Ayton, Grant, and Simons for anything?

[Braggins]

Looking at the trade machine and its hard to find trades for Simons and Ayton, but they are the guys that really needed to be traded.

Its hard to imagine anyone taking on Ayton on that contract unless someone gets super desperate or unless maybe the Bulls wanted him. I don't think he'll net any decent draft composition.

I think there might be a little bit of a market for Simons. I could see him making sense on Orlando and they have a bunch of extra picks. Maybe something like Harris + Anthony + 1st for Simons. Cut Gary Harris and give Cole Anthony a try out as backup PG to see if he can play closer to previous years level.

If they just pulled off the Simons trade I think that would at least provide some more balance to this roster. One of the main problems I see is that besides Scoot and Avdija, there isn't a single player on this team that has any court vision or passing ability. Simons is the best scoring threat and kind of has to start if hes on the roster, but you can't really pair him with Scoot, so they end up forced into basically playing without a PG in the starting lineup and Scoot ends up playing in lineups with no spacing and usually no lob threat.

starters: Scoot ~ Sharpe ~ Avdija ~ Grant ~ Ayton
bench5: Anthony ~ Thybulle ~ Camara ~ RWIII ~ Clingan
depth: Banton ~ Rupert ~ Murray ~ Reath

[BlazersBroncos]

I would move Ayton for CJ at this point assuming we have a deal for Simons.

Same contract length and CJ can potentially bring some fire and professionalism to the locker room - some accountability. Its pretty clear this team has no fire and is just going through the motions. Its gross. I want to see much more of TL and for Clingan to get more run.

Ayton for CJ + meh youngster (Matkovic or Reeaves - would go SRP or two but NO has none and IMO there are no other real Ayton suitors at this poing).

Simons + Walker for Harris + Cole + lower of 25 FRP (Both Top-20 protected).

G - Scoot Henderson / CJ McCollum / Cole Anthony
G - Shadeon Sharpe CJ McCollum / Dalano Banton
F - Jerami Grant / Rayan Rupert / Antonio Reeaves
F - Deni Avdija / Toumari Camara / Kris Murray
C - Robert Williams III / Donovan Clingan / Duop Reath

[Butter]

I would move Ayton for CJ at this point assuming we have a deal for Simons.

Same contract length and CJ can potentially bring some fire and professionalism to the locker room - some accountability. Its pretty clear this team has no fire and is just going through the motions. Its gross. I want to see much more of TL and for Clingan to get more run.

Ayton for CJ + meh youngster (Matkovic or Reeaves - would go SRP or two but NO has none and IMO there are no other real Ayton suitors at this poing).

Simons + Walker for Harris + Cole + lower of 25 FRP (Both Top-20 protected).

G - Scoot Henderson / CJ McCollum / Cole Anthony
G - Shadeon Sharpe CJ McCollum / Dalano Banton
F - Jerami Grant / Rayan Rupert / Antonio Reeaves
F - Deni Avdija / Toumari Camara / Kris Murray
C - Robert Williams III / Donovan Clingan / Duop Reath

All due respect.... NOOOOOOOOOOOO, NOPE, NUNCA, NO NO NO, NEGATIVE, NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Waiting for Wiz response....

[BlazersBroncos]

I would move Ayton for CJ at this point assuming we have a deal for Simons.

Same contract length and CJ can potentially bring some fire and professionalism to the locker room - some accountability. Its pretty clear this team has no fire and is just going through the motions. Its gross. I want to see much more of TL and for Clingan to get more run.

Ayton for CJ + meh youngster (Matkovic or Reeaves - would go SRP or two but NO has none and IMO there are no other real Ayton suitors at this poing).

Simons + Walker for Harris + Cole + lower of 25 FRP (Both Top-20 protected).

G - Scoot Henderson / CJ McCollum / Cole Anthony
G - Shadeon Sharpe CJ McCollum / Dalano Banton
F - Jerami Grant / Rayan Rupert / Antonio Reeaves
F - Deni Avdija / Toumari Camara / Kris Murray
C - Robert Williams III / Donovan Clingan / Duop Reath

All due respect.... NOOOOOOOOOOOO, NOPE, NUNCA, NO NO NO, NEGATIVE, NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Waiting for Wiz response....

