Portland Trail Blazers: Trade options, Sharpe extension, and more | 2025 Offseason Preview | Podcast

Portland Trail Blazers: Trade options, Sharpe extension, and more | 2025 Offseason Preview | Podcast

Hey everyone, thanks for joining the show. I’m Yosi Goslin, NBA salary cap analyst. It looks like Twitter’s problems might be uh working on twight might be affecting the streams right now. It doesn’t look like this is on Twitter, so I might have to This is probably going to be a YouTube only show, but whoever’s here, thanks for joining. Make sure to follow me on Twitter, Blue Sky My Name, Yosi Goslin, and uh YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcast as well for all my previous work. and make sure to subscribe to the third apron third apron newsletter on Substack. Today I’m going to talk about the Portland Trailblazers, one of the teams that fell in the lottery like many others did. Uh this is team 21 of 30 of my offseason preview and joining me today to discuss one of the best guys covering the Blazers, Sean Hiken. Sean, thanks for joining. How are you doing? I’m doing all right, man. Thanks for having me. Of course. So, as I look at the I’m looking at the Blazers roster, and you know, they just completed year three of the rebuild. Uh, year four, I was, you know, year four being out of the lottery, they weren’t necessarily like trying to rebuild in that first year, uh, before trading Dane. But zooming out and seeing the body of work and especially seeing the step they made last year, I mean, how are you feeling like generally about how the work that they’ve done so far? Well, I mean there’s a lot of things positive to point to in this past year. They’re really So, so back so back up. So, this is depending on how you want to I mean because there there are people that feel that they started rebuilding before they traded Dame with in terms of like there were a couple of those years there where they pulled you know you know they they shut guys down at the end of the season with injuries to try to you know maximize their lottery odds. But for our purposes, this is this was year two of the rebuild that they just did because they traded Dame in 2023. So there’s been two seasons now post Dame, which I guess is kind of this current era, right? The first year, the 23 the f the 2324 season was a completely wasted year. All their guys pretty much were injured the the whole year, I think. So the the the five guys that the stat that I kind of always point to with that is that you could say that the five most important guys that year were Scoot Henderson, Shaden Sharp, Anthony Simons, Jeremy Grant, DeAndre Aton. Those five guys played four games together that season cuz they were just all injured at different points. So you get through this season where they win 21 games, they get blown out by 60 points two different times, once in Oklahoma City and once in Miami. and they have so many injuries to different guys throughout the year that it’s not even like they can at least look back and say, “Okay, we know these are some of our guys. We know these aren’t our guys. We know, you know, this is somebody we want to build with going forward.” And then for all of that, they fall back three spots in the lottery from four to seven. So that was that year. This past year, I think they feel a lot better about where things at. Obviously the improvement in wins and the you know the second half of the season they went 23 and 18 for the final 41 games of the year and kind of until the last week of the season they were in the mix for the playin and they which you know I don’t think anybody really expected the beginning of the season and then you look at the development of some of their young guys in particular Tumani Kamar who was just named to all defense yesterday second team and Denny Aia who they traded for last off season who was arguably their best player for a lot of the season and then you know you saw Scoot Henderson after kind of a rough rookie season took a little bit of a leap the second half of this season and now you know he’s looking a lot more like you know at the very minimum he’s going to be an NBA rotation player like I think he’s kind of shed the bust you know talk or whatever at at this point and you know you look at a lot of these different guys like Donovan Klingan obviously kind of up and down as a rookie but had some good moments just made second team all rookie they now are in a position where they have there’s a handful of guys that you can look at and say these are guys that you’re comfortable if you’re in a rebuild and you’re trying to take the next step these are guys that you’re comfortable moving forward with and I think they’re also in a position now a especially you know after that second half of the season where again they go uh they win 23 out of their last 41 games and then you know they extend Chanty Bops where I think until the end of the season most people kind of thought that they were going to be doing a coaching search this uh offseason they were going to move on from him that obviously didn’t end have happened. Him and Joe Cronin both got extensions at the end of the season that now you kind of look at them and say even if they wanted to tank again next year, I don’t think they could because they have too much actual NBA talent and that and too many of their young guys have gotten too good that they’re like they’re not going to be able to, you know, this year it was Cooper Flag. next year, you know, whether it’s AJ Debons, Cam Boozer, whoever, they’re not going to be able to be, even if they were to want to, they were not, they’re not going to be able to be one of the teams that uh is, you know, in the, you know, the Utah, Washington, Charlotte, whoever you want to put in that group of teams that we can even say in May are going to be going for that next year. The Blazers, I think, at this point, are not going to be doing that. And, you know, Joe Cronin said at the end of the season in his press conference that they don’t want to be in the lottery next year. they don’t want their season to end on, you know, that that that day in midappril next year. So, I think at the very least they’re going to hope to be in the playin depending on obviously how this uh off season goes and you know what they’re able to do as far as trades, you know, what they end up doing in the draft next month. But I think they’re in a position where they’re not trying to be bad on purpose anymore, which I think is a little bit of of a step forward. Yeah. And they showed that this year they are you could have made a good argument that if this was a good year of any to try to be bad one more time, but they made a big push. That was the plan. Yeah, they made a big push. Like I felt for a while around like late February, early March that they were going to make the play just seeing how the Mavs and the Suns and the Kings were imploding. They didn’t get quite there, but they were pretty close. But yeah, but you you said it. You you you’re absolutely correct. like even if they wanted to like yeah they’re not going to want to typically teams they when they’re entering like a full scale rebuild they don’t really want to do more than like three years and they they basically did the three years this year that they unexpectedly kind of