Realistic Wish List???

[Norm2953]

This assumes Deni doesn't work with the Blazers and just signs one of those 1+1 extensions and
pushes the decision into 2029 when both Jerami and Jrue will be off their books.

Blazers in 2029 might be an interesting team with Camara, Deni and their two centers along
with lottery picks in 2026, 2027 and hopefully 2028

[DaVoiceMaster]

Couple questions...

Does it simply come down to a percentage the Blazers can offer, which will likely be well below his worth?

If the Blazers are able to shed some salary (Grant and/or Holiday) before then, would they be able to extend Deni? If yes, how much would they need to shed?

probably should just forget about an extension. Portland won't be able to create enough cap-space, IMO. Not unless they lose Camara, and don't re-sign at least one of Sharpe and Scoot....at the same time they miraculously dump on of Jrue and Grant for 0 money being on the books. The Blazers had a very remote shot at extending Avdija before they exchanged Simons and his expiring contract for Jrue's 3 year deal. After that trade, 'very remote' became 'forget about it'

Jrue & Grant - 70-73M
Sharpe & Scoot - 60M
Camara 22M
Clingan 8M
Yang 5M

that right there is 165M and it's only for 7 players; only half a roster; gotta figure another 25-30M. So then, 190-200M in payroll. The salary cap over this year and the next 2 seasons will be around 154M - 169M - 186M. If Avdija's next deal has a base salary of 42M, 30M of that would have to come from cap-space. The math is uncompromising. If Portland wanted to extend Avdija in 2027-28, they likely have to cut 15-20M in salary just to get to the cap line; then cut another 30M. Even dumping one of Grant/Jrue with no salary coming back that year would not be near enough

on the other hand, in July of 2028 the Blazers can give Deni more money than any other team. Yeah, the risk is he walks, but the Blazers completely committed to that risk when they traded for him and that contract

Well, that sucks. So there are 2 options...

1. Trade Deni sooner rsther than later to capitalize more on the return.
2. Keep Deni and hope he loves playing here.

What happens if the Blazers offered him a new contract with an opt out option. Could they then offer him a larger contract? Does the cap or tax line prevent them from offering him a large contract?

[DaVoiceMaster]

Reading the senseless summer thread and I think the answer is there... the ;
Blazers would need to clear however much cap space they want to offer Deni. Sounds like they need to move him. Would love to have another year with him.

[Black and Blue]

Couple questions...

Does it simply come down to a percentage the Blazers can offer, which will likely be well below his worth?

If the Blazers are able to shed some salary (Grant and/or Holiday) before then, would they be able to extend Deni? If yes, how much would they need to shed?

probably should just forget about an extension. Portland won't be able to create enough cap-space, IMO. Not unless they lose Camara, and don't re-sign at least one of Sharpe and Scoot....at the same time they miraculously dump on of Jrue and Grant for 0 money being on the books. The Blazers had a very remote shot at extending Avdija before they exchanged Simons and his expiring contract for Jrue's 3 year deal. After that trade, 'very remote' became 'forget about it'

Jrue & Grant - 70-73M
Sharpe & Scoot - 60M
Camara 22M
Clingan 8M
Yang 5M

that right there is 165M and it's only for 7 players; only half a roster; gotta figure another 25-30M. So then, 190-200M in payroll. The salary cap over this year and the next 2 seasons will be around 154M - 169M - 186M. If Avdija's next deal has a base salary of 42M, 30M of that would have to come from cap-space. The math is uncompromising. If Portland wanted to extend Avdija in 2027-28, they likely have to cut 15-20M in salary just to get to the cap line; then cut another 30M. Even dumping one of Grant/Jrue with no salary coming back that year would not be near enough

on the other hand, in July of 2028 the Blazers can give Deni more money than any other team. Yeah, the risk is he walks, but the Blazers completely committed to that risk when they traded for him and that contract

Well, that sucks. So there are 2 options...

1. Trade Deni sooner rsther than later to capitalize more on the return.
2. Keep Deni and hope he loves playing here.

What happens if the Blazers offered him a new contract with an opt out option. Could they then offer him a larger contract? Does the cap or tax line prevent them from offering him a large contract?