I literally dont see a single other team with the chance of being interested in Ayton. None. I dont think CHI would do a straight Vuc for Ayton swap at this point. I dont see many other teams with big ballast contracts to swap. Where else can we send this guy to get more minutes for TL and Clingan? His first game back I saw more fire in TL's play than over a year of Ayton here.

I would rather have only CJ on this team than both Simons and Ayton. And I dont like CJ one bit. I do think he is much more of a locker room vet leader than any of the vets we currently are overpaying.

[PDXKnight]

I would move Ayton for CJ at this point assuming we have a deal for Simons.

Same contract length and CJ can potentially bring some fire and professionalism to the locker room - some accountability. Its pretty clear this team has no fire and is just going through the motions. Its gross. I want to see much more of TL and for Clingan to get more run.

Ayton for CJ + meh youngster (Matkovic or Reeaves - would go SRP or two but NO has none and IMO there are no other real Ayton suitors at this poing).

Simons + Walker for Harris + Cole + lower of 25 FRP (Both Top-20 protected).

G - Scoot Henderson / CJ McCollum / Cole Anthony
G - Shadeon Sharpe CJ McCollum / Dalano Banton
F - Jerami Grant / Rayan Rupert / Antonio Reeaves
F - Deni Avdija / Toumari Camara / Kris Murray
C - Robert Williams III / Donovan Clingan / Duop Reath

All due respect.... NOOOOOOOOOOOO, NOPE, NUNCA, NO NO NO, NEGATIVE, NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Waiting for Wiz response....

I literally dont see a single other team with the chance of being interested in Ayton. None. I dont think CHI would do a straight Vuc for Ayton swap at this point. I dont see many other teams with big ballast contracts to swap. Where else can we send this guy to get more minutes for TL and Clingan? His first game back I saw more fire in TL's play than over a year of Ayton here.

I would rather have only CJ on this team than both Simons and Ayton. And I dont like CJ one bit. I do think he is much more of a locker room vet leader than any of the vets we currently are overpaying.

I think ayton is worth more than cj. Bigs are harder to come by, short volume guards are a dime a dozen, plus ayton is 7 years younger. Not sure what aytons value is though being close to the end of his contract it might not be negative. If anything it's probably at or approaching neutral once we are past the deadline. He can rebound and bring some interior scoring im sure at least a few teams would take a flyer more than they would with cj as most teams have some version of a cj

[Butter]

All due respect.... NOOOOOOOOOOOO, NOPE, NUNCA, NO NO NO, NEGATIVE, NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Waiting for Wiz response....

I literally dont see a single other team with the chance of being interested in Ayton. None. I dont think CHI would do a straight Vuc for Ayton swap at this point. I dont see many other teams with big ballast contracts to swap. Where else can we send this guy to get more minutes for TL and Clingan? His first game back I saw more fire in TL's play than over a year of Ayton here.

I would rather have only CJ on this team than both Simons and Ayton. And I dont like CJ one bit. I do think he is much more of a locker room vet leader than any of the vets we currently are overpaying.

I think ayton is worth more than cj. Bigs are harder to come by, short volume guards are a dime a dozen, plus ayton is 7 years younger. Not sure what aytons value is though being close to the end of his contract it might not be negative. If anything it's probably at or approaching neutral once we are past the deadline. He can rebound and bring some interior scoring im sure at least a few teams would take a flyer more than they would with cj as most teams have some version of a cj

Ayton is averaging a double double this season, with solid rebounding. I do agree that he's be a solid fit next to Zion, but NOT at the cost of bringing CJ back.

CJ seems like a great teammate and human being, but his age, salary and position do not fit where this team needs to go

[BlazersBroncos]

Please give an example of a team that would trade for Ayton? I dont see any market. NO is unique as they started w/ poor big depth and Zion is now out. They have a player (CJ) with a similar contract ending the same time. I dont think we could ask for better than that.

