Free Agency 2023 - Blazers and around the league.

[Butter]

I think Grant would be a great guy to have around the young players and wouldn’t hinder their growth cause he’d be at the 4. I don’t mind overpaying for now cause we don’t need that cap space in a rebuild as Hou is showing us with their horrible contracts.

I’m so excited at the prospect of Scoot and Shaedon leading our team we haven’t had exciting transition offense for as long as I have been a fan and watching Sac this year I was very jealous about what they could do with Fox

I think people are severely underestimating the worth and value of Ant he is the perfect seasoned guy to have while Scoot adjusts to the NBA and he plays well with Scoot and Sharpe. I think that is a great trio to have at such young ages to build around

If we can do the impossible and trade for Jaylen Brown via Dame I’d be jumping over the moon

Simons/Scoot
Sharpe
Brown
Grant
Young Center

We wouldn’t even need to be a bad team and suck for a year if we could swing brown him plus our young trio would be more then enough to compete at a high level in the next year or two. If Joe is serious about winning I hope he tries cause Brown is yet to sign that extension and he looked very bad when Tatum was hurt so I hope that is the perfect storm to get him in Portland.

I am extremely intrigued by that line up, but the problem with niche players like Grant is that they do some things very well (scoring), but they require complimentary players around them that off-set their weaknesses.

Grant at PF is going to require a SF and C that can DOMINATE the boards and defense.

[zzaj]

Damn…Sabonis’ contract is insane. I can’t believe I’ve lived to see an NBA player make nearly a quarter of a Billion dollars.

[GreenRiddler]

Damn…Sabonis’ contract is insane. I can’t believe I’ve lived to see an NBA player make nearly a quarter of a Billion dollars.

Lillard was on the books for 300 million when he signed his extension.

Some team will be paying him 60+mill for one year when he is 35/36

[Jsun947]

If it weren't for the issues he probably gets 30 per

Jerami is highly overrated on defense, probably even a liability. And his points come from being a complete and utter black hole. Tons of iso ball/zero movement to get that 20 ppg.

Are you high? There’s a reason Memphis wanted to eject Brooks from their franchise. He’s a chucker than can’t chuck well.

Brooks 14.3 points on 13.6 FGA shooting 32.6% from 3 and 39.6% from the field.

Grant 20.5 points on 14.5 FGA shooting 40% from 3 and 47.5% from the field.

Brooks 2.6 APG
Grant 2.4 APG

Grant takes 7% more shots than Brooks and scores 43% more points. Their passing is about the same.

I swear some of you don’t even watch games

That initial line seems impolite and uncalled for..

I wouldnt want either in Portland. I wasn't aware Brooks was that poor of a shooter, that does change things a bit. I wouldn't want either in Portland for their contracts don't get me wrong I just believe jerami on 5 YEARS is the clincher for how bad that deal is and makes that contract inferior if guaranteed fully

I’d just be more cautious about making claims about players without knowing what you’re talking about. Brooks being one of the most inefficient chuckers in the nba is pretty common knowledge.

Further more there’s only one player in the league that scores more points on less shot attempts than Grant, and that’s Jimmy Butler.

Grant is absolutely not a chucker, and if he were he’d be a good one

[Brandon-Clyde]

Btw I would probably sign Wood solely for the purpose of trading him at the deadline for multiple seconds. Simply asset acquisition.

[Pattycakes]

I think Grant would be a great guy to have around the young players and wouldn’t hinder their growth cause he’d be at the 4. I don’t mind overpaying for now cause we don’t need that cap space in a rebuild as Hou is showing us with their horrible contracts.

I’m so excited at the prospect of Scoot and Shaedon leading our team we haven’t had exciting transition offense for as long as I have been a fan and watching Sac this year I was very jealous about what they could do with Fox

I think people are severely underestimating the worth and value of Ant he is the perfect seasoned guy to have while Scoot adjusts to the NBA and he plays well with Scoot and Sharpe. I think that is a great trio to have at such young ages to build around

If we can do the impossible and trade for Jaylen Brown via Dame I’d be jumping over the moon

Simons/Scoot
Sharpe
Brown
Grant
Young Center

We wouldn’t even need to be a bad team and suck for a year if we could swing brown him plus our young trio would be more then enough to compete at a high level in the next year or two. If Joe is serious about winning I hope he tries cause Brown is yet to sign that extension and he looked very bad when Tatum was hurt so I hope that is the perfect storm to get him in Portland.

