Strongly disagree. Fred is better than Garland right now and I bet Jabari will be nearly as good as Mobley, who is 2 years older than Jabari. The Cavs have peaked - we have room to grow.
Rockets trade number 3, 44 second rounder, Tate and Landale for Thybulle, Caruso, and 14. Blazers trade 14, 34 ,40 Thybulle for 3 and Tate Bulls trade Caruso for Landale and 16 76ers trade 16 for 34, 40, 44 We just play defense.
I want Ayo Dosunmu if I'm sending #3 out in a trade back kinda scenario. Caruso is great but he's 30 years old.
I mean we get two dudes who can play now and a lottery pick for this year to develop. I don't know how much more we can ask for in a "flat" draft. I guess you could re-arrange the guts to have us not giving up the second round pick or getting future compensation. But I love watching good defense, and I think we could still get a guy at 14. We could walk away with Edey and the best player in the draft... not likely but I mean... Does Devin Carter fall to 14 and that was our guy all along? Who the heck knows with this draft but I like our history of finding talent in this range.
Don't want Brogdon AND Caruso... 31 million dollars worth of backup point guards, Fred will play more than 33 minutes a night. Jump from 14 up to 11 doesn't interest me much. DIET COKE!!!
Absolutely. The star power isn't there this year at 3. If we can package that, some of our current non Green, or Sengun assets along with some of our Nets picks bounty I would pull the trigger and see what a team centered around Ball, Green and Sengun with some combo of Vleet, Brooks, Thompson, Eason and Whitmore looks like. While I don't love the injury history of Ball his case seems more about bad luck to this point then a chronic or deteriorating condition. On some trash Hornets team he has shown a great all around game. I would pay to see what that game looks like with the type of talent the Rockets could surround him with.
Caruso is more like a G/F dude. Smallish for SF but can handle most matchups there. I have no interest in Brogdon. No interest in inserting someone in the guard rotation who is not a star scorer. We don’t have minutes for an injury prone guy who’s mediocre at everything. Should only play him in emergencies and he’s way too expensive to be a 3rd stringer. If we’re playing FVV and Brogdon 56 minutes then you’ve left 40 minutes for Green, Whitmore and Amen. That’s absurd mismanagement of our assets. Maybe last season when it was boot camp for the kids. Pointless acquisition for this coming season when all 4 guys have no excuse to not deliver and the coaching staff is optimistic.
Eh his opportunities were often limited because he simply passed out or swinged the ball over to another player when he could have decided to try to go past his defender. He isn't confident with his handle enough to do that yet consistently. It's hard to tell if it's a confidence thing or a skill thing at the moment. For a rookie in hoping it's just confidence.
you’ll see how “pointless” getting a good combo guard who can actually shoot and play defense is when Fred goes down or sits out for load mgmt. Brogdon has shot 42% from 3 the last 2 yrs (39% career). He was 6th man of the year in 2023. He has over a 3:1 assist to turn over ratio. He plays solid defense. How is he “mediocre at everything”? Yes he misses games, but a lot of those missed games at the end of the season was Portland just tanking. Anyway, I really hope we can make a low-cost deal for Brogdon as he is still good and would be perfect to take pressure off Fred. Did I mention he can really shoot it? He’s on a 1-yr deal; shouldn’t take a ton to get him. Slightly more than what we gave up for Adams.
I doubt Memphis would trade Bane. He is part of their core and Jalen hasn’t proven he can be. I think Amen gets to 30% or more on corner 3’s this year. The kid just has too strong of a work ethic and love for basketball to be denied.
He is my target as well if the price is right. #3 and filler for Brogdon, 7th pick and a second or two (Rupert would be even better than the seconds). Brogdon is insurance for both FVV and Jalen and could be a solid vet off the bench for a reasonable contract for several years if he works out and you re-sign him. We have seen how productive vets can be in moving us forward. We need to make the playoffs this upcoming year to build excitement for FA’s and other stars in 25 or 26. There are plenty of solid prospects that will be available at seven that we can develop slowly. If Jalen and FVV are playing well and you are comfortable with Cam off the bench, Brogdon would be a decent trade filler as an expiring if we try to make a move at the deadline.The only downside to him or Caruso is how few minutes we will have to spread between Cam, Amen, and Tari. Brooks needs to go even though I think he was a good signing last year.
since Clingan is probably the most likely trade up target for teams at #3, zeroing in on trade scenarios for teams that need a big like Portland, Memphis, and Chicago is interesting to me. Here are some semi-reasonable ideas: Portland: #7, Brogdon and future top10-protected 1st Memphis: #9, GG, future top10-protected 1st (they are not trading Bane guys) Chicago: #11, Caruso, future top10-protected 1st
I simply don't want any more players in their 30s. We have enough gritty veterans between Fred, Dillon, Uncle Jeff, Steven Adams. More veterans just means fewer minutes for the young core to develop at this point. I don't think we need to make a trade at all, but if we do I'd only really be interested in a top 10 player like, say, Booker (likely not available), a young player 25 and under like Bane or a rookie-deal guy like Cason Wallace, or trading back for multiple picks.
Yeah, anyone talking about spending real assets to acquire a non top 20 player right now is misunderstanding where we are. We have 9 solid to very good rotation players. The upgrade from one of them to some other solid to very good player is trivial. If we’re so desperate for a 15 mpg emergency backup combo guard or something, we’d just sign or trade for one with the NTMLE. It’ll only swing us 1-2 wins either way next year, absolute maximum. Our real assets are only to be used for getting title equity. That comes from one of our guys developing into a top 20 player, trading for a top 20 player, or drafting a top 20 player. They won’t be touched for anything else.
#3 and ???(filler that can be cut) …for… Cason Wallace and #12 they get a lock down big that can be part of their core. They possibly would be in the finals today with his addition. They have 4 FRPs next season and will replace Wallace with one of them. Rotation spots are going to be a premium for OKC going forward. we add a steady hand after FVV is gone in a few seasons on rookie scale and then draft #14 -> Ware as our backup big project.
I saw this proposal online the other day: The trade: The Houston Rockets trade Dillon Brooks, Tari Eason and the No. 3 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant and the No. 14 pick. Now I obviously take Eason OUT of that proposal and then it’s interesting. I admittedly didn’t watch a lot of Trailblazer games this season so maybe someone else has some insight into Grant.
Unless Tari's injury was career threatening there is no way I'd trade him for anything on Portland. If he was healthy I believe we woulda made the playoffs. He makes that much impact when he's on the court.
