WOJ: Blazers trade Brogdon and 14 for WAS or Deni Avdija

[soobias]

I will never get the Simons hate. Or the flip him for picks and hope to draft someone as talented. His game is flawed, but he's still the best player on the team.

I 'get" that it's a debate device to label other people's evaluations of players as "hate" when you disagree. But frankly, I think it's bull$hit

and just so you know, Simons was not the best player on the team, Brogdon was. Simons might have been in a three-way ties for 2nd best with Grant & Ayton, but he also might have finished 3rd in that race. Totally subjective assertions for the win!!

here is my evaluation of Ant that you insist is 'hate'

Ant is good at offense; and he's absolutely terrible on defense. In fact, he's so bad at defense that his offense can't offset. He's a net negative on the floor; he has always been a net negative and it's probable he will remain so

he doesn't make teammates better. Now that can be a pretty subjective evaluation but that was my eyeball test. More than that is I watched Ant on defense several times last season. What I saw was that Ant, on defense, has poor lateral mobility and his reactions were quite slow. Further, he seemed confused quite often about where he was supposed to rotate. This from a 6 year veteran

Ant is an undersized SG and a shoot first PG. Maybe one of the worst tweener combos for pure guards. Because he's undersized and terrible at defense, he has no value as a wing, almost no 3&D value, and no 2-way value at all.

IMO, he has just turned into CJ 2.0; only CJ, while terrible at defense, he was still better than Ant. The Blazers went with CJ for 7 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed for 7 years. They have now gone with Simons for 2 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed too. Forgive those of us who would really, really, like to see something different than running back those failures for a 10th season in a row

i agree 100% and if i may put my .02 cents in. i would say this is a product of simons,cj taking on the characteristics of dame who dont play "D" . dame was fortunately enough to have a decent defensive squad when he came into the league and his offense out weighed his defense .and i think some ppl cant break bad habits, thus why i wanted fresh and new. i want grant, DA and simons out and i prefer a coach that teaches some form of a moving motion offense. where it be head coach or assistant. phil was head coach but it was tex's system.but at some point we need to establish a culture were players play hard and the organization wants to win. i remember when the blazers had something like a 5-6 game losing streak and BROY called a players only meeting that changed that team around.unfortunately we dont have that guy and we might not need that guy but it starts with expectations from the top.

i want flagg, bailey or whoever else that can make us serious contenders in the upcoming years, but we have to get rid of stat chasers who are ok with not winning and how much their contract is.

ok im done with my rant llol
im also glad we're not the freakshow that the lakers was/is

[BNM]

I get what you’re saying and have no issues with saying don’t throw him out there if he’s not ready. But this isn’t any pick. It was a highly hyped #3 pick seen as the heir to an all-time franchise player and preseason Vegas contender to win ROY. He looked good in his one half of Summer league, and had a few nice moments in preseason. It’s hard to see many scenarios where a player like that starts the season on the bench. And even if he did, when you’re that hyped and flop that hard to start the year, your confidence will be shattered regardless if you start or get relegated to the bench, which I somehow doubt is a boost to player confidence.

Blame Billups if it helps. I really don’t think he’s a very good coach. But replace Billups with any other coach realistically available, and Scoot still would’ve struggled heavily as a rookie, and his confidence still would’ve been heavily tested in any scenario.

When Scoot was drafted, the Blazers still had Damian Lillard and he had not yet demanded a trade. Heir apparent, or not, Scoot wasn't drafted to be our starting PG on Day 1. We got a quality veteran back in Malcom Brogdon, who could have started and mentored Scoot by example. Let Scoot get acclimated by coming off the bench against other 2nd unit players.

Wasn't LaMelo Ball also drafted with the #3 pick. Didn't he win Rookie of the Year? Yet, he didn't start his first NBA game until February 1st of his rookie year. CHO didn't throw him into the deep end on Day 1. They let him come off the bench and get acclimated to the NBA for 20 games before they made him their starting PG.

