CJ McCollum has agreed to a three-year, $100 million contract extension

[BlazersBroncos]

After 12/15, Hood + Little + Trent Jr. for Covington works and then as a separate trade, Vonleh for the Swanigan TPE.

Actually Hood + Little plus any of Trent Jr., Hezonja, Tolliver , Gasol would work, but figure MIN would prefer to get two young, cheap players if they are giving up Covington.

I don't think Hood+Little+Filler gets you Covington. We would at least have to add a future 1st rounder. And I would happily do so. Especially if Simons and to a lesser extent Mario show some scoring abilities off the bench, making the loss of Hood easier to swallow. I still doubt MIN bites on the above deal plus a FRP. Covington has tremendous value.

But, a team with Bazemore, Covington, Zach, Hassan and Nurkic probably would be the toughest in the league. Those guys are all pitbulls.

[dunlop212]

I have the impression that pdx signed Hood for a discount because he wanted to play here. If true, sending him to Siberia at the first opportunity doesn't exactly enhance the ability to get discounts in the future.

[d-train]

Hood didn't give Blazers a discount. Nobody offered him $30M like Aminu got, so he took the best deal he was offered. He probably had other similar offers, but Blazers was the best opportunity to get a bigger deal next summer.

[monopoman]

Hood didn't give Blazers a discount. Nobody offered him $30M like Aminu got, so he took the best deal he was offered. He probably had other similar offers, but Blazers was the best opportunity to get a bigger deal next summer.

This is not true word is he was offered a pretty decent contract maybe not to the level of Aminu but close, he had a tremendously impressive playoff run with the Blazers there is no way in hell he wasn't given say a 3 year at $25 million total or something. Multiple vastly worse players later in the off-season signed fairly lucrative contracts.

I would say he was probably the 3rd or 4th most effective player for the Blazers over the entire playoff series this year.

[BNM]

After 12/15, Hood + Little + Trent Jr. for Covington works and then as a separate trade, Vonleh for the Swanigan TPE.

Actually Hood + Little plus any of Trent Jr., Hezonja, Tolliver , Gasol would work, but figure MIN would prefer to get two young, cheap players if they are giving up Covington.

I don't think Hood+Little+Filler gets you Covington. We would at least have to add a future 1st rounder. And I would happily do so. Especially if Simons and to a lesser extent Mario show some scoring abilities off the bench, making the loss of Hood easier to swallow. I still doubt MIN bites on the above deal plus a FRP. Covington has tremendous value.

But, a team with Bazemore, Covington, Zach, Hassan and Nurkic probably would be the toughest in the league. Those guys are all pitbulls.

Sorry, meant to include pick(s) in my post - whatever it takes to make it work. If MIN decides to move Covington, they will be looking for a package that reduces long term salary obligations, includes cheap young talent and most of all draft picks.

[d-train]

Hood didn't give Blazers a discount. Nobody offered him $30M like Aminu got, so he took the best deal he was offered. He probably had other similar offers, but Blazers was the best opportunity to get a bigger deal next summer.

This is not true word is he was offered a pretty decent contract maybe not to the level of Aminu but close, he had a tremendously impressive playoff run with the Blazers there is no way in hell he wasn't given say a 3 year at $25 million total or something. Multiple vastly worse players later in the off-season signed fairly lucrative contracts.

I would say he was probably the 3rd or 4th most effective player for the Blazers over the entire playoff series this year.

You are smoking something if you believe Hood turned down over $14M guaranteed to play for Blazers. I believe he signed with Portland because it was the best financial deal he was offered. If not the absolute best, then at least near enough to justify with better future potential.

I also don't agree his playoff performance was tremendously impressive. I would say his playoff performance was decent. We needed him to be a solid 6-8 man, and he delivered on that expectation.

[d-train]

After 12/15, Hood + Little + Trent Jr. for Covington works and then as a separate trade, Vonleh for the Swanigan TPE.

Actually Hood + Little plus any of Trent Jr., Hezonja, Tolliver , Gasol would work, but figure MIN would prefer to get two young, cheap players if they are giving up Covington.

