2021-22 NBA playoffs, 2022 NBA off-season and 2022 NBA draft

[Kingspoint]

Once again all of the "experts" have no frickin' idea what the heck they are talking about when it comes to the Blazers as they are dead wrong once again, and that I always do.

I said immediately after the C.J. trade that all Grant would cost would be the $21M Trade Exception and something small, like a Guard with a 4-year, cheap contract. Instead of the Guard, the Pistons took a future 1st Round pick in 2025!.....Milwaukee's!

Blazers are now a Top-10 Defensive Team with a Starting Five of Grant/Nurk/Little/Hart/Dame, and a bench of Winslow/PTBNL(PF/C)/Simons/PTBNL(#7 Pick/Sharpe)/(Brandon Williams/Keon Johnson), and more on the bench of Watford, Louzada/[Greg Brown/2nd Rd pick (#37)]. They being a top-5 Offense, is a given. The Portland TrailBlazers are now Western Conference contenders.

They aren't done. Nurk should get resigned, Simons' contract matched, and there is still FA money and an $11M trade exception.

[RedTeamGo!]

Didn’t the Blazers go like 27-55 last year? The addition of Grant makes them championship contenders?

[M2]

Once again all of the "experts" have no frickin' idea what the heck they are talking about when it comes to the Blazers as they are dead wrong once again, and that I always do.

I said immediately after the C.J. trade that all Grant would cost would be the $21M Trade Exception and something small, like a Guard with a 4-year, cheap contract. Instead of the Guard, the Pistons took a future 1st Round pick in 2025!.....Milwaukee's!

Blazers are now a Top-10 Defensive Team with a Starting Five of Grant/Nurk/Little/Hart/Dame, and a bench of Winslow/PTBNL(PF/C)/Simons/PTBNL(#7 Pick/Sharpe)/(Brandon Williams/Keon Johnson), and more on the bench of Watford, Louzada/[Greg Brown/2nd Rd pick (#37)]. They being a top-5 Offense, is a given. The Portland TrailBlazers are now Western Conference contenders.

They aren't done. Nurk should get resigned, Simons' contract matched, and there is still FA money and an $11M trade exception.

Dog crap trade by the Pistons. Find it amazing the best they could get was Milwaukee's 2025 pick (which isn't going to be good). A three-year wait for a pick that's likely well in the 20s? Barf.

As for what it does for the Blazers, they're still not a very good team. If they're running back what they've got plus Grant, that's still not a good team. They were 30th in D rating last season and 26th in scoring defense. And they haven't played anything like defense in years. Grant will not fix that by himself. They should keep Josh Hart, who will help. They aren't gong to find a better player at his price. And top 5 offense? I don't think so.

Nurkic is bad and they're foolish if they re-sign him. They're going to be foolish. Between him, Simons and their draft pick, that's going to be their cap space. They'll get a mid-level exception. I'd still take every playoff team from the West this season over that version of the Blazers, plus the Clippers. You're way out over your skis again.

But nice work getting Grant for nothing they're going to miss.

[dubc47834]

Once again all of the "experts" have no frickin' idea what the heck they are talking about when it comes to the Blazers as they are dead wrong once again, and that I always do.

I said immediately after the C.J. trade that all Grant would cost would be the $21M Trade Exception and something small, like a Guard with a 4-year, cheap contract. Instead of the Guard, the Pistons took a future 1st Round pick in 2025!.....Milwaukee's!

Blazers are now a Top-10 Defensive Team with a Starting Five of Grant/Nurk/Little/Hart/Dame, and a bench of Winslow/PTBNL(PF/C)/Simons/PTBNL(#7 Pick/Sharpe)/(Brandon Williams/Keon Johnson), and more on the bench of Watford, Louzada/[Greg Brown/2nd Rd pick (#37)]. They being a top-5 Offense, is a given. The Portland TrailBlazers are now Western Conference contenders.

They aren't done. Nurk should get resigned, Simons' contract matched, and there is still FA money and an $11M trade exception.

They won't finish higher than the #6 seed if they run it back as is. Grant isn't a huge needle mover!

[Kingspoint]

From March 6th post #399:

https://www.redszone.com/forums/show...he-Suns/page27

Likely lineup next season for POR.

