Woj: Deni to Portland for 14th pick and Brogdon

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

https://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/2024/10/blazers-coach-chauncey-billups-denies-report-he-called-deni-avdija-the-teams-best-player.html

Yeah he's denying it, but there's probably some truth to it. Billups gotta be diplomatic with the other cupcakes with egos.

[closg00]

As the preseason continues, the trade stings a little again for me, I would have been happy adding pick #2 & 26 to a young core of Deni and Bilal. PG’s are plentiful in every draft up and down the board, so I’m not sold yet that Bub HAD to be the guy, but it is what it is and Bub has Hugh upside if he learns to attack.

[payitforward]

One thing that comes to mind about this trade. But it's not about Deni....

I note that Portland traded away both the #34 & #40 in other moves. I wonder whether we might have been able to take those 2 picks in place of the '29 R1 pick & the 2 R2 picks. Whether it was discussed.

What would you have done if that had been possible? Note that we could have taken Tyler Kolek or Johnny Furphy at 34 & either Adem Bona or KJ Simpson at 40.

I'd have been sorely tempted! Almost certain, in fact, to have preferred that deal. Don't know whether it would have been available, but I sure wouldn't have been surprised!

[tontoz]

Getting rid of Deni certainly helps our tanking effort for this year. I was upset at the time but got over it pretty quickly.

My impression was that the trade was a surprise to Deni. Pretty sure he tweeted a broken heart emoji.

[badinage]

It may yet prove to be a good trade. ** Let’s hope! Let’s pray!

But it came out of nowhere and took the face of the franchise — the longest-tenured player, and still one of the youngest on the team, and a guy who was THE biggest developmental success since Beal — and traded away that youth and potential and SUCCESS and likability. Yes, for a chance to play the odds with two other players, but it’s not like this is a 26 year-old we’re talking about.

And they did this without explaining themselves. Without articulating the precise reasoning. They acted as if they’d shipped out a Montae Morris, or a Jordan Goodwin.




** Though according to some here, we won’t be able to properly evaluate the entire trade until, say, 2032 — when the FRP from 2029 has been in the league for three years.

[payitforward]

As to evaluating the trade, we'll also have to see how Deni plays in Portland.

[Benjammin]

This is going to be one long rebuild in this group. Some of us may well not make it to the Promised Land, even if the Wiz somehow one day do. I'm probably one of the few here who went to a Bullets NBA finals game, albeit when they lost at home to the Supersonics when they won the championship the year after the Bullets beat them.

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[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This is going to be one long rebuild in this group. Some of us may well not make it to the Promised Land, even if the Wiz somehow one day do. I'm probably one of the few here who went to a Bullets NBA finals game, albeit when they lost at home to the Supersonics when they won the championship the year after the Bullets beat them.

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Dang, man. I'm 63 years old and at least 40 lbs overweight. Might not make it.

You attended the finals games. I have memories of long, long ago. (70s)I remember seeing Rick Barry destroy Mike Riordan. Golden State swept our 60-win favorites. Years later, during their championship year, Greg Ballard attended our church in FT Washington, MD. Another memory: Larry Wright and Roger Phegley put on a clinic at Friendly HS. I was terribly unimpressed when. Wright couldn't dunk on a basket that I almost could (at 5'8"). (80s) Years later, I would routinely see Wes Unseld at Bowie State College (now U) when he was Bullets HC. I can't clearly recall the year after the loss in the rematch to Seattle. I know Unseld was done, and Hayes was running on fumes. I went to college in the early 80s and the military in the late 80s. Where did the Bullets go wrong?

Sorry for this rant, but in the stream of consciousness, I remember Gus Williams was over the hill. Jeff Malone, Bernard King, Moses Malone, Jeff Ruland, Rick Mahorn....not much else.

Enough reminiscing. Skipping to the three rookies and possibly Vuk in maybe three years, the Wizards can be back where they were with Webber. They were knocking on the door.

I hope I see the Wizards promised land in this life.

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[closg00]

This is going to be one long rebuild in this group. Some of us may well not make it to the Promised Land, even if the Wiz somehow one day do. I'm probably one of the few here who went to a Bullets NBA finals game, albeit when they lost at home to the Supersonics when they won the championship the year after the Bullets beat them.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

Dang, man. I'm 63 years old and at least 40 lbs overweight. Might not make it.

You attended the finals games. I have memories of long, long ago. (70s)I remember seeing Rick Barry destroy Mike Riordan. Golden State swept our 60-win favorites. Years later, during their championship year, Greg Ballard attended our church in FT Washington, MD. Another memory: Larry Wright and Roger Phegley put on a clinic at Friendly HS. I was terribly unimpressed when. Wright couldn't dunk on a basket that I almost could (at 5'8"). (80s) Years later, I would routinely see Wes Unseld at Bowie State College (now U) when he was Bullets HC. I can't clearly recall the year after the loss in the rematch to Seattle. I know Unseld was done, and Hayes was running on fumes. I went to college in the early 80s and the military in the late 80s. Where did the Bullets go wrong?