I don't think Hood+Little+Filler gets you Covington. We would at least have to add a future 1st rounder. And I would happily do so. Especially if Simons and to a lesser extent Mario show some scoring abilities off the bench, making the loss of Hood easier to swallow. I still doubt MIN bites on the above deal plus a FRP. Covington has tremendous value.

But, a team with Bazemore, Covington, Zach, Hassan and Nurkic probably would be the toughest in the league. Those guys are all pitbulls.

Sorry, meant to include pick(s) in my post - whatever it takes to make it work. If MIN decides to move Covington, they will be looking for a package that reduces long term salary obligations, includes cheap young talent and most of all draft picks.

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

[BlazersBroncos]

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

I actually do tend to agree that RoCo is overrated, but don't see Hood/Little/FRP as assets important enough to not take a swing at him. Then again, there is also the issue of dealing Hood for 3/D guy who cant create for himself. Hood is tremendously important because between him, Damian and CJ we can always have two guys on the floor who can create from non-post positions. That's a huge need in todays NBA. I don't trust RoCo or Kent to create their own shot.

[BNM]

I don't think Hood+Little+Filler gets you Covington. We would at least have to add a future 1st rounder. And I would happily do so. Especially if Simons and to a lesser extent Mario show some scoring abilities off the bench, making the loss of Hood easier to swallow. I still doubt MIN bites on the above deal plus a FRP. Covington has tremendous value.

But, a team with Bazemore, Covington, Zach, Hassan and Nurkic probably would be the toughest in the league. Those guys are all pitbulls.

Sorry, meant to include pick(s) in my post - whatever it takes to make it work. If MIN decides to move Covington, they will be looking for a package that reduces long term salary obligations, includes cheap young talent and most of all draft picks.

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

I could not disagree more. I think Covington is exactly the kind of 2-way forward the Blazers need and have been lacking at the forward positions. He was 1st team all defense in 2017-18 (his last full season), beating out all of Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, etc.

Look at the top teams in the West that the Blazers will face in the post season. Who guards LeBron? Who guards Kawhi? Who guards Draymond? Who guards Harden? Covington can guard those guys far, far better than anyone we currently have on the roster.

Plus, he shoots above league average 3FG%. Imagine him getting the open looks Aminu and Harkless have been clanking for years. He's not Kyle Korver, but he's better than what we've had. He's not great at creating for himself, but neither were Aminu and Harkless. He just needs to knock down open shots to be better offensively than those two. Aminu and Harkless were our best defenders at the forward spots, but they are gone and their defense needs to be replaced. Covington is an upgrade defensively over those two, as well as an upgrade offensively, but more importantly, he's a huge upgrade defensively at SF over anyone we currently have left on our roster.

In 2017-18, Covington led all small forwards in both RPM and DRPM, and that includes LeBron, KD, etc. He was second to only LeBron in RPM Wins, and remember that was the season LeBron played all 82 games, averaged 27.4 pts, 8.5 reb, 8.3 ast and led the Cavs to the finals. That's how impactful Covington's defense is.

His ORPM was +1.21, his DRPM was +4.24 for as total RPM of +5.45. Compare that to last season's Harkless (-1.05, +1.69, +0.64) and more importantly Hood (-0.16, -0.46, -0.62) and Bazemore (-2.31, +0.15, -2.16) and keep in mind, Hood and Bazemore are both shooting guards that will be playing up one position. They are going to get killed by by all the bigger SFs.

[BNM]

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

I actually do tend to agree that RoCo is overrated, but don't see Hood/Little/FRP as assets important enough to not take a swing at him. Then again, there is also the issue of dealing Hood for 3/D guy who cant create for himself. Hood is tremendously important because between him, Damian and CJ we can always have two guys on the floor who can create from non-post positions. That's a huge need in todays NBA. I don't trust RoCo or Kent to create their own shot.

