Chauncey Billups has his contract extended!

[Walton1one]

First things first, gotta make sure you all thank and praise Bert Kolde...

That press conference with Cronin & Billups was BRUTAL, weekly meetings with Bert Kolde, heaps of praise on Bert Kolde. If I recall, things got so bad with Kolde interfering with the team that Allen excommunicated him for a while, now with Allen dead, Kolde has slithered his way back into prominence and this chaotic crap show of a team is the result, Drexler was right

“As I understand, Bert has had carte blanche to run the franchise from behind the scenes,” Drexler said. “Look at what he has accomplished — very little. They have not been good at putting together a competitive team year after year. I look forward to the day when we get some new management and get Bert Kolde out of there so they can bring some of the past and merge that with the present. That is what franchises should be about.”

“I have had conversations with Joe and he seems to be a nice guy, but he can only do so much,” Drexler said. “Until the franchise is sold and they get rid of Bert Kolde, they will struggle.”

Eggers points out that Kolde was an influential voice in the Blazers firing former head coach Rick Adelman, which in turn led Drexler to request a trade from the only NBA franchise he had ever played for to that point.

Then the pure copium being spewed by Cronin\Billups: Comfortable with their talent base, don't need a star player, 3rd best defense in 2nd half of season (let's not focus on being 4th worst for the 1st part of the season or whom they did, or didn't play during that stretch, why would that matter?)

It is bad enough for fans who don't know better (and some should) to crow about the defense and team's record in the 2nd half of the season, but for Cronin to peddle it as something meaningful is laughable. Anyone watching could see this mirage for what it is

Since March 2nd, not one impressive win, beating DEN w\o the Joker? MEM w\o Ja? LAL w\o any player in their regular rotation. If you just look at the standings and record at the end of the year and think everything is sunshine & rainbows with this team (just like a good little fan should be), then you haven't been paying attention

But hey, they had some close losses to good teams, let's just not talk about who did not play...

[Walton1one]

I think somebody asked on these forums, and it's a valid question...

Has any team in NBA history retained a losing head coach after 4 years? Especially one with a 35% winning percentage?

That was me. I asked chat GPT what the record was most losing seasons in a row by a head coach, and it came back with 4. Once Tim Floyd (Bulls) and Bill Fitch (Clippers), and neither got a 5th year. Though looking at Fitch's career, I see he had 5 in a row with the Cavs in the 70s. They kept him on a 9 year tenure.

So it looks like it did happen once.

The NFL is even less forgiving, with the record being 2.5 seasons.

There is an NBA head coach with 6 losing seasons in a row.

Win/loss record
32-39?
33-39
34-38
22-60
22-60
34-48

6 seasons from 2019/20 to this season

Head coach Gregg Popovich, Spurs

Also won multiple NBA titles, that fact might be relevant?

[DusterBuster]

Read on Twitter

[dunlop212]

> Billups seems to be a poor man Nate McMillan when it comes to coaching an NBA team and that's quite depressing.

"Sarge" McMillan has consistently exceeded win predictions everywhere he has coached. He has been exceptional with young players. He's in his 60s now, but in his prime would be a great coach for a young team like Portland. He is the the anti-Billups.

[zzaj]

First things first, gotta make sure you all thank and praise Bert Kolde...

That press conference with Cronin & Billups was BRUTAL, weekly meetings with Bert Kolde, heaps of praise on Bert Kolde. If I recall, things got so bad with Kolde interfering with the team that Allen excommunicated him for a while, now with Allen dead, Kolde has slithered his way back into prominence and this chaotic crap show of a team is the result, Drexler was right

“As I understand, Bert has had carte blanche to run the franchise from behind the scenes,” Drexler said. “Look at what he has accomplished — very little. They have not been good at putting together a competitive team year after year. I look forward to the day when we get some new management and get Bert Kolde out of there so they can bring some of the past and merge that with the present. That is what franchises should be about.”

“I have had conversations with Joe and he seems to be a nice guy, but he can only do so much,” Drexler said. “Until the franchise is sold and they get rid of Bert Kolde, they will struggle.”

Eggers points out that Kolde was an influential voice in the Blazers firing former head coach Rick Adelman, which in turn led Drexler to request a trade from the only NBA franchise he had ever played for to that point.

Then the pure copium being spewed by Cronin\Billups: Comfortable with their talent base, don't need a star player, 3rd best defense in 2nd half of season (let's not focus on being 4th worst for the 1st part of the season or whom they did, or didn't play during that stretch, why would that matter?)