Again, I dont like CJ. But if the end result is CJ in and both Simons and Ayton out - sign me up all day.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

I wouldn't do Ayton for CJ straight up, the Pelicans would have to kick a little something back towards us. Would they/should they? I dunno, Ayton doesn't solve many of their issues either. It's maybe fair trade value straight up but this solves a need for them and creates an unnecessary redundancy for us, Portland does not need to get older and smaller even if we might get a tad better with another shooter.

I would rather have too much big man depth than too much guard depth with our current roster. Even after moving Simons we would have Banton, Scoot and Deni all who need the ball in their hands so I see no benefit to adding CJ to the mix there unless he comes with a little something extra.

[BlazersBroncos]

I wouldn't do Ayton for CJ straight up, the Pelicans would have to kick a little something back towards us. Would they/should they? I dunno, Ayton doesn't solve many of their issues either. It's maybe fair trade value straight up but this solves a need for them and creates an unnecessary redundancy for us, Portland does not need to get older and smaller even if we might get a tad better with another shooter.

I would rather have too much big man depth than too much guard depth with our current roster. Even after moving Simons we would have Banton, Scoot and Deni all who need the ball in their hands so I see no benefit to adding CJ to the mix there unless he comes with a little something extra.

Banton should not be viewed as more than a tank commander. I dont think we should think about him at all when it comes to making roster moves.

My thought w/ CJ is that we need to create room for TL and Donovan. We could also use a culture setter. I have never seen a Blazers team with this piss poor effort and body language. The fact we have vets doesnt mean we have the right vets. I dont want CJ back, but look at the league - there isnt a single team out there that would have interest (IMO) in him outside NO. No team is trading assets for him, few teams even have matching salary for him.

To me, at this point, despite having likely the most value I am fine with Grant. But Ant and Ayton just 10000% need to be kicked out of town. Simons has checked out and Ayton is just empty calories.

Again - I only like a CJ for Ayton swap if we can jettison Simons. I dont see many routes to getting Ant and Ayton out of town - this is the one I can think of. Sell Simons off to ORL or something and swap Ayton for CJ - end result is 1 undersized chucker instead of 1 undersized chucker and 1 overpaid empty calorie big who is blocking better (TL) and younger (DC) from the minutes they should get.

[PDXKnight]

Please give an example of a team that would trade for Ayton? I dont see any market. NO is unique as they started w/ poor big depth and Zion is now out. They have a player (CJ) with a similar contract ending the same time. I dont think we could ask for better than that.

Again, I dont like CJ. But if the end result is CJ in and both Simons and Ayton out - sign me up all day.

Matching the salaries for any player is tough with ayton no doubt. At the surface maybe a dark horse like Detroit Charlotte San Antonio or Washington makes a move just for the heck of it. Yes maybe NO as well. Not sure what direction we'd go tbh but I'm also not high on the cj for ayton idea and would stand pat unless they sweetened that deal up some

[Butter]

I wouldn't do Ayton for CJ straight up, the Pelicans would have to kick a little something back towards us. Would they/should they? I dunno, Ayton doesn't solve many of their issues either. It's maybe fair trade value straight up but this solves a need for them and creates an unnecessary redundancy for us, Portland does not need to get older and smaller even if we might get a tad better with another shooter.

I would rather have too much big man depth than too much guard depth with our current roster. Even after moving Simons we would have Banton, Scoot and Deni all who need the ball in their hands so I see no benefit to adding CJ to the mix there unless he comes with a little something extra.

Banton should not be viewed as more than a tank commander. I dont think we should think about him at all when it comes to making roster moves.

My thought w/ CJ is that we need to create room for TL and Donovan. We could also use a culture setter. I have never seen a Blazers team with this piss poor effort and body language. The fact we have vets doesnt mean we have the right vets. I dont want CJ back, but look at the league - there isnt a single team out there that would have interest (IMO) in him outside NO. No team is trading assets for him, few teams even have matching salary for him.