Grant (using a $20M Trade exception and an attractive Keon Johnson contract, and a pick that's not a 1st from this year)/Nurkic/Little/Hart/Dame (he'll get extended for 2 additional years) as the starting five, with the first rotation players being Winslow/Simons/Keegan Murray. Backup Center TBD with Eubanks auditioning right now, with RoCo being a target possibility. Nurk will get resigned for about 3 yrs/$45M-$48M and Simons resigned for whatever they have to match. Watford and Greg Brown are cheap, quality 3rd Team players that play Billups' system well. Winslow (1 more year cheaply) and Hart (2 more years cheaply) are great fits. Keegan Murray is the only College Player ready to help immediately. He does everything correctly, doesn't take a bad shot, doesn't turn the ball over, and he can run and play good Defense. He shoots the '3' very well, and is great at coming up with "impact" plays. He's clutch, too. Joe Cronin has done well since he took over finishing what Olshey had set up. There's another $11M Trade exception that can be used, too. Lot's of flexibility this Summer. We should get the 5th-7th pick, practically guaranteeing that the pick is Keegan Murray, should no move be made to move up for a player who will be years behind Murray the next two seasons, which makes their acquisition illogical as far as taking advantage of the next two years of Lillard, plus it would cost too much to move up, assets POR can't afford to give up. Simons and Little and Nurk aren't going anywhere, nor is Dame. Jeremi Grant is too logical of a fit for POR while POR has what DET needs in a quality G in Keon Johnson, whom I hope we can keep ourselves and instead giving DET our 2023 1st RD pick instead.

- - - Updated - - -

From March 6th, post #400 https://www.redszone.com/forums/show...he-Suns/page27

I don't think that comes close on getting Jerami Grant. There's going to be dozen teams that'll beat a trash draft pick and the unwanted carcass of Keon Johnson. Also, even though it would be a complete ripoff for Portland, Grant won't make them a contender. They need to take bigger swings than a tertiary scorer.

[Kingspoint]

Didn’t the Blazers go like 27-55 last year? The addition of Grant makes them championship contenders?

The 2022-2023 team resembles nothing to the 2021-2022 team. It's better than the team that went to the Conference Finals.

...and, they are far from done, as I said.

[Kingspoint]

Portland used scrubs all season in order to tank and get a good draft pick. They tried hard to lose by getting rid of everyone the entire season.

For anyone to quote what they did last season as a barometer shows themselves to be completely unaware of anything Blazers-related. Why don't you just look at the back of basketball cards? You'd learn more.

[RedTeamGo!]

The 2022-2023 team resembles nothing to the 2021-2022 team. It's better than the team that went to the Conference Finals.

...and, they are far from done, as I said.

Didn’t you say the Blazers were going to be championship contenders this time last year because they got that defensive specialist from the Sixers or something?

[SteelSD]

Dog crap trade by the Pistons. Find it amazing the best they could get was Milwaukee's 2025 pick (which isn't going to be good). A three-year wait for a pick that's likely well in the 20s? Barf.

As for what it does for the Blazers, they're still not a very good team. If they're running back what they've got plus Grant, that's still not a good team. They were 30th in D rating last season and 26th in scoring defense. And they haven't played anything like defense in years. Grant will not fix that by himself. They should keep Josh Hart, who will help. They aren't gong to find a better player at his price. And top 5 offense? I don't think so.

Nurkic is bad and they're foolish if they re-sign him. They're going to be foolish. Between him, Simons and their draft pick, that's going to be their cap space. They'll get a mid-level exception. I'd still take every playoff team from the West this season over that version of the Blazers, plus the Clippers. You're way out over your skis again.

But nice work getting Grant for nothing they're going to miss.

Maybe, but I think Portland might have just paid the going rate for a high-cost support piece. Grant has been completely miscast as a go-to guy for two years now. Might be a bit better if the Blazers can get him back in his lane offensively, at 8-10 shots per game to boost his Shooting Efficiency above 50% again. His shot selection with Detroit was garbage and he consistently tried to do too much offensively. Defensively, he's a mixed bag. Good length, but has degenerated to only moderate quicks in man-D, having lost a couple steps. No effective size to body anyone. Can't rebound, and doesn't.

[SteelSD]

Didn’t you say the Blazers were going to be championship contenders this time last year because they got __________________?

