Ayton, Grant, and Simons for anything?

[Walton1one]

I still wonder if the 2021 Simons could re-emerge if he were elsewhere for I think its the classic
case of a younger player getting tired of losing and has checked out of the building.

Seems likely the team will be engaged in tank mode by January. If coach had more job security,
he'd just play the guys who actually want to play.

Yes, I think he would. He has been checked out since the end of LY. You watch his body language and lackluster play and then when interviewed he talks about losses adding up, yet his performance has been awful, and he is one of (3) guys who are dominating shots\usage.

If he wants to blame somebody all he has to do is look in the mirror...

[Wizenheimer]

I still wonder if the 2021 Simons could re-emerge if he were elsewhere for I think its the classic
case of a younger player getting tired of losing and has checked out of the building.

Seems likely the team will be engaged in tank mode by January. If coach had more job security,
he'd just play the guys who actually want to play.

I don't think it has anything to do with losing

the 2021 Simons was a 4th option who was drafting off of the efforts of Dame, CJ, Hart. Powell, Nurkic. What you may be remembering of the 2021 Simons was his scoring explosion from 10-11 points a game to 23-24 points a game because all the guys ahead of him, except Dame, got traded. Simons showed his "stuff" while the Blazers were posting a 6-25 record as Dame was fake-injured.

mainly, what happened was that his FGA went from around 10 a game to 17 a game

[Goldbum]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

[DusterBuster]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

This wouldn't surprise me at all. I have to wonder if last night wasn't him taking himself out of the game a bit... I'm off of X / Twitter since the election, so I'm not as up to date as I used to be, but I have yet to hear why he left the game 5min out beyond "some chest thing" that they mentioned on 1080 The Fan.

Hopefully that was the case and it's not something serious.

All that said, Ant is far and away the guy who I want to see moved the most, so I'm hopeful they can get something done here soon. It's just not worked here for him as the Dame (or CJ) replacement, or being the #1 guy. He's a really good player, but just not a #1 option type, way more suited for a 6th man role on a good team. I'm curious to see where he ends up and hope it's a good spot for him.

For the Blazers, moving Ant is addition by subtraction if you ask me. Fingers crossed they don't get a vet PG back in return they feel obligated to start. It's time for Scoot to start and see what he can do - they can't keep bringing their prized #3 pick off the bench. Get Scoot starting for a season (or majority of it) and let's see what he really is or what progression he can show in that role all year long.

Ayton would be next for me, but you could talk me into keeping him longer. I still want to see Clingan starting, but he is seeming to struggling early with conditioning - seems to get winded early, which is to be expected. Also, Ayton isn't exactly an ironman, so you're going to see him in and out plenty and Clingan getting starts. If a deal comes along for Ayton, I hope they take it, but if I were in the Blazers shoes, I wouldn't feel as much urgency moving him as I would Ant.

Similarly, I don't think you need to move Grant yet. If you have to keep one of the 3 vets, Grant would be my choice. He's not hindering anyones development for the most part. Ant far and away is doing that the most with Scoot, Ayton a bit with Clingan - but less-so for the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. The only young guy behind Grant would be Deni, and obviously with the price payed to get Deni, I would like to see him starting, but I'm not as concerned about Deni's development given he's in his 4th or 5th year in the league now. I'm not saying my choice is to keep him, but you have a lot more runway to be patient for a deal with Grant.

[Wizenheimer]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

yeah....I have never bought into the notion that giving lots of minutes to average, deeply flawed, veteran role players like Portland's big-3 increases their value; or that a shooting slump reduces it. They have been fully scouted by every team

I sure hope Simons asked out and Cronin is looking to oblige. I hope Ayton joins the exodus. And Grant can drive the clown car, although Grant doesn't bother me as much as the other two

[BlazersBroncos]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

yeah....I have never bought into the notion that giving lots of minutes to average, deeply flawed, veteran role players like Portland's big-3 increases their value; or that a shooting slump reduces it. They have been fully scouted by every team

I sure hope Simons asked out and Cronin is looking to oblige. I hope Ayton joins the exodus. And Grant can drive the clown car, although Grant doesn't bother me as much as the other two

I think its rather unrealistic to think we manage to trade all 3 of the overpaid vets. Keep Grant around and key on moving Ayton and Simons.

