Orlando - Pelicans - Blazers

[tiderulz]

Orlando has no interest in Simons, they only want 2 way players.

then why did they draft Jett Howard?

[Skybox]

Orlando has no interest in Simons, they only want 2 way players.

We shall see…

[Skybox]

I don’t think the idea of just having Ayton hanging around will be as appealing for the organization as so did you make it sound. He’s got two years left, he plays the same position as your top 10 pick and Portland is getting ready for the 2025 draft.

You bring him off the bench and he becomes a negative asset. You start him and you delay development of your new center. You start them both and you clog the paint for star guard. I’m biased but I don’t think it makes sense to keep him.

If they can’t find a taker…I’d roll them both out as “Twin Towers” and hope for the best (for now)…just pretending Ayton isn’t there will just make it worse.

[lordjeff05]

I definitely think there’s a taker. I’m not sure what kind of return they expect to get though. But I don’t think it will take much. Maybe im wrong.

[lordjeff05]

I don’t think the idea of just having Ayton hanging around will be as appealing for the organization as so did you make it sound. He’s got two years left, he plays the same position as your top 10 pick and Portland is getting ready for the 2025 draft.

You bring him off the bench and he becomes a negative asset. You start him and you delay development of your new center. You start them both and you clog the paint for star guard. I’m biased but I don’t think it makes sense to keep him.

You have to consider the Blazers’ perspective here.

Scoot/Sharpe/Ant/Ayton only played 5 games together last season. That quartet is basically still an unknown.

Clingan has so far been a low minutes player and is coming off a foot injury. Probably the worst thing the Blazers could do is hand Clingan the keys with no healthy backup (fingers crossed for TL) and say “okay, play 38 minutes a game…”

Much better to keep Ayton short-term, allow his contract to gain even a little more value and let Clingan adjust to the NBA IN A 20 minute role.

Look, you never know but if they were committed to seeing if those pieces could work they wouldn’t have made the moves they made. Two picks for Deni (who I like) drafting and keeping Clingan, a player that several teams were after.

As for minutes, you still have time lord and Reath. I get the injury concerns but between those two and potential two ways I don’t think that’s a huge concern. I think maybe that’s less the case if Portland were trying to win games but I think they preparing for the 25 draft.

Finally I don’t think this a situation for Ayton that is designed to maximize Ayton’s value. You start him at the 5 and you’re cutting in to his minutes. You put him at the 4 and spacing is horrible.

I don’t think his value is any worse than when the season started but im not sure how that situation is setup to increase his value either.

I’m intrigued to see what scoop, sharpe avidija, grant and clingan look like together. Grant isn’t a long term play at the 4 but he’s a good proxy for what you’d want at that spot. That’s a lot of length in the front court and decent size at all the positions.