became that push here where they’re trying to see what they’ve got and trying to make a leap forward. So, as far as how I feel they did, I’m a little more mixed on the rebuild because ultimately like when you look at the result, they they I think especially seeing who developed this year, they clearly have like 80% 85% of the court done and which is huge that like however however they got to this result like at least they got here. But I just felt they could have done a little bit better and you could feel free to push back if you disagree but like they one they held on to Dame a little too long. Granted that’s mainly the previous regime that you know this front office they didn’t though but um so that’s not really their fault but you know I I obviously there was like probably a better window back then to trade him. same thing kind of but then like they kind of keep getting these uh players on big contracts and the idea is hopefully they they will have some better trade value than having cap flexibility instead. So instead of having cap flexibility to maybe take on more bad money with some draft picks didn’t really get more more draft picks. So, could have just been a it could have been a little better, I think, if they went that a little more like in on the rebuild and trying to use their cap flexibility, get a little more assets, but like ultimately it’s hard to really argue with what they’ve done because at the end, uh, they’ve got now two really good forwards and a, uh, Tammani Kamar who unexpectedly is the old the prize of the Dame return, it seems. Yeah. How about that? Yeah. And I suppose Denny too because they got one of one of the picks that they then turned it well two of the picks they flipped them for Denny and Brogden who they got in the Drew trade which was an offshoot of the Dame trade. So technically yeah pretty much all the assets that they used on the Denny trade were part of the Drew trade which was an extension of the Dame trade. So you can make the argument if you want to that their two best players that or the two guys that you feel the most sure about going forward are both guys that they got as a result of the Dame trade. Yeah, they so they they didn’t prioritize getting extra draft picks. They wanted players that can help. They and they did a good job approach. Yeah. And and especially with Denny, they really did a good job identifying, hey, we think this guy is going to can be, you know, a a huge part of our core and right now he’s their best player. Hopefully he they can get someone better to be their best player and we’ll get to that later. Maybe then he can be an a like an A1 guy. I kind of doubt he can be like a good a great first option on a great team. But uh and we’ll get to that a little later, but and then you just look then the other thing is just mainly the guards because they’re set I think they’re pretty set at center. Like when you have Klingan, he’s going to be an excellent rim protector. He got him on the on your rookie on the rookie deal for the next three years. I don’t think you really need to do too much more there at center other than just having like a solid backup. Uh now just the biggest TVDs can scoot uh make you know get a little closer to what he was projected to be. Um I think Sharp he’s he’s like he’s pretty legit. Um I think he’s going to get a pretty nice extension this summer. Um so for the most part they kind of have like the wings set up and center. So, uh, as far as just Yeah, I mean, I’m just kind of the question now. I mean, like how good can this team be? I’m trying to figure that’s what I’m trying to wonder like and then like how does adding like an an additional best player, whether it’s like another forward. There’s a lot of speculation about them going after some of the best forwards available. Maybe they could go after a point guard if they don’t think uh Scoot’s going to pan out, but I think they’re still going to I think they’re still going to give him like another year. Um, I would agree. Yeah. I mean, like what are you feeling is like some of their higherend outcomes uh once that they are ready to like go uh go and compete for a playoff spot? It’s so funny that you bring, you know, you you kind of just went through all of the positions and I’ve been saying that like, you know, their their biggest areas of need are kind of everything and nothing at the same time cuz like the thing they so they what they don’t have I think the one thing they don’t have that I think they need to uh be you know to really take the next step is whoever the guy is. Now, obviously, if they had, you know, they had gotten the Mavs luck in the lottery and gotten Cooper flag, then obviously that would take care of that and that would have been kind of a perfect situation to plug him into because once you have, you know, the guy, it’s not going to be like, it wouldn’t be like San Antonio the year they drafted Wemby and they basically had no NBA players around him. They would have kind of be able to plug a guy like that into a team that’s already like pretty good as far as the supporting guys. So, they kind of have everything except for the guy, whoever that guy is. And obviously, in order to be a contender on the level that, you know, you look at the teams that are still left in the playoffs, you know, Minnesota has Anthony Edwards, uh Indiana has Tyres Hallebertton, and uh Oklahoma City has SGA. They all have kind of that guy. And even some of the guys that are a little bit the teams that are like a little bit lower down in the food chain but are still kind of where they hope to be like I think Paulo Beno is better than anybody that’s on the Blazers right now. I think that Kate Cunningham is better than anybody that’s currently on the Blazers roster. So they need like that level of guy and I think they kind of Joe and Chanty both at their end of year press conference kind of left the door open for somebody whether it’s Shaden Sharp or Tumani Kamara or Denny Obdia to develop into that guy kind of unexpectedly the way that you know I don’t think anybody thought SGA was going to be an MVP when he first came into the league or else he wouldn’t have gone 11th overall you know everybody always talks about like Joic was a second round pick Giannis was not a lottery pick. To me, it’s like you can say that, but like you could say that about like any teams like young players that have, you know, upside and you say, well, you know, Giannis was not a lottery pick and he turned into a two-time MVP and a finals MVP and Hall of Famer. I don’t think that’s a thing that you can count on happening. I do think that Aia and Kamar both have still a level better that they can get as good as they are right now. But I would agree with you that I don’t think it’s fair to really put it on them or bank on it that those two guys are going to become like the guy. So, they need to figure out how to get that guy. But when you talk about their positions of need, you kind of just went through it like, okay, Scoot Henderson, point guard, they still, you know, they they’re happy with his development in his second year, especially the second half of the year. Shaden Sharp, you know, definitely took a step forward the second half of the year. They’re, you know, they like him and, you know, to your point earlier, they’re