Dame requests a trade.

[Sinobas]

Grant was over-paid, but how material will that be? The Blazers will most likely not even have to think about cap space until it's time to re-sign Scoot. Grant and Sharpe(if things play out as we hope), will probably be the only 2 big contracts on the team.

[DusterBuster]

I think a better question is would the Blazers have wanted to lose Grant for nothing or sign him for a contract which could -potentially- cost them picks to move in the future? That unfortunately is something we won't know for awhile.

Blazers won’t use picks to move him. They’ll just keep him and play him until he’s moveable. Like I said, they just Tobias Harris’d him. Overpaid, but a good player who will keep playing. There’s no reason to give up picks to move a player unless there’s good reason to do so (make cap space room for a FA for example). So they’ll just keep him until they can move him without adding additional assets.

But I think that's mostly my point. As he gets older, does he become more tradeable? Or less tradeable? Especially in this new CBA. Do we want to be paying Jerami Grant at 33 (with presumably one year left on his contract, unknown if guaranteed at this point) as Shaedon and Scoot are coming into their own extensions?

I don't think they'll wait to trade him, possibly. I think if he is on this team you have to get him out by next summer or summer 2025 when you get a good idea on how good Shaedon and Scoot are going to be. Why? Because you have to capitalize at getting someone - or trying to get someone in here - before their extensions kick in. Or we start to rinse and repeat current troubles.

Keep in mind the rapidly increasing cap. That deal will look less worse as the years go on. But regardless, I just don’t see any world where the Blazers will give up extra assets to move him. That’s a much rarer situation than fans on here like to think. Either the Blazers will find a team willing to take him for very little return… (think CJ deal), or they’ll just keep him for the majority (or entirety) of his contract (think Harris).

Teams only make that move where they’re willing to give up extra assets to trade a bad contract when they have a pressing reason to do so… like signing a big FA (which is something Portland, Or never has to worry about)

[The Sebastian Express]

Blazers won’t use picks to move him. They’ll just keep him and play him until he’s moveable. Like I said, they just Tobias Harris’d him. Overpaid, but a good player who will keep playing. There’s no reason to give up picks to move a player unless there’s good reason to do so (make cap space room for a FA for example). So they’ll just keep him until they can move him without adding additional assets.

But I think that's mostly my point. As he gets older, does he become more tradeable? Or less tradeable? Especially in this new CBA. Do we want to be paying Jerami Grant at 33 (with presumably one year left on his contract, unknown if guaranteed at this point) as Shaedon and Scoot are coming into their own extensions?

I don't think they'll wait to trade him, possibly. I think if he is on this team you have to get him out by next summer or summer 2025 when you get a good idea on how good Shaedon and Scoot are going to be. Why? Because you have to capitalize at getting someone - or trying to get someone in here - before their extensions kick in. Or we start to rinse and repeat current troubles.

Keep in mind the rapidly increasing cap. That deal will look less worse as the years go on. But regardless, I just don’t see any world where the Blazers will give up extra assets to move him. That’s a much rarer situation than fans on here like to think. Either the Blazers will find a team willing to take him for very little return… (think CJ deal), or they’ll just keep him for the majority (or entirety) of his contract (think Harris).

Teams only make that move where they’re willing to give up extra assets to trade a bad contract when they have a pressing reason to do so… like signing a big FA (which is something Portland, Or never has to worry about)

Yeah it's been a very rare circumstance.

Under the old CBA.

But we're in new territory. But it's okay, we'll probably disagree on this and it is what it is.

[DusterBuster]

Grant was over-paid, but how material will that be? The Blazers will most likely not even have to think about cap space until it's time to re-sign Scoot. Grant and Sharpe(if things play out as we hope), will probably be the only 2 big contracts on the team.

Yep. This is less of an issue than people think. And again, need to start considering a cap that’s gonna increase 7-10% year over year.

[Butter]

Are we still talking Dame trades?

[DusterBuster]

But I think that's mostly my point. As he gets older, does he become more tradeable? Or less tradeable? Especially in this new CBA. Do we want to be paying Jerami Grant at 33 (with presumably one year left on his contract, unknown if guaranteed at this point) as Shaedon and Scoot are coming into their own extensions?

