Trade deadline, buyouts, and waivers

[Waynearchetype]

i wonder what we could offer for ag as we are rumored to be interested. Is olshey thinking Jones + hood? Doubt that’d be enough

Several iterations in this thread which ended up the least contentious trade thread I've seen on RealGM: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2059785&start=40

The crux of it is some combination of Gary Trent Jr and larger salaries (Collins, Hood, DJJ, sometimes with Giles to duck under tax or adding in Bacon) generally is agreeable to both fanbases.

[BlazersBroncos]

DJJ + Hood for AG is a big value loss for Orlando. It would take GTJ, and honestly considering his upcoming cost moving him for AG could be a very smart move.

[acidfrehley]

I absolutely love GTJ, but considering his upcoming FA status and how valuable he is atm, I think that the is our best asset in a trade to upgrade our frontcourt defense.

[Waynearchetype]

Once CJ comes back, theres going to be less shots for GTJ. I think he is at peak value and it would be wise to move on, just a poor fit as long as we have CJ. Resigning him without the ability to give him shots might lead to an Allen Crabbe situation where we gotta pay to get rid of him.

[JasonStern]

Read on Twitter

Shams confirming interest.

A Covington/Gordon swap makes zero sense for other teams. The value is fine, but why would Orlando want a 30-year old win-now player that plays similar to what they already have?

Talent-wise would probably need Trent going out. He's too good to play as CJ's backup and about to get paid. Trent/Collins/Hood ($17.1M) or Trent/Jones/Hood ($20.8M) for Gordon ($18.1M) works, but then Orlando has a glut of SGs. So a third team would likely need to be involved that either trades for Fournier or Ross, or takes Trent and provides non-SG/SF depth to Orlando.

[BlazersBroncos]

Trent / Collins / Hood is the deal IMO. I think DJJ will be needed still for wing depth, and having 3 plus defenders at F in RoCo / AG / DJJ is about as big a turnaround a team could hope for in that department considering where we stood 1 year ago.

Teams generally reduce the rotation to 8 once the playoffs hit, so our playoff rotation would more or less be:

G - Damian Lillard / CJ McCollum
G - CJ McCollum / Derrick Jones Jr
F - Aaron Gordon / Derrick Jones Jr
F - Robert Covington / Carmelo Anthony
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Enes Kanter

[PDXKnight]

DJJ + Hood for AG is a big value loss for Orlando. It would take GTJ, and honestly considering his upcoming cost moving him for AG could be a very smart move.

i’d much rather do a package involving cj than deal trent

[Waynearchetype]

DJJ + Hood for AG is a big value loss for Orlando. It would take GTJ, and honestly considering his upcoming cost moving him for AG could be a very smart move.

i’d much rather do a package involving cj than deal trent

Never happening as long as Lillard is here even if it makes sense.

[PDXKnight]

DJJ + Hood for AG is a big value loss for Orlando. It would take GTJ, and honestly considering his upcoming cost moving him for AG could be a very smart move.

i’d much rather do a package involving cj than deal trent

Never happening as long as Lillard is here even if it makes sense.

Dame is locked up till he’s way past prime. Frankly Dame as loyal and solid as he is doesn’t have much say in the long term, or he shouldn’t i should say given his contractual status. It sounds heartless but that’s how this league works, he makes superman money we are paying him to pretty much deal with whatever we do for the next 4 years. If he doesn’t like it and wants to bail that’s his prerogative (not saying he would, i think he could accept a move that improves our roster and i think it’s overstated how much he couldn’t accept a cj trade that improves us)

I think Dame would live with any move that makes us better but i’d rather deal him than have a whole organization catered to one player if that is indeed the case

[Norm2953]

Dame does have a player option in 2024/25 but he would have to opt out of $54 Million which would be nuts
for any player. I would worry less about pissing off Dame for I agree with Oden2 in that he's locked up.

There is an awful lot of speculation concerning Aaron Gordon coming to Portland. Speculation of Hood/Collins
and GTJ going out which leaves me cold for trading the 22 year old GTJ who is only going to get better has the
potential of Portland trading another young player who blossoms elsewhere which we have done as a franchise
a number of times. It would be one thing if AG was an all-star level player but he's likely a better Aminu in the
Stotts system.

I do think the move to be made is Aldridge for they don't have a player taller than 6'9 the longer Nurkic/Collins
remain out. I've given up on Collins for this season and we're getting conflicting reports on when Nurk is going
to return.

[Village Idiot]

There is an awful lot of speculation concerning Aaron Gordon coming to Portland. Speculation of Hood/Collins
and GTJ going out which leaves me cold for trading the 22 year old GTJ who is only going to get better has the
potential of Portland trading another young player who blossoms elsewhere which we have done as a franchise
a number of times. It would be one thing if AG was an all-star level player but he's likely a better Aminu in the
Stotts system.

I do think the move to be made is Aldridge for they don't have a player taller than 6'9 the longer Nurkic/Collins
remain out. I've given up on Collins for this season and we're getting conflicting reports on when Nurk is going
to return.

