Larry Nance to Portland

[PDXKnight]

Not a terrible trade. I know some good players are drafted post lotto but in general the hits past 14 are much less likely

Not sure what the hype is with nance but sounds like he’s well respected and at this reasonable cost seems like a decent gamble. Plus he’s under contract for another year. Personally i would’ve preferred lauri to nance but i’m willing to give nance a chance on defense to wow me

[Sinobas]

I don't understand why we gave up the first round pick when Clevland got the best player in Markkanen.

Seems like Cleveland should have dealt their 1st to Chicago rather than us.

When do we get to pick in the 1st round again? 2032?

[DusterBuster]

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

I'm sure fans will love him, not too worried about that (also a low bar to entry for players to make themselves well liked by Blazer fans lol). Just feels like a real overpay when the Blazers could have pretty easily had the better+younger player in Lauri. Not really sure why the Blazers did the Cavs this favor since all the assets the Bulls really wanted came from Portland...

[DusterBuster]

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.

#NeverForget #NeverForgive

[Blazers98]

This is what a small market team does in order to keep their star who is not satisfied-leverage their future.
If we go farther into the playoffs and it keeps Dame satisfied, then it is worth it.
Nance is a clear upgrade, a good hustle guy, and all around smart player in a position of need.

[DusterBuster]

I don't understand why we gave up the first round pick when Clevland got the best player in Markkanen.

Seems like Cleveland should have dealt their 1st to Chicago rather than us.

This is what's really got me annoyed by this trade. We traded all the assets the Bulls wanted and got in the trade, but the Blazers got the worse of the two players in the deal.

I'm sure Olshey's argument will be that he was focusing on defense. Markkanen is a piss-poor defender and I'm sure Nance is a lot better than him at that, but Markkanen is 23yrs old vs 28 for Nance, Markkanen is a legit 7ft who can rebound and shoot threes... Nance Jr is basically a Tristan Thompson level player and that's all he's going to be at this age.

Ugh, I'm getting more annoyed by this trade the more I think about it. The team could have been better in the near-term, but also be better in the long-run as well should Dame leave by have some young pieces to build around.

[DusterBuster]

This is what a small market team does in order to keep their star who is not satisfied-leverage their future.
If we go farther into the playoffs and it keeps Dame satisfied, then it is worth it.
Nance is a clear upgrade, a good hustle guy, and all around smart player in a position of need.

Nothing about the current roster looks like anything other than another 1st round exit. Anything can happen in the NBA, last years roster looked like it should have been amazing and it was super mediocre, but man... it's a pretty uninspiring bunch Olshey has scraped together.

[Matt800]

The only concern I have about Larry Nance Jr is injuries. But outside of that he is a great pickup. He's known as a good defender, is a good passer, and has increased his 3pt% every season which was at 36% last season. He can also play 4 or 5 which is great for playing with Nurkic or for being a small ball 5 in a Draymond like role.

If Zeller and Nance get hurt at the same time the Blazers are screwed but if they can all be healthy for the playoffs they could really surprise some people.

I also don't think Markkanen is actually better. Seems like Nance Jr is a better all round player and also fits better in the rotation.

[Chicago-Bull-E]

Any thoughts on DJJ, especially playing some time at the 4 spot? Or was he best as a 3?

[Case2012]

It would have been nice to see DJJ in a different system but having a legit back up 4 is nice. Honestly, it makes more sense to start him while moving ROCO to the 3 and CJ to the bench (Like Olshey would ever allow that). That line up is way better defensively and the bench suddenly looks decent. If assface mcgee can grab Love then our bench looks deep.

Lillard/CJ
Norm/Mclemore
ROCO/Snell
LNJ/Love
Nurk/Zeller

The injuries are super concerning though, and I had colitis last year so Crohn’s sounds horrifying. Idk how you can actually manage that. Idk, either way, that team still looks like a first round exit unless Billups psychologically conditions them to play defense ala “A Clockwork Orange “.

[Evil_Headband]

I don't understand why we gave up the first round pick when Clevland got the best player in Markkanen.

