Larry Nance to Portland

[JasonStern]

Pre-injury last season, CJ was absolutely playing like an all-star (all-nba really). Not sure if the injury knocked him down to earth or if he was going to come back down anyway, but he was great at that time. If he comes back in that form and Dame simultaneously plays great (he was underperforming while CJ was killing it), plus we have other capable role players, we don't need Simons/Little/Brown to be great. I'm not saying I'm expecting this, but the possibility is certain there.

And come playoff time, he was outplayed by Facundo Campazzo and Austin Rivers. Doesn't mean I'm going to overvalue Facundo Campazzo and Austin Rivers.

CJ's great play was a solid 12.5 games (until that injury halfway through a game) that were all consistently pretty great. My point is he has it in him to be an all-star level player.

One time, Damon Stoudamire put up 54 points. Another time, Andre Miller, who has no shot, put up 52. There is no doubt that CJ is capable of going off, but doing it for an entire season is far more unlikely.

[pinman42]

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[Myth]

And come playoff time, he was outplayed by Facundo Campazzo and Austin Rivers. Doesn't mean I'm going to overvalue Facundo Campazzo and Austin Rivers.

CJ's great play was a solid 12.5 games (until that injury halfway through a game) that were all consistently pretty great. My point is he has it in him to be an all-star level player.

One time, Damon Stoudamire put up 54 points. Another time, Andre Miller, who has no shot, put up 52. There is no doubt that CJ is capable of going off, but doing it for an entire season is far more unlikely.

I don't know why your response is going with actually smaller and smaller sample sizes. I get it though, you have no faith in him.

[HoopsFanAZ]

For people who don't like the trade -- Nance, the lottery protected 1st -- I get the criticisms. Reasonable.

I love the trade. Nance Jr. -- I'm a fan. I even liked him with the Lakers. I don't like his missing that many games. The protected pick for a serious big (big and play big, not tall) in his prime? Done. Nurkic, Zeller, Nance. Better. Some help for RoCo doing the work.

Good luck, DJJ. I wish him the best.

Good job. A solid, slid-in-safe double for Olshey, IMHO. We'll see how it works out. [Yes, I like Markkanen but not much D from him, yet.] [The potential for Love in a buy out ... or even LMA would round it out fairly well.]

[elias808]

Trading the FRP will come back to bite us once Dame leaves and we tank.

It’s protected and I would hope fully lottery protected forever to at least give some intelligence to this trade…. So not worried about it biting the Blazers in them losing a lottery pick. That said, Olshey is needlessly wasting an asset that could be used in a bigger trade, but he seems totally disinterested in even entertaining that as an option, so w/e I guess

I think this signals that Dame will absolutely be in Portland the rest of this year. Nance is a significant rotational upgrade over DJJ who was near unplayable.

I know some people are going to hate this, but don't be shocked to see a K-Love buyout where he lands in Portland. You can smell the collusion on this deal

I believe I read the protection on the pick is lottery till 2028. I just hate the idea of whenever Dame might leave, we are punting on the first year of the tank.

[Myth]

It’s protected and I would hope fully lottery protected forever to at least give some intelligence to this trade…. So not worried about it biting the Blazers in them losing a lottery pick. That said, Olshey is needlessly wasting an asset that could be used in a bigger trade, but he seems totally disinterested in even entertaining that as an option, so w/e I guess

I think this signals that Dame will absolutely be in Portland the rest of this year. Nance is a significant rotational upgrade over DJJ who was near unplayable.

I know some people are going to hate this, but don't be shocked to see a K-Love buyout where he lands in Portland. You can smell the collusion on this deal

I believe I read the protection on the pick is lottery till 2028. I just hate the idea of whenever Dame might leave, we are punting on the first year of the tank.

How are we punting the tank? If we tank and are in the lottery, we keep the pick. That is the point of the protection. If we make miss playoffs until 2028, it becomes a 2nd rounder. A single one at that. That is fantastic.

[BlazersBroncos]

I must be missing something, and maybe its just because its a year removed, but its astonishes me that the concensus last summer was that RoCo was easily worth 2 FRP while moving one for LNJ is being scoffed at.

People are going to realize very quickly that the difference between RoCo and LNJ isnt a FRP. Nance is a really, really good player.

[DusterBuster]

Trading the FRP will come back to bite us once Dame leaves and we tank.

It’s protected and I would hope fully lottery protected forever to at least give some intelligence to this trade…. So not worried about it biting the Blazers in them losing a lottery pick. That said, Olshey is needlessly wasting an asset that could be used in a bigger trade, but he seems totally disinterested in even entertaining that as an option, so w/e I guess

I think this signals that Dame will absolutely be in Portland the rest of this year. Nance is a significant rotational upgrade over DJJ who was near unplayable.

I know some people are going to hate this, but don't be shocked to see a K-Love buyout where he lands in Portland. You can smell the collusion on this deal

If that's what this ends up in, I can lie to myself to consider it a decent trade. That said, not sure that's actually the case here, but we'll see.

I just hate seeing a trade asset like a FRP wasted in such a mediocre move if there isn't more behind the curtain with this move. Sure, Nance probably is an upgrade over Jones (who - btw - if he was so unplayable, why did the Blazers blow their MLE load on him last summer?...), but Nance is still a backup. He's not a starter. I just have such a hard time seeing how losing a decently valuable trade asset that could be used in a bigger trade is wise (again, gonna assume this is just it).

And yeah, I'm sure Dame stays in Portland all year... but my god... Olshey is doing absolutely f-all to convince Dame they can put a great roster around him this summer. It may work out in the ends, but jcf these are some uninspiring and downright wasteful looking deals right now.

[DusterBuster]

I think this signals that Dame will absolutely be in Portland the rest of this year. Nance is a significant rotational upgrade over DJJ who was near unplayable.

