stashing assets for the 2023 nba offseason

but it only takes one

espn is simultaneously floating this jazz & spurs nonsense while also having exclusive breaking news reports from woj that position him inside portland’s front office relaying that joe cronin is resolute in his desire to canvass the league — which is also ridiculous bcuz they have to know what every team is willing to offer at this point. to me the blazers are desperately trying to gin up a market that doesn’t exist while dame’s side is like “there’s only one team really motivated to do this just work out a trade w/ them and move on”

idk team dame is at least worried about some other deal, which tbf could just be vigilance

the fact that brooklyn in particular has strictly been linked to this trade as a third team is the major tell to me. philly is the only one that looms imo but contrary to popular opinion i think they have far less to trade than miami even if they were to part with maxey

as it stands now philly has one pick and maxey, miami has two picks and herro, philly might have more room to do other deals to get the assets but idk, maxey is def more valuable than herro but prob not a ton they are similar players

i actually do believe boston would’ve been a major player but chris haynes has said flatly on a number of occasions that it’s never happening there & the boston beat writers have been saying the same thing from boston’s end too, from what i’ve seen

yeah even dame not wanting to be there aside its a pretty iffy idea too much young for old and big for little, the thing that makes miami taking on dames insane deal is they wouldnt be sacrificing as much of their future since jimmy is old too

it’s just a tough situation because the heat have no incentive to pony up good assets (or take back bad salary) when they’re not bidding against anyone, and the blazers have no incentive to rush the deal when they’re tanking this season anyway

i’m not sure ppl realize that maxey’s next contract is gonna be the 5/210 max that bane just got. if herro’s 4/120 is giving you pause (which btw it doesn’t seem to be around the league) then how does that one feel

I think the Miami deal will happen any minute. But, after the past week, I think the best possible move for Portland is to start the season with him. You can do better than two first round picks and Herro and there’s always the chance he changes his mind about other locations.

yeah even if the heat put their best offer on the table portland might feel like theyre better off waiting for something better

Portland can wait until the trade deadline if they need to - ultimately it's a win for them not to rush things. Dame is ultimately the loser here in that he loses play time as he'd be sitting out. Portland can stay under the min cap easier, and still rebuild/tank if need be. Like the situation with KD last year, the only person it benefits to rush a deal is Dame and his camp.

Also if he's really resolute, he can retire, wait a year and then come back to the league on a new deal if he's really "resolute" about Miami.

it would be pretty funny to just hold onto him until the deadline

could happen like octo said its how it went with kd

tho he did "withdraw his trade request" supposedly

ppl keep comparing dame and KD and i disagree entirely, i think the blazers are heavily incentivized to wrap this up before the season starts and turn the page fully so that scoot & sharpe can be the central focus of the franchise. trades especially ones involving more than 2 teams are harder during the season — contracts get finalized, guys who just signed get locked into teams, caps become more set, roster spots are locked in etc etc. other suitors such as philly and the clippers may well decide to make other trades themselves instead of waiting around for the chance that dame changes his mind. nobody is generating more draft picks between now and the start of the season, the idea that the blazers gain leverage instead of lose it is a fallacy to me

the nets had no plan B if they dumped KD for a subpar trade package. that was their one out of an absolute quagmire, their franchise would’ve been fucked if they caved. by contrast the blazers future is set out for them, they should try and make the best deal of course but i don’t think they have all that much to gain by dragging this out. there is no new owner whose main advisor is isaiah thomas coming into the league right before the trade deadline to send the blazers 5 picks and every good young player on his team

blazers are heavily incentivized to wrap this up before the season starts and turn the page fully so that scoot & sharpe can be the central focus of the franchise.

this does not seem like a heavy incentive

joe tsai personally took a stand against KD bcuz that franchise was a complete circus and public embarrassment bcuz of stuff KD wanted, and the idea that KD was just gonna bounce on the mess he made & leave the nets to clean it up was understandably untenable to tsai. blazers ownership is completely absent generally, so i guess joe cronin can declare war on dame and start the season with his team being hounded every day about where dame is at, how happy he is, when is he being traded etc but… i don’t see why he would wanna do that. to squeeze an extra draft pick out of somebody?

the other comparison is ben simmons where daryl morey bravely took a stand against a revolting player and ended up with the privilege of trading two first round picks and seth curry for james harden. be careful what you wish for!

he did get what he wanted, what he wanted was just bad lol

in more upbeat news for the blazers

Just sitting here CACKLING with @NekiasNBA watching Scoot. This rules so hard. This is a dude.

— Sam Vecenie (@Sam_Vecenie) July 7, 2023

he did get what he wanted, what he wanted was just bad lol

yeah I’m watching this game and scoot is as advertised he fuckin rules lol

i just started at the beginning

the blazers should make sure scoot has to spend the next 6 months answering questions about dame in case someone is willing to trade them one extra staff pick seems like a good idea for everyone

whatre u gonna do u know

dame should stop running from the grind and play w scoot

he should be scoots back up

what a trip

Good morning pic.twitter.com/eLSuzXRO5i
— Las Vegas Locally 🌴 (@LasVegasLocally) July 7, 2023
― nobody respects the chair (Spottie), Friday, July 7, 2023 3:44 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

omg

the ball

Scoot Henderson in the first quarter of his first Summer League game:

13 points | 3 rebounds | 3 assists | 73% shooting

3rd Pick??? pic.twitter.com/T05yPlBQo0

— Teg🚨 (@IQfor3) July 7, 2023

1Q into summer league and scoot is already dames best teammate

love when a guy is just immediately too good for summer league

pointing out that one of the blazers' options is a bad one doesn't make any of their other options into good ones. at some point the FO will choose an option and go with it, but which one works best is a finely sliced answer.

the ball

― ciderpress, Friday, July 7, 2023 7:51 PM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the big ball

the big glowing basketball actually looks too insane for me to really stop and comprehend the full implications of everything that’s going on there

it’s incredible that we said they should make the ball and then they made the big beautiful ball

the ball is life

it def doesnt seem right, but it feels right.. you feel me

right

I want to go to Vegas now

ilh pilgrimage to the ball

it's our field of dreams

imagine when vegas gets a team and kevin harlan is like "we're coming to you live from the ball" and everyone watching is like yeah thats the stuff baby

[people all over the world turning towards each other] they play in the ball

Finally, the way the game should be played

can you see the ball from space

a new era of pace (light speed) and space (outer)

yeesh both scoot and amen leaving with injuries

so i guess joe cronin can declare war on dame and start the season with his team being hounded every day about where dame is at, how happy he is, when is he being traded etc but… i don’t see why he would wanna do that. to squeeze an extra draft pick out of somebody?

― J0rdan S., Friday, July 7, 2023 7:27 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

well it could be a lot more than just another draft pick (and even if it’s just another draft pick, isn’t that good?), but to piggyback off what you had been saying earlier, KD and dame aren’t the same. dame isn’t one of the 20 best players of all time playing in NYC…he’s a great player who plays in portland…who’s going to be traveling to portland to hound the blazers front office on a daily basis about where he’s going?