Portland's offseason (Milwaukee, Philadelphia)

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Trade 1: Milwaukee

Bucks send Pachulia, Delfino, #36 to Portland for Leonard, Freeland, Crabbe, cash considerations. Bucks save a ton of money on veterans they don't really need and sell a 2ed round pick to Portland. Leonard is an athletic 7 footer who needs to be paired off the bench with a help defender at the PF (Henson), Freeland is a blue-collar type guy and Crabbe was considered a steal by the Blazers as a 3 point shooting SG/SF, who just didn't get much burn last season as Stott's was trying to win.

Knight - Wolters
Mayo - Crabbe
Giannis - Middleton
Illyasova - Henson - Freeland
Sanders - Raduljica - Leonard

+ #2, #31, #48 and ~$21 million in capspace


Trade 2: Philadelphia

Sixers send Young to Portland for McCollum and Robinson. They move a veteran who doesn't fit their timeline for two young guys with untapped potential. Robinson is a strong athlete who could provide a tough presence next to Noel in the front-court and McCollum is an off-ball shooter who would space the floor next to MCW in the backcourt. This assumes they draft Parker or Wiggins at #3. Also, if Philly doesn't think they will use all their second rounders, Portland would be open to buying one or two.

MCW - Wroten
McCollum - Anderson - Richardson
#3 - Thompson
Robinson - Moultrie
Noel - Mullens

+ #3, #10, #32, #39, #47, #52, #54 and ~$30-35 million in capspace


Portland:
They acquire a veteran laden bench. They use #36 to draft Russ Smith and get a young defender at the PG position. They resign Williams using the non-bird exception, use the MLE on a SG like Stuckey and the BAE on a 3rd string center like O'Neal (or Kaman/Okafor)

Lillard - Williams - Smith
Matthews - Stuckey - Barton
Batum - Wright - Delfino
Aldridge - Young - Claver
Lopez - Pachulia - O'Neal

[loserX]

You don't have Henson on the Milwaukee depth chart...adding him shows that the Bucks really don't need more bigs.

That said, I like the trades in general. Maybe spin one of Leonard or Freeland elsewhere and get the Bucks something else and IMHO you've got something here. Nice work, DBR.

[Trader_Joe]

You don't have Henson on the Milwaukee depth chart...adding him shows that the Bucks really don't need more bigs.

That said, I like the trades in general. Maybe spin one of Leonard or Freeland elsewhere and get the Bucks something else and IMHO you've got something here. Nice work, DBR.

They also don't need vets locked up on long term deals like Zaza and Delfino.
I actually kind of like it for the Bucks personally. It's no game changer but it makes some sense.

As for the Philly trade, it looks like an overpay for Young IMO.

But.. like you, I like the final product for Portland and think there is something here.

[loserX]

You don't have Henson on the Milwaukee depth chart...adding him shows that the Bucks really don't need more bigs.

That said, I like the trades in general. Maybe spin one of Leonard or Freeland elsewhere and get the Bucks something else and IMHO you've got something here. Nice work, DBR.

They also don't need vets locked up on long term deals like Zaza and Delfino.
I actually kind of like it for the Bucks personally. It's no game changer but it makes some sense.

I'm not saying that the Bucks should keep those guys, just that the package they're getting in exchange could use a tweak or two.

[jowglenn]

I like both deals in terms of value; Bucks get to walk back their competing-with-vets pipe dream from last offseason, and philly gets two young guys to pile minutes on instead of thad young.

Issue is there's a bit of a log jam in portland's front court, and their backcourt needs help. I don't think paying pachulia 5 million and young 8 million to be bench players is necessarily the wisest move.

But it's not terrible; definitely a talent upgrade.

[mlloyd10]

You don't have Henson on the Milwaukee depth chart...adding him shows that the Bucks really don't need more bigs.

That said, I like the trades in general. Maybe spin one of Leonard or Freeland elsewhere and get the Bucks something else and IMHO you've got something here. Nice work, DBR.

They also don't need vets locked up on long term deals like Zaza and Delfino.
I actually kind of like it for the Bucks personally. It's no game changer but it makes some sense.

As for the Philly trade, it looks like an overpay for Young IMO.

But.. like you, I like the final product for Portland and think there is something here.

