Kind of a selective cut there. That part of my post was meant to be sarcastic. I apologize if I wasn't clear about that; I thought the context of the entire post would have made it understandable.
The point is that the Blazers would ALREADY have traded future first rounders for Anunoby and might not have them to even use to try to get out of the lottery.
That just seems like a monumental reach/rationalization. Shaedon's not a twig like a lot of guys right out of college. He's got a great frame that reminds me of Vince Carter's. There's no reason to believe he's going to get injured just because he goes high on dunks, and one also can presume that as other parts of his game round out, he probably will be turning to other things in place of just dunking on people.
I still find the fear of injury because he jumps really high a strange one considering there are myriad examples of players that did and had long careers.
I think you're guilty of your own comment about people falling in love with certain players. OG Anunoby isn't a special player. He's not an all-star. He hasn't shot .460 from the field in three years. He's never averaged more than 5.5 rebounds per game and he's averaged more than 35 minutes each of the last two years -- Nance was averaging more than that when he was a Blazer in 13 fewer minutes per game and RoCo averaged more than that in 6 minutes per game less. Steal-wise, RoCo and Nance are better. Blocked shot-wise, RoCo and Nance are better.
If you like advanced stats -- I think they're overrated, but maybe you put stock in them -- those three guys are comparable in VORP and win shares. OG's PER actually is the lowest of the three.
Now, I don't know if you're trying to make the argument that giving up two mid first-rounders for RoCo was justified and giving up a mid-one for Nance was justified and we should give up multiple players/first-rounders for him, or you think that OG is that much better than those two -- which there is no basis, statistical or otherwise, to suggest -- and giving up a mid-lottery pick and multiple other picks is acceptable, but both arguments are sketchy. I presume you would start OG ahead of Hart, but this year's Hart statistically blows Anunoby out of the water in terms of most statistical measures except PPG, 3-point%, and blocks. Most importantly, Hart rebounds and Anunoby doesn't ... OG's a poor man's Jerami Grant at best.
Making that deal is great if you want to remain in neutral for a decade, unless you get OG for a significantly lower asking price than the Raptors are reportedly seeking. Trading a player with Sharpe's potential for a role-player? I wouldn't even consider that as a joke.