Honestly want to sig this just cause it’s so true. Ant got to 20 ppg easily with a hof throwing up 32 as well, freeing Ant is all star territory. #dontbelievemejustwatch

[Goldbum]

I am 100% in the keep Ant camp. As Blazer fans we've been very used to having a backcourt with incredible shooting. Losing Dame means shooting becomes a higher priority as we won't have him to bend the defense. It's crazy but Ant is probably the closest player to Dame(stylistically)in the entire association. I do not want to be scouring the trade board looking for shooters to come lose, and hoping we get one. Theoretically we could move Ant and put Herro I'm his role... but I prefer keeping Ant as a better-quicker shooter who is fantastic in the pick and roll (I don't know what the analytics say about these guys in P&R situations, but the eye test says Ant is significantly better). Ant's shooting and movement make him a great piece when Shaedon is on the ball. So yeah I'm not sure what's going to happen.
Oh, last thing, if we do a PHI trade, CLE is known to covet Harris so maybe we could flip him for Jarrett Allen. IDK I haven't heard anything...

[DusterBuster]

I am 100% in the keep Ant camp. As Blazer fans we've been very used to having a backcourt with incredible shooting. Losing Dame means shooting becomes a higher priority as we won't have him to bend the defense. It's crazy but Ant is probably the closest player to Dame(stylistically)in the entire association. I do not want to be scouring the trade board looking for shooters to come lose, and hoping we get one. Theoretically we could move Ant and put Herro I'm his role... but I prefer keeping Ant as a better-quicker shooter who is fantastic in the pick and roll (I don't know what the analytics say about these guys in P&R situations, but the eye test says Ant is significantly better). Ant's shooting and movement make him a great piece when Shaedon is on the ball. So yeah I'm not sure what's going to happen.
Oh, last thing, if we do a PHI trade, CLE is known to covet Harris so maybe we could flip him for Jarrett Allen. IDK I haven't heard anything...

Yeah, I don’t hate the idea of keeping Ant really, it’s just a weird situation with Scoot and Sharpe. If Sharpe could grow more into being a SF… then Scoot Ant and Sharpe is an interesting 1-3. They complement each other really well… but we’re still back in the situation the Blazers have been trying to get out of for a decade now with an undersized guards and wings.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Obviously neither is ideal but if you have to pick, do you prefer under-sized and over-talented or over-sized and under-talented?

Especially since we aren't winning much in the near future I would be fine going smaller with a hungry group of young guys. Scoots defensive skills should let him stretch defend SGs and Shae's tools should allow him to stretch to defend SFs. Not ideal and it will show its cracks but I don't think it's bad for their development to learn to play bigger.

The real problem is that by overloading our rebuild with guards, if the BPA in next years draft is also a guard we might have to pick for fit. But we don't have to make any rash moves, with Lillard moving on it gives us plenty of time to tinker and try things and let the young guys go out there and boost their value. But it would be very nice to get a legit front-court piece to pair with our new foundational back-court pieces going forward, that lets us be flexible and take the opportunities that arise rather than pigeon-holing ourselves into very specific positional improvements.

[GEE]

I am 100% in the keep Ant camp. As Blazer fans we've been very used to having a backcourt with incredible shooting. Losing Dame means shooting becomes a higher priority as we won't have him to bend the defense. It's crazy but Ant is probably the closest player to Dame(stylistically)in the entire association. I do not want to be scouring the trade board looking for shooters to come lose, and hoping we get one. Theoretically we could move Ant and put Herro I'm his role... but I prefer keeping Ant as a better-quicker shooter who is fantastic in the pick and roll (I don't know what the analytics say about these guys in P&R situations, but the eye test says Ant is significantly better). Ant's shooting and movement make him a great piece when Shaedon is on the ball. So yeah I'm not sure what's going to happen.
Oh, last thing, if we do a PHI trade, CLE is known to covet Harris so maybe we could flip him for Jarrett Allen. IDK I haven't heard anything...

