BlazersBroncos wrote:wemby wrote:Tim Lehrbach wrote:Challenge: get any combination of Jerami Grant, Deandre Ayton, Matisse Thybulle, Anfernee Simons, and/or Robert Williams III (must be at least two of the five) to Los Angeles for any incoming salaries plus a future, light-to-medium-protected first rounder in a deal both sides* would accept. Portland can throw in second rounders, but I don't think these typically do much to balance a trade.
Can it be done?
As a neutral fan here, I'd say the only Blazers I actually value and would trade for, are Deni Avdija and Simons, other than that there are a few other positive value guys (Sharpe, Clingan, Scoot... though I don't particularly like any of them someone probably does) but most are either marginally positive (Thybulle) or downright negative (Ayton, RWIII). Grant is a good player but I would say he's neutral to slightly positive given his contract. I know their fans expect huge returns for their players, but they're extremely overrated which you can see going back for their trade proposals for RWIII, Brogdon, etc. So to answer the question, no, if I were the Lakers I wouldn't give up an unprotected pick for that, and I'd especially avoid Ayton and RWIII like the plague. Probably the players Lakers would have to give up already have as much value as those they'd be trading for. And I hate the Lakers.
There is a large portion of Blazers fans who dont expect huge returns for their players. I would say the worth is -
Grant - 1 FRP
Simons - 1 FRP
RWIII - Currently nothing, but I can see him fetching a highly protected FRP or 2-3 SRP at the deadline if he is playing well and healthy.
Thybulle - 2 SRP
Ayton - Currently no market
There’s also a difference between what one could get in a trade versus what one would be willing to trade a player for. Essentially, when a player is worth more to the team than what they could get back in a trade. Thybulle is a great example of this for Blazers fans. At least pre-Deni trade, multiple Blazers fans understood Thybulle is likely to only land about 2 2nds, but they liked his defensive influence on younger players, and therefore valued him more than 2 2nds and would say if you want him, you have to give up more than 2 2nds. There was the caveat that Blazers fans also understood the goal of getting below tax and would trade him away for salary savings as a last resort. There has been less vocal support of a strong hold of keeping Thybulle once we got another strong wing defender in Deni though, but we also are less desperate for salary savings, so trade chatter shot Thybulle in general has died down.