SELLER'S MARKET: Portland TrailBlazers

[Courant]

As Portland begins rebuilding in the post-Damian Lillard era, the Blazers find themselves at an interesting crossroads. Not only does Portland have some developing prospects -- Scoot Henderson, Shaedon Sharpe plus two lottery picks (Nos. 7 and 14) this season -- but it also has some veteran players who may have value with playoff-caliber teams:

* Deandre Ayton
* Malcolm Brogdon
* Jerami Grant
* Anfernee Simons
* Matisse Thybulle
* Robert Williams III

The Blazers are also in a position no lottery team should be in: the luxury tax and first apron. Ayton, Brogdon, Grant and Simons could combine to earn 80 percent of the team's salary cap.

What realistic trade scenarios would work for both a team with playoff aspirations and Portland? Let's assume Henderson, Sharpe and the lottery picks are untouchable, but everyone else is available.

[jayjaysee]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

But trimming the 6-8 million (IIRC) Portland actually needs to cut isn’t really going to be difficult. Some team will take Thybulle or Williams into their MLE and the work is done. Whatever Portland gets back is okay.

[Myth]

An additional note to consider is that Portland has 13 of their 15 roster spots filled, and have 4 draft picks, so they’ll have the goal of reducing the roster. This means any trades where Portland receives more players this season than they sent out will have to be worth the headache of follow up trades where they really need to receive less players than they send out.

[BlazersBroncos]

I would add Murray, Reath and potentially Walker to the list of guys that should be on the block.

Scoot, Sharpe and Camara w/ Rupert as the wildcard are the only youngsters we should actively try to keep IMO.

[cucad8]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

But trimming the 6-8 million (IIRC) Portland actually needs to cut isn’t really going to be difficult. Some team will take Thybulle or Williams into their MLE and the work is done. Whatever Portland gets back is okay.

I'd be looking at a deal like that with both picks, personally. Can we attach 7 to one of the vets to get to 3, 4, 5? Agreed, attaching one(or more, in both instances) to 14 to get higher. While also trimming salary would be ideal, but beggars can't be choosers.

The difficulty, as always, is finding an agreeable partner ahead of us. Houston is rumored to want to move 3, but I don't see an ideal fit with Portland. Have seen plenty of discussions about as well, but Detroit getting Grant back seems a little weird.

SA at 8, Memphis at 9, and Bulls at 11 also all seem like options.

[Myth]

I would add Murray, Reath and potentially Walker to the list of guys that should be on the block.

Scoot, Sharpe and Camara w/ Rupert as the wildcard are the only youngsters we should actively try to keep IMO.

I seem to like Walker than most. Dude is a hustle with great rebounding from a PF position and the ability to knock down the open 3. I have him as worthy of a late 1st in a future draft as it is. Rupert may be worth keeping simply because his value isn’t very high so we may want to see what he is before including him, but certainly tradable if he is a sticking point.

[psman2]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

But trimming the 6-8 million (IIRC) Portland actually needs to cut isn’t really going to be difficult. Some team will take Thybulle or Williams into their MLE and the work is done. Whatever Portland gets back is okay.

I'd be looking at a deal like that with both picks, personally. Can we attach 7 to one of the vets to get to 3, 4, 5? Agreed, attaching one(or more, in both instances) to 14 to get higher. While also trimming salary would be ideal, but beggars can't be choosers.

The difficulty, as always, is finding an agreeable partner ahead of us. Houston is rumored to want to move 3, but I don't see an ideal fit with Portland. Have seen plenty of discussions about as well, but Detroit getting Grant back seems a little weird.

SA at 8, Memphis at 9, and Bulls at 11 also all seem like options.

I don't see any vet that Memphis would have interest in from Portland involving the 9th pick. We might look at Rob Williams with something like just taking him into our DPE with no assets involved (after waiving Kennard) or ZWill/Rose/future 2nds (netting 3m in savings for Portland).

[jbk1234]

I have Thybulle and Simons as the most moveable pieces. I think Brogdon might be someone's plan C. Grant someone's plan D. So those two can probably be moved later in the summer.

I think moving Ayton requires a special set of circumstances. If Claxton signs with a different team, and Mitchell extends, the Nets might be interested in swapping him for Simmons.

I think moving Timelord requires a desperate team doing something dumb at this point. Even with load management, he may never make it through a season healthy.

[jayjaysee]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

But trimming the 6-8 million (IIRC) Portland actually needs to cut isn’t really going to be difficult. Some team will take Thybulle or Williams into their MLE and the work is done. Whatever Portland gets back is okay.

I'd be looking at a deal like that with both picks, personally. Can we attach 7 to one of the vets to get to 3, 4, 5? Agreed, attaching one(or more, in both instances) to 14 to get higher. While also trimming salary would be ideal, but beggars can't be choosers.

The difficulty, as always, is finding an agreeable partner ahead of us. Houston is rumored to want to move 3, but I don't see an ideal fit with Portland. Have seen plenty of discussions about as well, but Detroit getting Grant back seems a little weird.