Charlotte was smart enough to properly develop a 19-year old PG. Chauncey was not.

Sure, Lillard was still on the team, but it’s widely perceived drafting Scoot (as opposed to trading that pick) was the last straw that started the Lillard trade saga because of the perception that Scoot was drafted to replace Lillard, even if eventually. And let’s be real… Scoot was drafted to replace Lillard, and everyone including Dame saw the writing… is that even a point of debate?

Again, blame Chauncey all you want. 99.9% of the basketball community expected Scoot to start once the Lillard trade happened. Billups benching him would have had its own series of consequences and impact to his confidence given how hyped Scoot was. The worst case scenario, which neither of us has mentioned, would be to play Scoot and then put him in the doghouse for playing poorly, which thankfully didn’t happen. That’s the real confidence killer. Chauncey, to his credit, has a decent amount of patience with his youngsters.

Scoot was bad last year man. It is what it is. His confidence was gonna get seriously tested no matter what given his hype. Bench him, start him… either option would have been a serious challenge to his confidence. Would demoting him to the bench for 15 minutes of lousy play a night been any better for him? And yes, he would have still been lousy, even if his coach were Prime Popovich.

And given he did improve over the year, and quite significantly too, maybe Billups didn’t do the everlasting damage to his development that you think he did

Oof... OK, let's let Chauncey off the hook and stipulate that by mandate of god almighty himself, Scoot was to be our starting PG on opening night.

Shouldn't his head coach realize that 19-year old Scoot Henderson is NOT the same player as 33-year old Damian Lillard. Scoot lacked both Dame's skill set and his experience. Dame demanded a trade on July 1. That gave Chauncey all summer, all training camp and all preseason to develop an offense that would better suit Scoot's talent and experience levels. Did he???

No, he trotted out the exact same, stagnant ISO-heavy offense he ran with Dame at starting PG. Did he honestly think he could just insert 19-year old Scoot into the exact same role as 33-year old Dame and expect it to work? If he did, he's even dumber than I thought.

Dame was just coming off his best season, statistically. The team sucked, but the ISO-heavy offense showcased Dame's incredible scoring ability, but Scoot lacks both Dame's shooting range and blow-by/finishing ability. What was great for the 11-year veteran Dame was terrible for 19-year old rookie Scoot. How could he not see that?

Yes, many rookies struggle, especially 19-year old point guards. Again, it's the coach's job to put his players in a position to succeed. Again, any way you slice it, Chauncey failed. Trying to force feed 19-year old Scoot into the same exact role as 33-year old Dame was classic clueless Chauncey.

[DC_Melo]

When Scoot was drafted, the Blazers still had Damian Lillard and he had not yet demanded a trade. Heir apparent, or not, Scoot wasn't drafted to be our starting PG on Day 1. We got a quality veteran back in Malcom Brogdon, who could have started and mentored Scoot by example. Let Scoot get acclimated by coming off the bench against other 2nd unit players.

Wasn't LaMelo Ball also drafted with the #3 pick. Didn't he win Rookie of the Year? Yet, he didn't start his first NBA game until February 1st of his rookie year. CHO didn't throw him into the deep end on Day 1. They let him come off the bench and get acclimated to the NBA for 20 games before they made him their starting PG.

Charlotte was smart enough to properly develop a 19-year old PG. Chauncey was not.

Sure, Lillard was still on the team, but it’s widely perceived drafting Scoot (as opposed to trading that pick) was the last straw that started the Lillard trade saga because of the perception that Scoot was drafted to replace Lillard, even if eventually. And let’s be real… Scoot was drafted to replace Lillard, and everyone including Dame saw the writing… is that even a point of debate?

Again, blame Chauncey all you want. 99.9% of the basketball community expected Scoot to start once the Lillard trade happened. Billups benching him would have had its own series of consequences and impact to his confidence given how hyped Scoot was. The worst case scenario, which neither of us has mentioned, would be to play Scoot and then put him in the doghouse for playing poorly, which thankfully didn’t happen. That’s the real confidence killer. Chauncey, to his credit, has a decent amount of patience with his youngsters.