Long term? Zaza 2 years, Delfino 1 yr with option

[damecurry]

I like both deals in terms of value; Bucks get to walk back their competing-with-vets pipe dream from last offseason, and philly gets two young guys to pile minutes on instead of thad young.

Issue is there's a bit of a log jam in portland's front court, and their backcourt needs help. I don't think paying pachulia 5 million and young 8 million to be bench players is necessarily the wisest move.

But it's not terrible; definitely a talent upgrade.

Simple fix to the log-jam is don't use the bae on a 3rd center. Apply it to Steve Blake/Kirk Heinrich as a 3rd guard. I don't mind paying Young 8m or Zaza 5, it's better than paying 6m to cj/trob or 5m to Meyers/Joel. I like Thad off the bench a lot, he could play either forward position to get the 25+ mpg he deserves, and his attacking post-game oriented scoring would go well next to LMA or Batum. I like the trade idea overall a lot.

[jowglenn]

I like both deals in terms of value; Bucks get to walk back their competing-with-vets pipe dream from last offseason, and philly gets two young guys to pile minutes on instead of thad young.

Issue is there's a bit of a log jam in portland's front court, and their backcourt needs help. I don't think paying pachulia 5 million and young 8 million to be bench players is necessarily the wisest move.

But it's not terrible; definitely a talent upgrade.

Simple fix to the log-jam is don't use the bae on a 3rd center. Apply it to Steve Blake/Kirk Heinrich as a 3rd guard. I don't mind paying Young 8m or Zaza 5, it's better than paying 6m to cj/trob or 5m to Meyers/Joel. I like Thad off the bench a lot, he could play either forward position to get the 25+ mpg he deserves, and his attacking post-game oriented scoring would go well next to LMA or Batum. I like the trade idea overall a lot.

Good point - I forgot how much Robinson, Freeland, et al are getting paid.

As long as they can get a good backup guard with the BAE, and then re-sign Mo Williams & find another decent piece with the vet min then I think it's a very solid offseason.

[Big_Apple]

Everything seems fine, but I think the Blazers should definitely look at a lot of other options before making trade 1.

For example, I'm not exactly sure how far Indiana is willing to go to stay under the tax and resign Lance Stephenson, but maybe they would give Portland an asset to take on Ian Mahinmi.

Also, has Omer Asik's value declined enough that the Blazers could swing a deal for him?

[Blazinaway]

I would not mind sending CJ to CLE for a sign and trade of Hawes who might get modestly more than the MLE, that way POR retains its full MLE, I like Hawes for the Blazers as he would fit nicely next to Lopez or LMA and is way better than Zaza, I really do not want Zaza - rather sign Jordan Hill

[buckboy]

Wouldn't give 36 in that deal. I'd do it without it though. Might attach a 2018ish 2nd.

[Wizenheimer]

I like trade #2...would prefer TRob & McCollum plus a future 1st for Aaron Afflalo but I imagine that's not enough

so TRob and CJ for Young is fine

I'm not so fond of trade #1. Pretty meh deal, IMO, but that's probably true for both teams. My suggestion would be that the Bucks could keep their pick if the trade could be expanded to include a S&T for Ramon Sessions to Portland

[the_process]

Sixers are in for a TRob and McCollum for Thad Young deal.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Wouldn't give 36 in that deal. I'd do it without it though. Might attach a 2018ish 2nd.

Haha. Well to be honest the deal kind of falls apart there. Let me explain:


The heart of the deal here is Pachulia for Leonard, Freeland. This saves the Bucks $5.1 million over the next two years and allows them to try out a couple young players. Even if they don't work out, this increases the Bucks capspace next summer. Since the salary is pretty much the same in 2014-2015, the Blazers could sweeten this offer by also taking back Delfino and saving the Bucks more money this year, but it requires another small contract. The best candidate is Crabbe, who has a small contract but also holds more value to the Blazers than just filler. He was the #31 pick last year (and we traded 2 seconds specifically to get him), so we would at least want a similar pick to compensate for his value. We might throw in some cash to help grease the wheels, but if we don't get that pick, then we don't include Crabbe (or cash), which means Delfino is also out of the trade, and the Bucks don't save any money this year making the whole thing less attractive from their POV.