In my dream fantasy, Nurk is back and looking good by the trade deadline and we move Whiteside's huge expiring contact, plus one or two of Little, Trent and Skal, plus picks for Blake Griffin and then flip Hood, plus remainder of those three plus picks for RoCo. Notice in my fantasy we keep both Collins and Simons (that's why it's called a fantasy). There may need to be a third team involved to also leverage Bazermore's huge expiring contract, or maybe we have to take back a bad contract like Dieng, but the goal is a starting 5 of:

Dame
C.J.
RoCo
Blake
Nurk

with Collins and Simons as 6th and 7th men.

With Blake, you have a guy who is great at creating for himself and others. Teams can no longer completely halt the Blazers offense by doubling and trapping Dame. With the addition of a reliable 3-point shot, Blake also works well next to both Nurk and Collins. A 3 big rotation of Nurk, Blake and Zach is much better fit wise and more balanced than Nurk, Whiteside and Zack.

Yep, that's pure fantasy stuff, but what else is their to talk about in mid-August? The keys are Nurk needs to come back and look good before the trade deadline, both DET and MIN need to decide to go all in on rebuilding around youth and draft picks. If so, POR can leverage their two HUGE expiring contracts, some young cheap talent and future 1st round picks to build a team that can win now with players similar in age to Dame in his prime.

[d-train]

Sorry, meant to include pick(s) in my post - whatever it takes to make it work. If MIN decides to move Covington, they will be looking for a package that reduces long term salary obligations, includes cheap young talent and most of all draft picks.

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

I could not disagree more. I think Covington is exactly the kind of 2-way forward the Blazers need and have been lacking at the forward positions. He was 1st team all defense in 2017-18 (his last full season), beating out all of Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, etc.

Look at the top teams in the West that the Blazers will face in the post season. Who guards LeBron? Who guards Kawhi? Who guards Draymond? Who guards Harden? Covington can guard those guys far, far better than anyone we currently have on the roster.

Plus, he shoots above league average 3FG%. Imagine him getting the open looks Aminu and Harkless have been clanking for years. He's not Kyle Korver, but he's better than what we've had. He's not great at creating for himself, but neither were Aminu and Harkless. He just needs to knock down open shots to be better offensively than those two. Aminu and Harkless were our best defenders at the forward spots, but they are gone and their defense needs to be replaced. Covington is an upgrade defensively over those two, as well as an upgrade offensively, but more importantly, he's a huge upgrade defensively at SF over anyone we currently have left on our roster.

In 2017-18, Covington led all small forwards in both RPM and DRPM, and that includes LeBron, KD, etc. He was second to only LeBron in RPM Wins, and remember that was the season LeBron played all 82 games, averaged 27.4 pts, 8.5 reb, 8.3 ast and led the Cavs to the finals. That's how impactful Covington's defense is.

His ORPM was +1.21, his DRPM was +4.24 for as total RPM of +5.45. Compare that to last season's Harkless (-1.05, +1.69, +0.64) and more importantly Hood (-0.16, -0.46, -0.62) and Bazemore (-2.31, +0.15, -2.16) and keep in mind, Hood and Bazemore are both shooting guards that will be playing up one position. They are going to get killed by by all the bigger SFs.

I would say if you believe Covington can do those things substantially better than Bazemore, you have likely overrated Covington or underrated Bazemore. This said, we can always use another good player at the right price.

Perhaps, we don't need more than we have. For some reason, Blazers let Aminu walk when we could have kept him for $10M per year. If I had a choice between Aminu and Covington, it would be close but I would take Aminu. And, this is without considering Aminu would cost $2M+ per year less.

[d-train]

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

I actually do tend to agree that RoCo is overrated, but don't see Hood/Little/FRP as assets important enough to not take a swing at him. Then again, there is also the issue of dealing Hood for 3/D guy who cant create for himself. Hood is tremendously important because between him, Damian and CJ we can always have two guys on the floor who can create from non-post positions. That's a huge need in todays NBA. I don't trust RoCo or Kent to create their own shot.