Scoot was bad last year man. It is what it is. His confidence was gonna get seriously tested no matter what given his hype. Bench him, start him… either option would have been a serious challenge to his confidence. Would demoting him to the bench for 15 minutes of lousy play a night been any better for him? And yes, he would have still been lousy, even if his coach were Prime Popovich.

And given he did improve over the year, and quite significantly too, maybe Billups didn’t do the everlasting damage to his development that you think he did

Oof... OK, let's let Chauncey off the hook and stipulate that by mandate of god almighty himself, Scoot was to be our starting PG on opening night.

Shouldn't his head coach realize that 19-year old Scoot Henderson is NOT the same player as 33-year old Damian Lillard. Scoot lacked both Dame's skill set and his experience. Dame demanded a trade on July 1. That gave Chauncey all summer, all training camp and all preseason to develop an offense that would better suit Scoot's talent and experience levels. Did he???

No, he trotted out the exact same, stagnant ISO-heavy offense he ran with Dame at starting PG. Did he honestly think he could just insert 19-year old Scoot into the exact same role as 33-year old Dame and expect it to work? If he did, he's even dumber than I thought.

Dame was just coming off his best season, statistically. The team sucked, but the ISO-heavy offense showcased Dame's incredible scoring ability, but Scoot lacks both Dame's shooting range and blow-by/finishing ability. What was great for the 11-year veteran Dame was terrible for 19-year old rookie Scoot. How could he not see that?

Yes, many rookies struggle, especially 19-year old point guards. Again, it's the coach's job to put his players in a position to succeed. Again, any way you slice it, Chauncey failed. Trying to force feed 19-year old Scoot into the same exact role as 33-year old Dame was classic clueless Chauncey.

I got no problem saying Scoot wasn’t a good fit for that scheme. He wasn’t.

But here’s the thing… Scoot wasn’t a good fit for any scheme last season. He was just that bad.

Forget the inefficiency he played with in an iso heavy offense, what’s scary is how insanely high his turnover rate was despite the simplicity of the schemes. A more complex offensive scheme may have improved his shooting efficiency a bit, but it would’ve driven his turnover rate even higher.

Dude just wasn’t NBA ready to start the season, and the best we can hope for with him is continual growth and development. Who knows what year 2 has in store, but at least he did improve throughout last season. His early season to late season splits are notably improved across the board… although still leave plenty to be desired.

[JasonStern]

In 2004, Chauncey's championship Pistons averaged 90.1 ppg and made 4.1 3FG/G.

So there is hope in a slight improvement...?

I was just pointing out the game has changed dramatically in the 20 years since Chauncey won his title with the Pistons.

Unfortunately, he hasn't kept up with the changes in the way modern NBA offenses are supposed to work.

You missed my joke. That we could maybe potentially hit 90.1ppg.

[JasonStern]

I will never get the Simons hate. Or the flip him for picks and hope to draft someone as talented. His game is flawed, but he's still the best player on the team.

I 'get" that it's a debate device to label other people's evaluations of players as "hate" when you disagree. But frankly, I think it's bull$hit

and just so you know, Simons was not the best player on the team, Brogdon was. Simons might have been in a three-way ties for 2nd best with Grant & Ayton, but he also might have finished 3rd in that race. Totally subjective assertions for the win!!

here is my evaluation of Ant that you insist is 'hate'

Ant is good at offense; and he's absolutely terrible on defense. In fact, he's so bad at defense that his offense can't offset. He's a net negative on the floor; he has always been a net negative and it's probable he will remain so

he doesn't make teammates better. Now that can be a pretty subjective evaluation but that was my eyeball test. More than that is I watched Ant on defense several times last season. What I saw was that Ant, on defense, has poor lateral mobility and his reactions were quite slow. Further, he seemed confused quite often about where he was supposed to rotate. This from a 6 year veteran

Ant is an undersized SG and a shoot first PG. Maybe one of the worst tweener combos for pure guards. Because he's undersized and terrible at defense, he has no value as a wing, almost no 3&D value, and no 2-way value at all.

