Blazers to Buyout Deandre Ayton!

[JRoy]

Good riddance

[Dame Lizard]

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Its almost as if people forget Camara was part of that trade. Not saying Cronin didnt get lucky on that addition but in hindsight acquiring Camara made it worth whatever headache ayton may have been

Luck is part of the game. Regardless of what Cronin expected Camara to become - he hit. Thats all that matters and he gets the W on that trade because of it IMO.

Luck definitely helps, for good or worse. For example the Bucks GM has suffered from Dame's injury.

However, realistically, I give Cronin absolutely bare minimum credit for Camara. I want a GM who I can trust to make calculated good decisions. Not one who has gotten lucky on occasions, amongst some poor decisions.

The verdict is still out on Cronin. He deserves big props for Deni, but he absolutely missed on the prime time to trade Grant and Simons, and ended up taking on a 3 year contracted old Jrue Holiday.

He also deserves props for the Dame trade. However, drafting hasn't yielded anything to date for him though.

[Case2012]

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I really hope the conspiracy around getting Grant to the lakers with Knecht and Vando coming back is true.

[DusterBuster]

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I really hope the conspiracy around getting Grant to the lakers with Knecht and Vando coming back is true.

I know I'm gonna be disappointed, but me too. There's 10s of millions of reasons why it won't, but ugh I wish it would.

[BlazersBroncos]

Its almost as if people forget Camara was part of that trade. Not saying Cronin didnt get lucky on that addition but in hindsight acquiring Camara made it worth whatever headache ayton may have been

Luck is part of the game. Regardless of what Cronin expected Camara to become - he hit. Thats all that matters and he gets the W on that trade because of it IMO.

Luck definitely helps, for good or worse. For example the Bucks GM has suffered from Dame's injury.

However, realistically, I give Cronin absolutely bare minimum credit for Camara. I want a GM who I can trust to make calculated good decisions. Not one who has gotten lucky on occasions, amongst some poor decisions.

The verdict is still out on Cronin. He deserves big props for Deni, but he absolutely missed on the prime time to trade Grant and Simons, and ended up taking on a 3 year contracted old Jrue Holiday.

He also deserves props for the Dame trade. However, drafting hasn't yielded anything to date for him though.

I mean, its quite rare to request and recieve a recently drafted SRP in the way Cronin did w/ the Ayton deal. Ya, it also makes no sense that we took Rayan or even Kris before Camara assuming we liked him. But Joe clearly went out of his way to get Camara in the deal.

[DusterBuster]

Ayton to Lakers official... lets all pray to whatever deity that trust-me-bro source twitter guy being right about Grant to the Lakers now too.

[dunlop212]

> i mean, its quite rare to request and recieve a recently drafted SRP in the way Cronin did w/ the Ayton deal. Ya, it also makes no sense that we took Rayan or even Kris before Camara assuming we liked him. But Joe clearly went out of his way to get Camara in the deal.

The deal went down after Camera had a breakthrough performance in summer league.

[Norm2953]

It's fine for its another $8.1 million in savings in 2025. Blazers now have a lot of room under the tax line in case they wish to make a move

[Case2012]

God, there's soooooooo many people i want to tell "TOLD YOU SO" in teh TNT thread.

2 years 16 million. A lot different than "I will continue to be a max player". He's gonna get shredded in LA by the fans...

[Case2012]

It's fine for its another $8.1 million in savings in 2025. Blazers now have a lot of room under the tax line in case they wish to make a move

So that 8 million gets removed from the cap in addition to the 10 million he conceded? We had enough for the full MLE i thought, so is that 8 million on top of the 14 million full MLE? Giving us 22 million?