I don't think they'll wait to trade him, possibly. I think if he is on this team you have to get him out by next summer or summer 2025 when you get a good idea on how good Shaedon and Scoot are going to be. Why? Because you have to capitalize at getting someone - or trying to get someone in here - before their extensions kick in. Or we start to rinse and repeat current troubles.

Keep in mind the rapidly increasing cap. That deal will look less worse as the years go on. But regardless, I just don’t see any world where the Blazers will give up extra assets to move him. That’s a much rarer situation than fans on here like to think. Either the Blazers will find a team willing to take him for very little return… (think CJ deal), or they’ll just keep him for the majority (or entirety) of his contract (think Harris).

Teams only make that move where they’re willing to give up extra assets to trade a bad contract when they have a pressing reason to do so… like signing a big FA (which is something Portland, Or never has to worry about)

Yeah it's been a very rare circumstance.

Under the old CBA.

But we're in new territory. But it's okay, we'll probably disagree on this and it is what it is.

Fair enough. Just don’t see a situation where this contract is going to matter (if he even stays by next week and isn’t part of a S&T). All the Blazers main guys aren’t coming off their rookie scale deals until Grant’s final year or after his deal has ended.

Just don’t see a scenario where it matters one way or another. Blazers aren’t going to be in the market for any big FAs (they never are even in best of circumstances), and they won’t need that cap for resigning guys anytime soon either, soooo… meh.

[PDXKnight]

Are we still talking Dame trades?

I'm expecting news around Wednesday Thursday announcing a trade

[Effigy]

Grant was over-paid, but how material will that be? The Blazers will most likely not even have to think about cap space until it's time to re-sign Scoot. Grant and Sharpe(if things play out as we hope), will probably be the only 2 big contracts on the team.

Very material. We could have been the team under the cap taking other big contracts in exchange for assets. Instead we will probably have to find one of those teams to pay assets to in order to move him. Also if we had space we could sign players right ahead of having to give contracts to Scoot and Sharpe to add something to the team right when we are ready to start our run.

[GEE]

Looking ahead, I'm loving the speculation by ESPN and the trade packages Bobby's coming up with. Sure hoping we get the kind of haul he is suggesting. Especially excited we are possibly working with BRK, whether they want Dame or not. I'm thinking it's not. But the ideas of how a 3-way between MIA/BKN/POR is starting look really juicy, especially if BRK likes Herro.

Just an observation, but notice how Miami has been loading up with small prospect signings. Would BRK have interest in any of young players Miami has amassed? I think they could? Would Portland also be willing to eat Simmons contract in the process? I think they would. Brooklyn could be allowed to freely shop, and pick off whatever young guys from the Heat that they want, offering the Blazers compensation with picks.

Regardless, I'll say it again that I absolutely love Cronin's statement to the media. It was very strong and likely opened the market for Dame by quite a big margain. This is no doubt Cronin's big moment and we shouldn't need to wait much longer, before seeing the rebuild completed. Then we can really give Cronin his grades.

Once the roster is finished, Chauncey will now have HIS players, and my judgement of him will ONLY THEN begin. In Cronin I trust, and next years roster, along with the assets we are likely to have could easily far exceed most peoples imaginations. I also strongly believe we could be quite good, quite soon, and there will be no more tanking for the foreseeable future.

[PDXKnight]

Grant was over-paid, but how material will that be? The Blazers will most likely not even have to think about cap space until it's time to re-sign Scoot. Grant and Sharpe(if things play out as we hope), will probably be the only 2 big contracts on the team.

Very material. We could have been the team under the cap taking other big contracts in exchange for assets. Instead we will probably have to find one of those teams to pay assets to in order to move him. Also if we had space we could sign players right ahead of having to give contracts to Scoot and Sharpe to add something to the team right when we are ready to start our run.

Yeah I mean portland does waste cap space generally, but I am of the opinion wasting it for no reason kind of is lame. I was expecting to get one season of Dame out of this extension, the way things unfolded made this even worse than I expected. Still no word on the 5th year?

[Butter]

Are we still talking Dame trades?