It is bad enough for fans who don't know better (and some should) to crow about the defense and team's record in the 2nd half of the season, but for Cronin to peddle it as something meaningful is laughable. Anyone watching could see this mirage for what it is

Since March 2nd, not one impressive win, beating DEN w\o the Joker? MEM w\o Ja? LAL w\o any player in their regular rotation. If you just look at the standings and record at the end of the year and think everything is sunshine & rainbows with this team (just like a good little fan should be), then you haven't been paying attention

But hey, they had some close losses to good teams, let's just not talk about who did not play...

Richmond's season wrap-up podcast had a nice summation..

The hard part for the organization is just now beginning. And the danger is attributing minor successes with proof-of-concept...

In the past the team has mistakenly attributed small successes with proof-of-concept, and they were complacent and rode those into consistent mediocrity. The challenge is having a REAL plan and executing it at all costs.

I don't think that Kolde>Cronin have a real plan. I think they are satisfied with complacency.

[Walton1one]

First things first, gotta make sure you all thank and praise Bert Kolde...

That press conference with Cronin & Billups was BRUTAL, weekly meetings with Bert Kolde, heaps of praise on Bert Kolde. If I recall, things got so bad with Kolde interfering with the team that Allen excommunicated him for a while, now with Allen dead, Kolde has slithered his way back into prominence and this chaotic crap show of a team is the result, Drexler was right

“As I understand, Bert has had carte blanche to run the franchise from behind the scenes,” Drexler said. “Look at what he has accomplished — very little. They have not been good at putting together a competitive team year after year. I look forward to the day when we get some new management and get Bert Kolde out of there so they can bring some of the past and merge that with the present. That is what franchises should be about.”

“I have had conversations with Joe and he seems to be a nice guy, but he can only do so much,” Drexler said. “Until the franchise is sold and they get rid of Bert Kolde, they will struggle.”

Eggers points out that Kolde was an influential voice in the Blazers firing former head coach Rick Adelman, which in turn led Drexler to request a trade from the only NBA franchise he had ever played for to that point.

Then the pure copium being spewed by Cronin\Billups: Comfortable with their talent base, don't need a star player, 3rd best defense in 2nd half of season (let's not focus on being 4th worst for the 1st part of the season or whom they did, or didn't play during that stretch, why would that matter?)

It is bad enough for fans who don't know better (and some should) to crow about the defense and team's record in the 2nd half of the season, but for Cronin to peddle it as something meaningful is laughable. Anyone watching could see this mirage for what it is

Since March 2nd, not one impressive win, beating DEN w\o the Joker? MEM w\o Ja? LAL w\o any player in their regular rotation. If you just look at the standings and record at the end of the year and think everything is sunshine & rainbows with this team (just like a good little fan should be), then you haven't been paying attention

But hey, they had some close losses to good teams, let's just not talk about who did not play...

Richmond's season wrap-up podcast had a nice summation..

The hard part for the organization is just now beginning. And the danger is attributing minor successes with proof-of-concept...

In the past the team has mistakenly attributed small successes with proof-of-concept, and they were complacent and rode those into consistent mediocrity. The challenge is having a REAL plan and executing it at all costs.

I don't think that Kolde>Cronin have a real plan. I think they are satisfied with complacency.

Yes, the jump from utter crap to somewhat crappy is, in the big picture, a rather easy move. The harder part now begins.

Making a play in or back end of the playoffs but having no chance to go anywhere once they are there is possible not probable however, it needs to be said again and again, POR benefitted from a lot of shenanigans and the ill fortunes of other teams. Just one critical injury to Deni or Toumani, or possibly even Sharpe, could torpedo this team next year, like it did SEVERAL teams this year: New Orleans, San Antonio, Atlanta, heck even Dallas (trading Luka didn't help, but losing Irving\Lively\AD).

Two of those teams finished behind POR this year, and the other flirted with letting POR pass them. You have to be delusional to think that all 3 of those teams, healthy, will fall behind POR next year.

PHX is already out of the playoffs, will see what happens when they trade Durant and what else they do, but even penciling them in as behind POR, who else you got? SAC?

That is one, I don't see any other teams cratering w\o catastrophic injuries and of course you are counting on a Wemby\Fox\Castle\+draft pick team to be worse than POR, lol good luck with that.

