stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

ultimately the thing people in portland + whoever thinks dame is going to bring back a massive trade haul has to reckon with is that the last extension portland gave him tacking two years & $122 million onto his contract is a giant anchor on both his trade value and portland's leverage in trade discussions. if dame was only owed the 2 years and $81 million he is due the next two seasons he would make sense for just about every team in the league w/ any ambition to win. an acquiring team would also have a far more compelling case to force dame to play out his contract w/ only two years on it & no fear of being stuck w/ the $122 million tab for a grumpy aging guard. or at the very worst he could be flipped again as an expiring contract after this year if it went poorly. instead no team in the league wants to get into all this drama -- let alone give up a lot of assets -- just for the pleasure of being stuck w/ what is going to be, at some point, a massively underwater contract

when you strip the emotion out of the situation the heat still make a lot of sense for dame given their roster and what they can give up in assets relative to other teams like philly, clippers, lakers etc

all this makes sense for dame, but every available outcome leaves the blazers with no bench, a handful of kiddies at starter, and another basement season where they can go fishing for yet another talented 19 y.o. otoh, the blazers will have cap space to burn.

yeah but that’s portland’s fault. for all the narrative building about how miami is being unreasonable in thinking it can get dame for herro and some picks, the blazers aren’t owed a certain level of a trade package back just bcuz they’re putting a player of dame’s name recognition on the trade market. if they wanted a deal that is going to immediately revitalize their roster, they should’ve traded him two years ago. it’s nobody else’s problem if that was difficult for them because he was a franchise icon. joe cronin decided he wanted to try and thread the needle, it didn’t work and now he’s left holding the bag. the trade, regardless of who it’s with, is likely not going to be made on his terms & that’s just the reality he and the franchise have to deal with. if the available trade options leave them with no great future plan, well… everyone has been saying for two years that this exact scenario would play out if the blazers just sat on their hands and here we are

it is true that everyone said that

doesnt sound like the thunder are likely to make a big move despite having the ability to

Sam Presti on potentially going “all in” for a trade for a star: pic.twitter.com/ReZ0XMlHnC

— Rylan Stiles (@Rylan_Stiles) September 27, 2023

ahhhhh

BREAKING: The Portland Trail Blazers are trading guard Damian Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks, sources tell ESPN. pic.twitter.com/FRgQyDVjQG

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 27, 2023

https://i.imgur.com/9HImKdt.gif

bucks have one first they can trade idgi

@?!?!?!/1/1/1/1?!?1/1/1/

hey what’s happenin

i guess like this

Lillard goes Milwaukee as part of a 3-team deal with Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, a 2029 unprotected MIL 1st, and unprotected MIL swap rights in 2028 and 2030 to Blazers. Phoenix lands Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson. https://t.co/Ge0H91AiIA

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 27, 2023

so the blazers basically got ayton and an unprotected first? and dumped nurkic’s contract

Seems good for the suns

gonna miss Holiday dude was a class act and an incredible defensive player but he also went 4-19 in a bunch of playoff games

well I guess the bucks are title favorites huh

Get rid of Ayton and build a bench

so they got jrue ayton and a first + a couple prob good swaps

gotta be flipping jrue no?

one would think theyd be moving jrue immediately maybe this deal even gets amended get at least like a first and a second for him

The Blazers remain engaged elsewhere on deals and will are expected to immediately engage contending teams on trade talks to move on Jrue Holiday, sources tell ESPN. Portland is committed to its young group of talented guards. https://t.co/6IR7bcFVrr

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) September 27, 2023

miami couldve beat this deal if they wanted to

damn. and here I thought the heat trade was just a formality at this point

the number of points the suns will have scored on them this year is going to be so high

Because they lost Ayton?

because of the whole roster but ayton to nurk is a defensive downgrade too

so they basically traded a dame problem for a jrue problem + ayton and a first. i’m not sure when they flip jrue that this will net out much more than the idealized package from the heat, but it probably won’t be less in terms of draft assets. a lot of how this looks will depend on how good ayton really is

Oh didn’t realize nurk was bad on d

congrats frogs bucks live, sorry jord heat wouldve been nice with dame but they didnt want to empty the bank for him which is prob smart

I personally do not believe in Ayton

i also do not

ah well nevertheless

"I don’t want to play for any other team. I think we have a chance to continue to do great things as the #Bucks team and organization so I want to be in Milwaukee.” - Jrue Holiday https://t.co/qNfDBRl3vu

— Jim Owczarski (@JimOwczarski) September 26, 2023

interesting

Giannis https://t.co/x44aDOW4XM

— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) May 15, 2022

i really did not think the bucks had the stuff to get dame so hats off to them, high pressure sitch too what with giannis publicly threatening them every day

i think ayton makes sense in theory insofar as the blazers won’t be asking him to be much more than a pretty good center. whether you can win a title with him isn’t entering into the equation. but he will prob want a lot of shots & was a general malcontent and perhaps not a great professional role model in phoenix so it seems like a potentially combustible combo

xp same I'm stunned they pulled it off

suns basically dumped ayton and got some bodies huh. not sure how this helps them any way other than financially... maybe addition by subtraction in that team maybe hated him and the vibes will improve?

feels like a no brainer for the bucks. if giannis’ thing is not locking himself into an aging core then i feel like this only compounds that, but if you figure that he’s leaving anyway this gives you a much better chance to win in the next two seasons. you were already staring down the barrel of financial oblivion anyway

the suns aspect of this seems pretty atrocious, i’m no huge fan of ayton but i would’ve thought his value was greater than nurkic who is actively bad and grayson allen and nasir little. but maybe not

yeah thats pretty rough for a guy you just maxed out last off season

so much bad press around him tho

maybe addition by subtraction in that team maybe hated him and the vibes will improve?

― nobody respects the chair (Spottie), Wednesday, September 27, 2023 2:41 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the team obvs did hate him

No https://t.co/CUqIrlxDOv

— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) February 18, 2021

nice work by portland pulling this off. and a coup for the bucks obv.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT86K3tJv/

lol

So Milwaukee's SG is Malik Beasley now? Don't love that. Or Pat Connaughton playing small? They could use a guy.

yeah backcourt defense could be an issue

they do have a spot open

also I'm pretty amazed at the implosion of this Suns team, nearly everyone but Booker is gone from that 2021 Finals team which seemed like it was gonna stay intact for quite a whiel

where's jrue gonna go?