IMO, he has just turned into CJ 2.0; only CJ, while terrible at defense, he was still better than Ant. The Blazers went with CJ for 7 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed for 7 years. They have now gone with Simons for 2 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed too. Forgive those of us who would really, really, like to see something different than running back those failures for a 10th season in a row

I agree with most of this. It still post Brogdon trade doesn't make Simons not the best player on the team. I don't think you're being realistic about just how raw or talent deprived the current roster is. I guess you could make a case for Grant or Ayton being better than Simons. But that's not saying much.

[Wizenheimer]

I will never get the Simons hate. Or the flip him for picks and hope to draft someone as talented. His game is flawed, but he's still the best player on the team.

I 'get" that it's a debate device to label other people's evaluations of players as "hate" when you disagree. But frankly, I think it's bull$hit

and just so you know, Simons was not the best player on the team, Brogdon was. Simons might have been in a three-way ties for 2nd best with Grant & Ayton, but he also might have finished 3rd in that race. Totally subjective assertions for the win!!

here is my evaluation of Ant that you insist is 'hate'

Ant is good at offense; and he's absolutely terrible on defense. In fact, he's so bad at defense that his offense can't offset. He's a net negative on the floor; he has always been a net negative and it's probable he will remain so

he doesn't make teammates better. Now that can be a pretty subjective evaluation but that was my eyeball test. More than that is I watched Ant on defense several times last season. What I saw was that Ant, on defense, has poor lateral mobility and his reactions were quite slow. Further, he seemed confused quite often about where he was supposed to rotate. This from a 6 year veteran

Ant is an undersized SG and a shoot first PG. Maybe one of the worst tweener combos for pure guards. Because he's undersized and terrible at defense, he has no value as a wing, almost no 3&D value, and no 2-way value at all.

IMO, he has just turned into CJ 2.0; only CJ, while terrible at defense, he was still better than Ant. The Blazers went with CJ for 7 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed for 7 years. They have now gone with Simons for 2 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed too. Forgive those of us who would really, really, like to see something different than running back those failures for a 10th season in a row

I agree with most of this. It still post Brogdon trade doesn't make Simons not the best player on the team. I don't think you're being realistic about just how raw or talent deprived the current roster is. I guess you could make a case for Grant or Ayton being better than Simons. But that's not saying much.

since drafting Dame, Portland has always had talent. But other than Dame (and Aldridge), it has been limited talent. Role-player talent; flawed talent

and because of that, the Blazers have forced 3rd/4th options into options 1st or 2nd option. Roles way above their talent level. It has been treadmill talent; purgatory talent. Going absolutely nowhere talent. And they keep holding onto that 3rd/4th tier talent like it top-tier talent and turning around and asking for that inflated value in trades. They keep straddling fences and never pick a lane

it's obvious what kind of flawed player Ant is. That's not going to change. And Portland doesn't need wins over the next 2-3 seasons. What they absolutely need are more high draft picks. But they sure seem poised to trot out a lineup of Scoot-Ant-Avdija-Grant-Ayton while trying to shoot for a 9th-10th seed....and a lousy draft pick. That is choosing a lane and the signpost says Stupid Lane runs directly into a dead end

[Walton1one]

Yeah, Cronin's actions so far this offseason baffle me, he deals for Avdija (fits with younger timeline and is a current good player = two timeline agenda), drafts Clingan (definitely young timeline), mentions building around Scoot\Sharpe (no mention of Ant, do we really believe that was just a mistake omission?) definitely young timeline.

Apparently he is asking for (2) 1st's for Grant, in a trade market that does not seem to support that. Possibly more for Ant, also whom does not deserve that level of return.