To me, at this point, despite having likely the most value I am fine with Grant. But Ant and Ayton just 10000% need to be kicked out of town. Simons has checked out and Ayton is just empty calories.

Again - I only like a CJ for Ayton swap if we can jettison Simons. I dont see many routes to getting Ant and Ayton out of town - this is the one I can think of. Sell Simons off to ORL or something and swap Ayton for CJ - end result is 1 undersized chucker instead of 1 undersized chucker and 1 overpaid empty calorie big who is blocking better (TL) and younger (DC) from the minutes they should get.

The Blazers are not bring CJ back, it's just not happening. You think Ayton is hard to trade? CJ is an undersized SG making more than Ant.

The only way something like that happens is if it's a three way deal. But good luck trying to find someone who will take CJs deal

[Norm2953]

CJ however is a professional and would give consistent effort every night.

He likely would play the role Brogdon played last year, a solid pro for Scoot to
learn from.

Clears up the center log jam

[Walton1one]

Is Ayton the main problem though? I mean, I agree that he is not a positive player per se, especially with that contract, however watching that game last night, he is not the #1 or even #4 problem with this team. Watching that fiasco last night did bring several things into focus for me, particularly in terms of the changes that need to be made first.

1) Simons has got to go, as soon as possible, the guy has become a malcontent. His play, his attitude, his body language. After the game, Simons took ZERO accountability, basically blaming his play on losing (of which HE is one the primary players who could fix that)

A reporter asked Simons if he sensed anything before the game that indicated something was off with the team. The seventh-year guard mentioned the team’s 127-102 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday and mounting frustration with the team’s losing record after going 21-61 last season.

“Having a bad year last year, and then coming in this year, things can start to really settle in,” Simons said. “The frustration can definitely build from there.”

I read that and all I see is, I am tired of losing, I don't want to be here, so I don't really care"

Yeah, he needs to go, priority #1. Any player that quits on his team, on himself, and then tries to blame losing on anything but himself is a cancer that needs to be cut away.

2) Billups - That performance last night, what Billups said after, are as clear of indicators as you can have of a coach who has lost the locker room and has no answers on how to rectify the ship. A lame duck coach, on a team focused on losing, who has prioritized playing vets and other players (Banton) who don't give a crap about winning. The ONLY reason he is still the coach is Cronin\Vulcan are to timid\cheap to make the move they know they needed to make LAST YEAR.

3) Grant - Look, offensively his game is fine, but last night watching him play, it is clear to me, that for THIS team he is not interested in providing anything else but to get his. The apathy to chase down a loose ball, rebound, hustle on the defensive end are not there, AT ALL. The ONLY thing he puts any significant effort into, is on the offensive end, scoring for himself. That is not going to change as long as he is in POR. He has value, trade him for whatever you can get.

4) Cronin\Schmitz and the rest of the POR mgmt - I pin this mainly on Cronin and a little on Schmitz. HE put this team together, just an absolute HORRIBLY constructed team. A team without any semblance of outside shooting, historically bad shooting actually and they did nothing to address it. Instead, they have repeatedly doubled down on the same type of player (long, athletic wings who CANNOT shoot): Camara, Sharpe, Banton, Rupert, Murray, Avdija, Walker, heck even their 2-way players: Minaya, McGowens, Moore. I mean do they even WATCH these guys play games?

Some of these guys, Camara\Avdija\Sharpe, obviously are decent\good players, or hovering around (below) league average, but to have an ENTIRE team of them? You cannot be surprised you shot 9.5%, 9.5 flipping % on 42!!! attempts, especially when your team was the WORST 3pt shooting team the prior year and the 2nd worst 2pt shooting team. Seriously, Joe?

You draft a PG, Scoot, who is a facilitator and then surround him with players who cannot convert off his passes and bigs who cannot\won't? set good screens and then play him next to another small ball dominate guard (Simons), or alongside a complete YMCA chucker (Banton), relegating Scoot to a stationary SG. Is that what he is? Is that his strength?