going to be extension talks this summer. I don’t know whether something’s going to get done or not, but that’s certainly going to be something that’ll be on the table in some form. Denny Odia, who they just traded for, they love him. He’s definitely a core piece. Tumani Kamar just made second team all defense. He’s definitely a core piece. Donovan Klingan, their lottery pick last year. Uh obviously they’re that, you know, showed what he is as a rim protector. needs to get a lot better offensively, but as a defender, like he’s good enough defensively that he’s going to be a 10 or 12 year rotation player in the NBA. So, they have a lot of like they they kind of quietly have a guy at least or more at every position. And then, you know, you still have DeAndre Aton at least for one more year. You still have Anthony Simons at least for one more year. you know, you have like these other, you know, you have this like you quietly kind of, it kind of makes their draft choice, you know, if they do keep the 11th pick, which at this point I think unless the perfect deal comes along, I would still expect them to take somebody at 11 instead of trying to trade out. It kind of makes the decision easy because it’s not like there’s an obvious area of need where it’s like, oh, you have to take this guy. Like last year, the Blazers were, I think, the second or worst rim protection team in the league. And so when Donovan Klingan, who’s the best rim protector in college basketball, was on the board at seven, that’s an obvious guy to take. Like that made that whole thing pretty easy. This year, they don’t have the guy. They don’t have whoever the number one guy is going to be. But they are kind of sneaky deep at most of the positions, at least as far as like having a at least one good player. So you kind of just take whoever you think the best player is on the board and just figure out the fit later. That also works with, you know, some of these trades that they might be trying to do this summer. You kind of because you don’t have one area where it’s like, well, this is the obvious area of weakness. You just try to get the best player you can at whatever position and then try to figure out how everything else fits around them. As far as who can potentially be that like candidate of who if there’s anyone on the roster that can internally become the guy, I think at this point it you’re still you’re hoping it’s scoop. Uh, which I wouldn’t rule out completely at the yet. I think this is going to be like probably the year that we’ll know for sure because if he actually turn panned out the way anyone expected, then like that’s it. They’re set. Like there’s not really that many questions, right? Because I think they have a good enough uh core to make the rest work. Uh, so that’s just the biggest question mark. I and cuz I’m sure there’s going to be at some point like I think the it could be an interesting guard market over the next year if that might be where they might have to do something if he doesn’t quite reach a level but let’s see I you know he still has another chance. Um so I do let’s get into the actual offseason a little bit because as I’m looking at they already have a full roster. They have a little bit more flexibility this year than they’ve had in previous years where they were like right up against attacks. They’re about like 11 million. So, they have some room to spend if they want if they want to bring in a mid-level guy. Uh I think more so uh I would guess that they’re going to you keep that flexibility for potential trades. Uh because they can, you know, use the the bigger trade exceptions in the new CBA to increase the payroll. So, right, I one of, as I explained earlier, my one of my biggest criticisms of the rebuild was just taking on all these big contracts and they’re just kind of they’ve been just stuck with them with mainly like Aiden Grant, Tyel, uh, Robert Williams. Now, all those guys are expiring contracts. Uh, all of them. So, now they’ve got a lot of flexibility to play with. And even if they don’t do something with that right now, I project them to have like 80 million in cap space next summer. Now, it’ll probably be a little less than that. That doesn’t factor in whatever Sharps extension will come out, but they’re going to have a lot of flexibility. Most likely it that kind of seems to me like that between now and the next year or so that’s what they’ll probably use that time to use up their flexibility in some type of trade whether it’s like a consolidation trade or even just to deepen the roster. Uh because cap space one it’s not really like the Blazers are never really been like a cap space destination but also now teams aren’t really using counting on cap space. too many free a too many players skip free agency now they’re all extending. So yeah, that’s what I’m keeping an eye on because like as I look at the roster, it feels like they’re ready to do something. Like they’ve got all these guys that they’re like top five, six guys, but then they’ve got like these three other guys mainly like Aiden Grant, Simons that are like their three highest paid players. Not sure exactly like at least like Aiden Grant. Yeah, they don’t really they don’t they’re not going to be a part of the next great team, but like Simon’s, okay, maybe he could still be a part of that, but they’ve got a lot of expiring contracts to play with. So, as I see like what they’re going to do this summer, it feels like they’re going to be like a sneaky uh player to go after a one of the top available allstars. And I’m not sure it really matters too much what position that player is right now. Uh but that’s that’s just what it like screams to me. And especially they have like all their most of their draft picks going forward. They still owe one uh lottery protected one to the Bulls from the Nance trade, but they still have an extra uh 2029 first uh from because they have like they had like uh two extra ones from one from the Celtics, one from the Bucks. They have like an additional extra there. They have their 11th pick this year. So they definitely have they definitely have this the the stuff and the flexibility to do something. I’m just curious what that might be. They have swaps with Milwaukee and 28 and 30 too from the Dame trade. Yeah, they have those two. Yeah. So, those are looking like they might be pretty good. Yeah. And especially maybe it could make Portland a facilitator in a Giannis trade. Not that Yeah. Not that they would get Yiannis. I would be surprised, but like then but they could maybe turn those picks into help getting someone else that uh you know that they might be targeting. Totally. You know, that’s the the Giannis thing, I think, is is really the wild card in the in the Blazers offseason. I agree with your assessment exactly. I don’t think realistically they would be a team that would try to trade for Giannis because a I don’t think they have enough even with all the assets that you listed. I don’t think they have enough to compete with, you know, a Houston or an Oklahoma City or whatever team and, you know, is actually going to be in the mix for Giannis San Antonio. And I also don’t think this is a place where Giannis necessarily is going to look at and say, “Oh, I want to go here. this is where I want to. I don’t think that’s