RETURN OF THE GREATNESS - Caleb Swanigan is back to Portland

[DusterBuster]

I think there is a great chance Whiteside will stay at Portland till the end of the season, mostly due to his mammoth deal, but trade scenarios involving him are definitely being explored.
Meanwhile, it's not going to be a pure lopsided salary dump trade. Cause when your ship is led by healthy Dame and Carmelo you are going to do anything to prevent a riot on a board.

I don’t think Whiteside will still be here after the deadline. I do suspect they’re gonna make a deal for a PF like Aldridge or Love with Hassan’s EC.

[BlazersBroncos]

Aldridge for Hassan would be great, not sure I add picks. It would be a trade for next season, but worth it. He expires in 2021 as well, so we don't commit ourselves to cap hell like a Love deal would.

Nurkic / Zach / Aldridge is a great trio. I am one who thinks Nurkic needs to be on a continual minute restriction, so Aldridge's slow move to center would not hurt as much. We could give Nurkic 26-28mpg there and LMA 22-20, with 8-10 at PF.

[Case2012]

the deal that i was hoping for was KB 2nds for Iggy. Olshey whiffed hard.

[zzaj]

The shovel Olshey is using to try and dig himself out of 2016’s hole just keeps getting bigger and bigger...as does the hole.

Obviously a money move. Would rather have Ariza than Baze...if it were 6 years ago. Still, Ariza will likely be an improvement over what Kent gave the team.

IMO, the next “move” Olshey makes will be the interesting one...

[d-train]

I am excited to see d-train's take on this. After waxing poetic on Kent and Tolliver, the spin to justify this as a great Neil move should be amusing. That will be my favorite part of this deal.

It's not great for continuity.

We trade a defensive player for a slightly bigger defensive player. The biggest damage will be tonight. We are going to be short handed.

We give up a veteran big for 2 younger bigs that might have trade value.

The 2 2nd round picks can be purchased for less money than we are saving.

I would say this trade might signal that NO is preparing for the possibility of not making the playoffs by making a move to get under the tax this year. There is not any change long term because of this trade. Short term, our loss is continuity.

Continuity went out the window in the first week of the season when the injuries started piling up. That was derailed regardless.

I’m not sure why people are pointing to the playoffs as the impetus to get under the tax or not. I have to imagine this is a type of deal they would have done regardless. Even if they make the playoffs, they clearly are not of the same caliber as last year, so paying this much in tax for at best a .500 team doesn’t make sense - regardless of playoffs one way or another.

We have the players to finish the season a better team than we were last year if our players are healthy and have a chance to play together. We know Nurkic will be back and Hood won't. We don't know about Collins and I don't have an update on CJ. It would be nice to have Skal back, but Hood is no big loss because of Melo.

Anyone that believes we are going to tank is wrong. Blazers are going to make a playoff run and are still likely to success even with the emergence of the Grizzlies, who I think will also make the playoffs. Two of Blazers, Thunder, and Grizzlies will be in the playoffs.

Would Blazers make this trade if everything so far was hunky-dory? Who knows, I would say because things haven't gone well there is less reason to worry about continuity. This isn't a trade that changes our talent. And, the Blazers were prepared to pay taxes.

[Wizenheimer]

It was right on the line before but Ariza makes it so we functionally wont have capspace next summer, as the MLE is bigger than our available capspace. Which probably means we are bringing back Skal (would have had to let him walk to get a few million more than the MLE).

Giving up the two second rounders makes this from an understandable cost-cutting move to a slightly poor one.

Ariza is only guaranteed for 1.8M next season. Deadline is June 30

[Wizenheimer]

I think there is a great chance Whiteside will stay at Portland till the end of the season, mostly due to his mammoth deal, but trade scenarios involving him are definitely being explored.
Meanwhile, it's not going to be a pure lopsided salary dump trade. Cause when your ship is led by healthy Dame and Carmelo you are going to do anything to prevent a riot on a board.

I don’t think Whiteside will still be here after the deadline. I do suspect they’re gonna make a deal for a PF like Aldridge or Love with Hassan’s EC.

I would be mildly shocked if Portland went that direction. This was an obvious cost-cutting trade and I'm betting it happened because of direction from Seattle. To make a move like this trade, then turn around and pile massive costs onto the payroll next season would not make sense.

Portland is not a contender, and Love or Aldridge wouldn't change that next season...they'd just add a much higher price to not-contending

[HoopsFanAZ]

That’s one place of disagreement. Nurkic at C with LMA and Collins at both PF and C is a combination I really like.
LMA would be shorter term given his age, but in the new West I can see that healthy Blazers team contending.

[d-train]

I think there is a great chance Whiteside will stay at Portland till the end of the season, mostly due to his mammoth deal, but trade scenarios involving him are definitely being explored.
Meanwhile, it's not going to be a pure lopsided salary dump trade. Cause when your ship is led by healthy Dame and Carmelo you are going to do anything to prevent a riot on a board.

I don’t think Whiteside will still be here after the deadline. I do suspect they’re gonna make a deal for a PF like Aldridge or Love with Hassan’s EC.

This trade to save money and letting Aminu go last summer to preserve financial flexibility in 2020 suggests otherwise. We can speculate but we don't know the Blazers primary objectives until after-the-fact confirmations. Blazers won't trade Whiteside in a deal that wipes out the option to stay under the tax next year if money is a priority. Also, I believe there is no trade restrictions on trading Ariza because Turner was a cap room player. This trade might be part of a plan to get under the tax this year as well.