You spend (2) 1st's+ for Deni Avdija and then relegate him to a stationary 3&D type role, which you KNOW he is ill-suited for. Heck all you have to do is watch ONE freaking game of his in WAS to know what his strengths are (facilitator, pushing the pace), and then when he struggles 10 games into the season b\c your coach pigeonholed him in that role, which he is NOT good at and then act surprised that he came out last night (in the same damm role) played 13!!! minutes and still looked awful.

The fundamental issue with this team is roster management\composition, two timelines, focused on vets at the expense of developing young guys. THAT is on the GM and no coach can turn this turd of a roster into a diamond with what they have been given. Add structure (actual offensive plays) and prioritize effort and development, yes a coach can help with that, but you can only cook with the ingredients that you have on hand, and the fact is there are too many rotten ones on this roster.

5) Ownership - This is on Jodi and Bert Kolde and yes, on the spineless Adam Silver. Until this team has an actual owner who cares about building a winning team, there will continue to be headwinds preventing any semblance of success. Enough is enough Jodi sell the damm team, or if she won't then Silver needs to grow a spine and FORCE THE ISSUE>

So yeah, take care of those (5) priorities first and THEN we can worry about Ayton.

[BlazersBroncos]

Ayton has been a low motor bumbling oaf basically his entire career. We need a culture change. That starts with Ayton and Simons.

I am fine moving Grant as well but the best we could hope for is moving 2 of these 3 IMO. I have a hard time seeing us moving all 3. He also at least can space the floor for Scoot / Deni.

Just get Ant and Ayton off this team. I dont care if Grant has more trade value. Jettison these apathetic nothings and then we can talk about Jerami. I am just so **** sick of them.

CJ however is a professional and would give consistent effort every night.

He likely would play the role Brogdon played last year, a solid pro for Scoot to
learn from.

Clears up the center log jam

This. Addition by subtraction. Same contract length is enough for me. Dumping Ayton is worth a reunion with CJ.

[DusterBuster]

Ayton has been a low motor bumbling oaf basically his entire career. We need a culture change. That starts with Ayton and Simons.

I am fine moving Grant as well but the best we could hope for is moving 2 of these 3 IMO. I have a hard time seeing us moving all 3. He also at least can space the floor for Scoot / Deni.

Just get Ant and Ayton off this team. I dont care if Grant has more trade value. Jettison these apathetic nothings and then we can talk about Jerami. I am just so **** sick of them.

CJ however is a professional and would give consistent effort every night.

He likely would play the role Brogdon played last year, a solid pro for Scoot to
learn from.

Clears up the center log jam

This. Addition by subtraction. Same contract length is enough for me. Dumping Ayton is worth a reunion with CJ.

I don't know how much a "culture" change is needed, at least not in how I would define a "culture change"... That being a team of malcontents like in the ZBo / DMiles era... THAT team needed a culture change.

This team just needs a defined direction. Having a lame-duck coach who literally everyone knows won't return and both himself and the team basically doing a staring content to see who'll blink first, Billups wanting to get fired so he gets his money, the Blazers wanting him to resign so they don't have to pay him. A change of anything needs to be that. Get a coach in here who actually wants to be a developmental coach, not one who's clearly pretty checked out and just here to cash checks until the job ends. If the Blazers being cheap is why they are not making this move, they should just cut the cord with Billups and give the job to an interim HC from the current assistant bench or even the Remix that can just sputter this jalopy of a team across the finish line to the lottery. That way they aren't double paying for a coach if they just use someone already on the payroll.

Then start fire-selling the vets.

[tester551]

1) Simons has got to go, as soon as possible, the guy has become a malcontent. His play, his attitude, his body language. After the game, Simons took ZERO accountability, basically blaming his play on losing (of which HE is one the primary players who could fix that)

A reporter asked Simons if he sensed anything before the game that indicated something was off with the team. The seventh-year guard mentioned the team’s 127-102 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday and mounting frustration with the team’s losing record after going 21-61 last season.