You think NO will continue their injury woes and\or not able to pass POR? Need I remind you they were 3-0 vs POR LY with wins by a double digit average

[Shem]

And from everything I've heard I would definitely boo Bert Kolde

in fact, in the Cronin/Billups exit interview they mentioned that they checked in with Kolde every week. And there are lots of rumors of Kolde micro-managing the team and decisions by both Croin and Billups.

"The devil made me do it!!!"

I'm sorry, I had to do that since I still laugh when I think about you saying that to me.

Now, I think there is a bit of ass-covering spin for Joe and Chauncey in those rumors. But I also think it's entirely possible both got their extensions from being Kolde's yes-men. And that would definitely suck

Or it's a normal thing to check in with ownership. If you were an owner of a pro sports team, wouldn't you want communication from your GM and coach? I certainly would.

That's not me also saying that Kolde doesn't micromanage at times like I was trying to explain to you when we talked about this before.

If Bert is actually making all the decisions (I'm extremely skeptical), and Cronin doesn't agree with them, then Cronin needs to muster up some integrity an resign...just like Terry Stotts resgned from the Bucks when he disagreed with the HC

I took this from your quote when we talked about this before. No disrespect since I do like reading your posts and respect your opinions on things, but it's normal for ownership to override decisions of a GM at times.

It's no different that a movie studio overseeing and overriding the writer and/or director on movies. You usually get more leeway when you have a more trusted and experienced name for yourself. Sam Presti of OKC comes to mind, Steven Spielberg in the movie business.

Here's a good example in the movie business. A writer and director comes to a studio with a movie idea... a vision you may say They write out the script and everything and show it to their boss the studio owner. The owner may look at it and like most of what they had in mind, but decided to make an adjustment to the script which the director has to go with. Even though their name is going to be on the credits of the movie and not the studio owner's name. Even Sam Saimi made two beloved and successful Spider-Man films that starred Toby McGuire and Sony still told him that he had to put Venom in the 3rd film even though that wasn't where he wanted to go next and it wasn't nearly as good as other two he made.

And I'm NOT necessarily writing all this for your benefit, but also for the general audience that is going to read this.

I honestly think ownership held onto Time Lord. There was reports he was going to be flipped like Jrue Holiday was and all of a sudden the updated report was changed. That smells like Bert Kolde to me when a plan all of a sudden changes like that.

Anyway, the vision of the team and such will fall on Cronin. However, the higher ups may think that they made have to tinker with some of that vision and no matter what happens, the blame will fall on the GM for the roster and the coach with the W-L record.

One thing I wish more people should be hopeful is that for the first time in a long time, we had a Blazers coach that talked about making the defense better and actually succeed in it. Stotts talked about that for many years and failed. Billups didn't. That should give us something to look forward to this next season. Deni maybe an all-star next year. Camera is going to get better too. So will Clingan. And my goodness, I actually enjoyed watching us play on the defensive end for the first time in a long time. Thybulle was also a lot of fun to watch. I really would get excited to see both him and Camera working together when on 'D. Like it or not, the players love their coach and that's a good thing.

Mike Malone hates playing young guys and doesn't like to do any development for example which is very important if you coach in Portland. Mike Budenholzer lost the Suns locker room this year. And these coaches recently coached teams that won an NBA title. But for some reason when things looked bad, especially last season, Billups didn't lose the locker room and on top of it he got his players to all bond with each other and to look after each other's backs. That deserves credit because that's difficult to do in those situations.

There will be mistakes made along the way. Can't avoid that. Some of the success is going to be good scouting, but also some luck too.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Well argued, Shem. Fair points.
Thybulle talked about players having to play D when they enter a game, period. That’s the expectation and not a bad foundation if it carries over to next season.

[Wizenheimer]

Well argued, Shem. Fair points.
Thybulle talked about players having to play D when they enter a game, period. That’s the expectation and not a bad foundation if it carries over to next season.

unfortunately it's not true as Simons was totally terrible on defense in every game he played and still led the team in average minutes. He never paid a price for his completely crappy defense

defensive rating:

Matisse Thybulle 107
Robert Williams 107
Donovan Clingan 109
Deandre Ayton 112
Jabari Walker 112
Deni Avdija 113
Toumani Camara 115
Dalano Banton 115
Kris Murray 116
Duop Reath 116
Jerami Grant 117
Scoot Henderson 117
Shaedon Sharpe 117
Anfernee Simons 119

DBPM:

Matisse Thybulle 5.1
Robert Williams 3.2
Donovan Clingan 1.4
24 0.8
Deni Avdija 0.6
Jabari Walker 0.5
Kris Murray 0.1
Dalano Banton -0.2
Jerami Grant -0.3
Deandre Ayton -0.4
Duop Reath -0.5
Scoot Henderson -0.8
Shaedon Sharpe -1.3
Anfernee Simons -1.5

[zzaj]

It’s good to see those defense numbers, because it confirms what my eyes told me all along…that Banton was actually the best guard defensively that got regular minutes—not that he was any massively great defender…

There 100% was a double standard in place in this trope that’s getting floated around that Billups on Jan. 19th said “…you have to play defense to get minutes…” and that’s the thing that lead to the turnaround.

