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Trade #1
CHI trades: Lonzo Ball, 2025 2nd round pick (SAC)
CHI receives: Norman Powell

POR trades: Robert Williams III
POR receives: P.J. Tucker, Bones Hyland, 2025 2nd round pick (SAC)

LAC trades: P.J. Tucker, Norman Powell, Bones Hyland
LAC receives: Robert Williams III, Lonzo Ball

WHY FOR CHI? Get some scoring off the bench for the corpse of Lonzo Ball and a 2nd rounder.
WHY FOR POR? Get a former 1st rounder in Bones Hyland and a future 2nd for Timelord. Tucker can be immediately waived.
WHY FOR LAC? They are too wing heavy and could use some depth in the frontcourt with RWIII. Trade the corpse of PJ Tucker for the corpse of Lonzo, but maybe rejuvenate him by bringing him back to LA.

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Trade #2 - another three-way trade with Portland since the consolidated 4-way trade does not seem to work.

CHI trades: Zach LaVine, Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry
CHI receives: Deandre Ayton, Matisse Thybulle

POR trades: Deandre Ayton, Matisse Thybulle
POR receives: Ben Simmons, Jalen Wilson, Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry

BRK trades: Ben Simmons, Jalen Wilson
BRK receives: Zach LaVine

WHY FOR CHI? Just end the years long drama with Zach LaVine and cut ties. Get a younger center and bring in Thy"BULL"e.
WHY FOR BRK? There were talks of Jimmy Butler and BRK. Honestly, if they need a headliner, LaVine would be a better option due to his age.
WHY FOR POR? Completely tear down the team and go into full rebuilding mode. Ben can be waived immediately and off the books by next offseason. Also, receive three young players who were a first rounder, a high second rounder, and a low second rounder respectively. Essentially three recent picks.

**Note: For those who'll bring up roster spots - In the offseason, you can have up to 18 players on the roster (plus 2 two-ways), but it needs to be trimmed down by the beginning of the season.

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Trade #3

CHI trades: Nikola Vucevic, Jevon Carter
GS trades: Andrew Wiggins, Gui Santos

WHY FOR CHI? Wiggins is a few years younger than Vooch. Plus, with the Ayton trade above, he's expendable.
WHY FOR GS? Steph only has a few years left and GS needs to shore up their frontcourt, especially at center. That seems to be their Achilles heel.

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Thoughts?

Pass for POR.

#1 if there is one thing POR does not need it is another tiny offense only sg.

#2 I think Ben Simmons has some nba basketball left in him but he needs a stable environment with solid on and off court leadership and POR doesn’t have either.

JRoy wrote:Pass for POR.

#1 if there is one thing POR does not need it is another tiny offense only sg.

#2 I think Ben Simmons has some nba basketball left in him but he needs a stable environment with solid on and off court leadership and POR doesn’t have either.

Simmons would be waived immediately and just wait for him to come off the cap. He's only salary ballast. Bones Hyland would help with the tank and the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.

Toine85 wrote:

JRoy wrote:Pass for POR.

#1 if there is one thing POR does not need it is another tiny offense only sg.

#2 I think Ben Simmons has some nba basketball left in him but he needs a stable environment with solid on and off court leadership and POR doesn’t have either.

Simmons would be waived immediately and just wait for him to come off the cap. He's only salary ballast. Bones Hyland would help with the tank and the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.

I understand your reasoning, I just disagree.

Toine85 wrote:POR trades: Robert Williams III
POR receives: P.J. Tucker, Bones Hyland, 2025 2nd round pick (SAC)

This does nothing for Portland. I'm not very high on Bones. He's young - but I don't think he's very good.

I would much rather hang onto RWIII and see how he plays out the season.

Toine85 wrote:POR trades: Deandre Ayton, Matisse Thybulle
POR receives: Ben Simmons, Jalen Wilson, Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry

This one is at least a little more interesting to me. I like the *idea* of what Phillips and Terry can be. Not sure either one of them ever reach Thybulle's level of impact -> but the potential is there.

IMO, it all boils down to Ayton vs Simmons here. Ayton is more consistent and plays more. Simmons is more talented (albeit somewhat flawed). Given the roster makeup of the Blazers -> I'd rather keep Ayton.

This would be much more interesting of a trade if there were 'shooters' coming back in a trade with Simmons.

I dont think PDX does either.

Trade 1 - I hold out for more than 1 SRP for RWIII.
Trade 2 - I dont think PDX is interested in salary dumping Ayton - for better or worse.

I think Portland could/should consider doing one of these deals but not both. It's awkward to have Ayton and Williams at center next year so there's merit for essentially salary dumping one, but there's no need to dump both.

For GS - there's some merit to the Wiggins/Vuc swap but at this point I'm not really interested

JRoy wrote:

Toine85 wrote:

JRoy wrote:Pass for POR.