Unless I’m mistaken (and I may be, so angry posters I ask that you hold onto your pitchforks), aren’t Bird Rights a huge aspect of all of this? The Blazers can offer Deni more years than anyone, can offer him higher annual raises than anyone, can go over the cap to resign him, and have several years to work with him and his team to map out a plan. Yes, Deni could leave if he absolutely hates Portland…but in the modern NBA who leaves that much guaranteed money on the table when they are the number one option on a team?

Not poo pooing concerns as it’s more complicated than it usually is, but there is still time and at the end of the day it seems the Blazers can keep him so long as they are willing to pony up that big of a commitment to him. And that may be the biggest question of them all- is Deni a max player you build an entire championship team around? Maybe that’s a question the team works to solve definitely with a full season with him as the top option.

[Wizenheimer]

Unless I’m mistaken (and I may be, so angry posters I ask that you hold onto your pitchforks), aren’t Bird Rights a huge aspect of all of this? The Blazers can offer Deni more years than anyone, can offer him higher annual raises than anyone, can go over the cap to resign him, and have several years to work with him and his team to map out a plan. Yes, Deni could leave if he absolutely hates Portland…but in the modern NBA who leaves that much guaranteed money on the table when they are the number one option on a team?

Not poo pooing concerns as it’s more complicated than it usually is, but there is still time and at the end of the day it seems the Blazers can keep him so long as they are willing to pony up that big of a commitment to him. And that may be the biggest question of them all- is Deni a max player you build an entire championship team around? Maybe that’s a question the team works to solve definitely with a full season with him as the top option.

all true

IIRC, in July 2028, the Blazers can give Avdija a 5 year deal when other teams are limited to a 4 year deal. A team with sufficient cap-space can give Avdija the same base salary as Portland

BUT, those teams would be limited to 5% step raises while the Blazers can give 8% step raises. That's actually a more significant factor than it might seem. With a 4 year deal the maximum number of step raises is 6. With a 5 year deal, the maximum is 10. For example, say Deni signs with a base salary of 45M. For another team, that would be 2.25M step raises; times 6 would be an additional 13.5M in step raises. That would mean the total deal from another team would be 193.5 M over 4 years; 48.4M/year.

For the Blazers, with 8% step raises on a 45M base salary. the raise amount is 3.6M. So, for the first 4 years the Blazers could give Deni 7M more in raises than another team. And the Blazers can offer Deni that 5th season for 59.4M. That's great incentive

now, the thicket the Blazers will be wading into is that the 2028-29 salary cap is projected to be over 200M. So Deni's max possible base salary could be 16M higher than the hypothetical 45M. The Blazers will likely be where they usually are in dealing with their own free agents: over paying them to keep them. Obviously, if Deni doesn't want to be in Portland he can accept a lesser offer from another team. Portland can't really compete with that unless they give Deni a stupid albatross deal. But if that situation is approaching, I would hope the Blazer GM would have stones enough to trade Avdija well before 2028

[PDXKnight]

Unless I’m mistaken (and I may be, so angry posters I ask that you hold onto your pitchforks), aren’t Bird Rights a huge aspect of all of this? The Blazers can offer Deni more years than anyone, can offer him higher annual raises than anyone, can go over the cap to resign him, and have several years to work with him and his team to map out a plan. Yes, Deni could leave if he absolutely hates Portland…but in the modern NBA who leaves that much guaranteed money on the table when they are the number one option on a team?

Not poo pooing concerns as it’s more complicated than it usually is, but there is still time and at the end of the day it seems the Blazers can keep him so long as they are willing to pony up that big of a commitment to him. And that may be the biggest question of them all- is Deni a max player you build an entire championship team around? Maybe that’s a question the team works to solve definitely with a full season with him as the top option.

all true

IIRC, in July 2028, the Blazers can give Avdija a 5 year deal when other teams are limited to a 4 year deal. A team with sufficient cap-space can give Avdija the same base salary as Portland

BUT, those teams would be limited to 5% step raises while the Blazers can give 8% step raises. That's actually a more significant factor than it might seem. With a 4 year deal the maximum number of step raises is 6. With a 5 year deal, the maximum is 10. For example, say Deni signs with a base salary of 45M. For another team, that would be 2.25M step raises; times 6 would be an additional 13.5M in step raises. That would mean the total deal from another team would be 193.5 M over 4 years; 48.4M/year.

