The trade he suggests is one I find hard not to do.
Two 2017 early 1st round picks plus Noel for CJ.
We would have FOUR 1st round picks, including our own and Cleveland's.
We would start Crabbe. Crabbe is no CJ on offense, but we actually played well in Dame's absence.
Actually Crabbe did not play well in Dame's absence, C.J. did. Crabbe, as a starter, saw his PER dip back below the magical 10.0 barrier. Now that's he's been moved back to the bench, his natural role given is limitations, he's raised his PER to 10.9.
C.J., on the other hand, absolutely flourished in Dame's absence:
"In 11 games without Lillard, McCollum averages 28.4 points, 5.6 assists, and 4.9 rebounds,
which are pretty rare numbers (via StatMuse)."
It's funny that the author is trying to make a case for trading C.J., but the stats he quotes actually make a strong case for keeping C.J. and trading Dame. Here's another:
"as bad as Lillard and McCollum are together on D, the Blazers are even worse on defense when Lillard is on the floor
without McCollum"
So, C.J. thrives on offense without Dame and Dame without C.J. on defense is even worse than the two of them together (another reason why I think trading C.J. and starting Crabbe next to Lillard would be a disaster).
There are very few players we could get in a trade that would make me consider trading Damian Lillard, but.... as part of a larger package, I'd look into it. The author proposes:
"The Blazers send McCollum to the Sixers for Noel, the Sixers’ unprotected 2017 first, the Kings’ unprotected 2019 first, and multiple second-round picks."
If that's what McCollum is worth, Lillard should be worth even more, especially since PHI's biggest need is PG. Not sure how much more we could get from PHI, but maybe start getting 3rd or 4th teams involved. As you mentioned, that would give us 4 first round picks, including one that's likely to be in the top 3 and another in the top 10. Those picks (plus ours and CLE's) are very valuable assets in a deep draft - especially one that is top heavy in PGs and combo guards.
We could try to draft a bigger PG/SG who can defend to better pair with C.J., or we could move some of those assets on to a 3rd or 4th team to land us proven players. Maybe get ORL, IND or CHI involved and see if we can come up with the right combination of high draft picks and players to land a solid 2-way player like Serge Ibaka, Paul George or Jimmy Butler. I think Ibaka at the 4 would be a perfect fit next to Noel at the 5. Likewise, Butler at the 2 next to C.J. at the 1 would address our defensive weakness in the back court, without negatively impacting our scoring. Paul George would be a great fit next to anyone.
I'm not proposing any specific trades, I haven't given it that much thought, but if we get Noel and a couple more very high draft picks, while only giving up one player (either C.J. or Dame), we'd have a ton of assets to package in additional trades. With Crabbe playing like he did last night, he's only increasing his trade value. Plumlee and Harkless also have high value to the right teams. Those kind of combined assets gets us in the conversation for the kind of 2-way superstars you build a championship contender around.
I've never been a fan of tanking. Losing to lose is a loser attitude. However, I'm all for taking advantage of others' suckage and ineptitude. That's how we got both Brandon Roy and Damian Lillard.
In the very recent past, I've been opposed to breaking up the Dame/C.J. Dynamic Duo, but that's before I started hearing things about multiple unprotected high lottery picks and superstars being available. Those kind of assets are what we could use to retool this team without deliberately losing and hoping for a kind bounce from the ping pong balls. Add a young rim protector like Nerlens Noel and a 2-way superstar like Butler, George or Ibaka AND still have a couple draft picks left over and now it becomes ease to make minor tweaks to add role players and strengthen your bench.
I started a thread a couple weeks ago that I thought Noel + Ibaka + Bogut would be a great front court rotation. In the article the author mentions Bogut is available cheap. He wouldn't have to start here, but would be a great back up center to come in, grab some boards, shut down the paint and set some killer (moving) screens.
If we did trade Dame and moved C.J. to starting PG, I'd even make a play for Ricky Rubio, another player who is supposedly available on the cheap. I've been a huge critic of Rubio ever since MIN drafted him. The problem is, as a starting PG, he's less than useless. His atrocious shooting more than negates his passing and defense. Because of his reluctance to even take a shot combined with his inability to actually make one, means you absolutely cannot have him on the court with the game on the line. That said, he wouldn't be as he would be coming off the bench backing up C.J. He'd be great running with the second unit, and you could even run him in for defensive possessions late in the game.
Anyway, those are just a few ideas, but the goal should be to get Noel for as little as possible (Crabbe + pick). If we have to give up more to get him (C.J. or Dame), get as much as possible from PHI in return and try to flip some of those assets for an established 2-way player, then fill out the bench with proven role players and remaining draft picks.
BNM