I So I don’t think they’re a Giannis team. But if you’re the Bucks, you’re trading Giannis. They don’t control any of their You know this off the top of your head better than I do. I think they don’t control any of their picks until what? 2031, 2032. Yeah. No, you got it. It’s 2031. So New Orleans has their picks the next three years and or 26 and 27 this year and then 26 and 27. And the Blazers control their picks in 28, 29, and 30. So whether it’s New Orleans or Portland, one of those two teams could very easily jump into a Giannis trade and whoever like let’s say hypothetically it’s like we like we’ve heard about Orlando kind of as a you know a team that might make a play for Giannis. And if you’re Orlando and you look at kind of the stuff they have, you would think that the piece that would have to go back in that trade would be probably Fronze, right? because that’s like that’s not a guy that Orlando would trade under normal circumstances, but it’s if it’s for Giannis, you have to think about it, right? So, if you’re Portland, let’s say that was like the framework of the trade. if you’re Portland or you know throw put in whoever you want to put in from the other team like let’s say it’s Oklahoma City and the piece that’s going back is Jaylen Williams or you know if it’s you know it’s if it’s Houston it’s Amen Thompson whatever it is whoever like the main young piece is that’s like that you know might be looked at as you know we talked about the Blazers needing the guy for this rebuild whoever you know is a young guy that could be that piece they could go to Milwaukee and say hey we have your picks those three years we’ll give you your picks back control of your picks back so you can actually, you know, have your future back and control your rebuild. You give us the player, whoever that may be. If it’s one of those types of guys that is like a guy that could be plugged in as part of the of a core of a team like the Blazers that’s ready to take the next step, that’s a thing I think they could really look at if, and by the way, this is all contingent on Giannis actually asking for a trade because as we’re recording this, Giannis has not yet actually asked for a trade. We all kind of assume it’s coming, but it kind of reminds me of like all the years covering, you know, the Dame will he won’t he stuff. Until you hear it from him, it’s not real. It’s all just speculation. And then you do hear it from him and now it’s real. So, we still haven’t gotten to the place yet with Giannis where it’s from him and he has actually told the Bucks, I want to be traded. So, this is all very hypothetical for right now. But if I mean obviously all the reasons are there on paper for him to you know this to be the right time for him and the Bucks to move on because they just don’t really have any avenues to get better and now obviously Dame has the Achilles injury so he’s not going to play probably at all next year. So on paper it makes a lot of sense. But again until it comes from Giannis we can’t assume that that’s going to happen. But if it does, the Blazers, I think, are very well positioned to, you know, they have, you know, all those expiring contracts that you mentioned. They can make the salaries match on whoever and they have those Bucks picks that I think the Bucks would probably have a lot of interest in getting control back of as opposed to like, you know, let’s say the Bucks were to trade him to Oklahoma City and Jaylen Williams is the player that you’re going to get back the, you know, you have to, you know, Jaylen Williams is about to be extension eligible. a team that’s like starting a rebuild like the Bucks. If you’re trading Giannis, what are you going to be doing paying Jaylen Williams a max contract to be on a rebuilding team? A team like Portland, and I’m not even saying specifically that Jaylen Williams is a player they’re interested in. Obviously, he’s really good and I think he’d fit well on this team, but I’m just saying like the type of guy that would be a uh, you know, a centerpiece of a Giannis trade. It would make more sense for a team like the Blazers to be a to be in a position to want to pay him what he should, you know, would want to get paid than it would be for a team like the Bucks. So there could be something to be worked out there with, you know, again, you give we’ll give you your picks back, you give us the player is like is kind of the negotiations that they that they could have there with the Bucks, which is kind of, you know, it’s it’s kind of the blueprint of like what uh you know what Brooklyn and Houston did this summer where Brooklyn got their picks back so they could rebuild and Houston wanted like all of Phoenix’s picks because if they ever wanted if they ever in a position to trade for Devin Booker, they can say, “Hey, you know, we can give you your future back and kind of bail you out of this position that you put yourself in. That’s kind of where the Blazers and to also also the Pelicans if they wanted to get involved in there too. That’s where these two teams kind of find themselves. So I think that’s really the if you want to talk about how Portland can add like a real impact guy who could be like the you know the you know quote unquote the guy which they don’t have. I think getting involved as the third party in a Giannis trade and trying to peel off whatever the main asset is that would have been going to Milwaukee and giving them their picks back is probably the most likely way that they would be able to do that. So, I’ve I’ve put some thought into how the Bucks might want to get some of their picks back. And like I was there’s a lot of speculation about the Bucks. They want to stay good next year because of their draft pick situation, but like I don’t see any any path where they can like be anything but bottom 10 next year. Like assuming they trade Giannis and uh cuz if like assuming Giannis is gone, okay, you can bring in like two or three guys that are effective, but like you’ve got $50 million in dead money unfortunately with Lillard since he’s not going to play and the rest of the roster it’s, you know, it’s so uninspiring. Uh I don’t I wouldn’t expect Brook Lopez to return if Giannis leaves and and Dame’s not playing. So, I think the Bucks will probably want some of their picks back, but I I get the feeling the priority might be the the sooner ones. So, the Pelicans. Yeah. So, I kind of think like I’m looking at New Orleans right now as a facilitator first cuz I think the Bucks more pressingly might need the 26 swap to be uh extinguished and then um they’re 27. It’s kind of complicated. Like the the Bucks still I mean the Pelicans still kind of have a stake in it, but it’s mostly the Hawks now have it. Uh they got it from the Dejonte Murray trade. So I get the feeling like first the Bucks are going to prioritize getting those back. I think where the Blazers could come in is maybe like a couple years from now. Uh you know, so let’s say the Bucks, they do some trade with the Pelicans and Hawks. They get their own picks back. Maybe they get like a lottery pick this year. So now it’s like they have this draft and the next two to get some guys and see what they can do and then by then Dame’s contract is done. If things still aren’t looking too good, okay, maybe they can talk to the Blazers