Grant at least can space the floor and isnt blocking a high FRP from minutes. He also seems to be less of a net negative in terms of offensive flow than the other 2 - albeit he still had some ISO moments last night that were head scratchers.

His passing last night was pretty surprising. I think Grant is the type that can make little adjustments to his style in ways that Simons and Ayton really dont seem interested in - last night it was movement, open floor speed, quick passing and Grant seemed to slot right in to playing that style.

The team is watchable with Grant. It is not watchable with Simons and Ayton - guess that is the crux of what I am trying to articulate.

[DusterBuster]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

yeah....I have never bought into the notion that giving lots of minutes to average, deeply flawed, veteran role players like Portland's big-3 increases their value; or that a shooting slump reduces it. They have been fully scouted by every team

I sure hope Simons asked out and Cronin is looking to oblige. I hope Ayton joins the exodus. And Grant can drive the clown car, although Grant doesn't bother me as much as the other two

There are plenty of thing you can say about Cronin, but one thing he's always been consistent on is when a player says "trade me", he doesn't push back or hesitate to starting finding a deal (Dame trade aside - a bit of an unusual situation). So yeah, I don't think there's much worry about Cronin obliging to to Ant's wish here if that indeed happened (which all tea leaves would be pointing to).

We're in agreement too on the order in which we'd like to see all these 3 go. Ant first, Ayton next and Grant third.

Again though, I feel less urgency than most on Ayton. He's not an enjoyable player to watch play basketball, but Clingan does not quite seem ready for full starter minutes yet from a conditioning perspective. He'll get there, but might be a bit soon so I wouldn't be in the biggest rush for an Ayton deal yet. I would be making more calls around January on Ayton, but also won't lose sleep if he finishes the season still on the roster and they deal him this summer. Clingan will get starts throughout the season when Ayton is out (which he will assuredly be throughout the season off and on, like always). And when the Blazers are in the home jalopy stretch of the season, I can see Ayton being "injured" for the last 2 months of the season and Clingan getting plenty of reps. And Grant, again, isn't really hindering anyones progression, so if he gets moved or not, w/e.

Ant is the only guy actively hindering a players progression by taking the starting role away from Scoot and I think there's enough evidence at this point that it's clear those two can't play together. Ant has (seemingly) made the choice for Cronin, which if true, I'm super thankful for.

Honestly, if the only things the Blazers come out of this season with from the current roster standpoint is Ant and Billups out of the organization, I'll be happy enough.

[Norm2953]

It'll be interesting to see who emerges when Portland does a coaching search.

Team might need to hire veteran head coach for there will be challenges if they go the assistant
coach route, for they likely will need to win with the personnel on hand. Is there a Mike D'Antoni type
out there who at least knows what he wants to do and has had some success as a head coach?

[JRoy]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

yeah....I have never bought into the notion that giving lots of minutes to average, deeply flawed, veteran role players like Portland's big-3 increases their value; or that a shooting slump reduces it. They have been fully scouted by every team

I sure hope Simons asked out and Cronin is looking to oblige. I hope Ayton joins the exodus. And Grant can drive the clown car, although Grant doesn't bother me as much as the other two

There are plenty of thing you can say about Cronin, but one thing he's always been consistent on is when a player says "trade me", he doesn't push back or hesitate to starting finding a deal (Dame trade aside - a bit of an unusual situation). So yeah, I don't think there's much worry about Cronin obliging to to Ant's wish here if that indeed happened (which all tea leaves would be pointing to).

We're in agreement too on the order in which we'd like to see all these 3 go. Ant first, Ayton next and Grant third.

Again though, I feel less urgency than most on Ayton. He's not an enjoyable player to watch play basketball, but Clingan does not quite seem ready for full starter minutes yet from a conditioning perspective. He'll get there, but might be a bit soon so I wouldn't be in the biggest rush for an Ayton deal yet. I would be making more calls around January on Ayton, but also won't lose sleep if he finishes the season still on the roster and they deal him this summer. Clingan will get starts throughout the season when Ayton is out (which he will assuredly be throughout the season off and on, like always). And when the Blazers are in the home jalopy stretch of the season, I can see Ayton being "injured" for the last 2 months of the season and Clingan getting plenty of reps. And Grant, again, isn't really hindering anyones progression, so if he gets moved or not, w/e.