You have by all accounts a generational draft coming up in 2025 and other teams (Brooklyn, Washington, Toronto, Chicago) already actively positioning themselves towards that goal, and as of yet POR sits with (4) vets (Grant\Ant\Williams\Thybulle) who don't help POR being a playoff team, don't fit the younger timeline, take away shots\minutes from younger players that POR needs to evaluate, and add meaningless wins to a team that should not want them this year.

Getting wins with a lineup of young players, that is ok, getting wins b\c Grant\Ant put up 30/40 is meaningless, because neither player fits the apparent "timeline" that Cronin has referenced repeatedly now.

He needs to stop overvaluing his players and understand that sometimes there is addition by subtraction. They already wasted a year of development on Sharpe LY, and cannot afford to waste another year of either Scoot or Sharpe's development by bringing them off the bench this year, which is a guarantee to happen when you have Scoot\Sharpe\Avdija\Ant & Grant on the roster, one of those players is going to the bench and it should not be Scoot\Sharpe\Avdija and sure as heck Ant\Grant won't be willing to do so either. We can all see where this goes from here, Scoot and\or Sharpe relegated to bench minutes and another year of development wasted\short circuited. Fantastic strategy there Joe.

Now maybe he strikes a deal before training camp, hope springs eternal I guess, but IMO his asking prices for Grant\Ant are out of line with what the actual market is willing to pay right now and stubbornly holding onto either player to "maximize" return, while stunting younger players' development is extremely short sighted.

[zzaj]

Yeah, Cronin's actions so far this offseason baffle me, he deals for Avdija (fits with younger timeline and is a current good player = two timeline agenda), drafts Clingan (definitely young timeline), mentions building around Scoot\Sharpe (no mention of Ant, do we really believe that was just a mistake omission?) definitely young timeline.

Apparently he is asking for (2) 1st's for Grant, in a trade market that does not seem to support that. Possibly more for Ant, also whom does not deserve that level of return.

You have by all accounts a generational draft coming up in 2025 and other teams (Brooklyn, Washington, Toronto, Chicago) already actively positioning themselves towards that goal, and as of yet POR sits with (4) vets (Grant\Ant\Williams\Thybulle) who don't help POR being a playoff team, don't fit the younger timeline, take away shots\minutes from younger players that POR needs to evaluate, and add meaningless wins to a team that should not want them this year.

Getting wins with a lineup of young players, that is ok, getting wins b\c Grant\Ant put up 30/40 is meaningless, because neither player fits the apparent "timeline" that Cronin has referenced repeatedly now.

He needs to stop overvaluing his players and understand that sometimes there is addition by subtraction. They already wasted a year of development on Sharpe LY, and cannot afford to waste another year of either Scoot or Sharpe's development by bringing them off the bench this year, which is a guarantee to happen when you have Scoot\Sharpe\Avdija\Ant & Grant on the roster, one of those players is going to the bench and it should not be Scoot\Sharpe\Avdija and sure as heck Ant\Grant won't be willing to do so either. We can all see where this goes from here, Scoot and\or Sharpe relegated to bench minutes and another year of development wasted\short circuited. Fantastic strategy there Joe.

Now maybe he strikes a deal before training camp, hope springs eternal I guess, but IMO his asking prices for Grant\Ant are out of line with what the actual market is willing to pay right now and stubbornly holding onto either player to "maximize" return, while stunting younger players' development is extremely short sighted.

Mostly agreed here. I don't believe there will be a trade of Grant before the deadline. Looking through the realistic possibilities, that needle is just too small to thread...although I suppose anything can happen.

My current hope is that the Blazers trade Simons for a first and an expiring. I don't think a good young player is going to come back in a Simons trade. Nor do I think that team is just going to take on Simons' money for just picks.

[m0ng0]

Scoot and Sharpe stunted their own growth with Injuries and bad play. Neither was good if you look thru the lense of their entire output for the season.