and there’s something they could do. Um so I I think though the Blazers could still do something to get a guy uh to get another guy to do some sort of consolidation if that’s what they want. Um Aiden for the most part just probably neutral value just like a very nice big expiring salary. Yeah. Simons though even though he’s expiring he’s got a good amount of value I think you know you mentioned Orlando as a potential like yeah like I could see them going after that’s the one that everybody that’s like everybody’s favorite trade machine team for Simons. And by the way I don’t think it’s necessarily like you talk about like these veterans that they have that kind of don’t fit the timeline. To me, the one that you kind of have to figure something out with this summer is Jeremy Grant. He’s the one that like cuz even like Anthony Simons, like, you know, they, you know, theoretically you would think Scoot and Shaden are the, you know, the two guards of the future, but the Blazers don’t really have anybody that can shoot or create for themselves except for Anthony Simons. So, I think he still does have a skill set that they don’t really have anywhere else on the roster. And so, you know, if he were if they wanted to, you know, hang on to him and even potentially extend him, if they can get him to extend at maybe a lower number than what he’s on right now, that I is something I could see them, you know, looking at. I don’t think it’s like a guarantee that they’re going to be shopping Simons this summer. And even DeAndre Aton, like obviously Klingan is their guy, you know, is their center of the future, but he he’s not going to play 48 minutes. And with Robert Williams’ health being what it is, you can’t really ever count on him being available. I think if DeAndre Aton was making half as much money as he’s making right now on that kind of rook on that max contract that he signed, you know, the offer she signed with the Pacers at the Suns matched, I don’t think anybody would have a problem. Like I think like most of DeAndre Aton’s like reputation and you know, the way he’s kind of talked about around the league is based on how much money he makes. So that’s even a guy potentially that like if you wanted to hang on to him with the understanding that Klingan is going to be your guy going forward, you could do a whole lot worse as a rotation because like for all the you know the talk of of you know what he is compared to what he was draft where he was drafted and you know what he’s getting paid. He’s not Yousef Nerkach. Like he is still a starting caliber center on an NBA team. He’s not you know I he’s not you know he’s he’s not he’s not dead money. He’s still like 10 million less I think the conversation on would be would be way different. Absolutely. I think Right. Absolutely. But uh the one that clearly to me does not fit with anything that they’re doing is Jeremy Grant because as we’ve talked about the two to me most sure thing guys on their roster going forward are the two forwards Sumani Kamara and Denny Aia. Both of those guys have to start. like you can’t there’s no you there’s no way you could really justify based on merit like uh you know oh you know Tummani is going to come off the bench because Jeremy Grant is still here and he has to start or you know you could bring Jeremy Grant off the bench but a is Jeremy Grant going to want that and b how much sense does it make to you know have a guy making $32 million coming off the bench. So to me, that’s the one that like just from a fit standpoint, they’ve got to figure something out with him. And I don’t know, you know, what the team is that, you know, is going to look at him and say this is something we want to actually give up value for. You know, Jeremy, you know, he had a down year this year for sure. He’s still I don’t think he’s like, you know, and I I think he’s still like a rotation player in the NBA. It’s just that it’s a lot of money and it’s a lot of years left and I don’t know what the market is necessarily going to be for him this summer. But that’s the one to me if if you were prioritizing trading one of those guys from a fit standpoint. To me clearly that’s the one that you got to you know do something with. Unfortunately like I I don’t I doubt there will be a market for Grant at the moment. Uh he’ll you know he barely played in the later stretch of the year. I mean, I think he kind of stopped playing what, early March or something and was he hasn’t played post March 12th since the bubble. Yeah, I saw that stat. He’s like Mr. Not April apparent. Like it just never plays in April. Uh, and then cuz he’s just the team whether it was Detroit the first couple of years that he was there or the three years he’s been here, they just by the end of the season, they’re just shutting guys down to tank and he’s just not, you know, it’s a nice gig if you can get it. So, he’s going to need to, you know, play a little better, which he will. I’m sure he’s he’s not going to continue playing. He struggled this year. He’s going to bounce back and then after that, you know, the contract gets a little shorter. I would say at the earliest a trade deadline, maybe they could they they might have something uh for him. But as far as like what they could use to go after someone, so I mentioned Simons just because I think he’s got some value first and as an expiring he’s he’s expiring like they got to make a decision on him soon. He’s got a he has this extension he can do that would take him into like 30 I think I want like 33 or 35 million average. Do they want to you know are they going to be willing are they going to be comfortable paying him that uh knowing you know if Scoot pans out they’re going to have to pay him a lot of money. So and you know a lot of guys are about to get paid. So it it’s it’s so like the Magic they’re a team that have been reported to be interested in him. But usually when people do their their trade machine stuff, usually people just want to do two team trades and I don’t think the Blazers are interested in like Cole Anthony some other expiring contract in a first round pick. I don’t think that’s what the Blazers are going to be looking for. So if they were interested in that, they probably could have done that already. Exactly. So, so that so that’s where like if they’re going to go after somebody maybe like another forward uh that they can add to the rotation or or potentially a better guard in case uh Scoot doesn’t become like that starting starting level guy they need. Then you can use uh Simons as some of the value. You can use Aiden or Robert Williams or Tyel to help make the money work, you know, whatever combination needed. They got the 11th pick. They have that additional 29 first. So they have like their own and one of Milwaukey’s Boston’s whichever they end up keeping in the future. So they’ve got stuff. I think that’s like actually a pretty uh like acceptable package for some of the guys that they’ve been speculated about. Like I’ve seen a lot of people speculate and why don’t the Blazers go after like Zion Williams or Lowry Markin like of bringing another forward. Uh, and I kind of I kind of like the idea of them bringing in a guy like that, like especially Zion. If he then he can really be your your number one guy and he’s got that non-g guaranteed