For the Blazers, with 8% step raises on a 45M base salary. the raise amount is 3.6M. So, for the first 4 years the Blazers could give Deni 7M more in raises than another team. And the Blazers can offer Deni that 5th season for 59.4M. That's great incentive

now, the thicket the Blazers will be wading into is that the 2028-29 salary cap is projected to be over 200M. So Deni's max possible base salary could be 16M higher than the hypothetical 45M. The Blazers will likely be where they usually are in dealing with their own free agents: over paying them to keep them. Obviously, if Deni doesn't want to be in Portland he can accept a lesser offer from another team. Portland can't really compete with that unless they give Deni a stupid albatross deal. But if that situation is approaching, I would hope the Blazer GM would have stones enough to trade Avdija well before 2028

At least we have 1-2 years to make a decision. Not saying that we will just that if we had a competent fo that should be plenty of time to decide if hes worth the max & act accordingly via a trade or retention as id imagine we could at least match and likely garner more than we paid out to get Deni here in the first place

[dckingsfan]

Richaun Holmes just became available... that would bring us to 5 Cs, LOL.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Richaun Holmes just became available... that would bring us to 5 Cs, LOL.

Sadly, they may need 5 centers this season.

[wco81]

Unless I’m mistaken (and I may be, so angry posters I ask that you hold onto your pitchforks), aren’t Bird Rights a huge aspect of all of this? The Blazers can offer Deni more years than anyone, can offer him higher annual raises than anyone, can go over the cap to resign him, and have several years to work with him and his team to map out a plan. Yes, Deni could leave if he absolutely hates Portland…but in the modern NBA who leaves that much guaranteed money on the table when they are the number one option on a team?

Not poo pooing concerns as it’s more complicated than it usually is, but there is still time and at the end of the day it seems the Blazers can keep him so long as they are willing to pony up that big of a commitment to him. And that may be the biggest question of them all- is Deni a max player you build an entire championship team around? Maybe that’s a question the team works to solve definitely with a full season with him as the top option.

all true

IIRC, in July 2028, the Blazers can give Avdija a 5 year deal when other teams are limited to a 4 year deal. A team with sufficient cap-space can give Avdija the same base salary as Portland

BUT, those teams would be limited to 5% step raises while the Blazers can give 8% step raises. That's actually a more significant factor than it might seem. With a 4 year deal the maximum number of step raises is 6. With a 5 year deal, the maximum is 10. For example, say Deni signs with a base salary of 45M. For another team, that would be 2.25M step raises; times 6 would be an additional 13.5M in step raises. That would mean the total deal from another team would be 193.5 M over 4 years; 48.4M/year.

For the Blazers, with 8% step raises on a 45M base salary. the raise amount is 3.6M. So, for the first 4 years the Blazers could give Deni 7M more in raises than another team. And the Blazers can offer Deni that 5th season for 59.4M. That's great incentive

now, the thicket the Blazers will be wading into is that the 2028-29 salary cap is projected to be over 200M. So Deni's max possible base salary could be 16M higher than the hypothetical 45M. The Blazers will likely be where they usually are in dealing with their own free agents: over paying them to keep them. Obviously, if Deni doesn't want to be in Portland he can accept a lesser offer from another team. Portland can't really compete with that unless they give Deni a stupid albatross deal. But if that situation is approaching, I would hope the Blazer GM would have stones enough to trade Avdija well before 2028

Didn’t realize that the Blazers would have to look at paying big money to Deni and Kamara relatively soon. They just broke out this past season.

Deni signed kind of a low RFA deal so he’s probably looking to get paid.

You also have an unsettled ownership situation. The next owner is the one who has to pay these big contracts.

These players are going to try to ball out to maximize their next contracts. Blazers can’t be aiming for more lottery draft positions going forward? They have to see if these players can sustain the play they showed last season to determine how much to pay them? It would be also difficult to pay out max contracts without seeing how these young players do in the playoffs.