So the offers are either:
1. Pachulia for Leonard, Freeland
2. Pachulia, Delfino, #36 for Leonard, Freeland, Crabbe and cash considerations.

I much prefer the first, but I thought Milwaukee would like the second better.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

My suggestion would be that the Bucks could keep their pick if the trade could be expanded to include a S&T for Ramon Sessions to Portland

This is interesting to me. However, I don't see how this is feasible. It would require Wright going to Milwaukee just to match salary, would it not? I have trouble seeing either team getting on board with that.

[Foshan]

I can think of a handful of other moves I'd prefer to do with Thad first, from a Philly POV, specifically deals around draft day. That said, if those didn't work out, this would be worth considering.

Only exception would be if we land Embiid some how. T.Young is the perfect third big to play with Noel/Embiid in a
Young (36)/Noel (12)
Embiid (30)/Noel (18)

First year no way Noel/Embiid would need more than 30mins... heck they'd both probably foul out around 24. but while we get them use to playing, Thad would be the perfect glue guy. That's maybe one of the few exceptions that I would make me against trading thad at all.

[Embiid P]

I can think of a handful of other moves I'd prefer to do with Thad first, from a Philly POV, specifically deals around draft day. That said, if those didn't work out, this would be worth considering.

Only exception would be if we land Embiid some how. T.Young is the perfect third big to play with Noel/Embiid in a
Young (36)/Noel (12)
Embiid (30)/Noel (18)

First year no way Noel/Embiid would need more than 30mins... heck they'd both probably foul out around 24. but while we get them use to playing, Thad would be the perfect glue guy. That's maybe one of the few exceptions that I would make me against trading thad at all.

This. I'd do this trade only if we can't get enough value for Thad on draft day.

[Wizenheimer]

My suggestion would be that the Bucks could keep their pick if the trade could be expanded to include a S&T for Ramon Sessions to Portland

This is interesting to me. However, I don't see how this is feasible. It would require Wright going to Milwaukee just to match salary, would it not? I have trouble seeing either team getting on board with that.

yeah, there's a salary issue, although adding Claver would allow the Blazers to sign Sessions for 3 million. That could even be done with an agreement from Claver to agree to a reduced buyout, with Portland sending the cash to cover the cost

on the other hand, there is the issue of Delfino's foot. He broke it over a year ago and had surgery in May 2013. By December, it was obvious the surgery had failed so he had a 2nd surgery in Argentina. That was 6 months ago, Delfino gave an interview about 3 weeks ago indicating he hadn't resumed activity yet but had a meeting with the doctor scheduled in a week to see if he could start resuming physical activity. And he "hoped" he might be ready by the pre-season. That's not a situation I'd imagine the Blazers want to trade into

if Sessions can't be had then it might be better if the trade was just Freeland + Crabbe for Zaza

[Texas Chuck]

Well thought out. Took other teams direction into account. I like it. I'd love to see what Portland could do with a more competent, more veteran bench. Nice post.

[buckboy]

Wouldn't give 36 in that deal. I'd do it without it though. Might attach a 2018ish 2nd.

Haha. Well to be honest the deal kind of falls apart there. Let me explain:


The heart of the deal here is Pachulia for Leonard, Freeland. This saves the Bucks $5.1 million over the next two years and allows them to try out a couple young players. Even if they don't work out, this increases the Bucks capspace next summer. Since the salary is pretty much the same in 2014-2015, the Blazers could sweeten this offer by also taking back Delfino and saving the Bucks more money this year, but it requires another small contract. The best candidate is Crabbe, who has a small contract but also holds more value to the Blazers than just filler. He was the #31 pick last year (and we traded 2 seconds specifically to get him), so we would at least want a similar pick to compensate for his value. We might throw in some cash to help grease the wheels, but if we don't get that pick, then we don't include Crabbe (or cash), which means Delfino is also out of the trade, and the Bucks don't save any money this year making the whole thing less attractive from their POV.

So the offers are either:
1. Pachulia for Leonard, Freeland
2. Pachulia, Delfino, #36 for Leonard, Freeland, Crabbe and cash considerations.

I much prefer the first, but I thought Milwaukee would like the second better.

I strongly prefer the first as well.