The Portland Trail Blazers had an active and strange trade deadline, landing Matisse Thybulle and Cam Reddish in separate trades and then sending Gary Payton II back to Golden State.
On paper this team is worse than it was before the deadline. And it seems like that’s on purpose. What’s even the plan here? And what’s the most optimistic view of a puzzling deadline day?
The show closes with a look at the rest of the West. A bunch of playoff teams and playoff hopefuls got better. Portland is not one of them. Where does that leave the Blazers?
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45 Comments
They got draft CAPITAL!
They got flyers on small forwards, all with very real potential and needed a fresh start.
Additionally might have 2 first round picks in the next draft.
Should have been Claxton, him we would have kept
GP 2 Needed to go as he seemed like he didn't want to be here and his efforts did not really help us plus he looks small on the court.
Losing Hart hurts bad because he loves it in PDX and was a perfect fit. I like getting back a 1st round pick for Hart who PDX most likely would not have brought back.
Smart moves. Even if we made a move like OG it wasn't enough to really move the needle this year. The west is way to elite now. Had to dump and reload for summer. As much as I hate another season being a wash. If we want to make any shots at an elite player we had too.
It's a slow 🐌 process of purposely getting worse so that dame demands out (I pray for that or we have the worse management ever)
The reality is Allen needs out. Can you imagine if Phil Knight took ownership of the Blazers. That would change the whole projection of the whole organization.
Blazers are worse but seems to be on purpose. These trades were all about next year and the future plus I think they want to play Number 17 about 25 to 30 minutes a night instead of 15 to 20.
Last week I called a GP2 for Wiseman. It was right there. Big mistake to not take a flyer on him. Dang!
They blew this dead line!! They could have got MANY of the guys who moved yesterday🤮 Instead we helped out the Worriers and GP2 and did nothing to get better. At Least get WISEMAN!!! FFFFFUUUUCCCCKKKKKKK
You are being way too nice just like the broadcast guys!!! Everyone needs to demand better!!! We need a coach who knows how to make adjustments and a GM who knows WTF THERE DOING🤮
Thybulle will be a good cutter. His shooting will improve from working with Lillard. It's weird that Payton played 15 games here and then wanted out- but I'm happy with the five picks. What other undrafted player has ever brought such a return?
What were the better possible trades Portland could have made?
This just feels like Groundhog Day….unfortunately gonna be this way till Jody finally sells to let someone actually invested in us winning and not just happy they get attention and sit courtside like her level of investment.
🥱 long process to get Dame some help. We will see 🥱
Gary Payton 2 saying that he was unhappy in Portland but yet he was smiling 24/7 I hope he finds therapy
I would've preferred Bey over Knox personally. Bey seems gritty and POR lacks that rn.
Thybulle, Reddish and Knox aren't good enough shooters and haven't shown any indication that they will improve there. Blazers are going to be bad for a while unless they get really really lucky in the draft. I'm not going to hold my breath for that.
I hope GP2 is booed when he visits Moda. What a snake.
Everyone complained about our bad defense. So the Blazers get 2 defensive players and you all complain they aren’t offensive enough!? Let’s just see how it plays out.
Length is always good, and draft picks make it better..Id give it a C+
Just expected to move Nurk or ant or both
Kevin Knox on the Portland ?
i wish gp2 all the worst 🤷♂️
Grants not coming back either, which stings worse cause I "big" recent splashes amounted to nothing, GP2 gone with little return, Grant will walk and we basically traded CJ for Cam Reddish, difficult to spin that any other way
If the Blazers can get the Bulls pick back for a handful of second round picks, I can for sure see the blazers tanking. The Knicks pick and the Blazers lottery pick in addition to Shaedon Sharpe could net you a Mikal Bridges 👀
Look, it's impossible to say the Blazers got worse when we haven't even met the players we got yet, let alone seen them play.
STOP 🛑
We got different. Yes. We did what they wanted to do… IMO, the Blazers wanted to get:
Bigger
Longer
More defensive
Get more Assets
Get something for Hart's expiring contract
Get more pieces & more chips
The Blazers did that! 😎🤘
Now, let's not prematurely ejaculate our vision of what the Blazers will be with this now group of considerably bigger and longer players before they have a chance to hit the court.