contract, so if things don’t work out, you’ve got an out. Um, so they’ve got I think they’ve got So I just look at the stuff. It doesn’t seem it might not seem that appetizing, but like I think that’s kind of what they’re going to go for. Just not trading all their picks, but like some combination of them. uh maybe those Bucks picks uh the swaps will come come into play too to get that guy. So yeah, I feel like they’re gonna be able to convert on some of this combination of stuff uh in like a multi-team trade and get somebody. Just a matter of who. And I guess we still have some time for that. Maybe when we get closer to the draft, we’ll know. Yeah, I mean it’s there’s certainly, you know, and and and you know, kind of the the way that the thing that I always kind of caution people this time of year is the trades that actually happen are not the ones you hear about. Like I had no clue that Denny Odia was even on the table or was available or that that was even like when I was kind of going through last off season and thinking about like oh who could they trade for? Who are the trade targets? It never occurred to me that Denny Oavia could be trade or that Washington would even make him available. And then when I saw that that trade happened, it was like, oh wow, okay, they kept that one quiet like that, you know, and even like on a much bigger scale during the whole Dame, you know, summer where he requested a trade and he made it very clear that he only wanted to go to one team and the Blazers didn’t really want to trade him there, you know, and so you were kind of thinking about like what the other teams are that could get involved and it’s like there was some rumors about Toronto at one point. There were rumors about like different teams. When they when the the news broke that they were trading him to Milwaukee, that was not something that was really on my radar at all. That was not really something that was on anybody’s radar. So the stuff they actually do, and this is true around the league, the stuff that the stuff that actually happens is not the stuff that act that you you kind of hear about, which makes me think that like if they do end up trading Anthony Simons, it might not be to Orlando just because everybody has been talking for like four years about Orlando is the team that should trade for him. I think just because of that like you’re not like they might be you know if they trade him it could be somewhere else or it could you know or mostly they get other parts that not coming from Orlando. I think totally or just yeah just you know that’s that’s the thing it’s like really easy for people to just kind of plug stuff into a trade machine and say okay this makes sense but the stuff that actually happens the teams that are that are uh discussing it like did we really think like Donovan Mitchell was going to get traded to Cleveland until it happened like everybody was all New York New York New York like it’s never it’s never the stuff that either gets leaked like that they’ve had talks or the rumors or you know or you know everybody thinks this makes sense. That’s never the thing that actually happens. And it’s especially true with Portland. Like, yeah, nobody nobody saw Dame Milwaukee at all till the moment that happened. Uh, so yeah, that Denny as well. So, I’m sure I’m sure they’re up to something. I’m sure they’re they’re looking at some guys. Maybe it’s even like someone uh like like Denny, they brought him in fresh off his uh rookie scale contract ending. there’s like a young guy that uh he’s like still in his rookie contract that we don’t even know might be available and maybe that’s who they make their push. Maybe a guy that they heavily scouted over the past three years couldn’t get him and and maybe he’ll be up for grabs like No, it’s a good point. I I think they’ll I’m not saying they’ll do something this offseason. maybe something in the trade deadline, but I would imagine before they got to make before they, you know, they head into next off seasonason where they have all this flexibility, I think they’re going to want to have used it by then because most likely not really going to have that much to do uh with cap space in 2026 other than, you know, I guess you could make an imbalance trade then. Uh, but if you can get something for your players now before they expire, before you got to make a decision on them, uh, you know, you might as well do that. I made a fun like I was kind of building out the the Blazers roster just cuz, you know, they have all this flexibility next year where, you know, they’re going to uh, you’ve got AIA and Klingan making like just very like little like AI is making the mid level, Klingan’s on his rookie deal. Like that’s that’s just going to help them so much over the next few years. you still have two years of scoot on his rookie deal. So, you’re going to pay sharp. I I think he’ll get something like maybe get something in like the mid 20 million, something like that. And that would make him like the highest paid player on the on the Blazers next year. Uh right right under Grant. Basically, I want to get to Yeah. Oh, go ahead. I have no feel for what the shade and extension value is going to be. like I like for you know you I don’t like I think I think mid20s is is kind of a good you know ballpark of you know personally where I’d put it because you know he did have a really good second half of this year. He also his second year he only played 32 games because of the core muscle surgery. So, it’s like he has shown a lot in this half season, but it’s also just not a very big sample size of like, you know, it’s it’s not it’s not like a, you know, some of the some of these other young, you know, young guys that have gotten these big extensions like where where you’re just like, you know, you kind of look at you look at like a, you know, a Jaylen Suggs extension or a, you know, Jaylen Johnson in Atlanta, like some some of those. Has Shaden shown as much as those guys? Has he like I don’t know. May has he? Maybe you can make the argument either way. The reason I so uh Keith Smith on spotrack he would did his Blazers off seasonason and before I read it I’m like you know yeah what what is Shaden’s uh val like extension going to look like and he basically put the Trey Murphy contract as a comparison where Trey Murphy was selected a lot lower than uh than Sharp. Uh I that I kind of see I kind of I think that actually kind of makes sense as far as like you have that you have that comp already from last year. I would imagine that might be like some kind of like reasonable meeting points for both teams. Um especially if the Blazers believe he still got some like another a couple more steps to make. So I think it’s going to Yeah, it’s tough to gauge what it is, but I think that’s like a good starting point to see where things might go. But but the point I’m getting at is that like they’re going to pay him uh they have the option to pay Camaro early. they can give him a raise, which in that case, okay, maybe instead of giving him like the max amount that he can get in that extension for getting paid a little early, maybe takes a little bit of a discount. Um, and they can pay all these guys and they can still have Jeremy Grant on their books potentially not starting coming off the bench as