[Sinobas]

This trade doesn't change our cap situation next year. Ariza is only guaranteed $1.8M next year and Kings declined the option on Swanigan. The big change financially is Blazers save on taxes and salary this year. We might also be in reach of getting under the tax this year with another deal.

We're not making cost cutting moves because Neil's 2016 signings were great because we retained assets, remember? Neil masterfully turned 2 assets into 3 assets!

[DusterBuster]

I think there is a great chance Whiteside will stay at Portland till the end of the season, mostly due to his mammoth deal, but trade scenarios involving him are definitely being explored.
Meanwhile, it's not going to be a pure lopsided salary dump trade. Cause when your ship is led by healthy Dame and Carmelo you are going to do anything to prevent a riot on a board.

I don’t think Whiteside will still be here after the deadline. I do suspect they’re gonna make a deal for a PF like Aldridge or Love with Hassan’s EC.

This trade to save money and letting Aminu go last summer to preserve financial flexibility in 2020 suggests otherwise. We can speculate but we don't know the Blazers primary objectives until after-the-fact confirmations. Blazers won't trade Whiteside in a deal that wipes out the option to stay under the tax next year if money is a priority. Also, I believe there is no trade restrictions on trading Ariza because Turner was a cap room player. This trade might be part of a plan to get under the tax this year as well.

Maybe. As you said, none of us know what’s going on behind closed doors. Just a hunch from me, nothing more, nothing less.

[DusterBuster]

I think there is a great chance Whiteside will stay at Portland till the end of the season, mostly due to his mammoth deal, but trade scenarios involving him are definitely being explored.
Meanwhile, it's not going to be a pure lopsided salary dump trade. Cause when your ship is led by healthy Dame and Carmelo you are going to do anything to prevent a riot on a board.

I don’t think Whiteside will still be here after the deadline. I do suspect they’re gonna make a deal for a PF like Aldridge or Love with Hassan’s EC.

I would be mildly shocked if Portland went that direction. This was an obvious cost-cutting trade and I'm betting it happened because of direction from Seattle. To make a move like this trade, then turn around and pile massive costs onto the payroll next season would not make sense.

Portland is not a contender, and Love or Aldridge wouldn't change that next season...they'd just add a much higher price to not-contending

As I said to dtrain, totally possible you’re right. Just a hunch. However I do disagree that they wouldn’t be contending or back in the hunt at least with a top tier PF. The team would have a rock solid core, and could maybe even get Melo back for cheap. The real difference between them being a contender or not would be health and the ancillary pieces around the core. One thing Olshey has generally done well is find great reclamation projects off the scrap heap. For whatever reason, he utterly and completely **** the bed in the department this past summer. Whereas some summers he’s had maybe one or two pieces not work out, almost all of his additions this summer we’re trash. If he can manage to not do that again, I think they would be a vastly improved team ... with everyone healthy ... which is totally out of anyone’s control

[JasonStern]

Something something could have had Bell or Brooks.

[Myth]

We can’t be trusted with cap space. The only players who will come for it are the ones we don’t want. Ariza will have value as a trade chip next year.

If he’s able to rebound from his bad season for a few weeks, Portland could flip him again to another team in the playoff hunt for a low first rounder or something marginal like that.

Ariza is not worth a first rounder.

[BlazersBroncos]

Ariza is not worth a first rounder.

Ya. I love that as a fanbase we all quickly rebuff the Knicks fans attempts at getting a FRP out of us for Morris but then turn around and think we can get a FRP from some team for Ariza. lol.

[JasonStern]

in actual "return of the greatness" news, Nurkić reportedly full practiced today:

Read on Twitter

[DusterBuster]

the deal that i was hoping for was KB 2nds for Iggy. Olshey whiffed hard.

With Memphis semi in the playoff hunt, they may try and convince Iggy to play for them instead of trading him.

[DusterBuster]

Ariza is not worth a first rounder.

Ya. I love that as a fanbase we all quickly rebuff the Knicks fans attempts at getting a FRP out of us for Morris but then turn around and think we can get a FRP from some team for Ariza. lol.

I'm barely on this forum anymore, so lets not go lumping me in with the rest of the fan bases opinion on something, shall we?

Ariza probably isn't worth a 1st rounder, but there's also a lot of teams with excess 1sts they can't possibly use all of. I also just don't personally find low first rounders all that valuable. Just saying that if he has a stretch of play looking like the Ariza of old... maybe.

That said, I'm just now realizing how close it already is to the trade deadline. Between work and toddler life, the NBA season has really passed me by this year.

[d-train]

the deal that i was hoping for was KB 2nds for Iggy. Olshey whiffed hard.

With Memphis semi in the playoff hunt, they may try and convince Iggy to play for them instead of trading him.

I was sort of thinking this same thing. Not quite the same because I don't believe the Grizzlies will go to a player that rejected their team and give him an opportunity to change his mind after the team proves they are good. If I was Iggy, I would be dreading that I missed an opportunity to contribute to a team coming together and building something great.

Anyway, Grizzlies are Blazers primary fight down the stretch as I see it. OKC is a wildcard because they have been looking to pull the plug all year, but here they are solidly in 7th place. Their key player is not on the same timeline as the rest of the team and nobody knows how long they will hold it together. Will OKC continue to battle to this seasons finish or will the upcoming trading season be the time the plug is pulled.

Spurs currently hold 8th place, but I don't see them holding their position. Spurs are primarily a veteran team with some young players mixed in. They have been healthy all year and just aren't good enough. The Grizzlies have a star on the rise and he is ready to takeoff. Ja Morant is the real deal.