Trade Larry Nance Jr traded to Portland

Welcome to our community

Be a part of something great, join today!

I think there is a good argument for starting both Nance and RoCo.View attachment 40407

Whether Nance starts in place of CJ, Norm or Nurk is to be debated...

I don't think he will start but who knows what the roster looks like at the end of the season.
Yeah, I don't think this move actually changes the starting lineup, but it gives the Blazers a lot more options and frankly I wouldn't be surprised to see an ultra small closing lineup with Dame-CJ-Norm-RoCo-Nance. It's small, but if Chauncey can get them to fly around and at least give effort, I think it could be very effective.
 
We’ve been waiting all summer for the Portland Trail Blazers to do something … anything … to appease their increasingly itchy All-Star guard Damian Lillard.

Well, we finally got our deal on Friday, in the form of a three-team trade that sends Larry Nance Jr. to Portland, Derrick Jones Jr. to Chicago and Lauri Markkanen to Cleveland in a sign-and-trade. The Blazers also sent a 2022 first-round pick to Chicago (protected 1-14 through 2028), and the Cavs sent a top-46 protected 2023 second from the Nuggets to Chicago.

Markkanen is the most “famous” guy in this deal and will have the biggest contract (four years, $67 million, with standard 5 percent raises, according to a league source; The Athletic also has learned that only $6 million is guaranteed in the final year, making it worth about $55 million in guaranteed money). We’ll get back to Cleveland’s bet on him in a minute.

For now, however, the big story here is Nance, because he now heavily impacts the league’s biggest potential trade domino in Lillard.

For the Blazers, this is probably a good thing. I’ve long argued Nance is one of the league’s most underrated players; my BORD$ formula pegs him as worth $15.2 million this coming season, even after an injury-riddled 2020-21, and he’s signed for two more years at a tidy $20 million total.

Moreover, this is exactly the form of trade the Blazers had to be seeking all summer: Take Jones’ unwanted $9.7 million salary and a first-round pick, and turn it into a better player with a similar salary. Nance strikes me as about the absolute best-case scenario on a trade of this format, and the pick protection is robust enough to ensure the cost to the Blazers will be minimal if this all goes sideways and they have to blow up the team.

Not only is Nance about the best player Portland could have hoped to receive in a transaction of this ilk, but he’s also the exact type of player the Blazers need. The power forward spot has bedeviled Portland the last three seasons, with Zach Collins never being healthy, Carmelo Anthony an entertaining but low-nutrition stopgap and Jones falling out of the rotation after the Blazers inked him to a full midlevel exception deal a year ago.

Nance may not start games at power forward — that’s likely Robert Covington — but he’ll finish plenty of them and play large chunks of the time in between. He makes a great offensive partner with Lillard in particular, as Nance is a top-notch passer who excels making plays out of traps and “short rolls” — something that happens often with bigs playing with Lillard. He’s also an enthusiastic screen-setter and enough of a vertical threat on his rim run to suck in defenses.

Nance doesn’t have a rep as a shooter, and you certainly wouldn’t want to feature him that way, but he’s quietly lifted his 3-point shooting mark to 35.2 percent and 36 percent the last two seasons. You can live with that. He’s also an underrated defender who, like Covington, gets his hands on a ton of balls — a key reason the Cavs forced a jillion turnovers a game at the start of last season before the injuries hit. And in a playoff game, he can slide up to the five for stretches with the second unit, giving Portland versatility behind Jusuf Nurkic that it lacked a year ago.

https://theathletic.com/2794046/202...blazers-can-lauri-markkanen-thrive-with-cavs/
 
Agree that it's not the home run we wanted but under a different coach, I can see how it MIGHT work with Dame/CJ/Powell. Philly hasn't moved Simmons and Toronto hasn't moved Siakam so there's still hope.
There is no hope if we get Simmons lmao.
 
At the end of the day, we have to ask, "is this enough to make Dame happy?"

If the answer is no, and I think that the answer is still no, then I'm not going to be jumping up and down with joy. But apparently that's me needing self-affirmation.
incrementally, this makes us a better team and we turned a guy who wasn't in the rotation for someone who will, while being more versatile and on a terrific contract. Given the pieces we had to trade, this was a good move.

But if we're judging Olshey's offseason on his ability to turn CJ into a star forward, I think we're gonna be sorely disappointed despite whatever else he does along the margins.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
Nate is right, it’s a good trade but nothing more. We need a homerun
 
incrementally, this makes us a better team and we turned a guy who wasn't in the rotation for someone who will, while being more versatile and on a terrific contract. Given the pieces we had to trade, this was a good move.

But if we're judging Olshey's offseason on his ability to turn CJ into a star forward, I think we're gonna be sorely disappointed despite whatever else he does along the margins.

The problem is that we don't know how much time we have to prove to Dame we're a contender. Is it the trade deadline? Is it until next offseason? Is it longer? Shorter? We don't know.

So incremental trades, while making the team better, might not move the needle enough to make Dame happy, and if we don't have a lot of time, it would appear that Neil is putting all his eggs in the Dame/CJ/Norm basket.

There's a lot of unknowns going into this next season. How good will Billups be? How much of a jump will Ant and Simons make? Will CJ play defense? What will Nurk look like under a new coach?
 
I'm guessing with this Nance signing the chances of seeing LMA in a Blazer uniform again are next to none. I think I'm ok with that. I'd rather see a solid backup PG signed before another 4 right now anyway.