By that measure, it would have been Simons that got sent to the bench NOT Sharpe. Simons was continually hunted on defense all season long and was a bit on an island as the weak link on the team.

There are a few reasons the Blazer defense turned around in the last 40 games or so of the season. Some kind of actualized Billups minutes restriction because of poor defense was NOT really one of them.

[PDXKnight]

Chauncey is represented by klutch. They must have some huge dirt on jody..

[Shem]

Well argued, Shem. Fair points.

I like the character of our team's personality. Players wanting to hang out with each other. Look after each other's backs. You have to give credit to the coaching staff in creating that type of culture.

One specific point is about Banton when it comes to team character. This isn't about his play, but his personality. He not only roots for his teammates that play over him like Kris Murray did at times, but I've seen games he was benched the whole time and finally got in for garbage time with like 5 minutes left in the game. That's a time he could just go off and pad his stats. Instead, he won't hold on the ball when he brings it up and if he gets it back, he immediately defers to a teammate who barely has seen the floor all season. That's awesome.

[Shem]

Well argued, Shem. Fair points.
Thybulle talked about players having to play D when they enter a game, period. That’s the expectation and not a bad foundation if it carries over to next season.

unfortunately it's not true as Simons was totally terrible on defense in every game he played and still led the team in average minutes. He never paid a price for his completely crappy defense

defensive rating:

Matisse Thybulle 107
Robert Williams 107
Donovan Clingan 109
Deandre Ayton 112
Jabari Walker 112
Deni Avdija 113
Toumani Camara 115
Dalano Banton 115
Kris Murray 116
Duop Reath 116
Jerami Grant 117
Scoot Henderson 117
Shaedon Sharpe 117
Anfernee Simons 119

DBPM:

Matisse Thybulle 5.1
Robert Williams 3.2
Donovan Clingan 1.4
24 0.8
Deni Avdija 0.6
Jabari Walker 0.5
Kris Murray 0.1
Dalano Banton -0.2
Jerami Grant -0.3
Deandre Ayton -0.4
Duop Reath -0.5
Scoot Henderson -0.8
Shaedon Sharpe -1.3
Anfernee Simons -1.5

Agreed about Simons. And despite Simons being that horrible on 'D, the Blazers still in the 2nd half of the season had the 3rd best defense in the league.

I was watching Cole Anthony yesterday and wondering if maybe somehow flip Simons for him (plus other pieces to fit salary) since there have been rumors that Orlando which is Ant's hometown is possibly interested. It would finally move Scoot to the starting lineup and finally give him that chance to show if he's got it (I still have doubts), but then use Anthony has a backup PG.

[tester551]

Agreed about Simons. And despite Simons being that horrible on 'D, the Blazers still in the 2nd half of the season had the 3rd best defense in the league.

I was watching Cole Anthony yesterday and wondering if maybe somehow flip Simons for him (plus other pieces to fit salary) since there have been rumors that Orlando which is Ant's hometown is possibly interested. It would finally move Scoot to the starting lineup and finally give him that chance to show if he's got it (I still have doubts), but then use Anthony has a backup PG.

Billups said he cared about effort more than results. I think that is the appropriate framework to view Simons as a defender. He TRIED to defend this season -> which is why he continued to play when Sharpe got benched.

But I'm still on the Orlando trade bandwagon. Cole has always been the ideal return (in addition to Orlando's pick) so he can fill in the backup PG role.

[Pattycakes]

Agreed about Simons. And despite Simons being that horrible on 'D, the Blazers still in the 2nd half of the season had the 3rd best defense in the league.

I was watching Cole Anthony yesterday and wondering if maybe somehow flip Simons for him (plus other pieces to fit salary) since there have been rumors that Orlando which is Ant's hometown is possibly interested. It would finally move Scoot to the starting lineup and finally give him that chance to show if he's got it (I still have doubts), but then use Anthony has a backup PG.