FTFY. Just fill in the blank with any random word. It's really been just a Mad Lib for years now.

[M2]

Maybe, but I think Portland might have just paid the going rate for a high-cost support piece. Grant has been completely miscast as a go-to guy for two years now. Might be a bit better if the Blazers can get him back in his lane offensively, at 8-10 shots per game to boost his Shooting Efficiency above 50% again. His shot selection with Detroit was garbage and he consistently tried to do too much offensively. Defensively, he's a mixed bag. Good length, but has degenerated to only moderate quicks in man-D, having lost a couple steps. No effective size to body anyone. Can't rebound, and doesn't.

Might be a reflection of how cap-tied teams are and Detroit not wanting to take back any money. Got to figure the Pistons are a prime player for LaVine, Ayton and/or Bridges. They've got about $60M to spend.

Still a nice get for Portland, though if he's their #2 option that won't go well for the reasons you mentioned. Will be real interesting if they give Grant a max extension, throw a biggish contract at Nurkic and then give Dame another max extension.

[Betterread]

Nice acquisition for Portland, more for how little they gave up to get the talent than the nature of the talent. Grant is a serviceable SF, but he’s not a starter for a playoff team. And the guy the Pistons are probably going to draft to play the SF minutes, Keegan Murray is also Meh for me.
I heard that Portland was trying to acquire OG Anunoby to play SF. Now that’s talent that get my attention. But I would assume that taking on Grant’s contract means they went in another direction.

[Revering4Blue]

At this point, in lieu of a complete mock draft, I'll throw out some NBA Draft predictions that very, very likely will not come to fruition:

- OKC, in dire need of frontcourt scoring, will pull off a mild surprise by selecting Paolo Banchero at #2.

- Houston will think long and hard - for the relatively brief allotted time - about selecting Jaden Ivey, but will wind up selecting Holmgren at #3

- Sacto will then select Ivey, but they won't keep him....as the following trade occurs:

The rights to Ivey and pick #49 to.......Indiana in exchange for Malcolm Brogdan, Pick #6 - Keegan Murray, after Detroit shocks everyone by selecting Bennedict Mathurin at #5 - pick #31 (Andrew Nembhard selected on behalf of the Kings), the higher of Indiana's two 1st round picks next year, and a two future first round pick pick swap options.

- Indiana isn't done, as they send Myles Turner to Charlotte for Gordon Hayward and pick #15 (Jalen Williams).

- Player who will be drafted higher than expected: Ousmane Dieng

- Player who will be drafted lower than expected - Tari Eason (Teams will be sorry they passed on him).

- After selecting Johnny Davis at #9, the Spurs will grab another future international star at #20: Nikola Jović.

- The Nuggets, once again, grab another young player with star potential to augment their bench: Notre Dame's Blake Wesley. Colorado State's David Roddy will be their #30 selection.

- If they don't move up in the draft, Daryl Morey and the 76ers will trade the pick for a veteran, most likely Eric Gordon.

- It doesn't matter who the Heat grab at #27, he'll be a significant contributor before long. That's just what happens there. This time, it's another frontcourt gun: Wake Forest's Jake LaRavia.

- To conserve cap space, The Warriors will trade out of the first round. Toronto will trade up into the #28th spot and select rim-protector extraordinaire, Christian Koloko, a little higher than expected.

- Finally, the Lakers will buy their way into the late 2nd round and wind up with a solid player. I'm thinking Ron Harper Jr. of Rutgers.

[M2]

R4B, why do I suspect all of that is built a fervent desire to land Jalen Williams on the Pacers? BTW, if so, that is a laudable and sensible desire. He's got major steal potential. Could be this year's Herb Jones.

[Rojo Rijo]

Rumor mill - Atlanta and San Antonio discussing a deal that would swap John Collins and Dejounte Murray.

That sounds absurd IMO. Maybe San Antonio doesnt see a window with Murray but I don't see why they'd go for Collins. Other reports have said San Antonio is fielding offers for Murray and that it's going to take a Jrue Holiday-like package to get him.

While the Jrue deal was a 4 teamer, New Orleans came away with Eric Bledsoe, Steven Adams, 2 future 1sts from Milwaukee, and the right to swap 2 future 1sts with Milwaukee.