their highest paid player. I just bring that up. Yeah, that’s not going to be the goal. I think they would like to move him of at this point, but in case things don’t work out, they have so much flexibility assuming they have already done so. And this is if they’ve already also traded like a combination of Aiden and Simons brought in like another Max guy. Uh you can still have Grant there and just kind of wait to see how the market unfolds and not be worried about like what the crossing the tax or anything like that. So, it’s just it’s just interesting because that they’re in this spot because I I think in the past year they kind of been like in cap hell and now and now they’re about to have such a like a very strong cap sheet going forward where yeah, Grant’s deal if he continues like this, it’s going to be one of the most toxic deals if he if he doesn’t play better. But they’ll be okay to hold on to it and and and just see how he plays out. hopefully uh you know not rush to move him and potentially have to give up something to get off. Right. Right. So they’re just they’re just in a great spot. I I’m I’m uh it worked out in the end. It seemed like earlier the first past few years I was a little concerned. I wasn’t sure where this was going, but like they seem to have landed the ship pretty well. I mean we’ll see. I I I think you’re putting a lot on um the uh you know the the fact that they went 28 and or 23 and 18 in the second half of the season. It’s really you know you’re ba you’re kind of basing a lot on and I do think a lot of their you know improvement is legit. I think that, you know, I think, you know, I mean, it’s like Tumani Kamar just made all defense like as a secondyear player who’s not like who wasn’t like a you who was a second round pick. Like that’s, you know, the him and Abdia like a lot of the improvement was legit, but you’re also the thing I would be worried about and it’s a quite a kind of a different front office regime. Joe Cronin was in the front office at this time, but he was not the decision maker. But remember in remember about 10 years ago in 20 the 2015 16 season so that’s previous summer in 2015 LaMarcus very well Lamarcus leaves he goes to San Antonio uh they trade Batum West Matthews leaves their plan is to tank to you know because you know Dame is in like his third or fourth year at that point the plan is to tank and just you know go young and rebuild around Dame. Dame is too good for them to tank. They end up making the playoffs and then they get really lucky in the first round and they play the Clippers when Chris Paul and Blake Griffin and JJ Reic all get hurt. So like the Clippers basically are a skeleton crew and the Blazers win that series and then Ste and then the second round they play the 73 win Warriors but Steph is still coming back from that injury he had in the first round. And so they they lose in five, but it’s like a competitive five games. And so they, you know, they had this, you know, better than expected, you know, playoff success and they but a lot of it was because they had this like crazy injury luck. And what they should have done then is say, okay, you know, we’re better than expected. We’re not a, you know, bottoming out like tanking trying to get the number one pick team. Let’s just kind of incrementally let’s just keep adding to this group and get some more guys that make sense. What do they do that summer instead? Of course, the cap spike summer. they sign, you know, Evan Turner, Allan Crab, uh Myers Leard, like to that extension, uh uh Fesus Aili, who never played a game in the NBA again after he signed that deal. Like they just completely, you know, and and every team that summer kind of lost their minds with with the some of those contracts handed out, but the Bladers were one of the most egregious teams of that and they basically just completely capped their ceiling with Dame in that summer. if I were them and I I from what I’ve heard from what you know people I’ve talked to in the organization I think they’re mindful of this. They don’t want to go into this off season and say well we almost made the play in we were a lot better than expected. let’s, you know, trade four first round picks and, you know, use all of our cap space and, you know, get, you know, whoever, you know, whatever player and like let’s really try to go for it and then you end up as like a perpetual, you know, playin team for the next 5 years again and you’re right back where you were for all those years with Dame. I think they’re very, you know, especially with this new CBA, I think they’re pretty mindful of not wanting to do that. And the other thing, and I, you know, this hasn’t come up yet, but uh we found out about a week and a half ago that the team’s for sale. Like that’s that’s a thing now. That’s been something that people have been wondering when was going to happen for seven years since Paul Allen died in 2018. And since then, it’s been his sister Jod that’s been the trustee of his estate. So, she’s been like the de facto owner, but the team is actually in a trust. And there’s just kind of been this, you know, when is when are they going to sell the team? When are they going to sell the team? Phil Knight obviously very publicly tried to buy the team 3 years ago. They turned him down. That turned into a whole thing. They announced last week that they are starting the formal process of putting the team up for sales. So that’s kind of hovering over all of this too because you don’t know who’s going to buy the team, what their philosophy is going to be, how much they want to kind of when whoever buys the team comes in and puts, you know, wants to, you know, make, you know, a bunch of big changes or make a big splash. Like you look at what Matt Ishbia did when he bought the Suns a few years ago. I think like 24 hours after he officially the sale closed and he took over as the principal owner of the team, he green lit that Kevin Durant trade or you know you look at kind of just you know the the uh you know the Timberwolves like Mark Lori and A-Rod kind of start obviously that ended up being a whole thing but like with you know the back and forth between them and Glenn Taylor and the arbitration and all that but like they start you know they take over they make a big splash and hire Tim Connelly away from Denver as their president of basketball operations and then they make that huge all-in trade to get Rudy Gobear. Whoever the new Blazers owner is, are they going to come in and at least for the first year look at it and say, “Yeah, you know, you guys are kind of on a good, you know, track. Let’s just kind of keep this going. You don’t want to really rock the boat too much the way that, you know, or are they going to say because, you know, Joe Cronin and Chanty Phillips both got extensions at the end of last season. So, you would think right now they’ve got some job security, but what if a new owner, you know, it’s always very possible that a new owner could come in in 9 to 12 months from now, which is when I think the team is going to be sold and say, you know what, I want to bring in all my own people. I want a clean house. I want to start over. And then everything we’ve talked about as far as like what this front office’s philosophy is and you know, how they’ve gone about building