I'm expecting news around Wednesday Thursday announcing a trade

Interesting...

[DusterBuster]

Grant was over-paid, but how material will that be? The Blazers will most likely not even have to think about cap space until it's time to re-sign Scoot. Grant and Sharpe(if things play out as we hope), will probably be the only 2 big contracts on the team.

Very material. We could have been the team under the cap taking other big contracts in exchange for assets. Instead we will probably have to find one of those teams to pay assets to in order to move him. Also if we had space we could sign players right ahead of having to give contracts to Scoot and Sharpe to add something to the team right when we are ready to start our run.

Yeah I mean portland does waste cap space generally, but I am of the opinion wasting it for no reason kind of is lame. I was expecting to get one season of Dame out of this extension, the way things unfolded made this even worse than I expected. Still no word on the 5th year?

Again, there’s a salary floor you have to hit. When you’re rebuilding with a team of rookies, you have to sign FAs to big contracts to get to that floor. Look at Houston. They unquestionably overpaid for FVV to get to that level because the rest of the roster is rookies.

The thing that hurts with the Grant deal is the amount of years. I won’t be surprised if a player option is negotiated in the deal when it’s said and done. I also wouldn’t be terribly surprised to see a S&T figured out before the deal can be signed on the 7th.

So we will see, but again, with Dame one foot out the door and the future all on rookie scale deals, having an overpaid player like Grant is just a lot less of a problem imo that it is when you have a superstar and trying to find pieces around a supermax contact. Then one bad contact can limit you from doing anything. With a youth rebuild, you don’t generally need cap-space for quite some time. So yeah, steal some of Jody’s money Jeremi!!

[Dame Lizard]

Probably also heat-of-the-moment stuff, but I think Cronin should be gone, like, NOW. The Dame trade would be the biggest transaction in a decade for most teams, and especially Portland given their complete failure to do anything meaningful trade wise in the past decade (yeah, I'm going to be a bit bitter about this for some time, it seems). I have zero faith that Cronin is going to be able to secure anything resembling commensurate value. I know a lot of that is on Dame and the timing (I get the criticism there), but the Pelican trade and especially the Clipper trade in 2021 do not leave me any hope that Cronin can get decent assets by trading starting-level players.

We actually got great value from the Pelicans trade. If PG hadn't gotten Covid, and the Clippers had beaten the Pels (heck they very nearly beat them without PG), then Portland would have made out like absolute bandits in that CJ trade.

I agree that the Clippers trade was absolutely horrible, on the other hand.

[Dame Lizard]

Lillard signed a work contract to work for the Blazers for a lot of years. He's asking the team to break that contract for his benefit. If I am the Blazers, there is no way in hell I'm breaking that contract if it doesn't benefit me. What do the players love to say? "...the NBA is a business."

I'm going to laugh so hard if the Blazers simply wait and wait and wait some more to trade Lillard. So much for you moving your family in the summertime, lol!

I agree that we shouldn't rush a deal, and wait until we get an offer that resembles fair value.

However by waiting too long it does expose us to some risk, the closer the season gets.

[Dame Lizard]

Trying to put a positive hat for the moment. I'm not sure Grant can't be traded in the next couple years. I get that he will require touches, but that's not a bad thing on a team that will be so bereft of scoring options assuming Ant is moved (which I think still may happen). He plays at a different position to Scoot and Shaedon, and having a guy who can get buckets may help Scoot and Shaedon in terms of allowing them more space on offense and opening up more playmaking opportunities for them (particularly Scoot). If Grant is averaging 20-25 PPG, there may still be teams that would be happy to trade for him, new CBA and all.

I could be totally wrong here, of course.

I agree with this take. I'm not sure that giving two 19/20 year old backcourt players the keys to jack up shots is going to maximise their development. Everything has to be in moderation.

And as you say, Grant has an opportunity to put up some impressive numbers, which could make him quite tradeable in the future. Furthermore, if Scoot and Sharpe look like guns in the next few years and we start looking to compete, then Grant's deal with only 2 years left is much easier to move at that stage.

[DusterBuster]

Dame is already doing appreciation IG posts on his story. I suspect this isn’t going to be a drawn out process. If he’s still on the team by next weekend, I’ll be shocked.