[Wizenheimer]

It's fine for its another $8.1 million in savings in 2025. Blazers now have a lot of room under the tax line in case they wish to make a move

it's not 8.1M

it's 8.1M - 1.2M (min salary)/2

so about 3.4M added to the 10M Ayton gave up. A 13.4M reduction in the Blazer cap

[Wizenheimer]

It's fine for its another $8.1 million in savings in 2025. Blazers now have a lot of room under the tax line in case they wish to make a move

So that 8 million gets removed from the cap in addition to the 10 million he conceded? We had enough for the full MLE i thought, so is that 8 million on top of the 14 million full MLE? Giving us 22 million?

no the offset formula is the new-salary - minimum salary and the balance divided by 2. It works out to 3.4M....maybe a tiche more

[Norm2953]

Ayton's second year is a PO but its still fine for Portland. Ayton on the hook for around $21.5 in 2025 is still an expiring contract

[DusterBuster]

God, there's soooooooo many people i want to tell "TOLD YOU SO" in teh TNT thread.

2 years 16 million. A lot different than "I will continue to be a max player". He's gonna get shredded in LA by the fans...

I think before the new year, you'll see JJ bench him for a few games for lack of effort. Laker fans probably bitching and moaning about him on a game by game basis before Christmas. Expect a lot of Windy "sources tell me LeBron isn't happy with Ayton".

[Case2012]

God, there's soooooooo many people i want to tell "TOLD YOU SO" in teh TNT thread.

2 years 16 million. A lot different than "I will continue to be a max player". He's gonna get shredded in LA by the fans...

I think before the new year, you'll see JJ bench him for a few games for lack of effort. Laker fans probably bitching and moaning about him on a game by game basis before Christmas. Expect a lot of Windy "sources tell me LeBron isn't happy with Ayton".

True but i also think there's a strong possibility Luka and Lebron will have him looking like his best self.

If they're feeding him on PNR and involving him a lot in the offense he'll actually try, especially this being a contract year and CP3 made him look like a max player in Phoenix being the starting center on a finals team, so I imagine Luka and Lebron MIGHT have a similar effect. You never know if you're getting a 6 point 7 rebound game or a 25 and 14 game.

Next year though, after he's got a new deal..

[DusterBuster]

God, there's soooooooo many people i want to tell "TOLD YOU SO" in teh TNT thread.

2 years 16 million. A lot different than "I will continue to be a max player". He's gonna get shredded in LA by the fans...

I think before the new year, you'll see JJ bench him for a few games for lack of effort. Laker fans probably bitching and moaning about him on a game by game basis before Christmas. Expect a lot of Windy "sources tell me LeBron isn't happy with Ayton".

True but i also think there's a strong possibility Luka and Lebron will have him looking like his best self.

If they're feeding him on PNR and involving him a lot in the offense he'll actually try, especially this being a contract year and CP3 made him look like a max player in Phoenix being the starting center on a finals team, so I imagine Luka and Lebron MIGHT have a similar effect. You never know if you're getting a 6 point 7 rebound game or a 25 and 14 game.

Next year though, after he's got a new deal..

I wouldn't go "strong" possibility, but a possibility, sure. I didn't hate Ayton as much as others did, but his flaws were pretty evident even to the point where you had Channing Frye flat out calling him out on socials last year for very clearly not giving a **** on the court.

He certainly has all the reasons in the world to actually give a **** for 82+ games next season. He's now in a contract year (which he would have anyway) and he's less than a week out from basically being told he had so little value his team would rather just buy his ass out than take what other teams were offering for him on an expiring contact. So if he wants to be Dominyaton and "I'm always a max player" like he thinks he is, he has all reason to give it his all every second on the court and be the best version of himself.

The funniest of all scenarios is he does just end up a 22/14 player, get another max deal next summer from the Lakers, then go back to half-assing Oct-January and average 14/10 again.

[Chanse503]

It’s goin to be must see TV when Ayton and Clingon match up and Clingon BLOCKS Aytons soft ass!

[Norm2953]

It'll be interesting to see his next contract after he opts next summer.

Presumably there is a handshake deal on the parameters for his next deal, assuming he stays healthy

From Portland's POV, they are well under the tax line and have options at the trade deadline

[PDXKnight]

I think before the new year, you'll see JJ bench him for a few games for lack of effort. Laker fans probably bitching and moaning about him on a game by game basis before Christmas. Expect a lot of Windy "sources tell me LeBron isn't happy with Ayton".