Sorry for this rant, but in the stream of consciousness, I remember Gus Williams was over the hill. Jeff Malone, Bernard King, Moses Malone, Jeff Ruland, Rick Mahorn....not much else.

Enough reminiscing. Skipping to the three rookies and possibly Vuk in maybe three years, the Wizards can be back where they were with Webber. They were knocking on the door.

I hope I see the Wizards promised land in this life.

Sent from my SM-X218U using RealGM mobile app

I almost started an Old Men of the Board thread just for the reasons expressed above , I look at this group of kids and we’re talking about a 5-6 year road to a return to relevancy, then we’ll be living out old age just watching the Spurs rack up titles again.
BUT, we may see the Commanders back in a Super Bowl sooner before we cross over

[payitforward]

Aaah quit complaining! I turned 82 in September, & I'm planning to be here when we win the title 10 years from now!

[nate33]

I'm 52 and I don't actually remember their championship run in 78. I vaguely remember Kevin Porter and I definitely remember the acquisition of John Lucas, so I guess my first memories of the Bullets were from around 1980. So basically, I haven't experienced a championship in living memory.

[AFM]

I'm in my 30s. My earliest memory was my father taking me to the old capital centre or whatever the arena was called to see them play MJ's bulls

[Dark Faze]

Watch on YouTube

bro looks so confident with his handle my god

[nate33]

Watch on YouTube

bro looks so confident with his handle my god

He was 6-9 from the floor and hit 6-6 FT's. He was +19 in 23 minutes.

In his only other outing, he was just 2-8 from the floor but was +15 in 20 minutes, leading all starters.

I really like bully-ball Deni. Ever since he learned that Kyle Kuzma trick of dipping the shoulder and finishing with a floater, he has averaged 19 points per 36 minutes on high efficiency while stuffing the rest of the box score as usual. I still can't believe we traded him.

[bsilver]

Watch on YouTube

bro looks so confident with his handle my god

He was 6-9 from the floor and hit 6-6 FT's. He was +19 in 23 minutes.

In his only other outing, he was just 2-8 from the floor but was +15 in 20 minutes, leading all starters.

I really like bully-ball Deni. Ever since he learned that Kyle Kuzma trick of dipping the shoulder and finishing with a floater, he has averaged 19 points per 36 minutes on high efficiency while stuffing the rest of the box score as usual. I still can't believe we traded him.

But we got Brogden who's only purpose is to make us look like a real NBA team once in a while, but he'll probably be injured anyway or gone soon. Mr Irrelevant.
Second round picks which we always squander, and are long shots even if we did know what to do with them.
A mediocre 1st round pick so far in the future, some of us may not even be around.
We did get Carrington, but if we could have gotten him anyway by trading Kuzma to Sacramento it would make the trade even more annoying.

[AFM]

Yes, the trade does look pretty bad when, in your fantasy scenario, everything we got in return is either useless, or if not useless, we could have received by trading a far worse player instead.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Aside from the regular season almost upon us, the mental gymnastics season is about to start in full force as well for a contingent on this board.

Can't wait to see the 1080 mind-pretzels we'll hear from the "we got a haul" gumps.

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Watch on YouTube

bro looks so confident with his handle my god

But, but, but he couldn't be part of the rebuild because even when he'd entering his prime 4 to 5 years from now given that he's 23, we'd still only be in the first half, of the first stage of Dawkins masterplan...

[badinage]

Has anyone from the FO explained the rationale for trade in detail?

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

Has anyone from the FO explained the rationale for trade in detail?

Because it would be hard explain a petty, ego driven move.

Real tough to explain away how you could let a 29 year-old Kuzma veto a trade he didn't have any power to veto and then at the same time trade away a very much still developing 23 year-old, swiss army knife, who believed in a team concept of basketball and was on a stellar contract. Does that scream strategy to you or a favoritism, popularity contest?

Even if you love the Carrington pick, they had zero guarantee he'd be there still; they pulled the trigger well before the draft started so that means they didn't even care enough that they might not get the guy they want because Deni (1) wasn't their guy and (2) didn't fit into their protype (which is laughable). I guess if the guy you didn't draft from the guy that just got fired is outplaying your picks it looks bad to the insecure mind. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Coulibaly closed out a ton of fourth quarters where Deni should have clearly been the choice ahead of anyone on the roster. All of us screaming about it then, didn't realize how flagrant the organizations politicking and favoritism really was from the get go.

In fairness to Dawkins, drafting a cupcake center that doesn't want to be a center probably didn't help either. Had to fin more minutes at the forward position so your cupcake doesn't throw a hissy.