The Most LOPSIDED Trade in NBA HISTORY…

The Most LOPSIDED Trade in NBA HISTORY…

Two summers ago, the Portland Trailblazers shook up the NBA landscape by trading Damen Lillard to the Milwaukee Bucks in exchange for a hall of assets, which they then turned around and flipped into even more assets. And now they look like one of the better young teams in the league over the second half of the season. And after starting the season with a 13-28 record, they finished the rest of the year five games above 500 at 23 and 18. And now they get Damen Lillard back for essentially nothing. Now, I know he’s not going to be playing this year, but this is one of the biggest robberies in the history of sports. Joe Cronin caught a lot of crap for not being able to build around Damen Lillard, but he’s been really good in the post Dame years. Well, I mean, we got to start off with the Damen Lillard trade itself because he sent out Damen Lillard, Ysef Nerkich, Keon Johnson, and Nir Little and brings back Drew Holiday, DeAndre Aton, Toanmani Kamara, a 2029 pick swap, and then 2028 and 2030 first round picks from Milwaukee. So, a pretty good value for a 32year-old star, 33y old star at the end of his prime. Kamar is the only one still with the team, but he looks like he can be a really, really good role player for years to come. Fantastic defender. We’ll talk a little bit more about him later. They of course just bought out DeAndre Eaton, so they didn’t get any value out of him, but they were able to flip Drew Holiday, which was the next series of this wheeling and dealing that Cronin did. They were able to send Drew Holiday to the Celtics before he even played a game in Portland in exchange for Robert Williams III who is still on the roster to this day and Malcolm Brogden as well as a 2024 first round pick and a 2029 first round pick. Now remember the second, third, and fourth pieces to that trade because they then turn around and trade that as well as a couple of second round picks to Washington for Denny Asvita. And that first round pick in 2024 would go on to become Bub Carrington. And then the 2029 pick is now in Washington. And then two years later, they end up with Drew Holiday and Damen Lillard. Anyway, so they get everybody that they got in return for trading these two guys out as well as the two guys they traded out. It’s kind of ridiculous. And it looks like now the biggest robbery, the biggest heist in NBA history because Joe Cronin was able to trade two Allstars, one of which was a first team allNBA guy, get the returns on those guys, build up a young core, and then two years later they’re both back in Portland. This is ridiculous. And he’s not done yet. Joe Cronin was still cooking. What’s even more ridiculous is the fact that he convinced the Grizzlies to give him an extra first round pick as well as two second round picks in exchange for a five pick difference in this year’s NBA draft. Yes, he traded back from 11 to 16, picked up Hansen Young and traded away the draft rights to Cedric Coward at 11. Absolutely masterful. And they pick up the Chinese Jokic. looked like a reach at the time, but he’s showing some big- time flashes. Taking a look at this game against Golden State in the summer league. I mean, the passing was on full display. There is a reason people are saying he is the Chinese. That is a really, really fluid pocket pass right there for the big time dunk. And then, I mean, the vision right here, dropping it on a dime right to the cutter for the easy layup. Yeah, Young could be a legitimate piece for the future. Nice back door cut here. And you know, teams are starting to run their offense more through the bigs at the high post in the middle of the floor. We could see that continue to develop. He’s also a great rim protector. He’s 7-1 with a 73 wingspan. So, he’s a little bit taller than and longer than Jokic. So, therefore, he will be a better rim protector, more athletic because he can move a little better. He’s a little bit lighter. He can get downhill a little bit better. He averaged 16 and a half points a game and 10 and a half rebounds to go with 2.6 six blocks in China as an 18-year-old. Shot 59% from the field and 33% from three. The glass was very friendly here. The bank was open on a weekday. And Hunen Young could be a really good piece. I mean, we we talked about it. It was viewed as a reach at the time, but we’re talking about a 7-1 guy that can operate out of the pick and roll and can spin off of a hedging defender and get to the rim and finish with a right-handed layup. That’s ridiculous. This is their potential lineup once Dame comes back with Dame Drew, Sheron Sharp, Diaz Vita, and Donovan Klingan. And you might be thinking, this isn’t a very good lineup. But like I said earlier, this is a Blazers team