I know some people are going to hate this, but don't be shocked to see a K-Love buyout where he lands in Portland. You can smell the collusion on this deal

I believe I read the protection on the pick is lottery till 2028. I just hate the idea of whenever Dame might leave, we are punting on the first year of the tank.

How are we punting the tank? If we tank and are in the lottery, we keep the pick. That is the point of the protection. If we make miss playoffs until 2028, it becomes a 2nd rounder. A single one at that. That is fantastic.

Yeah, we don't know the full protection, but this is my assumption. Usually those picks that are full lottery protected until the final year just roll into being a 2nd rounder, not a fully unprotected pick. I would assuming (and pray) that Olshey wasn't too stupid to make sure that's how the protection works on the pick.

EDIT: Just saw the Woj tweet above. That's good at least. So yeah, not worried about losing a lottery pick to Cleveland because of this deal, but it's still an asset gone now.

[Norm2953]

It'd be interesting to know if this puts this over the tax line but then again they have until the trade
deadline to duck under the line. Team likely is still not done for they still lack a classic 3/D SF and
now have Roco, Nance and Little similar players

[BlazersBroncos]

It'd be interesting to know if this puts this over the tax line but then again they have until the trade
deadline to duck under the line. Team likely is still not done for they still lack a classic 3/D SF and
now have Roco, Nance and Little similar players

The 'classic 3/D SF' is probably the most saught after player archetype right now after the 'star' player. If Robert Covington is now considered a PF, then there are about 8-10 starting caliber 'classic 3/D SF' players in this league. Probably less.

The biggest thing this move does is allow us to run CJ as the 6th man. I think he is mature enough to handle that, and the way it balances the team would be huge.

G - Damian Lillard (34) / CJ McCollum (14)
G - Norman Powell (15) / CJ McCollum (18) / Anfernee Simons (15)
F - Robert Covington (18) / Norman Powell (15) / Tony Snell (15)
F - Larry Nance Jr (30) / Robert Covington (12) / Nassir Little or Greg Brown (6)
C - Jusuf Nurkic (28) / Cody Zeller (20)

The SL is far more balanced, with way better defense and enough scoring outside Dame IMO. Then you have the best 6th man in the league in CJ, who can create for himself and others while being the primary ballhandler off the bench. Then you have designated 3PT shooters in Simons and Snell off the bench and Zeller to set the Kanter screens but play better defense (And rebound/score less effeciently). They still get a quarter or so worth of 3 guard ball a game, which is an amount that I think works in our favor to keep the opposition off balanced, but its also giving us 3/4ths of the game of non-small-ball, which is how you win when it matters.

IDK, I might just be in a good mood but of the realistic options avaliable this is about as good a move as I can think of.

[skywalker33]

Sounds like you just paved the way for CLE to get Markkanen, hope you got big-time protections on that 1st. IMO, Nance isn't even worth that by himself. Good Luck with that.

[kumquat]

Definitely a move that needed to be made to fill a Power Forward spot, so roster wise not the worst move. I think this is a TBD could turn out to be a great move, could turn out to be an average move.

[DusterBuster]

Sounds like you just paved the way for CLE to get Markkanen, hope you got big-time protections on that 1st. IMO, Nance isn't even worth that by himself. Good Luck with that.

Woj posted the protection, full lottery protection and rolls into a 2nd rounder if not conveyed. But yeah... Why didn't the Blazers just take Markkanen for themselves? More upside, not as good a defender, but at least still has some good potential left. The only thing the Bulls didn't get from POR was a meaningless 2nd rounder they could have easily supplied. I guess with S&T's it depends if Markkanen wanted to come to Portland in the first place, but still... Can't imagine he wouldn't have picked Portland with Dame over Cleveland with Depression if those were his two options...

[KuruptedCav]

You guys are going to love LNJ. On the court: He is an excellent defender, athletic, plays selfless basketball and does all the little things that contribute to winning basketball. He has been injury plagued (though part of that was the Cavs playing for picks) and does have to manage his Crohn’s disease, but he’ll plug and play well.

Off the court, you are getting someone who will be active, generous, and will never make headlines for anything negative. Last year he made headlines by donating.

As a Cavs fan, we’re disappointed that he’s leaving and disappointed in the trade. But, happy he’s going to a team that’s poised to win, has great fans, and will appreciate him.

Go Blazers.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[monopoman]

I mean this pick is lottery protected every single year, and becomes a 2028 second if it never conveys.

So if Dame really does demand out and we end up trading him and the other older players, this pick could theoretically be a second round pick in 2028.

[Brandon-Clyde]

Sounds like you just paved the way for CLE to get Markkanen, hope you got big-time protections on that 1st. IMO, Nance isn't even worth that by himself. Good Luck with that.

Woj posted the protection, full lottery protection and rolls into a 2nd rounder if not conveyed. But yeah... Why didn't the Blazers just take Markkanen for themselves? More upside, not as good a defender, but at least still has some good potential left. The only thing the Bulls didn't get from POR was a meaningless 2nd rounder they could have easily supplied. I guess with S&T's it depends if Markkanen wanted to come to Portland in the first place, but still... Can't imagine he wouldn't have picked Portland with Dame over Cleveland with Depression if those were his two options...

Markannen will earn almost $7 million more than Nance this coming season. Portland would have had to add more salary meaning adding Simons and possibly Ellerby for salary matching purposes.

[kumquat]

Nance vs Embiid defensive highlights

Watch on YouTube

[monopoman]

Impressive defense against one of the best big men in the league.

[JasonStern]

Sure, Nance probably is an upgrade over Jones (who - btw - if he was so unplayable, why did the Blazers blow their MLE load on him last summer?...)

Because Chandler Parsons turned us down.