SA at 8, Memphis at 9, and Bulls at 11 also all seem like options.

If you fall in love with a guy, yeah definitely consolidate.

But if you can move up to 11th using Grant, and maybe get your seconds (2025 first back).. feels like a win to me.

I have no idea if it’s terrible or not, but offer Charlotte Simons/Thybulle/14th for 6th and whatever matching salary is required. Think Bertans/Martin is enough if you delay it for the picks to could. And that clears all the tax issues for Portland. And likely get Clingan and one of Matas or Holland?

Assume I’ll be told Simons isn’t worth moving up 8 spots and Salaun at 14 is the same as Matas..

[ChettheJet]

It's more complicated than just shipping guys out. Who do they pick at #7 and where they move up from #14, they would have to clear a lot of veterans w/contracts to ever play either of 2 rookies. they no doubt are stashing #34 and #49 in the G league with so many players.

I already know some frequent PORT posters will hate this. Look you can't accomplish EVERYTHING in a single trade, some trades give you some of this, others give you some of that

Send Ayton, #14 and #40 to the Bulls for Vucevic, #11 and their protected pick back

PORT moves up, they drop a big chunk of salary, they get their pick back so they have the option of trading future picks, if they draft Clingan they don't have to force him into the starting unit

The Bulls don't resign DeRozan so they have room to get Ayton, they move back in the 1st for a kid they probably don't play much anyway, they get a rare for them 2nd round pick

Alternately I'd be happy for the Bulls to just get Robert Williams III, for the same move up and back 3 spots and #40 and their pick back but the Bulls don't really have anybody to send back on the money side if that's what PORT wants to do. Work on adding ano0ther team with picks of young contracts or something

[JRoy]

It's more complicated than just shipping guys out. Who do they pick at #7 and where they move up from #14, they would have to clear a lot of veterans w/contracts to ever play either of 2 rookies. they no doubt are stashing #34 and #49 in the G league with so many players.

I already know some frequent PORT posters will hate this. Look you can't accomplish EVERYTHING in a single trade, some trades give you some of this, others give you some of that

Send Ayton, #14 and #40 to the Bulls for Vucevic, #11 and their protected pick back

PORT moves up, they drop a big chunk of salary, they get their pick back so they have the option of trading future picks, if they draft Clingan they don't have to force him into the starting unit

The Bulls don't resign DeRozan so they have room to get Ayton, they move back in the 1st for a kid they probably don't play much anyway, they get a rare for them 2nd round pick

Alternately I'd be happy for the Bulls to just get Robert Williams III, for the same move up and back 3 spots and #40 and their pick back but the Bulls don't really have anybody to send back on the money side if that's what PORT wants to do. Work on adding ano0ther team with picks of young contracts or something

Take #40 out and it works for me.

[Scoot McGroot]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

.

Heartily agree. With teams like Sacramento, okc, Chicago, and Memphis within a free spots, and all those teams probably harboring some caliber of playoff hopes, there’s seems to be some matchups there.

[cucad8]

Send Ayton, #14 and #40 to the Bulls for Vucevic, #11 and their protected pick back

PORT moves up, they drop a big chunk of salary, they get their pick back so they have the option of trading future picks, if they draft Clingan they don't have to force him into the starting unit

Alternately I'd be happy for the Bulls to just get Robert Williams III, for the same move up and back 3 spots and #40 and their pick back but the Bulls don't really have anybody to send back on the money side if that's what PORT wants to do. Work on adding ano0ther team with picks of young contracts or something

I'd do both of these as a Portland fan. The RWIII one is an easy no brainer.

I don't know what Portland thinks of Ayton, if they view him as a legit part of a young core, or if it was more, knowing we were tanking let's see if we could get him to put up big stats and flip him for more than we gave up for him. Either way, there's a few Cs I'm intrigued with in the draft, and Vucevic would be a great stopgap option at a cheaper price that would seem less likely to pout about a young guy getting picked in the lotto.

[Scoot McGroot]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

But trimming the 6-8 million (IIRC) Portland actually needs to cut isn’t really going to be difficult. Some team will take Thybulle or Williams into their MLE and the work is done. Whatever Portland gets back is okay.

I'd be looking at a deal like that with both picks, personally. Can we attach 7 to one of the vets to get to 3, 4, 5? Agreed, attaching one(or more, in both instances) to 14 to get higher. While also trimming salary would be ideal, but beggars can't be choosers.

The difficulty, as always, is finding an agreeable partner ahead of us. Houston is rumored to want to move 3, but I don't see an ideal fit with Portland. Have seen plenty of discussions about as well, but Detroit getting Grant back seems a little weird.

SA at 8, Memphis at 9, and Bulls at 11 also all seem like options.

I don't see any vet that Memphis would have interest in from Portland involving the 9th pick. We might look at Rob Williams with something like just taking him into our DPE with no assets involved (after waiving Kennard) or ZWill/Rose/future 2nds (netting 3m in savings for Portland).

