Potential Free agent/trade/sign tracker

Even though im clamoring for a big move, cant include Murray in any deal for BI, Markannen, Grant or frankly anyone thats not a top 15 player in the league. And while markannen is good, he is not that. The point of any huge swing trade is to make the team significantly better. Throwing multiple picks and reasonably valuable role players is a big swing. Not leveraging a future star unless you get an elite star back. We sent our future to Indi but got a guy who was a 3rd team all NBA the first full season with us. These guys are not that.

Barnes, huerter other players and picks (even up to 4 picks) for markannen, 3 for BI or 2 for grant, 1 for Kuz is what im willing to offer. Otherwise im ok changing tactics and going for portis who is likely cheaper than the others above.
 
I don't know what to make of Brooklyn right now. Usually there's some kind of logic to trade proposals but I have no idea what Brooklyn is doing so I have no idea what they might want. Bridges was the centerpiece of the KD deal and they just flipped him for a haul of future picks. If Cam Johnson and DFS are on the block too -- do they even have enough players to fill an active roster next year? Dallas went to the Finals this year, Phoenix is as all-in as a team has ever been, and New York is gearing up for their own deep playoff run so aren't the Nets just stockpiling low-value late first round picks with all their wheeling and dealing? Their whole methodology is questionable.
My understanding is that they swapped Phoenix's picks back for their own so that they will again be rewarded for tanking.

Edit - In a way I think it is easier to see what Brooklyn is trying to do compared to us because they have actually done something. For us, maybe I can infer from rumours that we are interested in a bigger name like Ingram or Lauri or previously Siakam. But those are rumours - and while there was a lot of noise about us and Lavine, in the end it seemed we made an offer for his more modest teammate in Caruso. When we cleared Davion and Sacha's salary, I thought it could be to target a free agent wing like Naji Marshall, but he, like everybody else so far, signed elsewhere, and I have no idea whether we spoke to him or not. So, what are we doing? Adding big talent, improving our supportive pieces, standing pat? No idea yet.
 
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Setting aside the pick(s) that we’d have to send out to get POR to accept this trade, I believe we could pull off something like…

TRADE #1
Jerami Grant
Matisse Thybulle

For

Harrison Barnes
Kevin Huerter
Chris Duarte


TRADE #2
Robert Williams

for

Non-Taxpayer MLE (absorbed)



That would leave us with a roster of…

PG - Fox / Monk
SG - Ellis / Carter / Jones
SF - Murray / Thybulle
PF - Grant / Lyles / McDaniels
C - Sabonis / Williams / Len

The trade for Robert Williams would hard cap us at the 1st apron, but Williams and Thybulle both roll off our books before Fox, Murray, and Ellis are due for new contracts but can definitely help us over the next two years.

The defensive potential of that team would be pretty interesting to watch as well. We would have swapped…

Harrison Barnes
Kevin Huerter
Sasha Vezenkov
Davion Mitchell
Chris Duarte

for

Jerami Grant
Robert Williams
Matisse Thybulle
Devin Carter
Jalen McDaniels

That’d be a massive improvement defensively. Our POA defense would be crazy good with Fox, Ellis, Carter, Thybulle, and Murray all being excellent options, and then your back up C is an elite rim protector who would be a heck of a lob threat for Monk in the 2nd unit (and Len would be a great 3rd option C to have considering Williams does tend to be injury prone). I’d also consider Grant a defensive improvement over Barnes in the starting lineup as well. I’m sure Mike Brown would be salivating to work with all of those defenders.

On top of that defensive improvement, we add another go-to scorer in Grant to help bolster the offense when the DHO is being attacked/neutralized.

There’s a lot to like about that roster and rotation and I think they could play a brand of basketball that would be successful deep into the playoffs.
 
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hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
My understanding is that they swapped Phoenix's picks back for their own so that they will again be rewarded for tanking.