Billups said he cared about effort more than results. I think that is the appropriate framework to view Simons as a defender. He TRIED to defend this season -> which is why he continued to play when Sharpe got benched.

But I'm still on the Orlando trade bandwagon. Cole has always been the ideal return (in addition to Orlando's pick) so he can fill in the backup PG role.

Still not a bad return. I think Anthony can ball more than he’s shown the last 1-2 years. We have to move on from Ant no matter what, so if it’s the ORL deal whatever. We pray to dump JG to someone who won’t charge us the farm to take him, and we call it a day.

Instantly A+ offseason, then we go get another “Deni Avdija” level target in the market/draft Jace Richardson as another backup guard - bangbow

[Wizenheimer]

Agreed about Simons. And despite Simons being that horrible on 'D, the Blazers still in the 2nd half of the season had the 3rd best defense in the league.

.

I've seen that 3rd best number disputed. It might be semantics

near as I can find is that the Blazers ranked 4th in defense rating post all-star break which was 27 games. The halfway mark was January 18. Post all-star started on Feb 20. (Blazer hot streak started on Jan 19, 1st game in the 2nd half of the season)

In January, Blazers ranked 9th in def rating
in February Blazers ranked 4th in defensive rating
for the last 15 games of the season, Portland ranked 8th in defensive rating

a sortable data table here:

https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/defense?LastNGames=15&dir=A&sort=DEF_RATING

In that 11 game stretch when the Blazers won 10 or 11 games, IIRC they led the league in def rating in those 11 games. Now, 8 of those 11 games were at home, mostly against weak offensive teams. The Blazer played 3 teams with winning records, winning 2 of 3

looking at those rankings for Jan-Feb-Post-all star-last-15 games, it's mathematically possible the Blazers ranked 3rd, but pretty improbable

not really a big issue. But the same team that finished the season strong also started the season weak. Same players; same coaches. Portland finished 16th in defensive rating this season, and until we know that the post all-star defense wasn't an artifact of variables, that 16th ranking is kind of the standard. Last season, they finished 23rd, so, significant improvement. However, just like the chatter about a 15 win improvement, the critical context in the defensive improvement is that the Blazers tanked last season. How many wins would Portland have had last season is they had tried to win every game? How much better than 23rd would their defensive ranking have been?

by the way, this season the Blazers were 13-28 at the half way mark. Last season the Blazers were 12-29. Only a one win difference pointing at the power of last season's tank

I'd also point out that Portland's defense got a lot better without Ayton and with Clingan. Ayton is an overall better defender than Simons but he's not a rim protector or paint defender. Having Clingan, rather than Ayton, as the defensive anchor made a huge difference

[zzaj]

Agreed about Simons. And despite Simons being that horrible on 'D, the Blazers still in the 2nd half of the season had the 3rd best defense in the league.

.

I've seen that 3rd best number disputed. It might be semantics

near as I can find is that the Blazers ranked 4th in defense rating post all-star break which was 27 games. The halfway mark was January 18. Post all-star started on Feb 20. (Blazer hot streak started on Jan 19, 1st game in the 2nd half of the season)

In January, Blazers ranked 9th in def rating
in February Blazers ranked 4th in defensive rating
for the last 15 games of the season, Portland ranked 8th in defensive rating

a sortable data table here:

https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/defense?LastNGames=15&dir=A&sort=DEF_RATING

In that 11 game stretch when the Blazers won 10 or 11 games, IIRC they led the league in def rating in those 11 games. Now, 8 of those 11 games were at home, mostly against weak offensive teams. The Blazer played 3 teams with winning records, winning 2 of 3

looking at those rankings for Jan-Feb-Post-all star-last-15 games, it's mathematically possible the Blazers ranked 3rd, but pretty improbable

not really a big issue. But the same team that finished the season strong also started the season weak. Same players; same coaches. Portland finished 16th in defensive rating this season, and until we know that the post all-star defense wasn't an artifact of variables, that 16th ranking is kind of the standard. Last season, they finished 23rd, so, significant improvement. However, just like the chatter about a 15 win improvement, the critical context in the defensive improvement is that the Blazers tanked last season. How many wins would Portland have had last season is they had tried to win every game? How much better than 23rd would their defensive ranking have been?

by the way, this season the Blazers were 13-28 at the half way mark. Last season the Blazers were 12-29. Only a one win difference pointing at the power of last season's tank

I'd also point out that Portland's defense got a lot better without Ayton and with Clingan. Ayton is an overall better defender than Simons but he's not a rim protector or paint defender. Having Clingan, rather than Ayton, as the defensive anchor made a huge difference

I think moving forward, it's probably safe to say the Blazers will be in that 8-15 range defensively. The defense is probably fine moving forward as long as Simons and Ayton don't get huge minutes. I know there was a big step forward in those numbers once they stopped getting killed on leak outs...

