MAILBAG: Are the Trail Blazers' Veterans Standing in the Way of Development?
Plus, will Greg Oden have a role with the organization after his triumphant return to Portland last month?
We’re midway through the week, so here’s part two of the latest mailbag. The third part will run on Friday. Here’s part one, from Monday:
Sean Highkin
Today’s mailbag covers a few Trail Blazers trade deadline-related topics as the market is still slow to develop, as well as the franchise’s future plans with Greg Oden.
At what point is continuing to keep and play Grant, Ayton and maybe Simons becoming more damaging to the young guys development than anything you would get in return from a trade?
Not saying they aren’t better players and deserving of more playing time if you were trying to win games, but it seems like this balancing act of still playing vets and trying to develop the young guys is becoming counterproductive.
The young guys are good enough to hold their own on some nights, so shouldn’t the goal be to let them grow together? Scoot, Sharpe, Camara, Avdija and Clingan is actually a pretty fun group to watch.
Just let them do it already with Walker, Banton, Murray, and Williams as your bench rotation and take what you can get in trades and move on.
- Kacy H.
That varies case-by-case.
I think they probably should find a way to move on from Jerami Grant in the next month. Over the past week while he’s been out, Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara have started together and it’s been very positive. Kris Murray has started to get extended run, too, and shown some things.
Right now, everything I’ve heard is that the market for any big salary like Grant is pretty cold around the league. I can’t overstate how restrictive the new CBA is and how hard the apron rules make it to pull off trades compared to how it was before last summer. It’s fair to wonder if the Blazers waited too long to move on from Grant. I get why they didn’t before, but I’m not sure what the benefit is in putting it off any longer if you can get any kind of positive value back.
Simons is a little more complicated. Like Grant, I don’t know if holding onto him longer than the next month will help his trade value. But I don’t know how comfortable they are handing the reins over to Scoot Henderson just yet. I’d lean towards making the move now, but I’m not the one making these decisions.
I think holding onto Ayton until the summer is fine. He has no real market right now and becomes easier to move in the summer when he’s an expiring contract and teams have more flexibility to combine salaries to take on a big contract like that than they do during the season. And between Robert Williams III’s injury history and Donovan Clingan’s still-developing conditioning, having Ayton around to “eat innings,” as it were, isn’t the worst thing in the world.
This is all just my own opinion. I don’t know what offers are or are not on the table for any of these guys right now, and we probably won’t get any clarity on that until much closer to the deadline.
Could you rate 1-10 the chance of each Grant, Simons, Williams, and Ayton are traded before the deadline?
- Adam H.
As of right now:
Jerami Grant — 7 (probably the one they’re most motivated to trade, but they’ll have to decide if the market is worth it).
Anfernee Simons — 6 (they’re not actively looking to move him but they aren’t opposed to it for the right offer, and judging from Simons’ recent interview with Jason Quick at The Athletic, it doesn’t seem like he’d be opposed to it, either).
Robert Williams III — 4 (they really don’t want to move him unless someone blows them away with an offer).
Deandre Ayton - 2 (there won’t be much of a market before the deadline, more likely to do a deal in the summer).
Do you think there's a possibility that Jerami Grant, Anfernee Simons, Robert Williams, and DeAndre Ayton are all on the roster after the trade deadline? Given how Simons, Ayton, and Grant have performed this season - and given their contracts - it seems like their trade value has to be as low as it has ever been. While the Blazers might like to do so, they don't need to trade any of them this year. It doesn't seem like there is a big market for any of them right now.
Williams has obviously looked great, but also missed a lot of time again and I know you've already talked about how the calculus around him is a little different due to the value he has to the Blazers in the near term.
Basically I'm asking if there are any major changes you'd make to your previous overview of potentially tradeable players as we go into the height of the trade season.
- Jared W.
What I wrote on Dec. 15 is still where I have it, as far as the main guys we’re talking about (see above).
Two guys I’d add in as worth keeping an eye on are Jabari Walker and Duop Reath. Because of the restrictions around the new CBA with big salaries, the new market inefficiency is productive players who are making close to the minimum and are easier to acquire. Walker and Reath are both good players who just don’t have a role on the Blazers as of now, and it’s not crazy to think they could get a handful of second-rounders for them at the deadline. Walker will be a restricted free agent this summer and the Blazers will have to decide whether they want to re-sign him.
With the return of Oden last week, do you think there is a chance that Portland hires him as a consultant? I would be particularly keen on him working with Clingan over the summer.
- Jason M.
When Oden talked to reporters before the Mavericks game last month, he told us he’s planning on moving back from Indiana to Ohio soon to mentor high-school basketball players and do camps. I asked if he wants to get back into coaching full-time eventually, and he said he does, but not until his daughter gets a little older.
So the Blazers hiring him in any full-time capacity is probably off the table for now. But by all accounts, the night went well for everyone involved, he had a good time, everyone was happy to see him, he got a great reception from fans and he said when he joined Kevin Calabro and Lamar Hurd on the broadcast that he hopes to do more with the organization in the future. So I have a feeling we’ll see him again in some form.
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