has, which is a very good defensive player and a still somewhat limited offensive player. Schmitz may have liked him as a Draft prospect, but it's fair to say he has completely outperformed his Draft slot.

 

[Strenuus]

Three years in a row, we ended seasons by playing players like Bouyea and John Butler Jr (in one game at PG down the stretch!) at the end of seasons to secure Sharpe, Scoot, and Clingan, all 3 of whom have All Star potential. Last year, the team naturally developed and won more games. Not enough though. 4 more wins and we would’ve gotten the #1 pick.

Deni, Camara, and Yang all have star potential too.

Lololol.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Watching all these Lakers fans convince themselves that all Ayton needs is the right context to bust out is making me all moist-eyed with nostalgia.