I think you overate WCJ, and by a big margin.
First off, he isn’t a good rebounder, he is an average one. Last season his rebounds dipped and he only averaged 6.9 reb per game as a center.
He isn’t very efficient from 3, as you stated. He is a career 33.4% from 3.
He is super super injury prone. He averages 45 game played per season in 8 season lol. That’s horrible. And once again was injured with many different injuries last season.
The reason him and Ayton are way different that Gobert and Towns is because Towns is a great 3% shooter and can spread the floor. Towns is a career 39.7% from 3.
Way different and once again you guys are overrating WCJ greatly and I’m glad none of you are GM’s lol
who are you talking about?
WCJ has played 6 seasons, not 8; and he has averaged 55 games (
adjusted for Covid), not 45. That's still not good, granted, and would be a major concern with adding him
I think you are underrating him as a rebounder. He posted a high of an 18.5% rebound rate in 2021-22; that ranked 13th in the NBA. His career average is 17% which would have ranked him 20th this season. He did dip to 15.9% this season. But that was still a better rate than Sengun, Holmgren KAT, Myles Turner, Naz Reid, Zach Collins, Markkanen, and Porzingis. And he happens to play on one of the best rebounding teams in the league. Orlando ranked 2nd in defensive rebounding rate and 7th in offensive rebounding rate; meaning his teammates are grabbing rebounds that he might normally secure
as far as his three-point shooting, I really don't think that's too important. Ayton never shoots them and no Ayton fan here says that's a negative. WCJ has improved quite a bit from three in any event: in the last 2 seasons he has converted 144 three's out of 396 attempts. That's a 36.4% conversion rate on 3.5 shots a game. That's right around the NBA average and that high a rate from a big changes a defense
but three's aren't the only shot in the NBA. Over the last three seasons, WCJ's TS% has been .601-->.621-->.623 while his FT rate has hovered around 31.5%. Those are very efficient numbers. Ayton's TS mark this season was .587 and he had the best mark in Portland's rotation
and of course, what was being discussed was a Simons + Timelord for WCJ + Black + 2025 first; not a straight Simons for WCJ trade. I think that's pretty unrealistic because Ant just doesn't have that kind of value, IMO. But I'd really like for Portland to find a trade partner for Ant because the
Blazers+Simons has become just like the
Blazers+CJ. There's no good reason to spend the salary and give him the usage that Portland does.
edit: the platypus beat me to it