Edit - In a way I think it is easier to see what Brooklyn is trying to do compared to us because they have actually done something. For us, maybe I can infer from rumours that we are interested in a bigger name like Ingram or Lauri or previously Siakam. But those are rumours - and while there was a lot of noise about us and Lavine, in the end it seemed we made an offer for his more modest teammate in Caruso. When we cleared Davion and Sacha's salary, I thought it could be to target a free agent wing like Naji Marshall, but he, like everybody else so far, signed elsewhere, and I have no idea whether we spoke to him or not. So, what are we doing? Adding big talent, improving our supportive pieces, standing pat? No idea yet.
We do have some clues to what our front office might be thinking. Monte has consistently targeted role-players who are one of two things: a plus defender or a floor spacer/shooter. That seems to be his preferred style of player to slot around an All-Star core of Fox and Sabonis. He also seems very willing to quickly move off of player combinations which aren't working.

This is the mindset which got us K'Von, Keegan, Malik, Trey, and Keon. Less successful acquisitions who also fit the mold were Davion, Sasha, Neemias, JaVale, KZ, DiVincenzo, Harkless, and (so far) Chris Duarte. I think he's going to continue pursuing his preferred role-player archetype -- swapping in new ones, swapping out the ones who don't quite fit -- until he unearths more studs like Malik and Keon from the bargain bin or he gets enough valuable pieces together to make another trade for a star level player.

It's hard to say anymore what's coming from agents and agent-connected media types vs. what is legit reporting. I can understand some of the smoke around LaVine and Ingram as they either are or were previously considered to be star level players. Similarly Jerami Grant and Kyle Kuzma fit the shooting part of his archetype and we do have a need at the PF position. Our front office is handicapped by limited cap space right now but if there is a defender or shooter who is on the trade block somewhere I would bet we're one of the teams inquiring. We all see the deals being made right now though. Teams are asking for huge hauls of draft picks for second tier players and they're getting them. In that kind of market, maybe the best course of action is to wait this out and see who becomes available at the trade deadline after all of our competitors have already emptied their war chest of every available asset?
 
If all Monte does this summer is re-sign Malik Monk, draft Devin Carter, and trade for Robert Williams III -- I would be satisfied with that off-season. We were close to being competitive last season but the mood felt off. More than top-end talent this team needs toughness, swagger, guys who take pride in getting defensive stops, guys who actually want to take the last shot.

On a slightly related note, basketball-reference.com has screwed up and added the contracts of Sasha Vezenkov and Davion Mitchell onto Portland's roster by mistake. I wonder how long it will take a site admin to notice?
Different strokes for different folks I guess. I would consider that offseason a letdown. It definitely could've been worse and we could've lost Monk, so I'm happy we were able to resign him, but barring big leaps from both Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis, we know what this team is. A probable 6- 10 seed and first round exit/lose in the play in team.
 

hrdboild

Moloch in whom I dream Angels!
Staff member
Different strokes for different folks I guess. I would consider that offseason a letdown. It definitely could've been worse and we could've lost Monk, so I'm happy we were able to resign him, but barring big leaps from both Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis, we know what this team is. A probable 6- 10 seed and first round exit/lose in the play in team.
I think with a top 10 defense we're more than just a 6-10 seed. Point differential is the best predictor of team record over the course of a season. We were +2.6 in the 2022-2023 season and won 48 games. Last season we fell to +1.8 and won 46 games. If we can get up into the +4 or +5 range we'll be a top 6 seed again with enough of a margin for error to win at leats one playoff series (assuming guys are healthy). Now we could get there by improving the offense or the defense but players who might improve the offense are very expensive. Players who might improve the defense (like Devin Carter and Robert Williams III) are a lot more affordable.
 
Well that’s a twist no one saw coming. Derozan? Why? Unless we are about to lose someone out of the starting lineup in a separate trade… and I’m not talking about Barnes.
 
As I posted in the Ingram thread, DDR is interesting. Not the greatest fit, but definitely talented, and if you stagger minutes I think he and Monk could be fun on offense while Fox sits. I just saw he was looking for a one year deal to try to come back on the market next year.