LA, who I hope never comes back to Portland even to visit, is a Center now.
 
The problem is that we don't know how much time we have to prove to Dame we're a contender. Is it the trade deadline? Is it until next offseason? Is it longer? Shorter? We don't know.

So incremental trades, while making the team better, might not move the needle enough to make Dame happy, and if we don't have a lot of time, it would appear that Neil is putting all his eggs in the Dame/CJ/Norm basket.

There's a lot of unknowns going into this next season. How good will Billups be? How much of a jump will Ant and Simons make? Will CJ play defense? What will Nurk look like under a new coach?
well if you take Dame at his word, there is no finite timeline. This move in a vacuum won't make the difference in potentially placating Dame, but it can't hurt. Roster is still quite imbalanced and Olshey still has work to do.

The Powell at SF thing is still really bugging me. We just witnessed him get torched by Porter Jr in the playoffs-- why would anyone think he is a viable long term solution there? I absolutely get the asset play and retaining him, but surely we can't be done here. Either a CJ or Powell move need to be on the horizon come deadline for someone taller.
 
Chauncey benching CJ would be a baller power move.

captain-phillips-boat-hijack.gif

Olshey trading him would even be better.
 
Surprised there isn't more discussion here. This is the biggest move we've made all summer.
I think we all discussed it when you brought up the idea last month, so now it's just a rehash of what we already concluded.
 
I think we all discussed it when you brought up the idea last month, so now it's just a rehash of what we already concluded.

I would have expected more excitement at least. I mean, we actually made a move for once instead of just talking about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RR7
well if you take Dame at his word, there is no finite timeline. This move in a vacuum won't make the difference in potentially placating Dame, but it can't hurt. Roster is still quite imbalanced and Olshey still has work to do.

The Powell at SF thing is still really bugging me. We just witnessed him get torched by Porter Jr in the playoffs-- why would anyone think he is a viable long term solution there? I absolutely get the asset play and retaining him, but surely we can't be done here. Either a CJ or Powell move need to be on the horizon come deadline for someone taller.

really bugging me too.
Just move cj to the bench, start norm at the two, roco at the three nance at the four.

All problems solved.
 
I would have expected more excitement at least. I mean, we actually made a move for once instead of just talking about it.

what are you talking about? This thread is hot hot hot! Trolls have posted, two fights have happened and its not even a day old! Lol
 
I would have expected more excitement at least. I mean, we actually made a move for once instead of just talking about it.
10 pages in a few hours... I'd say that's relative excitement here. Twitter has been abuzz even more-so. When other NBA analysts are applauding this move it tells me we did very well here... it might not be a blockbuster but it's a shrewd move and a great net positive gain in my book.
 
I would have expected more excitement at least. I mean, we actually made a move for once instead of just talking about it.
I think we're all so caught up in the "CJ needs to be traded for a forward" mindset, that this just doesn't quite get motors revving.
 
well if you take Dame at his word, there is no finite timeline. This move in a vacuum won't make the difference in potentially placating Dame, but it can't hurt. Roster is still quite imbalanced and Olshey still has work to do.

The Powell at SF thing is still really bugging me. We just witnessed him get torched by Porter Jr in the playoffs-- why would anyone think he is a viable long term solution there? I absolutely get the asset play and retaining him, but surely we can't be done here. Either a CJ or Powell move need to be on the horizon come deadline for someone taller.

I think Neil is done. He seems sold on this starting lineup. Nance just solidifies the bench. I'm just having a really hard time seeing him trade CJ.
 
I think we're all so caught up in the "CJ needs to be traded for a forward" mindset, that this just doesn't quite get motors revving.

Because it's really a two-part problem. We needed a forward, but we ALSO needed to trade CJ. We got a nice forward, but we still have the Dame/CJ/Norm issue. Plus, a lot of us were hoping to add an All-Star caliber forward or wing. So it's killing two birds with one stone. Getting Dame a running mate while also getting CJ off the team.
 
I think Neil is done. He seems sold on this starting lineup. Nance just solidifies the bench. I'm just having a really hard time seeing him trade CJ.
Well he is still required to add one more player to meet the 14 requirement, so that's still there, but trade wise, he's done until the deadline. We don't really have moveable contracts at the moment, nor do we have control of draft picks in the coming year. And our young guys are probably of more value to us than other teams right now.

I'm gonna hold judgement until the deadline. I would like to turn Powell into something, ideally.
 
Well he is still required to add one more player to meet the 14 requirement, so that's still there, but trade wise, he's done until the deadline. We don't really have moveable contracts at the moment, nor do we have control of draft picks in the coming year. And our young guys are probably of more value to us than other teams right now.

I'm gonna hold judgement until the deadline. I would like to turn Powell into something, ideally.

Trading Powell instead of CJ is a mistake, imo.
 
I think Neil is done. He seems sold on this starting lineup. Nance just solidifies the bench. I'm just having a really hard time seeing him trade CJ.

I believe that per the regulation the team must have 13 players on the roster, but they are getting surcharged if they do not have the average of 14 players on the roster that is guaranteed league wide per the CBA. This means that there will be someone else added to the roster at some point. When tho, is a good question.
 
I believe that per the regulation the team must have 13 players on the roster, but they are getting surcharged if they do not have the average of 14 players on the roster that is guaranteed league wide per the CBA. This means that there will be someone else added to the roster at some point. When tho, is a good question.

Blevins come on down!
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top