that was really good towards the end of the year last year as beat a 25year-old next season. Over the last 13 games, he averaged 27 a game with 11 boards and five and a half assist on 52% shooting from the field, 46% from beyond the arc. He looked like a franchise cornerstone down the stretch. And yeah, maybe it’s because teams weren’t playing their best guys, but he’s 6’9 with a 69 wingspan. And the skill set is there. It is undeniable. You cannot lie. He has the skill set. He’s got the bag work to be able to make something happen. Uh getting down the lane and finishing with the right hand right there. For the entire regular season, he averaged about 17- seven with three assists in 30 minutes per game. shot 48% from the field and 37% from three on 4.8 attempts. So, it it’s not like he was fantastic the whole year. But, I mean, that’s still a really good season for a 24year-old who has gotten better, I may add, every single year of his career. A career-high in points, a careerhigh in rebounds, and a careerhigh in assists this year. All three of the major statistical categories, he got better. And then you got Shaden Sharp, who was my number one overall prospect in the class when he came out, or excuse me, number two. I had him right had Apollo had Jabari Smith Jr. then Shaden Sharp 18 and a half a game four and a half rebounds 45% shooting from the field 31% from three and I truly still believe the sky is the limit for Shaden Sharp because his athleticism is ridiculous and he’s a three ball away from being a legitimate top 10 scorer in the league. And yes, his three-point percentage has gone down every single year, which is not great, but it’s because he’s being asked to one have a higher volume and two have a tougher degree of difficulty on these shots as a a lead piece in this Blazers offense. He’s 6’6 with a 7 foot wingspan and ridiculous athletic ability. This was the dunk of the year right here. He does stuff like this. You also saw the block that he just absolutely erased. All the tools are there. And yeah, by the way, he is still 21. Like I said, getting to the rim between Scoot and Shaden Sharp, they have their guard duo of the future for once Dame and Drew Holiday age out of being the starters. And Scoot, he had a very underrated year this year. I feel like he will still be 21 going into his third season. Averaged just 13 a game and five assists and three rebounds and about 26 minutes a game this year. Shot 42% from the field and 35% from three on four and a half attempts. And yes, the numbers were a little bit down. The points per game, the assists were a little bit down from last year, but the efficiency was up. He’s also got two of the best mentors on either side of the ball with Drew Holiday defensively and Dame Lillard on the offensive end to mentor him. And yeah, the numbers, the points per game were down, but look at the efficiency stats. Plus three on the field goal percentage and plus three on the three-point percentage on more attempts per game. I like the direction the Scoot is trending. If he can take another hop next year in the efficiency stats and maybe add two or three points a game, he’s going to be looking really good. We haven’t really talked about Drew Holiday that much other than the trade, but he’s going to be a really nice veteran presence that can defend and shoot the three ball that they bring in. Jeremy Grant is still here. People forgot a lot about Jeremy Grant after he signed that massive 5-year extension, but he’s still here. He’s still hooping. He’s still a solid piece to this Blazers rotation. Domani Kamara. I promise we’d talk about him a little bit more later. Fantastic defender. He’s going to be a part of the Blazers rotation for a long, long time. And then of course, Donovan Klingan, the number seven overall pick from a year ago and was a second team all rookie selection. He’s a big man at like 7 foot2 and he’s pretty mobile. I mean, he’s towering over Joic right there. But I think it’s funny that Dame never had any help. So, they traded Dame and he’s like, “All right, finally y’all got me some help. I’ll come back.” and after a year of rehab, he’s going to be ready to roll. Uh, shout out to Dame, though. With that being said, that’s going to be it for today’s video. Thanks so much for watching. Make sure to like button, leave me a comment down below, and hit that subscribe button if you did enjoy any point. And with that being said, thanks so much for watching today’s video.

This video looks at the Portland Trail Blazers and how they robbed the nba by signing Dame Lillard and keeping all the assets they got for him
Other Channels:
Backyard Blitz: https://www.youtube.com/@BackyardBlitz33
Backyard Betting: https://www.youtube.com/@BackyardBetting
Socials
Insta/Tiktok: LukeStaten3