True but i also think there's a strong possibility Luka and Lebron will have him looking like his best self.

If they're feeding him on PNR and involving him a lot in the offense he'll actually try, especially this being a contract year and CP3 made him look like a max player in Phoenix being the starting center on a finals team, so I imagine Luka and Lebron MIGHT have a similar effect. You never know if you're getting a 6 point 7 rebound game or a 25 and 14 game.

Next year though, after he's got a new deal..

I wouldn't go "strong" possibility, but a possibility, sure. I didn't hate Ayton as much as others did, but his flaws were pretty evident even to the point where you had Channing Frye flat out calling him out on socials last year for very clearly not giving a **** on the court.

He certainly has all the reasons in the world to actually give a **** for 82+ games next season. He's now in a contract year (which he would have anyway) and he's less than a week out from basically being told he had so little value his team would rather just buy his ass out than take what other teams were offering for him on an expiring contact. So if he wants to be Dominyaton and "I'm always a max player" like he thinks he is, he has all reason to give it his all every second on the court and be the best version of himself.

The funniest of all scenarios is he does just end up a 22/14 player, get another max deal next summer from the Lakers, then go back to half-assing Oct-January and average 14/10 again.

I cant see anyone giving ayton the max at this point, you know what you get and the attitude and general laziness dont help his case. A career high year would be pointless if he wasn't clearly a huge component of his team's success and I doubt he will have that sort of success. I suspect him putting up 22 ppg means hes hogging the ball too much and him putting up much less and he gets complacent because he wont feel important enough on offense. Imo neither case bodes well for the Lakers going much over 48 wins let alone having much post season success or ayton getting major money.

I think offensively this is gonna be a grab the popcorn sort of crash. There's not nearly enough offense to go around and obviously doncic and Lebron will be the ones taking the shots but sometimes a player like ayton is enough to start a dumpster fire on the offensive end

[DusterBuster]

True but i also think there's a strong possibility Luka and Lebron will have him looking like his best self.

If they're feeding him on PNR and involving him a lot in the offense he'll actually try, especially this being a contract year and CP3 made him look like a max player in Phoenix being the starting center on a finals team, so I imagine Luka and Lebron MIGHT have a similar effect. You never know if you're getting a 6 point 7 rebound game or a 25 and 14 game.

Next year though, after he's got a new deal..

I wouldn't go "strong" possibility, but a possibility, sure. I didn't hate Ayton as much as others did, but his flaws were pretty evident even to the point where you had Channing Frye flat out calling him out on socials last year for very clearly not giving a **** on the court.

He certainly has all the reasons in the world to actually give a **** for 82+ games next season. He's now in a contract year (which he would have anyway) and he's less than a week out from basically being told he had so little value his team would rather just buy his ass out than take what other teams were offering for him on an expiring contact. So if he wants to be Dominyaton and "I'm always a max player" like he thinks he is, he has all reason to give it his all every second on the court and be the best version of himself.

The funniest of all scenarios is he does just end up a 22/14 player, get another max deal next summer from the Lakers, then go back to half-assing Oct-January and average 14/10 again.

I cant see anyone giving ayton the max at this point, you know what you get and the attitude and general laziness dont help his case. A career high year would be pointless if he wasn't clearly a huge component of his team's success and I doubt he will have that sort of success. I suspect him putting up 22 ppg means hes hogging the ball too much and him putting up much less and he gets complacent because he wont feel important enough on offense. Imo neither case bodes well for the Lakers going much over 48 wins let alone having much post season success or ayton getting major money.

I think offensively this is gonna be a grab the popcorn sort of crash. There's not nearly enough offense to go around and obviously doncic and Lebron will be the ones taking the shots but sometimes a player like ayton is enough to start a dumpster fire on the offensive end

Obviously that's not likely, just the funniest.