Blazers 2023-2024 Thread

[Phalanx]

I will say the health of both players from Boston may be an issue that could make this trade less attractive in the future. Williams has been oft injured in his young career and Brogden is coming off a possibly career-altering elbow injury. It will be interesting to see how they pass the physicals.

[Tray Dub]

I will say the health of both players from Boston may be an issue that could make this trade less attractive in the future. Williams has been oft injured in his young career and Brogden is coming off a possibly career-altering elbow injury. It will be interesting to see how they pass the physicals.

Timelord definitely, though his health issues were what made him available in the first place. Brogdon I think we'll be trading anyways.

[Duck07]

Guards (96 Minutes)
Scoot Henderson, Anfernee Simons, Shaedon Sharpe, (Malcolm Brogdan)

Forwards (96 Minutes)
Jerami Grant, Mattisse Thybulle, Kris Murray, Jabari Walker, Toumani Camara, Rayan Rupert (should probably just play 34 minutes a night for the Remix)

Centers (48 Minutes)
Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams, Moses Brown

Other than another PG to eat up minutes once Brogdan is traded, this is probably the roster we see for much of the season (could also see Thybulle eat up minutes at SG if a SF is brought back in a trade). The starting unit has a chance to put 3 shooters on the floor for Scoot/Ayton to attack the paint and if Scoot can hold up as a rookie, the Defense as a unit even with Simons has a chance to be far better than we've seen.

The reserves should hopefully be able to play a level of competent ball while guys like Sharpe, Murray, Walker and Camara all see how much they can develop.

Aim for Scoot getting ROY and Ayton being an All-Star and then around the trade deadline you can see where this team is at.

[Phalanx]

May not matter much, but I think they re-signed Kevin Knox as well, so add him to the forward pile.

[Phalanx]

Found this interesting tidbit:

Just how close did they get to acquiring Lillard? “Obviously you’d have to ask [the Blazers] — we were very aggressive,” Raptors General Manager Bobby Webster told Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud, in a sit-down interview. “I’d say probably the biggest offer we’ve ever made for a player, but it’s up to them to accept it and so I think that’s, you know, you kind of never know what tilted a deal towards you or not. But maybe time will tell, we’ll find out.”

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/ra ... ever-made/

The immediate question is whether Toronto's offer was actually better than Milwaukee's. What I am pretty sure about is that Toronto's interest in Lillard is what finally sprung him loose from the Miami-only stance and enabled a deal to happen.

[Phalanx]

Also interesting if you listened to Cronin's presser: Sounds like they might be keeping Brogdon for now to be a veteran presence. So maybe no trades are happening and this is the roster. Makes a lot of sense to have someone who can show Scoot the ropes.

[greenyellow]

Also interesting if you listened to Cronin's presser: Sounds like they might be keeping Brogdon for now to be a veteran presence. So maybe no trades are happening and this is the roster. Makes a lot of sense to have someone who can show Scoot the ropes.

I think part of it that Brogdon has to prove he's fully healthy so teams will take a chance on him. Another thing is Cronin learned from other GMs that waiting to make a deal can get him more than if he just went after the fast one. If he waits another month or two (or right before the trade deadline,) teams will likely be wanting Brogdon and some of their other players to fill holes they have on their rosters.

[Boom]

Also interesting if you listened to Cronin's presser: Sounds like they might be keeping Brogdon for now to be a veteran presence. So maybe no trades are happening and this is the roster. Makes a lot of sense to have someone who can show Scoot the ropes.

I think part of it that Brogdon has to prove he's fully healthy so teams will take a chance on him. Another thing is Cronin learned from other GMs that waiting to make a deal can get him more than if he just went after the fast one. If he waits another month or two (or right before the trade deadline,) teams will likely be wanting Brogdon and some of their other players to fill holes they have on their rosters.

James Harden situation probably needs to be resolved before he gets moved.

[squintsdd]

Also interesting if you listened to Cronin's presser: Sounds like they might be keeping Brogdon for now to be a veteran presence. So maybe no trades are happening and this is the roster. Makes a lot of sense to have someone who can show Scoot the ropes.

I think part of it that Brogdon has to prove he's fully healthy so teams will take a chance on him. Another thing is Cronin learned from other GMs that waiting to make a deal can get him more than if he just went after the fast one. If he waits another month or two (or right before the trade deadline,) teams will likely be wanting Brogdon and some of their other players to fill holes they have on their rosters.

James Harden situation probably needs to be resolved before he gets moved.