#1 if there is one thing POR does not need it is another tiny offense only sg.

#2 I think Ben Simmons has some nba basketball left in him but he needs a stable environment with solid on and off court leadership and POR doesn’t have either.

Simmons would be waived immediately and just wait for him to come off the cap. He's only salary ballast. Bones Hyland would help with the tank and the Cooper Flagg sweepstakes.

I understand your reasoning, I just disagree.

I can respect that.

Trade #1

The Bulls have Giddey, White and Dosunmu that as things stand now are part of the future. Is Powell going to be happy as the 4th guard for the 2 years on his contract? He can score but Giddey is the PG and is a good rebounder, if White makes gain anywhere close to what he did over last summer he's the face of the franchise. Dosunmu is the best defensive guard they have now with Caruso gone, he made very good strides last year and is a hard off season worker. The Bulls can't sacrifice their minutes for Powell who is a score and not a lot more. Until some team trades for Lonzo Ball, I will not believe any team wants him.

Trade #2

just get PORT to agree, the Bulls do that in a FLASH. I guess Julian Phillips is just there for the money, he hasn't played enough to be of any value to another team. Take Torrey Craig and let the Bulls have a young guy to develop. If there is a CHI/PORT trade and that 1st round pick doesn't go back to the Blazers, you're not paying attention. Makes no sense to add Thybulle and Powell as they fight to be the 4th or 5th guard.

trade #3

Yes the Bulls need to move Vucevic, GSW can fit most anybody in with Steph. I don't see how Wiggins fits the Bulls timeline. 2 Years at more money than Vuc, he isn't really a 4 so they still have Patrick Williams at the 4 with his 5 year deal. They don't want Wiggins taking shots away from White, Williams, Giddey and does Ayton like being the 4th? option while thinking he should be a #2?

The turnover in personnel for the Bulls looks like a Bulls fan drew this up, they get a lot more than they give up

Blazers have a full roster. To complete these trades, they would need to release 3 players just to take on a bunch of players they should have no interest keeping. These look like salary dumps and nothing else to me, and we don’t need to do this much roster overhaul for a little salary relief and talent downgrade. Most importantly, I can’t see Portland going from 4 centers deep to relying on Clingan and Reath to fill the 48 minutes at center, thus pushing others into that position.

As admittedly brutal as this sounds, I'm cautiously optimistic that Wiggins will have a bounce back season now that his dad has passed and the illness isn't looming over him.

How many first rounders are you giving Brooklyn to take Levine's salary for an expiring contract and a young prospect who dominated the Summer League?

if you take both Portland trades together:

Portland has 15 players with guaranteed contracts. These two trades have Portland trading 2 players and taking back 6 players. The Blazers with have to waive 4 players and eat their contracts in order to do these deals

and, Portland is in a rebuild, trades a starter and a backup, and only receives one 2nd round pick.

there is not nearly enough incentive for the Blazers to consider either deal

Wizenheimer wrote:if you take both Portland trades together:

Portland has 15 players with guaranteed contracts. These two trades have Portland trading 2 players and taking back 6 players. The Blazers with have to waive 4 players and eat their contracts in order to do these deals

and, Portland is in a rebuild, trades a starter and a backup, and only receives one 2nd round pick.

there is not nearly enough incentive for the Blazers to consider either deal

Yep, except we send out 3 players so we need to waive 3, not 4.

Myth wrote:

Wizenheimer wrote:if you take both Portland trades together:

Portland has 15 players with guaranteed contracts. These two trades have Portland trading 2 players and taking back 6 players. The Blazers with have to waive 4 players and eat their contracts in order to do these deals

and, Portland is in a rebuild, trades a starter and a backup, and only receives one 2nd round pick.

there is not nearly enough incentive for the Blazers to consider either deal

Yep, except we send out 3 players so we need to waive 3, not 4.

apparently, counting past 2 is difficult for me

Kawhi Lonzo and RW3 on the same team?

It’s the dream we all dream of.

If the Bulls give BK 3 first rounders they might have to consider the trade. But, do the Bulls own 3 unprotected 1st round picks to trade at this time?

The Blazers can't really do this for roster reasons mentioned, but I actually think the compensation is fine. Hosting a Simmons reclamation tour isn't a terrible idea for a team whose primary motivation is landing its most important piece in next year's draft, and there's always that 1% chance he recovers and becomes a connective piece for the young talents to grow with. Then again, Ayton is also a perfectly suitable tank commander, and the Blazers don't have to do any of this. Maybe they would want more for this shuffle.

I say this as a big Simmons fan

He’s basically worthless unless he proves that he can stay on the court or until closer to the deadline when it’s dead salary

He’s way better than Ayton but he’s never healthy

The only teams who should trade for him now are those that believe he’s actually able to contribute or those who are happy to see him sit all year

As a Brooklyn fan, he’s got the potential to destroy our tank BUT I wouldn’t bet on it