“Having a bad year last year, and then coming in this year, things can start to really settle in,” Simons said. “The frustration can definitely build from there.”

I read that and all I see is, I am tired of losing, I don't want to be here, so I don't really care"

Yeah, he needs to go, priority #1. Any player that quits on his team, on himself, and then tries to blame losing on anything but himself is a cancer that needs to be cut away.

2) Billups - That performance last night, what Billups said after, are as clear of indicators as you can have of a coach who has lost the locker room and has no answers on how to rectify the ship. A lame duck coach, on a team focused on losing, who has prioritized playing vets and other players (Banton) who don't give a crap about winning. The ONLY reason he is still the coach is Cronin\Vulcan are to timid\cheap to make the move they know they needed to make LAST YEAR.

COMPLETELY agree with these first two items.

[JRoy]

Is Ayton the main problem though? I mean, I agree that he is not a positive player per se, especially with that contract, however watching that game last night, he is not the #1 or even #4 problem with this team. Watching that fiasco last night did bring several things into focus for me, particularly in terms of the changes that need to be made first.

1) Simons has got to go, as soon as possible, the guy has become a malcontent. His play, his attitude, his body language. After the game, Simons took ZERO accountability, basically blaming his play on losing (of which HE is one the primary players who could fix that)

A reporter asked Simons if he sensed anything before the game that indicated something was off with the team. The seventh-year guard mentioned the team’s 127-102 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday and mounting frustration with the team’s losing record after going 21-61 last season.

“Having a bad year last year, and then coming in this year, things can start to really settle in,” Simons said. “The frustration can definitely build from there.”

I read that and all I see is, I am tired of losing, I don't want to be here, so I don't really care"

Yeah, he needs to go, priority #1. Any player that quits on his team, on himself, and then tries to blame losing on anything but himself is a cancer that needs to be cut away.

2) Billups - That performance last night, what Billups said after, are as clear of indicators as you can have of a coach who has lost the locker room and has no answers on how to rectify the ship. A lame duck coach, on a team focused on losing, who has prioritized playing vets and other players (Banton) who don't give a crap about winning. The ONLY reason he is still the coach is Cronin\Vulcan are to timid\cheap to make the move they know they needed to make LAST YEAR.

3) Grant - Look, offensively his game is fine, but last night watching him play, it is clear to me, that for THIS team he is not interested in providing anything else but to get his. The apathy to chase down a loose ball, rebound, hustle on the defensive end are not there, AT ALL. The ONLY thing he puts any significant effort into, is on the offensive end, scoring for himself. That is not going to change as long as he is in POR. He has value, trade him for whatever you can get.

4) Cronin\Schmitz and the rest of the POR mgmt - I pin this mainly on Cronin and a little on Schmitz. HE put this team together, just an absolute HORRIBLY constructed team. A team without any semblance of outside shooting, historically bad shooting actually and they did nothing to address it. Instead, they have repeatedly doubled down on the same type of player (long, athletic wings who CANNOT shoot): Camara, Sharpe, Banton, Rupert, Murray, Avdija, Walker, heck even their 2-way players: Minaya, McGowens, Moore. I mean do they even WATCH these guys play games?

Some of these guys, Camara\Avdija\Sharpe, obviously are decent\good players, or hovering around (below) league average, but to have an ENTIRE team of them? You cannot be surprised you shot 9.5%, 9.5 flipping % on 42!!! attempts, especially when your team was the WORST 3pt shooting team the prior year and the 2nd worst 2pt shooting team. Seriously, Joe?

You draft a PG, Scoot, who is a facilitator and then surround him with players who cannot convert off his passes and bigs who cannot\won't? set good screens and then play him next to another small ball dominate guard (Simons), or alongside a complete YMCA chucker (Banton), relegating Scoot to a stationary SG. Is that what he is? Is that his strength?

