2025 Off-Season Strategy - What will Cronin do?

[DaVoiceMaster]

I don't think the Blazers can do better than Orlando's #16 pick for Simon's. I'm content sending Simons there for either KCP and Howard or Isaac and Anthony.

If they want to add both together, the Blazers could include Thybulle and RW3, but there needs to be another pick coming our way. I don't know that pick #25 is enough so perhaps a future pick if they have one available.

[Walton1one]

Yeah, I don't find Isaac's contract to be a negative worth including a pick for ORL to get off of, other than the # of years (4), but again he has a clause in his contract where he has to play a certain amount of games the year before to guarantee his salary the next year.

He is due $15mil this year and $8mil next year, which can go to $14.5 total if he plays in 52+ games. His salary in 27/28 is non guaranteed unless he plays 52+ games, almost an Anti-Rob Williams contract, where POR just pays Rob to be hurt all the time.

$14-15mil for a b\u center is a good deal IMO, will look better with each passing year. IMO it is not the contract as much as it is the player, his injury history and mid-level play.

5.4 - 4.4 - .6 w\ 1.1blk - .9 stl 41.4%\25.8% in 15.4min/71 games. Nothing spectacular, but just fine for a b\u center IMO

I have spent too much time looking over ORL salary tables, suffice to say ORL needs to move Isaac, if not this year, then definitely next year, especially if they want to keep Mo Wagner & Bitadze and stay under the tax.

They can acquire Simons this year, keep Isaac & re-sign Wagner\Joseph and stay under the tax next year but after next season when Banchero's extension kicks in & if they want to re-sign Simons to an extension and still stay under the tax, Isaac's contract becomes problematic

[Walton1one]

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[Tim Lehrbach]

I literally never think about Matisse Thybulle. Are we penciling him in for minutes next year or writing him off?

[HoopsFanAZ]

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Clean slate for the Jazz.
Collins, Sexton, Clarkson, and Martin are on EC’s next season at a bit under $68M combined.

Ant is ASEC.
Markkanen will make $46.3M then $46.1M, $49.8M, $53.5M from age 28-31 /

Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Cody Williams are young and cheap.
Why not have a clean slate set up for next summer with #5 (pretty unlucky with that one) and another Top 5 pick along with ridiculous cap room in 2026?

Ant + TimeLord + 11 (+ draft capital) = Markkanen
The Jazz can do another flip for expiring contracts with draft capital with Time Lord or Ant or sit tight and tank.

[tester551]

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Clean slate for the Jazz.
Collins, Sexton, Clarkson, and Martin are on EC’s next season at a bit under $68M combined.

Ant is ASEC.
Markkanen will make $46.3M then $46.1M, $49.8M, $53.5M from age 28-31 /

Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Cody Williams are young and cheap.
Why not have a clean slate set up for next summer with #5 (pretty unlucky with that one) and another Top 5 pick along with ridiculous cap room in 2026?

Ant + TimeLord + 11 (+ draft capital) = Markkanen
The Jazz can do another flip for expiring contracts with draft capital with Time Lord or Ant or sit tight and tank.

Disgusting...
The picks & draft capital need to be going the other way.
Lauri has one of the top 10 worst contracts in the NBA.
You have a Grant level player -> making 140% of what Grant does.


If we're talking to Utah - something like this may make sense:
Collins + Williams + 21 <=> Simons
Portland takes a swing with the disappointing rookie. Collins is a good big on an expiring contract (who is underrated).

[BlazersBroncos]

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Clean slate for the Jazz.
Collins, Sexton, Clarkson, and Martin are on EC’s next season at a bit under $68M combined.

Ant is ASEC.
Markkanen will make $46.3M then $46.1M, $49.8M, $53.5M from age 28-31 /

Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Cody Williams are young and cheap.
Why not have a clean slate set up for next summer with #5 (pretty unlucky with that one) and another Top 5 pick along with ridiculous cap room in 2026?

Ant + TimeLord + 11 (+ draft capital) = Markkanen
The Jazz can do another flip for expiring contracts with draft capital with Time Lord or Ant or sit tight and tank.

Disgusting...
The picks & draft capital need to be going the other way.
Lauri has one of the top 10 worst contracts in the NBA.
You have a Grant level player -> making 140% of what Grant does.


If we're talking to Utah - something like this may make sense:
Collins + Williams + 21 <=> Simons
Portland takes a swing with the disappointing rookie. Collins is a good big on an expiring contract (who is underrated).

