Hi All,

Do you ever come up with a trade that you know will get you abuse from both sets of fans as well as admiration?

Well this is it if I’ve ever seen one.

Tell me what you think of the values but I’d argue this makes sense for both teams.

Blazers: This fixes the Blazers issues in so many ways. Worried about sacrificing your future for Dame to win now? Bring in 2 guys who can be part of your core for the next 8-10 years. Increases rim protection 10 fold without sacrificing spacing, Lauri and Kessler have chemistry, the size helps the rebounding too.

They aren’t becoming the Pistons in 03-04 over night but this significantly improves the defence. Lauri is a perfect compliment to Dame/Simmons/Sharpe, gets his points with so little usage, provides cross matching problems in transition, 3 level scorer. Kessler has even shown signs of being a spacer (remember the corner 3 after all star break?) will get his points so easily with the spacing the Blazers would have and he’s providing an offensive rebounding threat. Gets you off the Nurk contract, blends win now with the plans for the future, maintain assets for a deadline move. Keep Khris Murray!

Jazz: I have a sneaky feeling all Jazz fans might hate this. They grew super attached to their team last year, Lauri was a breakout guy, Kessler the steal of the draft. But… They’ve just drafted Taylor Hendricks at 9. He too can space from 3, is a great secondary rim protector, switchy defender (your Lauri replacement all be it a slightly different profile.)

Kessler is great, so great but, with the assets the Jazz have in the future they’ll find it easier to grab their franchise center in the years to come than a primary option in Scoot. It’s a backwards move, but it raises your ceiling significantly.

Scoot is exactly what the Jazz are missing and he’s the perfect profile for their team. So young, sets a brilliant example in the dressing room, would be surrounded by so much spacing given the additions of Hendricks, George, Sensebaugh, already having Clarkson, Ochbaji, Olynyk and Fontecchio. How many times can Utah grab a guy that can be a number 1 option on a championship team?

They’re one of the best run franchises of the last 40 years and they haven’t had one since Karl Malone. It’s painful, but it’s so Danny Ainge, you have all the capital in the world to build out the roster over the coming years, a tonne of cap space, and yes you have the Nurk contract but they should be a slow building team, and with the amount of rookie contracts they have if they try and accelerate their rebuild they can handle having an expensive back up center.

So, let me know your thoughts, is this enough for Portland?

I think it’s elevated them to a top 3-5 offence in the league and lifts their defence to around average/slightly below. It gives them a chance to contend while still having young guys too. Yes you give up a generational guard but it’s him or the best player in franchise history.

Simple ceiling raiser from the Jazz, gives them a young core to compete with Houston, OKC and they have an insane amount of picks over the next 8 years which can be used OKC style to move up the draft for the guys you like, or to round out the roster and compete with all your guys still on rookie scale contracts.

Like and Flame, anyone else got outside of the box Portland trades?