First of all, I’m in the Damian Lillard ride or die bandwagon, this is not a post about trading Dame. I get why most of you argue in favor of trading our superstar, but there’s is absolutely no scenario in wich we would get a fair return for him. Adding to that, I’m specially skeptical about building a team through the draft with a bunch of late first round picks because, along with salary fillers and some young unproven players, that is what we would get in such a trade. So, for this exercise we’re keeping Dame and trying to build a contending team around him. Unfortunately we don’t have enough to trade for a superstar, nor are there any available ones that make sense in a trade without completely gutting our roster. So it is time we make smart bets, and try to buy players at their low, hoping our team culture and Damian’s leadership, bring them back to their full potential...

想到一个球员,因为没有一个(拉塞尔韦斯tbrook aside) has more undervalued in the league lately, and that guy is Brooklyn’s Ben Simmons. Simmons has issues, I give you that, but the man is also an amazing player and defender, and would be a perfect fit alongside Dame, as a slasher and secondary playmaker. His contract is huge, but he is also very young, and has plenty of room develop. Heck, we might even be able to teach him how to shoot the ball! So I though about a trade scenario in wich everyone gave a little to get a little in return, hopefully improving everyone involved by simply rebalancing rosters and filling needs...

So I came up with this:

https://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=2acgjcs9

(Nurk is the main piece going to the Suns, since he would be the replacement for Ayton, all the other players can be replaced and more can be added)

The Blazers: Bet on bringing Ben Simmons back to his old self, and get a young promising center on Claxton, a defensive minded player, who would merge nicely in this new look team, a front court of Simmons, Grant and Claxton is as good as any defensively in this league, and I think they would match really well with a backcourt fielding Dame and Sharpe (or Thybulle if you want to surround Dame with really good defensive players - With Scoot as ou 6th man, I think we have a really competitive team here)

The Suns: The reasoning here is that they trade Ayton for serviceable players to complete their roster. Nurk comes at half the price with similar production, and all the other players come to fill out the already capped roster.

The Nets: The Nets come out with two talented starters, similar in age and filling gaps in the roster, a core of Mikal, Ant, Cam Thomas and Ayton, gives them a bright future. And most of all they get rid of Ben Simmons (and that is why they also give up Claxton...)

A fourth team like the Cavs could be added, sending them Nassir Little and then sending other players to the Suns...

What about you guys? Who do you think we should bet on? What other players in the league can we get on the low and really improve our chances?

Go Blazers!