Ant is the only guy actively hindering a players progression by taking the starting role away from Scoot and I think there's enough evidence at this point that it's clear those two can't play together. Ant has (seemingly) made the choice for Cronin, which if true, I'm super thankful for.

Honestly, if the only things the Blazers come out of this season with from the current roster standpoint is Ant and Billups out of the organization, I'll be happy enough.

Simons and Billups out and a high lotto pick would be a great silver lining for this upper decker of a season.

[DusterBuster]

It'll be interesting to see who emerges when Portland does a coaching search.

Team might need to hire veteran head coach for there will be challenges if they go the assistant
coach route, for they likely will need to win with the personnel on hand. Is there a Mike D'Antoni type
out there who at least knows what he wants to do and has had some success as a head coach?

Huh? Why would there be any need to hire a veteran coach? You could easily go the assistant route... just that if you do that, go with an assistant who'd been one for more than 1 season unlike last time with the Billups hire.

My only requirement for a new coach is just be smart about the hire. Billups' only qualification was that he was a HOF PG when he played. It started and ended there. He didn't prove himself as a developmental coach, he didn't prove he had high level X's and O's ability, he wasn't the architect of a great defensive scheme for a team... he just used to be a really good player.

Let's set the bar a bit higher for the next coaching search - maybe be a bit more nuanced about who you pick, eh Blazers FO?

[DusterBuster]

For teams and trades, I would keep an eye on Philly for RW3 if he's healthy.

GSW too, Williams would be a perfect fit for the Warriors, especially if they're still a Top 4 west team. Milton straight up for Williams works and they can throw in their 2025 FRP which is pretty much a lock to be 20... they might need to give a 2026 pick tho since they didn't have a FRP in 2024 - which is fine. Warriors still seem on track to be really good next year.

[Wizenheimer]

For teams and trades, I would keep an eye on Philly for RW3 if he's healthy.

GSW too, Williams would be a perfect fit for the Warriors, especially if they're still a Top 4 west team. Milton straight up for Williams works and they can throw in their 2025 FRP which is pretty much a lock to be 20... they might need to give a 2026 pick tho since they didn't have a FRP in 2024 - which is fine. Warriors still seem on track to be really good next year.

for OKC: Holmgren might be out till March and Hartenstein might not return till Christmas. Pretty sure they want HCA in the playoffs. They might be willing to part with a 1st for Timelord

Timelord for Caruso + a 1st?

[DusterBuster]

For teams and trades, I would keep an eye on Philly for RW3 if he's healthy.

GSW too, Williams would be a perfect fit for the Warriors, especially if they're still a Top 4 west team. Milton straight up for Williams works and they can throw in their 2025 FRP which is pretty much a lock to be 20... they might need to give a 2026 pick tho since they didn't have a FRP in 2024 - which is fine. Warriors still seem on track to be really good next year.

for OKC: Holmgren might be out till March and Hartenstein might not return till Christmas. Pretty sure they want HCA in the playoffs. They might be willing to part with a 1st for Timelord

Timelord for Caruso + a 1st?

I'm so unplugged from the NBA right now, I truly have no idea about almost any teams role players and how they value them - even when I was following closely I was only every batting about .500 with gauging that.

I know Caruso was talked up as a big get for them in the Giddy move. Is he expendable for them? I think that would be an amazing haul for Portland if possible, Caruso would be a great Scoot backup (assuming Ant is moved elsewhere).

[Dame Lizard]

For teams and trades, I would keep an eye on Philly for RW3 if he's healthy.

GSW too, Williams would be a perfect fit for the Warriors, especially if they're still a Top 4 west team. Milton straight up for Williams works and they can throw in their 2025 FRP which is pretty much a lock to be 20... they might need to give a 2026 pick tho since they didn't have a FRP in 2024 - which is fine. Warriors still seem on track to be really good next year.

for OKC: Holmgren might be out till March and Hartenstein might not return till Christmas. Pretty sure they want HCA in the playoffs. They might be willing to part with a 1st for Timelord

Timelord for Caruso + a 1st?