You spend (2) 1st's+ for Deni Avdija and then relegate him to a stationary 3&D type role, which you KNOW he is ill-suited for. Heck all you have to do is watch ONE freaking game of his in WAS to know what his strengths are (facilitator, pushing the pace), and then when he struggles 10 games into the season b\c your coach pigeonholed him in that role, which he is NOT good at and then act surprised that he came out last night (in the same damm role) played 13!!! minutes and still looked awful.

The fundamental issue with this team is roster management\composition, two timelines, focused on vets at the expense of developing young guys. THAT is on the GM and no coach can turn this turd of a roster into a diamond with what they have been given. Add structure (actual offensive plays) and prioritize effort and development, yes a coach can help with that, but you can only cook with the ingredients that you have on hand, and the fact is there are too many rotten ones on this roster.

5) Ownership - This is on Jodi and Bert Kolde and yes, on the spineless Adam Silver. Until this team has an actual owner who cares about building a winning team, there will continue to be headwinds preventing any semblance of success. Enough is enough Jodi sell the damm team, or if she won't then Silver needs to grow a spine and FORCE THE ISSUE>

So yeah, take care of those (5) priorities first and THEN we can worry about Ayton.

Excellent points.

This team is hard to watch and there is a lot of season left.

[Walton1one]

Saw this posted on BE by Deckard, who seems like a decent enough guy, but I completely disagree with this type of thought\mentality\excuse

The record just doesn’t support it. It’s also possible that one or more of Portland’s key players could be traded. I’d point out, though, that losing all three pillars would make the current situation worse, not better.

Are you sure about that Dave? b\c the team that got blasted by 45 and played with absolutely ZERO effort was LEAD by those 3 "pillars" (Grant\Ant\Ayton)

Here is an interesting fact:
POR is 3-7 and has already lost (5) games over 20: by 45, 36, 25, 23 & 22.

UTA is 2-8 and has lost (2) games over 20: by 41 & 26

TOR is 2-9 and has lost (2) games over 20: by 30 & 20

WAS is 2-7 and has lost (4) games over 20: by 27, 24, & (2) by 20

WAS has 4 young guys playing heavy minutes:
Coulibaly 34.8
Carrington 30.1
George 28.7
Sarr 25.3

POR young players:
Henderson 25.8
Sharpe 20
Camara 30
Clingan 14

So please tell me again how playing the young guys would make it worse? When it is clear the "vets" could care less if they win or lose (I'll bet all (3) of those guys slept just fine)

Furthermore, trades don't happen in a vacuum. Players do come back in a trade, so acting like trading away Ant\Grant\Ayton would leave the team void of any "veteran" players is disingenuous at best. Other players would come back as a result of trading away any of those players (and chances are, even if they were not as talented the net result would be better). Teams DO get bettter by subtraction. Team composition matters, otherwise the phrase "Team Chemistry" would not exist. Do you really think that the chemistry of POR now would be considered "good"?

I thought Sam Vecenie summed it up as nicely as you can:

The Blazers are going to have to make a move here to shake things up. Know they moved Avdija to the bench tonight but this is going to be four 20+-pt losses plus another double-figure loss to SAS. Gonna have to do something more drastic than that.

Like, there's a way to be lose and still be enjoyable. The Raptors are 2-8 but super fun. The Nets nailed the Fernandez hire and have really competed. The Pistons are 4-7 but showing strides every night particularly with their backcourt.

Can't say that about Portland so far.

[Norm2953]

I still wonder if the 2021 Simons could re-emerge if he were elsewhere for I think its the classic
case of a younger player getting tired of losing and has checked out of the building.

Seems likely the team will be engaged in tank mode by January. If coach had more job security,
he'd just play the guys who actually want to play.

[Butter]

I still wonder if the 2021 Simons could re-emerge if he were elsewhere for I think its the classic
case of a younger player getting tired of losing and has checked out of the building.

Seems likely the team will be engaged in tank mode by January. If coach had more job security,
he'd just play the guys who actually want to play.

Oh guaranteed, if Simons went somewhere like the Spurs, he's 6th man of the year.