[Wizenheimer]

Unless I’m mistaken (and I may be, so angry posters I ask that you hold onto your pitchforks), aren’t Bird Rights a huge aspect of all of this? The Blazers can offer Deni more years than anyone, can offer him higher annual raises than anyone, can go over the cap to resign him, and have several years to work with him and his team to map out a plan. Yes, Deni could leave if he absolutely hates Portland…but in the modern NBA who leaves that much guaranteed money on the table when they are the number one option on a team?

Not poo pooing concerns as it’s more complicated than it usually is, but there is still time and at the end of the day it seems the Blazers can keep him so long as they are willing to pony up that big of a commitment to him. And that may be the biggest question of them all- is Deni a max player you build an entire championship team around? Maybe that’s a question the team works to solve definitely with a full season with him as the top option.

all true

IIRC, in July 2028, the Blazers can give Avdija a 5 year deal when other teams are limited to a 4 year deal. A team with sufficient cap-space can give Avdija the same base salary as Portland

BUT, those teams would be limited to 5% step raises while the Blazers can give 8% step raises. That's actually a more significant factor than it might seem. With a 4 year deal the maximum number of step raises is 6. With a 5 year deal, the maximum is 10. For example, say Deni signs with a base salary of 45M. For another team, that would be 2.25M step raises; times 6 would be an additional 13.5M in step raises. That would mean the total deal from another team would be 193.5 M over 4 years; 48.4M/year.

For the Blazers, with 8% step raises on a 45M base salary. the raise amount is 3.6M. So, for the first 4 years the Blazers could give Deni 7M more in raises than another team. And the Blazers can offer Deni that 5th season for 59.4M. That's great incentive

now, the thicket the Blazers will be wading into is that the 2028-29 salary cap is projected to be over 200M. So Deni's max possible base salary could be 16M higher than the hypothetical 45M. The Blazers will likely be where they usually are in dealing with their own free agents: over paying them to keep them. Obviously, if Deni doesn't want to be in Portland he can accept a lesser offer from another team. Portland can't really compete with that unless they give Deni a stupid albatross deal. But if that situation is approaching, I would hope the Blazer GM would have stones enough to trade Avdija well before 2028

Didn’t realize that the Blazers would have to look at paying big money to Deni and Kamara relatively soon. They just broke out this past season.

Deni signed kind of a low RFA deal so he’s probably looking to get paid.

You also have an unsettled ownership situation. The next owner is the one who has to pay these big contracts.

These players are going to try to ball out to maximize their next contracts. Blazers can’t be aiming for more lottery draft positions going forward? They have to see if these players can sustain the play they showed last season to determine how much to pay them? It would be also difficult to pay out max contracts without seeing how these young players do in the playoffs.

Deni won't be getting paid soon. Even if he did sign an extension it would start till the 2028-29 season. Deni should fire his agent for that contract

Camara's extension could start in 2026

[Norm2953]

We can hope Grant will eventually ask out and will leave money on the table to help get out of town.

Worked for Ayton and Beal

[dckingsfan]

We can hope Grant will eventually ask out and will leave money on the table to help get out of town.

Worked for Ayton and Beal

Yep - and it doesn't need to happen this year to be effective. The Blazers really don't have a payroll issue at this time.

[dckingsfan]

Given what has happened - my wish list is down to the best defensive forward we can sign for this year.

Edit: Trey Lyles then Precious Achiuwa then Chris Boucher. Although, Achiuwa fits the time frame better.

[tester551]

Given what has happened - my wish list is down to the best defensive forward we can sign for this year.

Edit: Trey Lyles then Precious Achiuwa then Chris Boucher. Although, Achiuwa fits the time frame better.

I agree that we need another forward.

Out of the 3 you identified, I like Boucher by far the best. I think he's clearly the most impactful player. Between Lyles & Precious, I like Lyles better because he has a better 3pnt shot.

[dckingsfan]

Given what has happened - my wish list is down to the best defensive forward we can sign for this year.

Edit: Trey Lyles then Precious Achiuwa then Chris Boucher. Although, Achiuwa fits the time frame better.