This is true that Hood has more skills off the bounce than Covington has. I'm not sure this is a tremendously important skill, but I'll take it.

I'm a little bothered by Hood's softness on defense against players his own size.

[BlazersBroncos]

Getting RoCo and Blake without losing both Zach and Simons is such a fantasy its not really worth discussing.

I would wager getting those two guys on our team would take both EC's, Zach, Simons, Little and 2+ FRP's. RoCo is the only two way player on MIN, and is cheap as hell and Blake is the face of DET. Moving him means a full rebuild and their management stubbornly refuses to engage in one (Hence the signing of Rose). They are both less attainable than we like to admit IMO.

Trent and Skal have middle R2 pick value in this league. They would be seen as nothing but salary fillers for MIN/DET.

Danilo for Hassan + FRP or Aldridge for Hassan + Little + FRP + SRP are two much more likely, realistic scenarios (And the LMA scenario only works if SAS is trash and he requests a trade specifically to PDX IMO).

Also, were not making two blockbuster trades mid season, that would be pretty unprecedented.

I understand its your fantasy and I don't want to come off as a jerk, just don't see either move as anything close to realistic or fair value for the other side.

[d-train]

I'm not willing to talk about trading Whiteside until we have a chance to see what he can do to help our team win games. We might need to keep both Whiteside and Nurkic. We might end up valuing Whiteside more than Nurkic.

[BNM]

I wouldn't mind acquiring Covington at a good price. However, I don't believe he is a difference maker. I wouldn't overpay for him. I wouldn't trade any possibly important future assets for a player I don't expect would make a difference in what the Blazers could accomplish.

I could not disagree more. I think Covington is exactly the kind of 2-way forward the Blazers need and have been lacking at the forward positions. He was 1st team all defense in 2017-18 (his last full season), beating out all of Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, etc.

Look at the top teams in the West that the Blazers will face in the post season. Who guards LeBron? Who guards Kawhi? Who guards Draymond? Who guards Harden? Covington can guard those guys far, far better than anyone we currently have on the roster.

Plus, he shoots above league average 3FG%. Imagine him getting the open looks Aminu and Harkless have been clanking for years. He's not Kyle Korver, but he's better than what we've had. He's not great at creating for himself, but neither were Aminu and Harkless. He just needs to knock down open shots to be better offensively than those two. Aminu and Harkless were our best defenders at the forward spots, but they are gone and their defense needs to be replaced. Covington is an upgrade defensively over those two, as well as an upgrade offensively, but more importantly, he's a huge upgrade defensively at SF over anyone we currently have left on our roster.

In 2017-18, Covington led all small forwards in both RPM and DRPM, and that includes LeBron, KD, etc. He was second to only LeBron in RPM Wins, and remember that was the season LeBron played all 82 games, averaged 27.4 pts, 8.5 reb, 8.3 ast and led the Cavs to the finals. That's how impactful Covington's defense is.

His ORPM was +1.21, his DRPM was +4.24 for as total RPM of +5.45. Compare that to last season's Harkless (-1.05, +1.69, +0.64) and more importantly Hood (-0.16, -0.46, -0.62) and Bazemore (-2.31, +0.15, -2.16) and keep in mind, Hood and Bazemore are both shooting guards that will be playing up one position. They are going to get killed by by all the bigger SFs.

I would say if you believe Covington can do those things substantially better than Bazemore, you have likely overrated Covington or underrated Bazemore. This said, we can always use another good player at the right price.

Perhaps, we don't need more than we have. For some reason, Blazers let Aminu walk when we could have kept him for $10M per year. If I had a choice between Aminu and Covington, it would be close but I would take Aminu. And, this is without considering Aminu would cost $2M+ per year less.

Covington is so much better than Bazemore, it's not even close. When healthy (he's only been injured once), Covington is the best defensive SF in the game. Bazemore, at his best, is a slightly better than neutral defender - when defending SGs. When has Bazemore ever been voted 1st, or 2nd team all defense? When has he ever received a single vote for DPOY?