Why? Harden had been disgruntled and asked to be traded at every stop. More teams are likely to take a chance on Brogdon than harden at this point

[Duck07]

Found this interesting tidbit:

Just how close did they get to acquiring Lillard? “Obviously you’d have to ask [the Blazers] — we were very aggressive,” Raptors General Manager Bobby Webster told Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud, in a sit-down interview. “I’d say probably the biggest offer we’ve ever made for a player, but it’s up to them to accept it and so I think that’s, you know, you kind of never know what tilted a deal towards you or not. But maybe time will tell, we’ll find out.”

https://www.sportsnet.ca/nba/article/ra ... ever-made/

The immediate question is whether Toronto's offer was actually better than Milwaukee's. What I am pretty sure about is that Toronto's interest in Lillard is what finally sprung him loose from the Miami-only stance and enabled a deal to happen.

Turns out OG Anunoby actually texted Lillard welcome to Toronto (probably saw the Shams tweet) so its possible it was close, but if they weren't including Barnes in the trade than its no wonder we said No.

I thought the question about Toronto being hard to deal with to be pretty revealing as it was said that Cronin tried to use #3/Scoot to originally trade with the Raptors only for them to ask for a massive haul. Siakam doesn't seem to be real happy and it's possible that not getting Dame will have an effect on their roster going forward. It might just be Barnes and Cap Space for Toronto soon.

[Phalanx]

Turns out OG Anunoby actually texted Lillard welcome to Toronto (probably saw the Shams tweet) so its possible it was close, but if they weren't including Barnes in the trade than its no wonder we said No.

I thought the question about Toronto being hard to deal with to be pretty revealing as it was said that Cronin tried to use #3/Scoot to originally trade with the Raptors only for them to ask for a massive haul. Siakam doesn't seem to be real happy and it's possible that not getting Dame will have an effect on their roster going forward. It might just be Barnes and Cap Space for Toronto soon.

Can you imagine Lillard reading that tweet? All of a sudden, playing ball and expanding the destination list was deemed prudent, LOL.

Really glad Cronin didn't settle for a 1-year rental for Siakam.

[Phalanx]

Saw someone in the presser ask Cronin who 'the Man' would be on this team. I think it's a great question. I don't know about 'The Man', but at least for most visible player this year, my money is on Ant. I think without Lillard he is going to bust out in scoring this year. Seems like there were a lot of posts on here calling for him to be traded, but I think that would have been a huge mistake. I expect him to be the leading scorer this year by a comfortable margin.

[pezsez1]

They've said Ant will be the #1 option. I still don't really understand his long-term place on the team, though. If everything works out with best-possible outcomes -- and that's what we need if we want to be real contenders within 5-6 years -- then Scoot will become the starting PG and Sharpe probably beats Ant as the starting 2. I don't see us having an elite roster if we're playing with Sharpe at the 3 so that Anfernee can play the 2.

The good news is that we don't have to figure this out anytime soon. Might as well let Ant just go nuts and figure it out later. Maybe Shaedon never really puts it together and Ant becomes our long-term 2. Or, maybe Ant's value skyrockets with a season to show he can be The Man.

I do think it's somewhat funny that he's who we definitely should have traded a few years ago (and there was plenty of demand for him) and now he's the only remaining member of that WCF team.

[Phalanx]

A few years ago, the Blazers should have traded Lillard, not Ant, and he would have fetched more because his value would not have been weighed down by that ridiculous extension (coupled with a public trade request). And what did we get out of Lillard the past two years? Two years in the lottery.

I think Ant has been waiting for an opportunity to play on a team that isn't dominated by one guy the way the Blazers have been the last decade. We saw glimpses of what he can do when Lillard was injured, and hopefully he can add consistency and defense and he will be a bonafide starter on a playoff team. I hope Sharpe lives up to his draft status and hype, although so far he hasn't shown much.

[pezsez1]

Should have traded Ant for Aaron Gordon, which was a deal up for grabs but Olshey was high on his own supply. That could have had a big enough impact to change Portland's trajectory.

Dame being on the team had literally zero to do with us being in the lottery during the past two years. The first year, they shut him down for surgery so we could tank. Then last year, then shut him down for the stretch run so we could tank again. (But we were probably lottery-bound last year anyway considering our roster was objectively worse than it had been in previous years.)

Love Ant -- cool kid and a nice player -- but he's still somewhat redundant and likely to be displaced by better talent at his best positions.