I agree that we need another forward.

Out of the 3 you identified, I like Boucher by far the best. I think he's clearly the most impactful player. Between Lyles & Precious, I like Lyles better because he has a better 3pnt shot.

Still waiting for this last move... :completely impatient:

[Wizenheimer]

Given what has happened - my wish list is down to the best defensive forward we can sign for this year.

Edit: Trey Lyles then Precious Achiuwa then Chris Boucher. Although, Achiuwa fits the time frame better.

I agree that we need another forward.

Out of the 3 you identified, I like Boucher by far the best. I think he's clearly the most impactful player. Between Lyles & Precious, I like Lyles better because he has a better 3pnt shot.

Avdija - Camara - Grant - Thybulle - Murray - Rupert

I'd imagine the Blazers see their forward/wing situation as OK. With the MLE going to Dame, they don't really have good options for adding another forward. They only have 3.8M in 'space' between their payroll and the tax line

[dckingsfan]

Given what has happened - my wish list is down to the best defensive forward we can sign for this year.

Edit: Trey Lyles then Precious Achiuwa then Chris Boucher. Although, Achiuwa fits the time frame better.

I agree that we need another forward.

Out of the 3 you identified, I like Boucher by far the best. I think he's clearly the most impactful player. Between Lyles & Precious, I like Lyles better because he has a better 3pnt shot.

Avdija - Camara - Grant - Thybulle - Murray - Rupert

I'd imagine the Blazers see their forward/wing situation as OK. With the MLE going to Dame, they don't really have good options for adding another forward. They only have 3.8M in 'space' between their payroll and the tax line

Reminder: Most team's cap space is taken, so we could very well get a steal. And a rebounding PF would be just the ticket for the last slot (opinion).

Also, I have no hope for Murray.

And I think that the rotation outside of the PG and C positions will be a competition between:

Avdija - Camara - Grant - Sharpe - Thybulle with Rupert getting minutes if/when one of them goes down.

Jrue/Scoot
Avdija - Camara - Grant - Sharpe - Thybulle
Clingan - Yang - Reath

Okay, we can cross our fingers and toes that RWIII will be able to play. But I will be shocked if he plays more than 400 minutes this year.

[Sinobas]

We can hope Grant will eventually ask out and will leave money on the table to help get out of town.

Worked for Ayton and Beal

He seems like the rare type that might be happy coming off the bench and collecting a big check. And if we're going "all in" with Dame next year, he'd be good depth.

He should be easier to trade at the end of 26-27 though. All we have to do is trade him to a team in exchange for expiring dead weight, who see him as at least being a good rotational player.

Like if he were an expiring in 26-27, we could easily trade him to the Lakers.For Kleber/Vincent/Vander

[PDXKnight]

We can hope Grant will eventually ask out and will leave money on the table to help get out of town.

Worked for Ayton and Beal

He seems like the rare type that might be happy coming off the bench and collecting a big check. And if we're going "all in" with Dame next year, he'd be good depth.

He should be easier to trade at the end of 26-27 though. All we have to do is trade him to a team in exchange for expiring dead weight, who see him as at least being a good rotational player.

Like if he were an expiring in 26-27, we could easily trade him to the Lakers.For Kleber/Vincent/Vander

Once hes expiring im not sure how much I care about getting expirings for another, wouldnt it make sense just buying him out at that point? But yes if we get 1 year (or a decent portion of it) off the books trading grant, say, at the 2027 trade deadline we have to jump on it

[Wizenheimer]

I don't know....it's entirely possible Portland intends to keep both Dame and Jrue for the next 3 seaons. The 3rd season might get a little awkward with Sharpe, Camara, and Scoot all on new contracts. But I can see Cronin thinking that Dame + Jrue + Grant will be a good veteran presence. At this point I'd imagine the Blazers don't feel any compelling need to dump Grant

it also could be that the Blazer front office is already considering that Scoot will never be close to the transformational player he was hyped as in the draft. They may already be thinking of shopping him before he graduates from his rookie scale deal to his 2nd contract

and of course, a new owner could come in and completely re-write roster equations and want major changes....and a new arena