Aminu is a solid plus defender, but he's a minus on the offensive side of the ball. He was unplayable in the playoffs this year. He got benched in Games 6 and 7 of the DEN series because Millsap was killing him. Who replaced him and shut down Millsap? Zach Collins. Aminu is a PF, Covington is a SF. Covington is better on both sides of the ball and plays a position of more immediate need. The last three seasons, Aminu has played 95%, 96% and 99% of his minutes at PF. Collins will get those minutes. Comparing him to Covington is apples:oranges.

[BNM]

I'm not willing to talk about trading Whiteside until we have a chance to see what he can do to help our team win games. We might need to keep both Whiteside and Nurkic. We might end up valuing Whiteside more than Nurkic.

So, if Nurk comes back and looks good, you wouldn't trade Whiteside as part of a package for Blake Griffin? Really??? Wow. Blake would be a perfect fit at PF next to Nurk and has the play making and ball handling ability to let Dame play off the ball more and not get suffocated by double teams and traps in the playoffs. Blake had a great season last year (3rd team All NBA) and has really expanded his game (3-point shooting, ball handling and creating for others). He no longer relies on dunking the ball 200+ times a year to be effective.

Whiteside and Nurk are redundant and you can't play them together. Nurk is younger, works harder and is locked up on a very team friendly deal. Whiteside will help us win games until Nurk comes back. At that point, Whiteside becomes a huge expiring contract I'd be dangling in front of other GMs for a potential upgrade at the 3 and 4 spots.

[BNM]

Getting RoCo and Blake without losing both Zach and Simons is such a fantasy its not really worth discussing.

I would wager getting those two guys on our team would take both EC's, Zach, Simons, Little and 2+ FRP's. RoCo is the only two way player on MIN, and is cheap as hell and Blake is the face of DET. Moving him means a full rebuild and their management stubbornly refuses to engage in one (Hence the signing of Rose). They are both less attainable than we like to admit IMO.

Trent and Skal have middle R2 pick value in this league. They would be seen as nothing but salary fillers for MIN/DET.

Danilo for Hassan + FRP or Aldridge for Hassan + Little + FRP + SRP are two much more likely, realistic scenarios (And the LMA scenario only works if SAS is trash and he requests a trade specifically to PDX IMO).

Also, were not making two blockbuster trades mid season, that would be pretty unprecedented.

I understand its your fantasy and I don't want to come off as a jerk, just don't see either move as anything close to realistic or fair value for the other side.

Yep, it is pure fantasy stuff. I'd be happy if we got one of the two. And as much as I love the potential of Collins and Simons, I'd be willing to consider trading one, or even both, if it got is Blake Griffin and Robert Covington. For the last several years, it has been the play of our starting forwards that has killed us in the playoffs. It has been a huge weakness that has allowed teams to focus on shutting down Dame and daring Chief and Harkless to beat us.

We managed to squeak by DEN, because they didn't have an All Defensive caliber players they could throw at Dame - and even that took benching Aminu in favor of Collins. But look at the NOP series and the most recent GSW series. We were playing 3 on 5 on offense in both those series and ended up getting swept in both when they focused on doubling and trapping Dame.

I'm getting tired of watching that movie. If we face the Lakers (AD, Rondo, LeBron), the Clippers (Kawhi, PG13, Beverly), the Warriors (Draymond, Klay), etc, you don't think they will follow that exact same game plan of throwing two or three All Defensive team caliber players at Dame? Without upgrades at the forward spots, how will things work out any better than they have in the past?

Dame is in his prime and I'm all in on winning now, even of that means sacrificing the future.

[d-train]

I could not disagree more. I think Covington is exactly the kind of 2-way forward the Blazers need and have been lacking at the forward positions. He was 1st team all defense in 2017-18 (his last full season), beating out all of Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Kawhi Leonard, Draymond Green, etc.

Look at the top teams in the West that the Blazers will face in the post season. Who guards LeBron? Who guards Kawhi? Who guards Draymond? Who guards Harden? Covington can guard those guys far, far better than anyone we currently have on the roster.