Give them a chance.
Give them time.
Be patient.
Let the coaches have the time needed to figure out what they've got!
One thing we've got to realize is the NY KNICKS have been a cluster fuc% for a long, Long time! Seriously, they have been the team to NOT follow how to do the things correctly, NBA teams want to accomplish! They are a mess!
Cam Reddish and Kevin Knox were Knicks! It's very understandable why they haven't panned out! The Knicks touch things and good things rarely happen! Mark my word, these two players still have huge upsides and are still very young. Under coaching from Chauncey's staff and Dame Lillard, the best leader in sports, these guys could just be diamonds who got fuc%ed up by a diamond💎crusher (the Knicks! 🤮).
Sit back.
Watch the games.
Give them a chance to maneuver the new parts to this roster to find the best ways to make the most out of these players working within Chauncey's system.
This will take time.
Again, be patient, and enjoy watching them play.
They deserve that! 😎🤘
PS. Mike does a great job with this channel. That being said, he's young. He doesn't remember one of the very best players the Blazers have ever had…
Cliff Robinson
Uncle Cliffy played before Mike was born! I saw every game Cliffy played. I know Uncle Cliffy was a back of the 2nd round pick! Look at Jabari Walker, a similarly placed 2nd round pick! There are very valuable players that slip back to the second round!!! It would be really foolish to under value what the Blazers can get for these second round picks … Both for themselves and through trades.
Reddish Looks amazing on YouTube Highlights. Hard not to believe in false hope as Blazers once again sell us on hope and not substance.
Another year of dames prime is wasted.
The amount of hopium this fanbase sucks on is insane.
The deadline itself wasn’t good, it wasn’t terrible.
The problem lies in the fact that now Portland has shown their hand. They have no option but to drastically improve this summer, or the team is done (as it currently is).
There is a very real possibility that Grant walks this summer. There is a real possibility that Cronin can’t pull of a move this summer and Dame finally asks out.
There is a real possibility that this team enters a complete and total rebuild this summer, and I don’t think Blazer fans are ready to have that conversation. And right now, it’s looking more and more likely.
I just don't believe that we will find more in the summer. I think GP2 proves that a lot of guys don't want to be here. I have little faith that Grant wants to stay too. I had thought we would make big moves in the summer but things went worse than I even thought yesterday. I just wanna watch Dame in his prime play with decent players. Winning it all is so hard and almost unrealistic but I still hope… Look how many stars have jumped teams like 3-4 times to nothing. Harden, KD and Kyrie did nothing together. I'm not on Twitter, so this is where I vent. Thanks all✌️
Fuck Jodi Allen 😂 bring Phil knight !!!!
How does the protection on the New York first work? It seems like most are just assuming its going to be a first and not future seconds.
Fact we didn't improve our big men hurts.
End of the Trail for "The Trail"?
"Does this feel different to you? It doesn't feel different to me." This is the content I'm here for.
I am not a great fan of yours. But you nailed it. I've been saying this from day one. They don't want to win ..i don't look for what they say. but for what they do. And they have done nothing. Now they want to tell us again. wait till the summer we've heard that before. And when they got rid of GP who didn't seem like he wanted to play for the team. You overpaiding him.And what did he play 15 games. You overplayed that worthless center you got now. You overpaid Anthony Simon who doesn't play a lick of defense.. Who is just a younger Virgin Of CJ . I see no direction at all. And a owner who doesn't know what she's doing. Don't know why she just won't sell the team. She doesn't love basketball it was given to her. I want a owner who love basketball and who wants to win a championship. And all you've done is surrounded Dame with young guys. Make it make sense. Disappointing trailblazer fans since 1977.
We dont know yet if we got better, but nothing suggests we got worse :
The GP2 trade is a W. Thybulle is a better player, with more size, will be more useful. GP2 has been vastly overrated, can only play in superteam like GSW due to his limitations, and basically scammed us.