Yeah, I don’t hate the idea of keeping Ant really, it’s just a weird situation with Scoot and Sharpe. If Sharpe could grow more into being a SF… then Scoot Ant and Sharpe is an interesting 1-3. They complement each other really well… but we’re still back in the situation the Blazers have been trying to get out of for a decade now with an undersized guards and wings.

I think we will be going with this day one which is far from undersized like we were in the Olshey/Stotts days. Unless we also get Dinwiddie

Simons / Scoot / Rupert(G-league?)
Sharpe / Thybulle / Keon
Grant / Little

And as for Simons, I watched with my own eyes early on last season while Dame wasn't playing, Simons absolutely torch some very good, all-star caliber PGs, and on a pretty consistant basis. I think the kid is every bit as good as he's always been, despite the mostly trashing he gets on here. I also recall how well Nurkic played during that time period as well, because Simons was making a point of getting him involved in the offense, knowing one must feed The Beast.

[Norm2953]

There is some talk of Dallas throwing a MLE offer at Thybulle. Does Portland match since he's a RFA?

[zzaj]

A lot will be settled in Summer League and preseason stuff…

But Scoot wasn’t drafted to come off the bench. IMHO, there is a zero percent chance of that happening. I think there’s a better chance Sharpe gets bumped to SF.

[HoopsFanAZ]

There is some talk of Dallas throwing a MLE offer at Thybulle. Does Portland match since he's a RFA?

The short answer is yes. Dallas can't offer him that much ... I remember reading it's the $12 million tax-MLE, IIRC. That's a pretty easy match as Thybulle brings the D at an age that fits. Young players need good defensive players around them because young guys generally suck at D. They need help on the court and examples to emulate on their own team.

[Norm2953]

There is some talk of Dallas throwing a MLE offer at Thybulle. Does Portland match since he's a RFA?

The short answer is yes. Dallas can't offer him that much ... I remember reading it's the $12 million tax-MLE, IIRC. That's a pretty easy match as Thybulle brings the D at an age that fits. Young players need good defensive players around them because young guys generally suck at D. They need help on the court and examples to emulate on their own team.

The full MLE is $12.4. Dallas according to their board, can offer Thybulle $36 million/4, which I'm certain
Portland will match.

[red_power]

So Mo Bamba or Paul Reed for MLE money anyone? Neither of them seems to have a starter-level potential but Blazers don't appear to have much choice anyway.

[Brandon-Clyde]

So Mo Bamba or Paul Reed for MLE money anyone? Neither of them seems to have a starter-level potential but Blazers don't appear to have much choice anyway.

I would aim for Christian Wood or Plumlee since I believe either could be flipped for second round picks at the deadline. At this point I believe that the best option is to make moves that could give us additional assets in the future.

[BlazersBroncos]

I would prefer Reed as I think he is one of the rare UFA types that has actual upside.

I would not want Wood around the youngsters and think Plumlee will chase a contender.

[Jsun947]

There is some talk of Dallas throwing a MLE offer at Thybulle. Does Portland match since he's a RFA?

The short answer is yes. Dallas can't offer him that much ... I remember reading it's the $12 million tax-MLE, IIRC. That's a pretty easy match as Thybulle brings the D at an age that fits. Young players need good defensive players around them because young guys generally suck at D. They need help on the court and examples to emulate on their own team.

The full MLE is $12.4. Dallas according to their board, can offer Thybulle $36 million/4, which I'm certain
Portland will match.

Really? I’d hope not. I’d only be giving Thybulle one year off guaranteed money at this point, 2 at the very most. If he walks then he walks.

Any contract I’m signing now needs to be tradable for positive value

[dunlop212]

Does that open up a possible S&T if Dallas has someone to trade who addresses PDX size issues better than Thybulle does?

[Norm2953]

Money must be burning a hole in every owners pocket with Ant Edwards now signing a $260/5 max
contract.

Minnesota now has Towns ($270/5) Edwards ($252/5) and Gobert ($130/3) on their books