Plus, he shoots above league average 3FG%. Imagine him getting the open looks Aminu and Harkless have been clanking for years. He's not Kyle Korver, but he's better than what we've had. He's not great at creating for himself, but neither were Aminu and Harkless. He just needs to knock down open shots to be better offensively than those two. Aminu and Harkless were our best defenders at the forward spots, but they are gone and their defense needs to be replaced. Covington is an upgrade defensively over those two, as well as an upgrade offensively, but more importantly, he's a huge upgrade defensively at SF over anyone we currently have left on our roster.

In 2017-18, Covington led all small forwards in both RPM and DRPM, and that includes LeBron, KD, etc. He was second to only LeBron in RPM Wins, and remember that was the season LeBron played all 82 games, averaged 27.4 pts, 8.5 reb, 8.3 ast and led the Cavs to the finals. That's how impactful Covington's defense is.

His ORPM was +1.21, his DRPM was +4.24 for as total RPM of +5.45. Compare that to last season's Harkless (-1.05, +1.69, +0.64) and more importantly Hood (-0.16, -0.46, -0.62) and Bazemore (-2.31, +0.15, -2.16) and keep in mind, Hood and Bazemore are both shooting guards that will be playing up one position. They are going to get killed by by all the bigger SFs.

I would say if you believe Covington can do those things substantially better than Bazemore, you have likely overrated Covington or underrated Bazemore. This said, we can always use another good player at the right price.

Perhaps, we don't need more than we have. For some reason, Blazers let Aminu walk when we could have kept him for $10M per year. If I had a choice between Aminu and Covington, it would be close but I would take Aminu. And, this is without considering Aminu would cost $2M+ per year less.

Covington is so much better than Bazemore, it's not even close. When healthy (he's only been injured once), Covington is the best defensive SF in the game. Bazemore, at his best, is a slightly better than neutral defender - when defending SGs. When has Bazemore ever been voted 1st, or 2nd team all defense? When has he ever received a single vote for DPOY?

Aminu is a solid plus defender, but he's a minus on the offensive side of the ball. He was unplayable in the playoffs this year. He got benched in Games 6 and 7 of the DEN series because Millsap was killing him. Who replaced him and shut down Millsap? Zach Collins. Aminu is a PF, Covington is a SF. Covington is better on both sides of the ball and plays a position of more immediate need. The last three seasons, Aminu has played 95%, 96% and 99% of his minutes at PF. Collins will get those minutes. Comparing him to Covington is apples:oranges.

OK, there is a third possibility. You could be overrating Covington AND underrating Bazemore.

Also, your apples and oranges comment is funny. You are comparing stats of players from different teams and this is not apples and oranges?

[d-train]

I'm not willing to talk about trading Whiteside until we have a chance to see what he can do to help our team win games. We might need to keep both Whiteside and Nurkic. We might end up valuing Whiteside more than Nurkic.

So, if Nurk comes back and looks good, you wouldn't trade Whiteside as part of a package for Blake Griffin? Really??? Wow. Blake would be a perfect fit at PF next to Nurk and has the play making and ball handling ability to let Dame play off the ball more and not get suffocated by double teams and traps in the playoffs. Blake had a great season last year (3rd team All NBA) and has really expanded his game (3-point shooting, ball handling and creating for others). He no longer relies on dunking the ball 200+ times a year to be effective.

Whiteside and Nurk are redundant and you can't play them together. Nurk is younger, works harder and is locked up on a very team friendly deal. Whiteside will help us win games until Nurk comes back. At that point, Whiteside becomes a huge expiring contract I'd be dangling in front of other GMs for a potential upgrade at the 3 and 4 spots.

How Nurkic looks is only half the equation. I need to see how Whiteside looks. There are things I like about Blake and there are some problems that have to be weighed into a deal. I don't see that your conclusion that 1 of Nurk or Whiteside is inevitably expendable because they might not be used simultaneously.

[wco81]

Several teams would be interested in trading for Covington.