Seems like Cleveland should have dealt their 1st to Chicago rather than us.

When do we get to pick in the 1st round again? 2032?

Because Portland gave up the worst of the three players.

[Epicurus]

Why Nance when Anthony Tolliver is available?

[Sinobas]

If we can trade CJ for Simmons/Siakim, we have the makings of an elite defensive team.

[Tim Lehrbach]

Some are ignoring that this is a sign-and-trade? Lauri agreed to a contract with Cleveland, not Portland. You can't just decide you want the player who signs with somebody else. We have to assume Lauri wasn't an option for Portland since he worked out a deal with the Cavs.

In any case, Nance is a better player at the moment, and this is a solid move. Neither Nance nor Covington is a full-time 3, but they're both highly switchable and together make the defense more versatile and reliable. Nance can play bigger too, which means more Nurk insurance.

I oppose Olshey as much as the next guy -- I think, even more than his middling efforts in trades, the draft, and free agency, he's a poison on the franchise's culture -- but occasionally he makes smart transactions, and this is one.

[Myth]

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.

I do prefer this lineup, but it does run the risk of appearing that McCollum got a demotion and reduces his trade value. I think we would need Billups to repeatedly refer to McCollum as being in a Ginobili role so that becomes the narrative over a demotion narrative (plus it would be accurate with those minutes).

[Tim Lehrbach]

CJ isn't coming off the bench. The starting five doesn't matter, anyway. There are plenty of minutes to go around for the worthy players on this roster.

[Myth]

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...

Lauri is a bad fit with this team IMO and costs significantly more. It would have been an expensive gamble for a guy who doesn’t supply what we need most: defense.

[Myth]

I don't understand why we gave up the first round pick when Clevland got the best player in Markkanen.

Seems like Cleveland should have dealt their 1st to Chicago rather than us.

When do we get to pick in the 1st round again? 2032?

We gave up the first because we gave up the worst player. I thought that was obvious. Lauri was a sign and trade at a price Bulls didn’t want to keep him at, so instead of him walking, Bulls got a 1st for the price of taking on the last year of DJJ. Totally makes sense to me that Cavs didn’t pay a lottery pick in such a sign and trade scenario while taking on the most salary.

[Myth]

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

I'm sure fans will love him, not too worried about that (also a low bar to entry for players to make themselves well liked by Blazer fans lol). Just feels like a real overpay when the Blazers could have pretty easily had the better+younger player in Lauri. Not really sure why the Blazers did the Cavs this favor since all the assets the Bulls really wanted came from Portland...

But we couldn’t just absorb that much salary as Cleveland could. We would have needed to add outgoing salary to match what Lauri is getting (and Lauri would have to agree to come here where he may get a smaller role). It would also have hard capped us because of sign and trade rules. I really don’t think adding more outgoing players and hardcapping ourselves to take on a poorly performing only offense PF is a smarter move than what we did just to gamble on his potential (which is harder to live up to with the role he likely has on this team).

[PDXKnight]

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

I'm sure fans will love him, not too worried about that (also a low bar to entry for players to make themselves well liked by Blazer fans lol). Just feels like a real overpay when the Blazers could have pretty easily had the better+younger player in Lauri. Not really sure why the Blazers did the Cavs this favor since all the assets the Bulls really wanted came from Portland...

But we couldn’t just absorb that much salary as Cleveland could. We would have needed to add outgoing salary to match what Lauri is getting (and Lauri would have to agree to come here where he may get a smaller role). It would also have hard capped us because of sign and trade rules. I really don’t think adding more outgoing players and hardcapping ourselves to take on a poorly performing only offense PF is a smarter move than what we did just to gamble on his potential (which is harder to live up to with the role he likely has on this team).

lauri has bigger ceiling, is younger & spreads the floor and imo he would’ve been a better get here. 4/67 is manageable, probably only 3 mil more this season which might not matter much if we pay the tax anyhow.

Both have had injury histories so that offsets. I don’t mind the trade and i think nance is a nice piece albeit a mle sort of player. But that said i think cleveland should’ve been the team sending the first here. Feels like the cavs got away with one here