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NLL Insider - Team by Team: Portland Trailblazers

by spudspace, updated on Tuesday, September 26 2017, 09:17 pm EST

2016-17 Finish: 19-63


Season Highlight:

The Blazers acquired Jaylen Brown in exchange for Kris Dunn back last year after the draft, this turned out to be one of the smartest moves they made, as Dunn hasn’t shown any signs he can play yet, and Brown may well be one of the best players in the draft from last year.  They also acquired young players in Austin Rivers and Justin Anderson through shrewd trades.  The acquisition of Rudy Gay has yet to be realized as he may not resign with the team.  The front office has been stockpiling late 1st and 2nd rounders to try to get some young talent on the roster.  They still don’t have their 2018 1st round pick, and that will bite them once more, but GM Toby is doing his best to keep the team on the rise.


Season Lowlight:

The big signee from last season Ian Mahinmi was out for most of the year with injuries and never realized his potential on the team.  Finishing with only 19 wins is nobody’s idea of a good season, and there’s not a lot of hope that the team will be much better this year. 


Best Trade:

Tyler Johnson for Delon Wright and a 1st rounder – At the time this didn’t seem that great, but Wright now has the backup spot in Toronto and looks to be an up and coming player in the future.  Getting a 1st rounder also seems like a win.


Worst Trade:

Brice Johnson and Jake Layman in return for Robin Lopez seems like a giveaway.  While these guys are young, neither one seems to have found a spot anywhere, whereas Robin had a great season last year.


Other Notable Trades:

·         The Golden State Warriors send Kosta Koufos and Larry Nance Jr. to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Jose Barea and Frank Kaminsky to the Golden State Warriors

-This trade looked good initially, but I’m still thinking Frank the Tank has a higher upside than any of these other guys.

 

·         The Cleveland Cavaliers send Amir Johnson to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Luis Scola and Kosta Koufos to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Cleveland Cavaliers send a 2nd-Rounder (Cle) and 2nd-Rounder (LAL) to the Portland Trail Blazers.

-Getting rid of Scola while he was on a role was the best thing they could do here, getting some 2nd rounders in return was solid.

 

·         The Miami Heat send Rudy Gay to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Lance Thomas and Maurice Ndour to the Miami Heat.

-This is a big risk, Rudy may not resign, but they didn’t give up much at all to get him.

 

·         The Brooklyn Nets send Kyle O'Quinn to the Boston Celtics. The Brooklyn Nets send Justin Anderson and Guerschon Yabusele to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Boston Celtics send Shabazz Napier and A.J. Hammons to the Brooklyn Nets. The Portland Trail Blazers send Larry Nance Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets.

The Boston Celtics send a 2nd-Rounder (LAL) and 2nd-Rounder (Bos) to the Brooklyn Nets. The Portland Trail Blazers send a 2nd-Rounder (Por) to the Brooklyn Nets.

The Brooklyn Nets receive 10 GM points. The Boston Celtics trade -10 GM points

-This was a weird trade, the Blazers ended up sending Nance back out in order to get Yabusele.  They were high on him from the start, and getting Justin Anderson also is a solid return.

 

·         The New Orleans Pelicans send Furkan Korkmaz and Thomas Bryant to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Wayne Ellington and TJ Leaf to the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Portland Trail Blazers send a 2nd-Rounder (Utah) to the New Orleans Pelicans

-The Blazers love their overseas guys, sending out TJ Leaf and aging Wayne Ellington for two rookies might be the best trade they’ve done!

 

Free Agency:

Hard to tell what’s going to happen at this point, but if they can retain Rudy Gay that’s a huge win for the team.  Last year, getting Ian Mahinmi was viewed as a good pickup, however he has not lived up to expectations.  It’s hard for Portland to get any meaningful pieces with their record right now, so hopefully they can find some diamonds in the rough this year!


Star:


Jaylen Brown – He averaged 21 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists as a rookie, and was one of the best rookies in the league this year.  He had a chance at winning rookie of the year, but his team just wasn’t a contender.  He got Western Conference Rookie of the Week a staggering 8 times!  He has a real chance to be a star in the league, the front office just needs to build around him.


Goat:

The previous GM.  He left this team in shambles that Toby has been trying to put back together.  Trading two consecutive 1st round picks when you are likely the worst team is just unforgivable.  I remember when this team had Joe Johnson in his prime and Dwight Howard in his prime, on the same team!  That was like 3 years ago.  Both were traded away in hopes of going young, but nothing substantial of value ever came of that.  A note to future GMs, just because you want to go young doesn’t mean giving up all your good players for trash.


Draft Grades (from the draft insiders):


Round 1:  TJ Leaf (Pick 23), Jawun Evans (Pick 28)


Round 2: Wesley Iwundu (Pick 34), Sindarius Thornwell (Pick 39)


Grade:  C+

Leaf slid, but for a good reason. He can’t defend anyone. He can shoot the lights out and he’ll work hard for you on the boards, but who will he defend? Hopefully Mahinmi can hide his deficiencies.

Evans feels like a reach here cause of the mock 2 days earlier, but he was ranked 33 on the top 100 which makes it a little better. His size is the issue, but he improved through college, controls the floor and has elite handles.

Iwundu was a reach in the mocks and he became a reach here too. He has a chance to make it in the league because he can defend, so he should stick. He needs to work on his body and consistency.

Thornwell feels like a steal because his age caused him to slide in the mocks. He’s 22 already, but his game translates because he plays hard on both ends and can shoot.


The Future:

This year is going to be another hard year for the Blazers.  They are stocked with young players, but it’s hard to tell if any of them are starter level other than Jaylen Brown.  The Blazers need at least 2 more of these guys to develop into consistent players to make this team function.  For now, they are turning the ball over to Terry Rozier and Jaylen Brown and letting em go.  Rudy Gay is a big question mark.  If he returns, they get a top-flight scorer for pennies on the dollar.  That’s a big if though.  Austin Rivers is a nice bench player, but that’s all he’s ever going to be.  The foreigners that the front office loves were traded for, and it remains to be seen their impact on the court.  The Blazers will be trying to win as many games as possible, spoiling the mood of whoever hold their pick this year.


Upcoming Free Agents:


Rudy Gay – As stated earlier, he’s a key to their offseason success, proven scorer who can be an MVP-level player at times


Cap Space – Yeah, I know, but they are gonna have a ton of room, the Blazers might be able to snatch someone up who nobody else can afford…do I hear Paul Milsap?

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