Tabloids, Stalemates and MRIs
The Vulcans get the New York Post treatment. Shaedon Sharpe plays 6 minutes in debut. Is Kevin Durant actually going to bring back a Rudy Gobert-type return? Let's talk about it!
Editor’s note: I hit publish and then literally immediately after that I saw the news that Damian Lillard agreed a two-year contract extension with a player option for the 2026-27 season, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo! Sports.
Thursday, July 7, 2022, can perhaps be the first real date where we can mark the end of the Neil Olshey era. Jerami Grant, Gary Payton II, Anfernee Simons, Jusuf Nurkic, and Drew Eubanks were introduced as new signings, introducing the fruits of the labors of six months worth of tanks and sell-offs. And then Shaedon Sharpe played exactly six minutes in his first Las Vegas Summer League game before leaving with a shoulder injury, the severity of which has yet to be made public. So many things change, and so many things stay the same. But let us start with what’s different.
While the star hunting dominated minds and timelines, the Blazers are collecting player profiles like a scrapbook. Gary Payton II struggled to stick in the NBA but truly found himself in the Warriors’ system as a screening guard. And while the saltiest among us will characterize Payton as simply another guard who continues the Blazers’ problems of being undersized, Payton plays more like a center than he does a guard, while also possessing the ability to make defenses pay for leaving him WIDE open, shooting 35.8% from the 3-point line in the regular season on 1.7 attempts per game and a blistering 53% from 3 in the playoffs on 1.3 attempts per game. That’s even before we explore his “advantage play,” as we say in fútbol. To add to my point about Payton functioning as a big man often: 60% of Payton’s field goal attempts were either at the rim or from 3-10 feet, i.e. the paint.
Payton’s ability to make decisions in the 3-on-2, while being a willing screener and cutter when a team traps Lillard, is a skill this team has lacked for the entirety of Lillard’s career. And to me, the added athleticism, skill, and decision-making made the choice of Gary Payton II over Bruce Brown worth it, even if Brown was on my personal wishlist, mostly because I had never considered Payton. In addition to Payton, who gives the Blazers a perimeter defender who can hound anyone from Ja Morant to Jaylen Brown, they got Jerami Grant for a future pick.
Grant is going to be a tremendous asset against players like Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James in the Western Conference who skew bigger than their positions. It is in the middle, between the Grants and the Payton IIs that the Blazers find their holes. But while it seems like a dream, the Blazers aren’t exactly out of their minds for seeing what they can get for wing defense out of the combination of Josh Hart, Nassir Little, Justise Winslow (Redemption Story?????), and Trendon Watford (ok, feel free to cut me off now).
Nevertheless, the Blazers are trying some different shit. And while not all of the gambles Cronin made paid off all the way, I’m a gambler and I’m not going to sit here and pretend I have an immaculate record. He rolled the dice and also left himself some runway to work things out on the back end. Cronin made moves and also left room for those moves not to work out perfectly while still maintaining the ability to be competitive and take some swings in the draft. Hopefully, Sharpe’s shoulder injury isn’t serious and we see more of the biggest swing he took as the Summer League rolls along.
Cronin had a brutally difficult job. He got more veteran, defensive-minded talent around Lillard while replenishing the Blazers’ development system. By choosing Drew Eubanks, over someone like Robin Lopez, he opted not just to duplicate skillsets to fit a specific system, but to have a roster that is able to adapt.
Ok, it wasn’t actually on Page Six but two days after the Blazers released a statement saying they were not for sale and one day after US Senator Ron Wyden threw his weight behind Phil Knight’s bid for the Blazers, a piece came out in the New York Post about why Jody Allen should sell the Blazers. It laid out the reasons why Allen should sell and why Bert Kolde, Paul Allen’s college roommate, and a longtime friend allegedly is the reason why the franchise won’t be sold. Kolde’s official title is Chairman of the Trail Blazers. The Post article also included some ridiculous anecdotes that have been refuted, such as Damian Lillard writing an actual e-mail to Jody Allen. Damian Lillard! Writing an e-mail to get attention??? Come on now!
But back to Kolde, it appears he is a sticking point. Because even if someone brings $3 Billion to the table, who is to say Kolde will want to let go of the fiefdom he’s held for long. Maybe they can give him a Shelly Sterling-type position with season tickets and a fake important title maybe??? Help me help you!
A note on Kevin Durant, Rudy Gobert and trade value
The Phil Knight vs. The Vulcans battle isn’t the only stalemate going on in the NBA. The end of Portland’s transaction window effectively happened this week when Shams Charania reported that the Blazers were unlikely to fully guarantee Eric Bledsoe’s contract at $19 million. And the fact that there is no resolution on the Kevin Durant/DeAndre Ayton saga on the horizon approaching the July 10 guarantee date, the options of what they could do with that salary remain in a holding pattern.
This brings me to the current predicament the Brooklyn Nets are facing, which has in turn stopped major movement across the league. Now, the prospect of Kevin Durant wanting to leave a situation that catered to his every whim is objectively hilarious. But the reason why it’s so funny is also the exact reason that every team is rightfully scared shitless to match Brooklyn’s asking price, which is reportedly an All-Star caliber player, young players who could improve, and a stash of picks similar to what the Utah Jazz received for Rudy Gobert. To me, the logic that makes a Durant package as valuable as a Gobert package rings hollow for several reasons.
First of all, say you are one of the other 29 teams looking at trading for Durant. You just saw that even doing everything he wants could STILL lead him to ask for a trade. What makes your team’s situation different from Brooklyn's, the title favorites for much of the last two seasons, a situation with hand-picked coaches, staffers, and players. And if Durant is asking for a trade with 4 years left on his deal, what’s to stop him from doing this exact same thing next summer with even less time on the deal.
This all might be moot this weekend if a trade goes down, but the more this goes on, the more I believe Durant will stay. It doesn’t make sense for teams to give up a Gobert-type package of picks for him. With Durant at age 34 and already willing to leave in the first year of a 4-year deal, teams are rightfully looking at Brooklyn’s asking price and thinking “yeah right.” Even as someone who thirsted for Durant on the Blazers, I get why other teams are refusing to meet their asking price.
While it looked like it could be a summer of wild player movement, the Durant-induced stalemate doesn’t look like it will be ending anytime soon.
LVSL Review
While the Sharpe injury was a major bummer, the Blazers had some fun moments in the first Summer League game. Mostly, Keon Johnson and Jabari Walker were the standouts, with Greg Brown having a couple of great dunks. Also, the game started at 9 p.m, so I’m looking forward to seeing the Summer Blazers play at a time where my brain is actually working before I break down their performances at greater length.