How on earth does Simons have more value than Sexton? All metrics show Colin as better, similar age and cheaper. Absurd to me that UTA would add a #10 pick going into his soph year (Even with him sucking) AND a FRP.

I am a Lauri fan personally, think he simply had a down year. But I dont take that contract w/o Jerami going out.

PDX OUT - Grant, Simons, 11
PDX IN - Lauri, Cole, 16, 46

UTA OUT - Lauri
UTA IN - Grant, JI, 11

ORL OUT - Cole, JI, 16, 46
ORL IN - Simons

We snag Coward at 16 and use 46 on someone like Proctor.

G - Scoot (30) / Cole (18)
G - Sharpe (30) / MT (18)
F - Avdija (32) / Camara (16)
F - Lauri (32) / Camara (16)
C - DA (24) / DC (24)

[HoopsFanAZ]

Clean slate for the Jazz.
Collins, Sexton, Clarkson, and Martin are on EC’s next season at a bit under $68M combined.

Ant is ASEC.
Markkanen will make $46.3M then $46.1M, $49.8M, $53.5M from age 28-31 /

Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, and Cody Williams are young and cheap.
Why not have a clean slate set up for next summer with #5 (pretty unlucky with that one) and another Top 5 pick along with ridiculous cap room in 2026?

Ant + TimeLord + 11 (+ draft capital) = Markkanen
The Jazz can do another flip for expiring contracts with draft capital with Time Lord or Ant or sit tight and tank.

Disgusting...
The picks & draft capital need to be going the other way.
Lauri has one of the top 10 worst contracts in the NBA.
You have a Grant level player -> making 140% of what Grant does.

If we're talking to Utah - something like this may make sense:
Collins + Williams + 21 <=> Simons
Portland takes a swing with the disappointing rookie. Collins is a good big on an expiring contract (who is underrated).

I wanted the Blazers to draft Cody Williams, so a trade for Collins’ EC, Williams, and #21? YES.
Without the 21? YES. I would prefer trading Ant for 21 and Williams (and Collins as a rental).

[HoopsFanAZ]

The only way I see the Jazz trading Markkanen for Simons, et. al. is to clean the slate and get draft capital. Portland exchanging 11 for 21 in the deal? Sure. However, I would be shocked if Grant went to the Jazz. I like Grant — just not his age for this group or his contract length (especially). Markkanen got overpaid, but he is good and an asset for the Jazz coming off a bad year — he got his dollars and years.

That the Jazz fell as far as they could to 5 is a good reason to reboot the tank for next season for a good draft and a better free agent class.

I don’t see any of this happening.

[PDXKnight]

One can only hope ant is on the way out and that this isnt just agent chatter..

[Norm2953]

Orlando/Portland have literally been talking about Ant for several seasons.

Will this ever get done?

[tester551]

How on earth does Simons have more value than Sexton?

COLLINS = John Collins

Not Collin Sexton

[BlazersBroncos]

How on earth does Simons have more value than Sexton?

COLLINS = John Collins

Not Collin Sexton

OK. Even then, I would argue that John has only slightly less value than Simons. If that. Still see Cody and 21 as a bridge too far.

If we could somehow snag Collins and 21 for Simons I would be ecstatic.

Hell, if we extinguish all options and are sure we cant get a FRP for Simons, I would do a straight John for Ant swap.

[Case2012]

Just do the Ant deal with Orlando, get the second pick--draft Coward and Fleming. We would have the 2 longest and efficient 3/D guys in the draft. After a lot of thought, this is the overall best combo for those 2 picks. We'd add another 7'2 and 7'6 WS and who were in the top 5 best shooters in the NCAA. We add shooting with not only NOT losing anything on Defense, we lock in as a top 5 defense. If we added Isaac or KCP we'd have a championship level defensive squad. We'd just need one of Sharpe, Scoot, or Coward to become an Alpha (big JUST). Sharpe has shown the scoring ability but not the Alpha motor, I think Coward could be the 2 way alpha we've needed. If not, we have the MIL picks and lots of expiring money to trade for one, although i think the draft remains the best course for finding a star.

| Pos. | Player | Ht. | Wingspan |
| ---- | ------------------- | ---- | -------- |
| C | Donovan Clingan | 7-2 | **7-7** |
| F | Rasheer Fleming 6-9 | **7-6** |
| C | Robert Williams | 6-9 | **7-6** |
| C | Deandre Ayton | 7-0 | **7-5** |
| F | Jerami Grant | 6-8 | **7-3** |
| F | Cedric Coward | 6-6 | **7-2** |
| W | Rayan Rupert | 6-6 | **7-2** |
| W | Toumani Camara | 6-7 | **7-1** |
| W | Matisse Thybulle | 6-5 | **7-1** |
| F/C | Jonathan Isaac | 6-11 | **7-0** |
| F | Kris Murray 6-8 | **6-11** |
| F | Jabari Walker | 6-8 | **6-11** |
| SG | Shaedon Sharpe | 6-6 | **6-11** |
| PF | Deni Avdija | 6-9 | **6-10** |
| PG | Scoot Henderson | 6-3 | **6-9** |

That has to be the tallest and longest team in the league. If we pulled this roster off Olshey would crap his pants.