Caruso has value for OKC (they traded for him with only 1 year on his deal to help them compete). I don't think OKC would actually trade Caruso + 1st for RW3. I think salary filler + 1st is more realistic and makes a lot of sense for both parties. Hopefully it's a reasonable near term 1st too and not a 2030 FRP.

[BlazersBroncos]

ATL isnt looking at cap space anytime soon - wonder if they would have interest in Ayton.

ATL OUT - Capella, Nance JR
ATL IN - Ayton, 2 OKC SRP

OKC OUT - Williams, 3 OKC SRP
OKC IN - Nance JR

PDX OUT - Ayton
PDX IN - Capella, Williams, 1 OKC SRP

ATL takes a swing on Ayton for cheap - Clint either expires or signs a deal longer than Ayton IMO so they decide to take a middle ground and get Ayton through 2026.

OKC makes a move to shore up big man depth with their injuries.

PDX cuts salary with Clint expiring and can use him as a stop gap until DC is ready for 20+ mpg. Kenrich deal is a bit long but your not getting pure EC for Ayton.

[DusterBuster]

ATL isnt looking at cap space anytime soon - wonder if they would have interest in Ayton.

ATL OUT - Capella, Nance JR
ATL IN - Ayton, 2 OKC SRP

OKC OUT - Williams, 3 OKC SRP
OKC IN - Nance JR

PDX OUT - Ayton
PDX IN - Capella, Williams, 1 OKC SRP

ATL takes a swing on Ayton for cheap - Clint either expires or signs a deal longer than Ayton IMO so they decide to take a middle ground and get Ayton through 2026.

OKC makes a move to shore up big man depth with their injuries.

PDX cuts salary with Clint expiring and can use him as a stop gap until DC is ready for 20+ mpg. Kenrich deal is a bit long but your not getting pure EC for Ayton.

Atlanta was actually a team I had pinpointed as a potential Ayton landing spot as well. I did a post awhile back canvasing landing spots for these three guys somewhere (maybe even this post) and the Hawks make a ton of sense. They've been rumored to be looking to move on from Capella for awhile and whatever your thoughts on Ayton may be, he is an upgrade over Capella. The Hawks, like the Clippers, also have no incentive to be bad this season (or next) with an unprotected pick going to the Spurs (that's f'ing scary btw) this summer and swap unprotected in 26.

Hell, Portland might be extra incentivized to do this too and help improve the Hawks so that it drives down the Spurs second FRP value this year.

Christ the Hawks really mangled their roster management.

I wonder if there's a 3 team deal to be made with Trae going out instead of Capella, then the Hawks move Capella separately? Question is who wants Trae Young... I can maybe see Orlando?

KCP and Black to Portland
Ayton and Anthony to Atlanta
Young to Orlando

Trae
Suggs
Wagner
Paolo
Carter Jr

Allows Suggs to move to his natural SG vs PG spot and gives the Magic a 3rd scoring option with Wagner and Paolo. They can them move Capella to a team in need of a C.

You want to talk on guys who seem to have no market... Trae might be #1 rn, but I can kind of see that fit in Orlando if I squint hard. I'm sure that will get laughed off of RealGM... hopefully no Magic fans see this post lol but it can make some sense for the right rock-bottom price.

[Norm2953]

I still wonder if the 2021 Simons could re-emerge if he were elsewhere for I think its the classic
case of a younger player getting tired of losing and has checked out of the building.

Seems likely the team will be engaged in tank mode by January. If coach had more job security,
he'd just play the guys who actually want to play.

I don't think it has anything to do with losing

the 2021 Simons was a 4th option who was drafting off of the efforts of Dame, CJ, Hart. Powell, Nurkic. What you may be remembering of the 2021 Simons was his scoring explosion from 10-11 points a game to 23-24 points a game because all the guys ahead of him, except Dame, got traded. Simons showed his "stuff" while the Blazers were posting a 6-25 record as Dame was fake-injured.


inly, what happened was that his FGA went from around 10 a game to 17 a game

I was writing about that period when Dame was out and it was Simons, Hart and Justice Winslow. Simons
and Nurkic were playing great while Hart and Winslow gave him all kinds of support. Blazers were playing well
before the AS break and then decided to tank for what turned out to be Sharpe.

