Larry Nance to Portland

[Myth]

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

He’s making $15.58m next season, which is about $5M more than Nance, and nearly $6M more than the outgoing DJJ. So who are we adding to make this legal? Is it worth that to also be hard capped and be terrible on defense again? And we also don’t know if Lauri would have accepted a deal here. He would have fewer touches than he will in Cleveland, and that seemed important.

I also don’t see anyway we get Nance by just giving up DJJ. Cleveland had all the leverage here by being the team with the capspace to give to Lauri. Bulls had some leverage in the sense they needed something to agree to work out the sign and trade for Lauri/Cavs, what leverage did Portland have here? DJJ? I don’t think so.

[Napoleon7]

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 [/quote]

Agree totally with this…

[HoopsFanAZ]

The MLE used to be badly used where 5 Year maximum length contracts with maximum raises made marginal starters and 6th men WAY overpaid and hard to trade until their final year as filler.

Now, with no cap room and enough below the tax (or can get below the tax), it’s a really good contract to use to get a player of actual worth to a rotation (read as reclamation project) AND be significant filler in trades later if the contract years are shorter.

DJJ’s 2 year deal was not good on quality — especially when he’s not utilized to his strengths — not a good fit on O. But DJJ cost only money for a year then is added to a future non-lottery pick (who would likely be 2 years from helping much) to get a rotation player in his prime — one who Cleveland fans and media hate to see go and say was their 1st or 2nd best defender.

LNJ has his own negatives, but Portland did a GOOD job on this one.

[soobias]

theres no way the blazers have cj coming off the bench while paying him $30m+

[monopoman]

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 doubt Dame ever leaves this team in the mid-season, at worst he will demand a trade in some future off-season. No way in hell does he watch this team try to make moves to make the team more competitive and sit by then 3 weeks in start bitching about a trade request.

I would be stunned at him ever demanding a mid-season trade, since it **** over the entire team and fans a lot more and that matters to him.

[Jsun947]

I’m a big fan of Nance and have been hoping we’d trade for him.

He is a defensive upgrade, a hustle guy, and he’s versatile enough to play the 4 with Nurkic or the 5 with Covington. He gives us the ability to create a lot of different looks both offensively and defensively.

He’s going to make a much bigger difference on this team than ya’ll think.

[PDXKnight]

Ireal’m a big fan of Nance and have been hoping we’d trade for him.

He is a defensive upgrade, a hustle guy, and he’s versatile enough to play the 4 with Nurkic or the 5 with Covington. He gives us the ability to create a lot of different looks both offensively and defensively.

He’s going to make a much bigger difference on this team than ya’ll think.

if he can stay healthy that is. He’s played 35 and 56 games the last 2 seasons which is concerning to say the least given our history of injuries. On paper he will certainly make us better and give us another guy who can spot up at center and maybe even start at pf in spots.

[JasonStern]

Read on Twitter

[Soulyss]

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

Agree totally with this…

Almost like... I already knew... https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/263954/Kevin-Love-Cavaliers-Making-Progress-On-Buyout

[Myth]

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

Agree totally with this…

Almost like... I already knew... https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/263954/Kevin-Love-Cavaliers-Making-Progress-On-Buyout

He’s more likely going to the Lakers. He went to college in LA, and is buddies with Lebron and Westbrook.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Good deal. We need hustle/glue guys around our back court and Nance is a versatile modern player. Slight overpay, but teams know we need to make these moves with Lillard's clock ticking so can ask for more. Wish we could have dumped Elleby in this trade, pay Cleveland to waive him or whatever, that would have made this good trade a very good trade.


I'm still expecting us to dump him this season, hopefully it wont be too expensive but that will let us go balls to the walls for the next 3 seasons.

[Sinobas]

Not too keen on Kevin love. Where does he fit in our rotation? He's not really aged well, as injuries have taken their toll. He wouldn't aid in our efforts to improve defensively, and he's not good enough on O to make up for that.

[DusterBuster]

Ireal’m a big fan of Nance and have been hoping we’d trade for him.

He is a defensive upgrade, a hustle guy, and he’s versatile enough to play the 4 with Nurkic or the 5 with Covington. He gives us the ability to create a lot of different looks both offensively and defensively.