Without Brogdon we have no bench besides Banton. News flash Simon's is our best PG right now especially with Brogdon gone. Who takes Simon's minutes if he is gone? Taylor Mays? Or some undrafted guy or some 2 way contract?

And as many of you say Simon's is a scrub and does not deserve minutes, if he is so bad why are you worried about his minutes or him winning games? Simon's does not "fit the timeline?" Dude is 25 and compare compare his stats with Dames or Cjs at 25, they are pretty close, AND Ant didn't play college ball.

Dame has never played defense either, factor that in. I truly believe people are so bitter on Ant is they believe he is responsible for Dame leaving. Everyone bitches about Sharpe playing out of position, Simon's was also playing out of position, he is a PG but nobody takes that into account?

[BNM]

I guess you could make a case for Grant or Ayton being better than Simons. But that's not saying much.

Well, that's depressing. Our three "best", highest paid (by a WIDE margin) players all have MAJOR weaknesses to their games.

Ayton, lacks motivation and avoids contact like the plague. Counting the 10-day contracts and G-league scrubs, Ayton was tied with Taze Moore for 20th on the team in free throw rate at .105. That's downright embarrassing for a 7'0" 250 lb. staring center making $35 million a year. He literally runs away from contact.

Grant is the worst rebounding power forward I have ever seen. Our undersized starting backcourt (Scoot = 6.2, Ant = 5.9) had a higher total rebound percentage than our starting power forward (Grant 5.8). Grant was tied with Skylar Mays for 20th on the team in TRB%.
Grant runs away from rebounds the way Ayton runs away from contact.

And Simons is, hands down, one of the worst defenders in the entire league. Part of that is lack of effort. Simons seems to save all of his energy for the offensive end of the floor. But, part of it's also being a physically limited tweener - not quick enough to guard PGs and not big enough/strong enough to guard SGs.

And these are our "best" players...

[BNM]

POR sits with (4) vets (Grant\Ant\Williams\Thybulle) who don't help POR being a playoff team, don't fit the younger timeline, take away shots\minutes from younger players that POR needs to evaluate, and add meaningless wins to a team that should not want them this year.

Getting wins with a lineup of young players, that is ok, getting wins b\c Grant\Ant put up 30/40 is meaningless, because neither player fits the apparent "timeline" that Cronin has referenced repeatedly now. younger players' development is extremely short sighted.

No need to worry, we still have the ultimate tank commander in Chauncey pulling the strings. The last thing I worry about with him in charge is getting too many wins. With his baffling line ups, insistence on constantly playing players out of position, lack of in game adjustments, stagnant, antiquated, ISO centric offense, he will make sure we lead the league in blown second half double digit leads and come in dead last in assists per game and true shooting percentage. These are his trademarks as a coach.

We will piss away another year of developing our young lottery picks just so we can add another. Hopefully, POR won't be stupid enough to pick up the 5th year team option on Chauncey's contract, but you never know, they were dumb enough to hire him in the first place.

[Norm2953]

I have less fears of Portland being a contender for a play in spot for a lot would have to happen
for that to happen for at least one of Scoot or Sharpe would need to be playing at an AS level.

The west is going to be loaded and the bad teams like the Spurs. Grizzlies and Rockets should
be better than Portland. There will be teams like the Lakers, Clippers, Suns and GSW who could
get worse but Portland should be more competitive against the lesser teams next season with
the addition of Deni and Donovan .

[zzaj]

...And as many of you say Simon's is a scrub and does not deserve minutes, if he is so bad why are you worried about his minutes or him winning games? Simon's does not "fit the timeline?" Dude is 25 and compare compare his stats with Dames or Cjs at 25, they are pretty close, AND Ant didn't play college ball.

Dame has never played defense either, factor that in. I truly believe people are so bitter on Ant is they believe he is responsible for Dame leaving. Everyone bitches about Sharpe playing out of position, Simon's was also playing out of position, he is a PG but nobody takes that into account?