I just wonder if that guy would re-emerge if he were part of a winning culture.

[Wizenheimer]

For teams and trades, I would keep an eye on Philly for RW3 if he's healthy.

GSW too, Williams would be a perfect fit for the Warriors, especially if they're still a Top 4 west team. Milton straight up for Williams works and they can throw in their 2025 FRP which is pretty much a lock to be 20... they might need to give a 2026 pick tho since they didn't have a FRP in 2024 - which is fine. Warriors still seem on track to be really good next year.

for OKC: Holmgren might be out till March and Hartenstein might not return till Christmas. Pretty sure they want HCA in the playoffs. They might be willing to part with a 1st for Timelord

Timelord for Caruso + a 1st?

Caruso has value for OKC (they traded for him with only 1 year on his deal to help them compete). I don't think OKC would actually trade Caruso + 1st for RW3. I think salary filler + 1st is more realistic and makes a lot of sense for both parties. Hopefully it's a reasonable near term 1st too and not a 2030 FRP.

maybe....but Caruso has been terrible this season. And the reporting is OKC knew they couldn't afford to give a big rookie extension to Giddey; and he'll be getting one. He's averaging 14-7-7 for the Bulls and just turned 22. In other words, they added Caruso as a future salary reduction. They may not even re-sign him next summer. OKC doesn't have any real 'filler' contracts other than Caruso and maybe, Kinrich Williams

[Butter]

I can say with relatively good authority that the trade value of Ant and Grant has not “cratered” this season. They haven’t played well but teams know who those guys are. I’ve heard more Ant rumors with legs over the last 24 hours than I had heard all summer. One executive told me he believes he asked out.

This wouldn't surprise me at all. I have to wonder if last night wasn't him taking himself out of the game a bit... I'm off of X / Twitter since the election, so I'm not as up to date as I used to be, but I have yet to hear why he left the game 5min out beyond "some chest thing" that they mentioned on 1080 The Fan.

Hopefully that was the case and it's not something serious.

All that said, Ant is far and away the guy who I want to see moved the most, so I'm hopeful they can get something done here soon. It's just not worked here for him as the Dame (or CJ) replacement, or being the #1 guy. He's a really good player, but just not a #1 option type, way more suited for a 6th man role on a good team. I'm curious to see where he ends up and hope it's a good spot for him.

For the Blazers, moving Ant is addition by subtraction if you ask me. Fingers crossed they don't get a vet PG back in return they feel obligated to start. It's time for Scoot to start and see what he can do - they can't keep bringing their prized #3 pick off the bench. Get Scoot starting for a season (or majority of it) and let's see what he really is or what progression he can show in that role all year long.

Ayton would be next for me, but you could talk me into keeping him longer. I still want to see Clingan starting, but he is seeming to struggling early with conditioning - seems to get winded early, which is to be expected. Also, Ayton isn't exactly an ironman, so you're going to see him in and out plenty and Clingan getting starts. If a deal comes along for Ayton, I hope they take it, but if I were in the Blazers shoes, I wouldn't feel as much urgency moving him as I would Ant.

Similarly, I don't think you need to move Grant yet. If you have to keep one of the 3 vets, Grant would be my choice. He's not hindering anyones development for the most part. Ant far and away is doing that the most with Scoot, Ayton a bit with Clingan - but less-so for the reasons mentioned in the previous paragraph. The only young guy behind Grant would be Deni, and obviously with the price payed to get Deni, I would like to see him starting, but I'm not as concerned about Deni's development given he's in his 4th or 5th year in the league now. I'm not saying my choice is to keep him, but you have a lot more runway to be patient for a deal with Grant.

I agree with everything you posted

[Butter]

It'll be interesting to see who emerges when Portland does a coaching search.

Team might need to hire veteran head coach for there will be challenges if they go the assistant
coach route, for they likely will need to win with the personnel on hand. Is there a Mike D'Antoni type
out there who at least knows what he wants to do and has had some success as a head coach?

I vote Sam Cassel