He’s going to make a much bigger difference on this team than ya’ll think.

if he can stay healthy that is. He’s played 35 and 56 games the last 2 seasons which is concerning to say the least given our history of injuries. On paper he will certainly make us better and give us another guy who can spot up at center and maybe even start at pf in spots.

Keep in mind to adjust those games played to take into account both seasons being shorter than the normal 82 game schedule cause pandemic.

[DusterBuster]

Good deal. We need hustle/glue guys around our back court and Nance is a versatile modern player. Slight overpay, but teams know we need to make these moves with Lillard's clock ticking so can ask for more. Wish we could have dumped Elleby in this trade, pay Cleveland to waive him or whatever, that would have made this good trade a very good trade.


I'm still expecting us to dump him this season, hopefully it wont be too expensive but that will let us go balls to the walls for the next 3 seasons.

Expensive to dump Elleby? I’m not tracking? Isn’t he on a really cheap contract, why can’t they just buy him out if they need to dump him? Also, why do they need to dump him? Can’t they just not play him and have him ride the bench?

[DusterBuster]

Not too keen on Kevin love. Where does he fit in our rotation? He's not really aged well, as injuries have taken their toll. He wouldn't aid in our efforts to improve defensively, and he's not good enough on O to make up for that.

Love has fully given up on his NBA career. Dude is just half ass coasting in Cleveland. I won’t be surprised if he just full on retires once his deal CLE is up.

[HoopsFanAZ]

I’m amused by listed heights.
Draft measurements have CJ at 6’2.25” without shoes. The NBA and Basketball Reference say 6’3.
Norm measured at 6’3 and is listed at that.

Larry Nance measured at 6’7.5” but gets listed at 6’7.
Draymond Green towers at 6’5.75” with a 0.25” shorter wingspan and listed at 6’6.

I’m not equating the two, but LNJ is plenty big, long, strong, and athletic. In other words, with Norm and LNJ’s height and length and the way they play, “undersized” needs context. The narrative gets shaped in the media to say the Blazer guards are small, but Lillard is ripped and doesn’t play small. CJ — and only CJ — plays smaller than his height as a starter.

[HoopsFanAZ]

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

Agree totally with this…[/quote]

Agreed. Love’s agent is saying he isn’t interested in a buyout. Love wants his $60 million. He’s not untradable and can be kept to get healthy this year. It sounds like his agent is protecting him from criticism.

[Pattycakes]

Nance is getting underrated here. He is as good a player as RoCo, and cost less in picks.

Look at his advanced stats, on a putrid CLE team. Its insane how good they were.

I think we had been looking for a serious upgrade, realized CJ + picks wasnt going to cut it and pivoted to adding another Covington level glue guy / role player. I actually like it, and think Nance is going to surprise a ton of people.

Agreed, this is a tremendous get to anyone who watches the league outside of just our team. Nance could probably end up starting for us once proven healthy, DJJ was probably never gonna play a min again, meaningfully

[Jsun947]

Ireal’m a big fan of Nance and have been hoping we’d trade for him.

He is a defensive upgrade, a hustle guy, and he’s versatile enough to play the 4 with Nurkic or the 5 with Covington. He gives us the ability to create a lot of different looks both offensively and defensively.

He’s going to make a much bigger difference on this team than ya’ll think.

if he can stay healthy that is. He’s played 35 and 56 games the last 2 seasons which is concerning to say the least given our history of injuries. On paper he will certainly make us better and give us another guy who can spot up at center and maybe even start at pf in spots.

Keep in mind to adjust those games played to take into account both seasons being shorter than the normal 82 game schedule cause pandemic.

He was also benched a lot in favor of tanking.

[Jsun947]

Nance is getting underrated here. He is as good a player as RoCo, and cost less in picks.

Look at his advanced stats, on a putrid CLE team. Its insane how good they were.

I think we had been looking for a serious upgrade, realized CJ + picks wasnt going to cut it and pivoted to adding another Covington level glue guy / role player. I actually like it, and think Nance is going to surprise a ton of people.

Agreed, this is a tremendous get to anyone who watches the league outside of just our team. Nance could probably end up starting for us once proven healthy, DJJ was probably never gonna play a min again, meaningfully

If Dame does demand a trade Nance is still a good player to have on your roster if your intention is to be competitive. If your intention is to tank he still has a year left on his contract after this and is very tradable.