DPE’s expire March 10 for any season. Though you should have TPE’s that work, and I’m guessing this was a phone autocorrect?

[kristov]

The only trade I would do as a Bulls Fan would be 7 for 11 which means no chance.

[psman2]

I'd be looking at a deal like that with both picks, personally. Can we attach 7 to one of the vets to get to 3, 4, 5? Agreed, attaching one(or more, in both instances) to 14 to get higher. While also trimming salary would be ideal, but beggars can't be choosers.

The difficulty, as always, is finding an agreeable partner ahead of us. Houston is rumored to want to move 3, but I don't see an ideal fit with Portland. Have seen plenty of discussions about as well, but Detroit getting Grant back seems a little weird.

SA at 8, Memphis at 9, and Bulls at 11 also all seem like options.

I don't see any vet that Memphis would have interest in from Portland involving the 9th pick. We might look at Rob Williams with something like just taking him into our DPE with no assets involved (after waiving Kennard) or ZWill/Rose/future 2nds (netting 3m in savings for Portland).

DPE’s expire March 10 for any season. Though you should have TPE’s that work, and I’m guessing this was a phone autocorrect?

Brain fart...TPE....interesting fact I read was Memphis (any team that wasn't already in the apron) can still use their TPE until the end of this month and not trigger the 1st Apron restrictions. So if we willing to spend a bunch of taxes we could zoom past the 1st apron still I believe.

[Scoot McGroot]

I don't see any vet that Memphis would have interest in from Portland involving the 9th pick. We might look at Rob Williams with something like just taking him into our DPE with no assets involved (after waiving Kennard) or ZWill/Rose/future 2nds (netting 3m in savings for Portland).

DPE’s expire March 10 for any season. Though you should have TPE’s that work, and I’m guessing this was a phone autocorrect?

Brain fart...TPE....interesting fact I read was Memphis (any team that wasn't already in the apron) can still use their TPE until the end of this month and not trigger the 1st Apron restrictions. So if we willing to spend a bunch of taxes we could zoom past the 1st apron still I believe.

Shouldn’t. The restriction kicked in as of the day after the end of the regular season. And any actions taken as of “the day after the end of the regular season” triggers any related cap/apron restrictions for the remainder of that offseason and the following season.

[BlazersBroncos]

I strongly believe that a team that swings and misses either in FA or in the trade market for a needle mover will revert to seeing Jerami Grant as a competent consolation prize. Guys his size, with his athleticism and shooting are in demand around the league - even with his contract.

I can certainly see PHI swing and miss on PG13 and turn to Jerami Grant for a future lotto protected FRP. I am of mind that if they swing and miss they cant punt to 2025, they need to do something this offseason and while not on the level of PG13, a guy like Grant fits that team MUCH better than, say, DDR.

I also think Simons to ORL is a ideal fit and could have actual legs.

So, basically, I am seeing something like -

Grant into PHI cap space for a future LP FRP.
Simons into ORL cap space for #18 and the lower of their 2025 FRP.

That leaves PDX with picks 7, 14, 18, 34 and 40. Obviously a consolidation of some sort would have to take place. I personally would like to come out of the draft with Matas, Edey and Tyler Smith. Not sure how that happens.

[Scoot McGroot]

DPE’s expire March 10 for any season. Though you should have TPE’s that work, and I’m guessing this was a phone autocorrect?

Brain fart...TPE....interesting fact I read was Memphis (any team that wasn't already in the apron) can still use their TPE until the end of this month and not trigger the 1st Apron restrictions. So if we willing to spend a bunch of taxes we could zoom past the 1st apron still I believe.

Shouldn’t. The restriction kicked in as of the day after the end of the regular season. And any actions taken as of “the day after the end of the regular season” triggers any related cap/apron restrictions for the remainder of that offseason and the following season.

A team that engages in any of the trade transactions described under the First and Second Apron Level rules above after the last day of the Regular Season of a Salary Cap Year will be unable to subsequently have a Team Salary that exceeds the applicable Apron level for the remainder of the then-current Salary Cap Year as well as for the immediately following Salary Cap Year. (Notwithstanding this general rule, there will be certain transition rules applicable to trade transactions occurring during the period from the day after the last day of the 2023-24 Regular Season through June 30, 2024.)

Though, seeing this description, there’s a chance this might be a transition for just this offseason? When I get back home, I’ll check the full CBA.

[Norm2953]

Portland should be trying to trade 14th+one of the vets to move up a few spots and trim a bit of salary.

.

Heartily agree. With teams like Sacramento, okc, Chicago, and Memphis within a free spots, and all those teams probably harboring some caliber of playoff hopes, there’s seems to be some matchups there.

Should be doable, especially if Portland is targeting one of the guys they have worked out like Knecht, Holland,
Salaun or Cody Williams. They can draft one of these guys at 7 and perhaps would prefer adding one more as
opposed to drafting the next group of guys at 14.

Personally I would simply draft one of these guys at 7 (if Clingan is not there at 7) and draft Edey at 14 and not bother
with trading up but who knows what Portland is looking for?