After I posted that, I read that DDR is on LeBron’s list of players he’d accept less for so the team could use the entire non taxpayer MLE on them (which allegedly also included Klay, Harden, and Jonas). I’m surprised there’s not already an ESPN miniseries on “LeBron’s list.” In any event, I’m assuming he’ll be a Laker before too long.
 
With the Magic resigning Mo Wagner, I'm making a call for WCJ. Old draft crush of mine, absurdly productive on the floor, I think you can plug him at the 4 and flex him down to the 5.

Orrrr the Magic use one of their 17 C's to ship to NOP and we get Ingram done
I mean, sign me up for either, but with them cornering the market on former Denver SGs, and still having their young guys to play, do they really need Huerter, either?
 
I mean, sign me up for either, but with them cornering the market on former Denver SGs, and still having their young guys to play, do they really need Huerter, either?
They still need more shooting. Another volume 3 point shooter makes a lot of sense for them imo. As a bonus, a lot of rich New York area people spend a lot of time in Florida so Kev will be close to family haha
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
The more time that goes by the worse our chances to get a deal done.
If we're primarily playing the trade and not the FA market (which appears to be the case) I think the opposite is true. With all the new cap restrictions we'll benefit by still having flexibility on either side of the taxpayer apron.
 
I mean, sign me up for either, but with them cornering the market on former Denver SGs, and still having their young guys to play, do they really need Huerter, either?
Yeah, they need shooting in the worst way. Outside of KCP, I wouldn't call any of their rotation "good" shooters.

They seem like they're going to move forward with Goga/Wagner/Isaac as their C rotation.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
As I posted in the Ingram thread, DDR is interesting. Not the greatest fit, but definitely talented, and if you stagger minutes I think he and Monk could be fun on offense while Fox sits. I just saw he was looking for a one year deal to try to come back on the market next year.

After I posted that, I read that DDR is on LeBron’s list of players he’d accept less for so the team could use the entire non taxpayer MLE on them (which allegedly also included Klay, Harden, and Jonas). I’m surprised there’s not already an ESPN miniseries on “LeBron’s list.” In any event, I’m assuming he’ll be a Laker before too long.
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I don't hate it.

Imagine an S&T for Huerter/Barnes and a pick or two for DeRozan at ~$33M for 3 years.

Since we're already presumably committed to a lot of guard minutes, we'd probably be playing him at SF, and at 6'6.5", 6'9" wingspan that's not outrageous.

Fox/Carter
Ellis
/Monk
DeRozan
/Colby/Duarte
Murray/Lyles/McDaniels
Sabonis/Len

That's the 8-man rotation in bold. A bit small to be sure, but we'd still have the MLE to try to pick up whatever's left over in the FA pool to play PF (or hope for a revelation in McDaniels - heh) which would allow Keegan and DeRozan to bump to SF/SG for more of the time.

Yes, DeRozan is going into his age-35 season, but he's not done yet. His numbers have been pretty stable over the past 5 years and he led the league in minutes played last year. Good passer, good rebounder, doesn't shoot threes but scores on good efficiency because he gets to the line almost 8 times a game and shoots mid-to-high .800s.

Would we be shooting our shot? Yes. Is this the optimal shot? No, probably not. But it opens a 2-3 year window where we are legit contenders, and if we can't get other things done (Lauri will cost SO much, Ingram seems to have stalled out...) at least it's taking a shot.
 
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I don't hate it.

Imagine an S&T for Huerter/Barnes and a pick or two for DeRozan at ~$33M for 3 years.

Since we're already presumably committed to a lot of guard minutes, we'd probably be playing him at SF, and at 6'6.5", 6'9" wingspan that's not outrageous.

Fox/Carter
Ellis
/Monk
DeRozan
/Colby/Duarte
Murray/Lyles/McDaniels
Sabonis/Len

That's the 8-man rotation in bold. A bit small to be sure, but we'd still have the MLE to try to pick up whatever's left over in the FA pool to play PF (or hope for a revelation in McDaniels - heh) which would allow Keegan and DeRozan to bump to SF/SG for more of the time.

