Your 2018/19 Portland Trailblazers

[Orion Bailey]

Dreams are things that have potential of coming true, however slim.

This is pure fantasy.

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

Disagree.

Increased volume from all 3 plus Ellington's shooting gravity make would make up for any loss in % with swapping out Bazz and CJ.

Not a game-changer trade. No needle moved. IMO

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

Dreams are things that have potential of coming true, however slim.

This is pure fantasy.

With Olshey one can ONLY dream!

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

CJ for Covington and 10
Draft Mikel Bridges...use 24 with 10 to move up if need be.

ET and 24....if we still have it, to DAL for a future 2nd

Sign Ellington and Hezonja

PG
Dame
Baldwin

SG
Bridges
Elington
Pat C

SF
Covington
Harkless
Hezonja
Layman

PF
Collins
Aminu
Davis

C
Nurk
Scrub
Papawhatever

Not a cap guy

Not bad! If you think CJ will be moved. Perhaps a Brook Lopez would sign (less money for a longer term deal) to add depth at Center

 

[BoomChakaLaka]

What is wrong with being a system guy? He wasn't a bad teammate in Boston. He was dealing with the death of his sister but kept playing with his teammates. Why does his couple weeks in Cleveland change that? Besides, it's all hearsay. How do you know he was a bad teammate?

It’s worth taking on I. Thomas, K. Leonard, a Brook Lopez and a H. Whiteside - ESPECIALLY if there is ANY way of getting rid of Turner and M. Leonard! If the above came to play....and Dame and CJ lead this group and we still had our cast of Aminu, Harkless, Davis, Connaughton, Baldwin.....we could make noise. If this ensemble didn’t work, it can all be sold off as parts in a total rebuild.

 

[BonesJones]

Receiving Nurkic and Napier for K. Leonard are good pieces for San Antonio. If not - then please don’t sign Nurkic to a rich, long term deal - we’ll be strapped for years!

Smh.... Boston could offer much more.

 

[BonesJones]

Dream on!

Guards:

Lillard
CJ McCollum
I. Thomas (sign & trade Meyers Leonard + our #1 pick for two years if need be to the Lakers, and tell them “thank you”)
Baldwin
Connaughton (re-sign)


Swings:

K. Leonard (sign & trade Nurkic + Napier to San Antonio)
Aminu
Harkless
Layman


Bigs:

Collins
Ed Davis (re-sign)
Whiteside (trade Turner and second round picks to Miami)
B. Lopez (free agency)
Swanigan
Papagiannis

1.) We can't sign-and-trade: Too close to the apron.
2.) We can't trade firsts in consecutive years.
3.) We aren't gonna be able to sign two people in one sign-and-trade
4.) If you don't wanna pay Nurkic, what makes you think San Antonio would give up Kawhi in order to pay Nurkic? And no 1sts there? Lmao.
5.) We're not gonna be able to land Whiteside for Turner and 2nds. Pat Riley would laugh and hang up the phone.
6.) We have a $5M MLE and thats it. How would we be able to sign Thomas AND Lopez?

I like to dream too, but at least when I come up with scenarios I try and have it make sense for all teams from an unbiased prospective and my ideas are actually feasible..

 

[kjironman1]

Nurkic and Napier for Kawhi Leonard is one of the most batshit crazy ideas I've heard.

Bat shit crazy maybe? But would you do it?
I'm thinking i would give that some thought.

 

[Sarni]

Receiving Nurkic and Napier for K. Leonard are good pieces for San Antonio. If not - then please don’t sign Nurkic to a rich, long term deal - we’ll be strapped for years!

How are they good pieces? Napier has little value and Nurkic isn’t that good either.

 

[chris_in_pdx]

K. Leonard (sign & trade Nurkic + Napier to San Antonio)

LOL

 

[BrianFromWA]

I think Bazzle is gone. WB4 earned himself a job (and a vet-min guaranteed 2018-19 contract).

I still think we just need to understand that Meyers is a sunk cost and not do something dumb like give up 9 years of player control and 4yrs of rookie deal just to dump 10M/yr of salary. That's one of the reasons I'd love a Covington+10 deal...you get a solid replacement (charitably, 85% CJ?), and an extra pick to build the "cheap" pipeline back up, as you're stuck paying big-money players for a couple of years more.

Nurk played himself out of a max, but Stotts not going to him more in the late-season/post-season probably saved PA some $. I don't know that there's any way we let him go, though. Our D was markedly improved with him/Zach/Ed.

Try to re-sign Ed for MLE-ish. I believe Layman is non-guaranteed for 3rd-yr vet min and may or may not be back? Same with Patty C, who is RFA. The scrub you know vs ...?

I might explore what Chief can bring a) coming off of a decent season, b) visions of draining playoff 3's going through people's heads, c) expiring contract, d) may pick up some All-Defensive team votes. It may not be a ton, but I think that with Z-Co coming into his own that having both Chief and Moe is a luxury, and Chief probably brings back better goodies. Nurk/Zach/Ed should soak up the majority of the 96 4/5 minutes next year, with whoever's left of Chief and Moe covering down on the rest and Biggie, Meyers & PapaG for emergency/garbage time.

I don't think we'll get much for ET, but obviously he's on the block. Don't do something dumb like take on long-term salary to get rid of him, because he's at least useful.

Dame/WB4
CJ (or ET if we get another wing?)/Pat (if on a BAE-esque deal?)/Wilcox (2-way)
Moe/ET
Zach/Ed/Swanigan
Nurk/Leonard/PapaG

-12.9M Trade Exception.
-#24 pick (might be worth looking at whoever of the Shamet/Grayson/DiVincenzo SG triumvirate BlazersBrass likes better)
-taxpayer MLE (In a dreamworld this would be Wild Will, but he's played himself to double that, probably. I'd love to do an S&T using our exception, but there are some shenanigans involved with that --not going over the apron, probably need to do it first while we have lower cap holds on others, etc.)

Gone: Chief/Mo/Both, Layman, Shabazz