this team, that could all go out the window because they could bring somebody else in. They could also someone also could buy the team, look at it and say, you know, I like where this is headed. The Joe and Chanty seem like they have a good thing going. Let’s just ride this out for another couple of years. Like it could it genuinely could go either way. And I have no idea at this point who is or isn’t interested in buying the team. Yeah, I I understand the apprehension with like the uncertainty of ownership taken in taken over because what just happened with the Suns and Mavs under their watch. Um, so understand that. You brought up a good point though that uh Cronin and Bilip strategically both got extensions before it was even announced that there’s going to be a sale. So I would imagine first of all we don’t even know how soon a sales I mean do you have an idea of when is it going to be like something something soon or like maybe a year or something? I think roughly like obviously it’ll get done when it gets done, but the rough timeline that I’ve kind of been told is like reasonable to expect is 9 to 12 months. So like roughly around what the like cuz remember it just took the Celtics nine months to sell. They announced on July 1st last year that the Celtic that the team was for sale and then in March of this year they announced who the buyer was going to be. So that’s, you know, it’s a nine-month process. Like obviously with like Robert Sarver and selling the Suns, that was a little bit of a different thing because there was that out the investigation into some of the, you know, racism stuff and they were trying to push him out as quickly as possible. So like that’s a little bit of a different thing for something like this. I I think the earliest that we could possibly see them announce a buyer is around the All-Star break, which is nine months from now, or maybe more likely at the board of governors meeting in March or April. Cuz remember, they could announce they could announce tomorrow that they have a buyer and they know who the buyer is and they have the sale agreement and that’s in place and then it has to there’s a whole process where then it has to get approved by the board of governors. The Celtic sale is still not finalized by the way. They still haven’t approved the new buyer through the board of governors. That’s a whole process. It has to pass a 3/4 majority vote. So I think it’ll be between 9 months and a year before that stuff is all settled for the Blazers. So, at least for the next year, and from what I’ve heard, like I was just in Chicago for the combine and I talked to a bunch of Blazers front office folks and they all told me that after they announced the team was for sale, ownership said, you know, right now just everything is business as usual. Everything, you know, just keep doing what you’re doing. No limitations on spending or roster or staffing or any of that kind of stuff. Like, for right now, just kind of stay the course. So, the next year should be pretty status quo as far as what the Blazers are going to be able to do or, you know, what the plans are going to be. But once they have the a new owner in place, you know, who knows? All bets could be off or a new owner could come in and say, “Yeah, you know, this is fine. Let’s keep this going.” I So, the Celtics, they’re coming up now on a month 11 since the sale was announced that they were going to sell the team. And I I guess like around 9 monthsish I want to say was when it was announced that there’s a buyer. So we’re still it looks like we might be like a year plus before it gets finalized. So, I’m not expecting it to get done like this like this like and they said the team the estate when the when the Paul Allen estate put out the official press release that they were selling a team they said that the announcement was expected or that the sale process was expected to continue into the 2526 season which is where kind of that 9 to 12 month timeline I’m kind of getting that. No, that makes sense. So, I I think it’s pretty safe to say that Cronin will probably still be running the Blazers for the next year and hopefully like another plus after that as in like have full authority. That’s what I, you know, that’s what I mean. And then, yeah, we’ll see after that. Uh, we’ll we’ll see how we’ll see, you know, if there’s going to be any changes or any influence, other influences. So, yeah. But that’s good though like at least for the next year plus they can see this through cuz after that uh you know they’ll have the team maybe 90 95 maybe 100% the core 100% complete in which case uh you know the the hard part is done but I Sean I think we covered just about everything about the Blazers upcoming off season. Uh no I appreciate you for joining. Uh you got anything coming up that we should be on the lookout for? Not really. Just not not anything in particular. Just, you know, roseguardreport.com. Make sure you’re subscribed. Make sure you’re a paid subscriber. That’s where you’re going to get all the content. You know, we’re covering, you know, obviously right now we’re kind of in the thick of the pre-draft process. Uh, I believe they’re going to start pre-draft workouts at their facility next week and they’re going to start bringing guys in and that’s when you can usually get a good idea of who they might be looking at or, you know, how some of these meetings go, some of these workouts go. So, I’m going to be covering all of that. I’m obviously going to be continuing to cover this sale process as it unfolds, which is going to be a big thing over the next year. Uh, Portland next year, a year from now, Portland’s WNBA expansion team is starting up, and that’s something I’m also going to be covering heavily when it happens. And, you know, in the meantime, there’s going to be stuff to cover with that. As far as, you know, they got to announce a name at some point. They got to, you know, hire a GM. they got to kind of start the process of getting that team up and running. They’ve already done some of that. They’ve got a new practice facility that they broke ground on. So, if that’s something you’re interested in, I’m also going to be covering that pretty extensively. So, just make sure you’re go you go and you’re subscribed. That’s kind of all I got to say as far as that. All right, everyone. Subscribe to the Rose Garden Report and make sure you’re following Sean on Twitter and Blue Skyen. And everyone, make sure you’re following me on Twitter and Blue Sky as well and my name Yosi Gazin. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple. And make sure you subscribe to Third Apron. I’m eventually going to do a more deeper analysis on the Blazers offseason. I’ll get more into like the cap stuff, like what a what a Sharp extension could look like. Uh, you know, there a lot of guys extension eligible. Aiden Simons, uh, Rob Williams. I’ll I’ll touch on all those guys. I’ll get into the nitty-gritty there. And check the link in the description about a sports business classroom. I’ll be an instructor there. And I’ve got a promo code going on for those who want to sign up. I’ll see you guys probably early next week.

Sean Highkin of the Rose Garden Report joins the show the discuss the Blazers offseason.

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