[Sinobas]

Grant was over-paid, but how material will that be? The Blazers will most likely not even have to think about cap space until it's time to re-sign Scoot. Grant and Sharpe(if things play out as we hope), will probably be the only 2 big contracts on the team.

Very material. We could have been the team under the cap taking other big contracts in exchange for assets. Instead we will probably have to find one of those teams to pay assets to in order to move him. Also if we had space we could sign players right ahead of having to give contracts to Scoot and Sharpe to add something to the team right when we are ready to start our run.

Which would mean that we might be able to use our cap space to take on a player like Jerami Grant or worse....

[GreenRiddler]

I can’t wait to see what we get for him we really need a young front court player

[Wizenheimer]

And Haynes reported that the request was made this morning, when Dame sent Goodwin with the request to Cronin. Haynes is Dame's guy. Unless Haynes' story changes, I don't see it being Monday.

I know you don't but that would just about have to mean Dame and Grant colluded to screw the Blazers. I don't have any basis for believing that. Some of the tweets I saw said Dame asked out but Cronin asked him to wait for a few days to see if something might develop. So it's entirely possible Dame had made his intentions known monday and simply delivered a formal request this morning

something else too, It looked like about the first announcement of the free agency was Grant's deal. Were many others announced before it? I was at the coast or at least on the way

what that announcement looked like to me was a deal that had been agreed to months ago. At the latest probably about the time Portland asked him to sit out for the tank. And unless my math is wrong, it looks like Grant's base salary is exactly 20% of the announced salary cap. That doesn't seem a coincidence. That sure seems to point at this being a done-and-agreed-to deal well before the Dame situation.

What is more likely...that Dame and Grant colluded to screw Portland, or that Cronin and Grant, and his agent, had a deal in place long before yesterday?

I get this thinking. I also think it wouldn't have mattered. Do you really think regardless of what Dame did, the Blazers would want to lose Grant for nothing?

I'm just saying, I don't think collusion would have mattered. Grant is still a very good player and the Blazers wouldn't have wanted to just let him walk for nothing. I think their plan was always to resign him regardless of what Dame did. Blazers MO is so paranoid of ever letting talent walk for free, that I think the Grant decision was always a solo entity aside from whatever happens with Dame.

fair points and I wasn't suggesting Portland would have not signed Grant if they knew for certain Dame was gone. I'm pretty sure they knew there was a good chance. But as I said, I think this deal has been in place for quite a while. And I don't think it's just coincidence Grant's base salary is 20% of the cap. This was independent of Dame

personally, I'd prefer Grant was not signed to that deal. It's not a very tradable contract right now. Although, thru the course of the day there were several signings announced that made Grant's look better. Haliburton and LaMelo for 52M/year? Bane for 42M? geeeeezuzzz

no, the reason I'm uncomfortable with Grant's deal is the same reason I'd like to see Ant and Nurkic traded. It's because my fear is that Cronin will try and assemble a competitive team instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to add more lottery picks. And a competitive team will just lock Portland into that miserable purgatory of either the play-in or the end of the lottery. Never good enough to advance in the playoffs, but good enough to keep getting poor picks. The worst kind of fence to straddle

[GreenRiddler]

What Dame is doing is no better than the stuff Harden or Simmons have done.

This is an embarrassing take.

When you sign a contract to play you give your word that you will play it out. The contract itself actually specifies you have to play too. Dame isn't offering to give the money back so he can be free; he's demanding all his money, but that his employers trade him to the team of his choice or else he'll fake an injury and refuse to play well. It's no different in principle to Harden or Kawhi or Simmons.

Teams can't dishonour contracts and refuse to pay you, so players shouldn't be able to either. Practically there may not be much the Blazers can do, but that doesn't make it any less wrong.

On a personal level I just don't think much of someone who reneges on their word in this way. Real men make good on their commitments.

This is the only way he gets his max dollars and plays on a team he wants. Quick had a great article out today about veiled threats of requesting a trade but never coming straight from his mouth. At the end of the day I’m glad our best player won’t be 6’2” anymore