[oldfishermen]

Not sure how I feel about this trade idea?

Simons for Jordan Poole.

If Wash takes a PG with pick #6, there is a very good chance Poole will be traded.

Why for Portland? Slight upgrade. Poole played very well this past season. We get the better overall player.

Why for Wash? They save $4 million first season, and Simons expiring saves them $34 million the second season.

[DusterBuster]

Not sure how I feel about this trade idea?

Simons for Jordan Poole.

If Wash takes a PG with pick #6, there is a very good chance Poole will be traded.

Why for Portland? Slight upgrade. Poole played very well this past season. We get the better overall player.

Why for Wash? They save $4 million first season, and Simons expiring saves them $34 million the second season.

I know how I feel about that trade.

Barf. Poole is not a winning player.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Not sure how I feel about this trade idea?

Simons for Jordan Poole.

If Wash takes a PG with pick #6, there is a very good chance Poole will be traded.

Why for Portland? Slight upgrade. Poole played very well this past season. We get the better overall player.

Why for Wash? They save $4 million first season, and Simons expiring saves them $34 million the second season.

OMG!!! I would hate that so much. I cannot stand that guy.

[Walton1one]

I just like seeing the Dear Lord baby Jesus gif in post after post...

All seriousness, today Marang basically hintied that POR will resign Simons and it could be Scoot who is moved....

Just so I have this right, POR drafted Scoot #3 TWO years ago, a pick that basically ushered Dame out of town and now 2 years later when Scoot is only 21 years old, they are going to pivot (trade) away from him in favor of Simons who is nowhere close to a winning player. How has CJ done BTW?

I refuse to believe that can happen, but it would serve POR right to see Scoot blow up like Jermaine and POR left in mediocrity and Simons doing Simons stuff and making over $30mil\year.

I don't think Cronin is a very good GM, but I would love to hear him explain that crap away.

I can't find the article, maybe someone with better Google navigation powers can, but there was an article that mentioned that Scoot was 1 of 7 players at age 20 to average 12-3-5 and 6 of those 7 players went on to become All Stars

Trading Scoot away to pay Simons $30+ million would be an absolutely idiotic decision

[Wizenheimer]

I just like seeing the Dear Lord baby Jesus gif in post after post...

All seriousness, today Marang basically hintied that POR will resign Simons and it could be Scoot who is moved....

Just so I have this right, POR drafted Scoot #3 TWO years ago, a pick that basically ushered Dame out of town and now 2 years later when Scoot is only 21 years old, they are going to pivot (trade) away from him in favor of Simons who is nowhere close to a winning player. How has CJ done BTW?

I refuse to believe that can happen, but it would serve POR right to see Scoot blow up like Jermaine and POR left in mediocrity and Simons doing Simons stuff and making over $30mil\year.

I don't think Cronin is a very good GM, but I would love to hear him explain that crap away.

I can't find the article, maybe someone with better Google navigation powers can, but there was an article that mentioned that Scoot was 1 of 7 players at age 20 to average 12-3-5 and 6 of those 7 players went on to become All Stars

Trading Scoot away to pay Simons $30+ million would be an absolutely idiotic decision

I don't pay much attention to him but what I have seen is Marang is a extreme homer. So, I would be skeptical of things he says

that out of the way, I have a sneaking suspicion that Simons is to Cronin as CJ was to Olshey. Two GM's blindly and idiotically overrating undersized no-defense combo guards. Hope I'm wrong. Cronin could have held the line and had Simons for 15M/year in 2022. No other team was going to pay that much. But he gave Simons 25M/year. An equivalent contract for Simons after next season would be 35M/year....unless Cronin thinks Simons should get a bigger slice of the slary cap than he got last time

I find myself really hoping that a new owner comes in and makes major changes....new GM, new coach, dump the vets.

[The Sebastian Express]

If we kept Simons and traded Scoot I would be so upset. This would be dumb for so many reasons.