Yes, DeRozan is going into his age-35 season, but he's not done yet. His numbers have been pretty stable over the past 5 years and he led the league in minutes played last year. Good passer, good rebounder, doesn't shoot threes but scores on good efficiency because he gets to the line almost 8 times a game and shoots mid-to-high .800s.

Would we be shooting our shot? Yes. Is this the optimal shot? No, probably not. But it opens a 2-3 year window where we are legit contenders, and if we can't get other things done (Lauri will cost SO much, Ingram seems to have stalled out...) at least it's taking a shot.
DDR has sort of randomly devleoped into a 4 over the last few years too. Based on bball ref (but just also watching what lineups he plays in, this is true

69% in 20-21
81% in 21-22
32% in 22-23
45% in 23-24

At the very least, DDR is 100% a wing now, not a guard
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
DDR has sort of randomly devleoped into a 4 over the last few years too. Based on bball ref (but just also watching what lineups he plays in, this is true

69% in 20-21
81% in 21-22
32% in 22-23
45% in 23-24

At the very least, DDR is 100% a wing now, not a guard
Barring Carter coming gangbusters out of the gate I couldn't really see us playing more than token minutes of three-guard lineups with DDR at the 4...but it does underscore that DDR at the 3 isn't silly.
 
I will say it would be very Monte-esque to be tied to LaVine for forever and end up with DeRozan. That was the story with Huerter (Collins was the speculation) and I think one other transaction that escapes me at the moment.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced I don't hate it.

Imagine an S&T for Huerter/Barnes and a pick or two for DeRozan at ~$33M for 3 years.

Since we're already presumably committed to a lot of guard minutes, we'd probably be playing him at SF, and at 6'6.5", 6'9" wingspan that's not outrageous.

Fox/Carter
Ellis
/Monk
DeRozan
/Colby/Duarte
Murray/Lyles/McDaniels
Sabonis/Len

That's the 8-man rotation in bold. A bit small to be sure, but we'd still have the MLE to try to pick up whatever's left over in the FA pool to play PF (or hope for a revelation in McDaniels - heh) which would allow Keegan and DeRozan to bump to SF/SG for more of the time.

Yes, DeRozan is going into his age-35 season, but he's not done yet. His numbers have been pretty stable over the past 5 years and he led the league in minutes played last year. Good passer, good rebounder, doesn't shoot threes but scores on good efficiency because he gets to the line almost 8 times a game and shoots mid-to-high .800s.

Would we be shooting our shot? Yes. Is this the optimal shot? No, probably not. But it opens a 2-3 year window where we are legit contenders, and if we can't get other things done (Lauri will cost SO much, Ingram seems to have stalled out...) at least it's taking a shot.
I also don't hate it (it's also not my prescription for what ails us) and it doesn't seem like it would be the end of the franchise if it didn't pan out. Just still want a defensive stopper and still like Murray more as a 3. But if you get DFS or similar in final deal you can certainly say you have mixed it up enough without destroying the core to move forward hoping Murray makes a leap and seeing what we have with Carter and Colby if he gets big boy minutes.
 

pdxKingsFan

So Ordinary That It's Truly Quite Extraordinary
Staff member
I will say it would be very Monte-esque to be tied to LaVine for forever and end up with DeRozan. That was the story with Huerter (Collins was the speculation) and I think one other transaction that escapes me at the moment.
with all the Jazz talk I would also consider revisiting Collins if that was ever really there as a more realistic non-Keegan shipping option. Ainge still probably ridiculous, but Collins contract is going to likely prevent him being able to actually get real assets for him (owed a shade over 53m over the next two seasons).
 
I'm sensing that Monte is trying to make a bigger splash than just signing one of the bench wings on the market for the standard $27mil/3 year deals going around the last couple of days. DeRozan would be a big splash and a very good Small Forward, but would push Keegan to the PF. With the high volume 3 point shooting from Keegan, DeRozan could still slot into the SF on this team.

Maybe a sign and trade of DeRozan at $87 mil/3 years for HB or Huerter plus Lyles or Duarte (salary filler) and a 2nd round pick to make it happen. I wouldn't throw in any 1st round picks because DeRozan doesn't want to go back to Chicago anyways.