The real question surrounding this team is offense. How are they going to improve offensively? If you go by what the team has run this year, it's not going to come from any kind of concept from Billups.

I haven't looked into the numbers, but my eyes tell me that the real lynch pin for the Blazers offensively was Deni. The Blazers were dreadful in the time it took for Deni to get acclimated to the Blazers and games that he didn't play.

[BlazersBroncos]

Agreed about Simons. And despite Simons being that horrible on 'D, the Blazers still in the 2nd half of the season had the 3rd best defense in the league.

I was watching Cole Anthony yesterday and wondering if maybe somehow flip Simons for him (plus other pieces to fit salary) since there have been rumors that Orlando which is Ant's hometown is possibly interested. It would finally move Scoot to the starting lineup and finally give him that chance to show if he's got it (I still have doubts), but then use Anthony has a backup PG.

Billups said he cared about effort more than results. I think that is the appropriate framework to view Simons as a defender. He TRIED to defend this season -> which is why he continued to play when Sharpe got benched.

But I'm still on the Orlando trade bandwagon. Cole has always been the ideal return (in addition to Orlando's pick) so he can fill in the backup PG role.

Still not a bad return. I think Anthony can ball more than he’s shown the last 1-2 years. We have to move on from Ant no matter what, so if it’s the ORL deal whatever. We pray to dump JG to someone who won’t charge us the farm to take him, and we call it a day.

Instantly A+ offseason, then we go get another “Deni Avdija” level target in the market/draft Jace Richardson as another backup guard - bangbow

I think the only way we could get the ORL FRP would be taking on KCP.

If we go the route of Cole and filler, I think they insist on the DEN FRP. I would be fine with that. Cole would be a nice backup to Scoot.

Also, seems Goga is out of their C rotation. He got only 4 minutes in the play-in game. I would love to snag him and move off Ayton + RWIII (Albeit I think no team touches RWIII). Love having 2 tough as nails dudes manning the C spot in Goga and DC w/ Reath as the 3rd stringer who can stretch the court. Would be a hell of a goon squad.

Simons for Cole + Goga + DEN FRP.

[m0ng0]

Call me a dreamer, but I think the pieces are coming together, drop the dead weight (ayton, Williams, and Grant) because really none of them are contributing much. I would keep Ant around, unless we can find a solid replacement or run Banton just in case something catastrophic happens to Scoot . Trade them for young players or possibly draft picks. Get players via trade or draft players that fit the system the coaching staff wants to run, and run it back next year. I think it's going to be a good next year.

[BlazersBroncos]

Call me a dreamer, but I think the pieces are coming together, drop the dead weight (ayton, Williams, and Grant) because really none of them are contributing much. I would keep Ant around, unless we can find a solid replacement or run Banton just in case something catastrophic happens to Scoot . Trade them for young players or possibly draft picks. Get players via trade or draft players that fit the system the coaching staff wants to run, and run it back next year. I think it's going to be a good next year.

Grant will take assets to move and the best hope of RWIII not being on the team next year is medical retirement IMO.

I would move Simons if we can get a replacement scorer and a pick - again ORL works well here. Simons + Murray for Cole + Goga + DEN FRP.

I also wonder if WAS would be interested in Ayton - allows Sarr to develop more at PF for a year while putting on weight. Ayton to WAS. Smart to PDX. Holmes to X w/ about 10M useless salary to PDX.

Goga and Smart fit our defensive first culture. Goga is at a great rate for a well above average backup C financially. Smart expires summer 2026. Money wise it isnt a burden. Cole gives us a reliable bench gunner to help make up some of Simons PPG.

G - Scoot Henderson / Cole Anthony / Marcus Smart
G - Shadeon Sharpe / Marcus Smart / FRP (PDX or DEN)
F - Toumani Camara / Matisse Thybulle / Rayan Rupert
F - Deni Avdija / Jerami Grant / FRP (PDX or DEN)
C - Donovan Clingan / Goga Bitzade / Duop Reath

IR RWIII