I've never seen a single person on here call Simons a "scrub" that doesn't deserve minutes.

Simons isn't a PG and never has been a PG. If you want to compare PG stats with Lillard, or even CJ when he played that position go right ahead...you'll see why their impact was/is much greater than Simons'.

Lillard leaving the Blazers had nothing to do with Simons, and I don't think I've ever seen anyone on here mention that as a possibility except for you.

"Winning possessions" has to be on both sides of the ball, and Simons is a net negative. It's the same reason many in MIL were bummed that Jrue got exchanged for Lillard. Lillard can be a net positive when he dominates offensively, whereas Jrue is basically a walking net positive on both ends of the floor. Scoot and Sharpe are net negatives too, however they haven't been in the league for 6 years like Simons.

[Walton1one]

Yeah, I don't view Simons as a scrub, but I do believe he is not a PG, more of a SG in a PG body who can play PG if needed but is not suited for it. Simons also needs the ball in his hands, and that directly clashes with Scoot who is a ball dominant type of PG, pick & roll, pick & pop slashing into the lane drawing in defenses and then dishing to teammates for easier\less contested shots, and then of course there is Simons' defense, which was awful and the fact that starting him alongside Scoot puts POR right back in the short starting backcourt game that didn't work previously with two far superior (CJ\Dame) offensive players.

I know I said this before, but to reiterate:

He was 19yrs old LY and playing by far the hardest position in the NBA and POR mgmt constructed a team around him that did him zero favors, that is a fail on Cronin (and Billups).

One of the worst pick & roll teams in the NBA
One of the worst shooting teams in the NBA
No secondary playmakers to take pressure off of Scoot
Too many players (particularly Grant\Ant) who are more inclined to go 1v1 instead of playing in an actual offense
A coach with absolutely ZERO offensive game plan, let alone in-game adjustments
A center (Ayton) who clogs the lane, in fact too many players who clog the lane, making drives into the lane extremely crowded for a slasher like Scoot
Playing him next to another undersized PG, who also needs the ball in his hands to be effective, relegating Scoot at times to an off-ball shooter (NOT a strength)

So yeah, he didn't have a good year and struggled mightily until all those players had their yearly sit-out party and low & behold he suddenly looked better.

[The Sebastian Express]

Highkin lays out in one of his articles that Portland's asking for two firsts because the amount of people they'd need to take back from the Lakers and the amount of roster restructuring they'd have to do. And it not being worth it for one pick, but for two they'd make it happen.

[Wizenheimer]

It's the same reason many in MIL were bummed that Jrue got exchanged for Lillard. Lillard can be a net positive when he dominates offensively, whereas Jrue is basically a walking net positive on both ends of the floor. Scoot and Sharpe are net negatives too, however they haven't been in the league for 6 years like Simons.

career marks:

BPM: Dame 4.7....Jrue 1.7
PER: Dame 22.3....Jrue 17.2
winshares/48: Dame .174....Jrue .103
Net rating: Dame +6.0....Jrue 0.0
Value Over Replacemt: Dame 51.3....Jrue 29.8 (cumulative stat controlled by seasons/games/minutes. Jrue 15 seasons, Dame 12 seasons. Jrue has played 133 more games and 1800 more minutes. He should lead in this stat, but doesn't)

you're significantly overrating Jrue's net positive vs Dame's

a lot of Blazer fans took Dame for granted and are downgrading what he accomplished in Portland. Jrue was on the Buck's team that won the championship. But he was also on the Bucks the following 2 years when they lost in the 2nd round and 1st round. And Giannis played those years too unlike this season with Dame

[m0ng0]

Dames agent has spoken :-p

[zzaj]

It's the same reason many in MIL were bummed that Jrue got exchanged for Lillard. Lillard can be a net positive when he dominates offensively, whereas Jrue is basically a walking net positive on both ends of the floor. Scoot and Sharpe are net negatives too, however they haven't been in the league for 6 years like Simons.

career marks:

BPM: Dame 4.7....Jrue 1.7
PER: Dame 22.3....Jrue 17.2
winshares/48: Dame .174....Jrue .103
Net rating: Dame +6.0....Jrue 0.0
Value Over Replacemt: Dame 51.3....Jrue 29.8 (cumulative stat controlled by seasons/games/minutes. Jrue 15 seasons, Dame 12 seasons. Jrue has played 133 more games and 1800 more minutes. He should lead in this stat, but doesn't)

you're significantly overrating Jrue's net positive vs Dame's

a lot of Blazer fans took Dame for granted and are downgrading what he accomplished in Portland. Jrue was on the Buck's team that won the championship. But he was also on the Bucks the following 2 years when they lost in the 2nd round and 1st round. And Giannis played those years too unlike this season with Dame

Yeah, that's all fair Wiz...I probably am conflating Jrue's defensive impact with his offensive issues and showing my own bias on that end of the ball.

[JasonStern]

I 'get" that it's a debate device to label other people's evaluations of players as "hate" when you disagree. But frankly, I think it's bull$hit

and just so you know, Simons was not the best player on the team, Brogdon was. Simons might have been in a three-way ties for 2nd best with Grant & Ayton, but he also might have finished 3rd in that race. Totally subjective assertions for the win!!

here is my evaluation of Ant that you insist is 'hate'

Ant is good at offense; and he's absolutely terrible on defense. In fact, he's so bad at defense that his offense can't offset. He's a net negative on the floor; he has always been a net negative and it's probable he will remain so

he doesn't make teammates better. Now that can be a pretty subjective evaluation but that was my eyeball test. More than that is I watched Ant on defense several times last season. What I saw was that Ant, on defense, has poor lateral mobility and his reactions were quite slow. Further, he seemed confused quite often about where he was supposed to rotate. This from a 6 year veteran

Ant is an undersized SG and a shoot first PG. Maybe one of the worst tweener combos for pure guards. Because he's undersized and terrible at defense, he has no value as a wing, almost no 3&D value, and no 2-way value at all.

IMO, he has just turned into CJ 2.0; only CJ, while terrible at defense, he was still better than Ant. The Blazers went with CJ for 7 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed for 7 years. They have now gone with Simons for 2 years as an undersized, high usage, dribble-happy, no-defense SG. It failed too. Forgive those of us who would really, really, like to see something different than running back those failures for a 10th season in a row

I agree with most of this. It still post Brogdon trade doesn't make Simons not the best player on the team. I don't think you're being realistic about just how raw or talent deprived the current roster is. I guess you could make a case for Grant or Ayton being better than Simons. But that's not saying much.

since drafting Dame, Portland has always had talent. But other than Dame (and Aldridge), it has been limited talent. Role-player talent; flawed talent

and because of that, the Blazers have forced 3rd/4th options into options 1st or 2nd option. Roles way above their talent level. It has been treadmill talent; purgatory talent. Going absolutely nowhere talent. And they keep holding onto that 3rd/4th tier talent like it top-tier talent and turning around and asking for that inflated value in trades. They keep straddling fences and never pick a lane

it's obvious what kind of flawed player Ant is. That's not going to change. And Portland doesn't need wins over the next 2-3 seasons. What they absolutely need are more high draft picks. But they sure seem poised to trot out a lineup of Scoot-Ant-Avdija-Grant-Ayton while trying to shoot for a 9th-10th seed....and a lousy draft pick. That is choosing a lane and the signpost says Stupid Lane runs directly into a dead end

That is the correct approach if your goal is to win a championship. If your goal is to make a profit, stay under the luxury tax and play flawed but obtainable players like Simons, Grant, Ayton...

[JasonStern]

I guess you could make a case for Grant or Ayton being better than Simons. But that's not saying much.

Well, that's depressing. Our three "best", highest paid (by a WIDE margin) players all have MAJOR weaknesses to their games.

And that's why the Blazers are a lottery team. Good job deducing that.