For me the allure of Gordon is that he provides a couple of things to this team:

1. Size and athleticism to defend Lebron and Giannis as well as anyone can
2. Ability to bring the ball up taking a lot of pressure off of Dame
3. Extremely versatile both offensively and defensively. He has great passing skills.He can take other bigs off the dribble and has a decent pull-up. He can play small-ball center, he can play PF allowing Covington to play SF and giving us a massive and very defensively strong front-court

Another thing about Gordon is that he has never played with a good point guard let alone a great one. I feel he could become an extremely effective and efficient player in a more narrowly defined role than he's had in Orlando. We need to amplify his strengths and not make him into something he isn't.

The emergence of Nassir Little makes me more ok with dealing Trent than I was a few weeks ago. Also GTJ is going to get paid this off-season and we probably don't want to pay that.

[d-train]

I absolutely love GTJ, but considering his upcoming FA status and how valuable he is atm, I think that the is our best asset in a trade to upgrade our frontcourt defense.

Why would we trade GTJ if he is so valuable? Except for lack of healthy good defensive bigs, you can't get better defenders than RoCo and Jones. Little and CJE have great potential on defense. Nobody would trade better big defenders than Collins and Nurk. Gordon would be a downgrade in defense. RoCo, who is not a big defender, plays bigger than Gordon.

Gordon is extremely overrated. It's very typical for fans to overrate players with big roles on bad teams. Gordon's role on a good team would be dramatically reduced. Hood is a very good player when he has a big role. Notice how he struggles with a smaller inconsistent role. Gordon's role on our team would be very small and inconsistent. He doesn't do anything better than RoCo. He doesn't do any of the things DJJ does as well as DJJ does them, primarily defense. Why would Gordon get any PT? He doesn't shoot as well as GTJ, Melo, Hood, or Little. There is no skill that Gordon does better than we already fill with Lillard, CJ, RoCo, Kanter, DJJ, Trent, Melo, and Hood. When Nurk is back we plug our size hole, which Gordon doesn't fill even as a backup. Isaac is an example of a player that adds a skillset as long as Collins is out.

[d-train]

Read on Twitter

Shams confirming interest.

I can confirm that Blazers have as much interest in Tucker and Drummond as Lakers, Nets, Bucks, and Heat. And also, as much interest in Gordon as Lakers, Nets, Bucks, and Heat, NONE.

[d-train]

Talent-wise would probably need Trent going out. He's too good to play as CJ's backup and about to get paid.

Trent is a backup on a good team. Talent-wise, Trent is one of those guys that has to choose between a big role on a bad team, or a smaller role on a good team.

[d-train]

i wonder what we could offer for ag as we are rumored to be interested. Is olshey thinking Jones + hood? Doubt that’d be enough

First, Blazers so-called interest in Gordon is BS that is talked about every year. Like every other year, it will be BS spread by the professional BS'ers that need some BS to sell their audience.

Blazers should shop DJJ because there is a high chance we lose him this summer anyway. We only have non-bird rights to resign him. Our MLE will only be $5.9M and we can't replace DJJ with that. A trade now is worth exploring. Also, Hood has to be shopped. He has no role after being beat out by GTJ. His contract is unguaranteed and could be attractive as a player and trading chip to other teams. Giles is the only other trade chip we have.

[d-train]

We could trade Giles to Orlando for Birch. Birch would be more useful to us than Gordon.

[d-train]

Teams generally reduce the rotation to 8 once the playoffs hit, so our playoff rotation would more or less be:

G - Damian Lillard / CJ McCollum
G - CJ McCollum / Derrick Jones Jr
F - Aaron Gordon / Derrick Jones Jr
F - Robert Covington / Carmelo Anthony
C - Jusuf Nurkic / Enes Kanter

Looks like a downgrade in skills this year and a much bigger downgrade next year.

I would rather have Lillard, CJ, Nurk, RoCo, DJJ, Melo and Trent as my first 7 rotation. And, have Kanter, Simon's, and Little alternate situationally as 8th and 9th players.

I would look for opportunities to add a mobile big that defends, rebounds, and passes well. Tucker would be great.

[d-train]

For me the allure of Gordon is that he provides a couple of things to this team:

1. Size and athleticism to defend Lebron and Giannis as well as anyone can
2. Ability to bring the ball up taking a lot of pressure off of Dame
3. Extremely versatile both offensively and defensively. He has great passing skills.He can take other bigs off the dribble and has a decent pull-up. He can play small-ball center, he can play PF allowing Covington to play SF and giving us a massive and very defensively strong front-court

Another thing about Gordon is that he has never played with a good point guard let alone a great one. I feel he could become an extremely effective and efficient player in a more narrowly defined role than he's had in Orlando. We need to amplify his strengths and not make him into something he isn't.

The emergence of Nassir Little makes me more ok with dealing Trent than I was a few weeks ago. Also GTJ is going to get paid this off-season and we probably don't want to pay that.

He is a great athlete and has some other useless skills that aren't good enough to be utilized. You are overrating his defense. He doesn't complement our players.

[Wizenheimer]

Hey guys, just stopping by with a question. Is Zach presumed to be done for the season, or is there expectation that he'll be back for the playoffs?

Thanks. Good luck 2nd half.

the last home game, 5 days ago, Collins was still in a walking boot. That was bout 3 months after the surgery so that indicates the surgery was a lot more serious than reported

[Wizenheimer]

I wouldn't trade RoCo for Gordon. The two of them as starting Blazers forwards is really intriguing. Gordon + Jones isn't