Josh Hart gone hurts to be fair, but considering his fit as SF considering the role he had alongside Dame and Ant, we may be better at the 3 spot, between Nas, Reddish who believe it or not got huge potential (just hasnt shown it consistently), and Knox. We may get more balanced at that position and it may turn out for the better.
Only bad note, is us not getting another center, had we done it, we woulda 100% got better. Jury is out, mood is bad, but nothing suggest we got worse
I agree they went sideways/backward and it was intentional. I am okay with that because it's the best move if our goal is to swing for the fences while we have Dame, which I think is the only sensible path. Last year Cronin/Billups managed to score Sharpe, when we could have had some middling pick, the value of drafting players and lengths to which they will go to maximize that pick slot was on full display. They had a chance at an even higher pick, and though we didn't move up in the lottery, we were poised to do so and I agree that is the kind of needle threading Mike's talking about. Some good luck, which can be had by not trying to scrap for the playoffs, but by trying to get lucky in the lotto, or even just a few picks better than we would have been. It matters because it's the only real way to improve your team without it costing you more than you can afford. It's why they hired Mike Schmidtz and other scouts, whom I'd like to hear more from, btw Mike! How about booking Mike again, and the other scouts? Was a great show last time around with Mike S. I think where there is talent/value in the draft, the Blazers will go get the best players with the ammo they have. I do not think choices have always been good in the past, but I think that there has been real change in the scouting talent and the fact that they were brought in means Cronin will listen and do what he can. But none of that is going to be as worthwhile if they do get incrementally better right now, at this moment, it's better if they don't. If they do get better, well what a pleasant surprise. We can build on that. If Reddish turns out to be better than Skal, or Harry, or others we've hoped were ready to explode after a rough start on high expectations, injured and learning how to be a pro despite not being "the" guy. It's crystal clear in Portland who that guy is and expectations are about production and chemistry from you, not for you….Cam. If he brings it, everyone wins. I expect Thybulle to be a lot like Josh Hart, but I honestly don't know his game so I look forward to seeing. I think they got value from the Hart trade, and with GPII, they way I see it… the Warriors could not re-sign him because the Blazers offered more than the Warriors "could" pay. By trading him back, the Warriors still have to pay that higher rate and they had to give up a bunch of trade value to get him back. So, it cost us nothing, and we got a bunch of picks from the Warriors, depleting them in the future by a little bit and adding to our future. Yes, the Warriors are much better this year with him, but our goal is trying to win with Dame, and that is best done by getting Draft Value where we can and using our new expertise to cash in, not with a team of Jabari Walkers, but a couple more Shaedon Sharpe's who are 6'10 or better. In the Draft…where they are Affordable. That is what it will take. Not coveting some player on another team that costs more than we have. Cheers to all. Thanks to Mike.
We needed defense and scoring off the bench and frontcourt help. We kinda got defense but at the expense of bench scoring. Nothing in terms of size. That's pretty underwhelming. The picks could be moved in a future deal but it doesn't move the needle this season which is what everyone has been hoping for. That's why the disappointment.
Had we gotten Reddish, Thybulle and Wiseman it would have been a B- instead we ended up with a F+ deadline. Meanwhile the rest of the West had C+ to A+ moves 😒
I think we need to see it first.. and if they lose to a bad team, then that move was made on purpose.. I remember when we have a strong start.. and then the losing streak came.. we were all "Hey we don't have defense" or "Another 4th quarter meltdown". I think they addressed that with Thybulle cause GP2 didn't play much for us..
Reddish and Thybulle will give us length and defense and ok outside shooting. Plus opens up minutes for Sharpe. And Little. GP2 is GP too short to help our team. Hart can't hit wide open 3s.
Not quite sure what you were expecting them to do. Trade Ant and/or Shaedon…for what? They have no picks thanks to the idiot who previously GM’d. Everyone wants picks for stars. Let’s get real.
They definitely got better. Cam Reddish, Thybulle, and Knox all brings more size and provide something this team’s been missing. Scoring ability, versatility & defense. In addition to that their better bench players than our current rotation.
Why hasn’t PTB fire their GM yet!? They are terrible!!!!