Today is the day when final trade restrictions are lifted and all players eligible to be traded before February 5th\u2019s NBA Trade Deadline become available. Several players will be ineligible all season, but basically if someone can be traded before June, they\u2019re on the market now.<\/p>\n
The list of players who came available today include Naz Reid, Sam Merrill, Davion Mitchell, and Quentin Grimes, but the big fish in the pond resides in Golden State. Not coincidentally, he is the subject of today\u2019s Blazer\u2019s Edge Mailbag question.<\/p>\n
We all know the Warriors aren\u2019t playing [Jonathan] Kuminga and he\u2019s going to be traded. Any chance we could go for it? They need draft picks right? What do you see for his chances in Portland?<\/p>\n
The good things about Kuminga are his length and his athleticism. It\u2019s not hard to envision him defending all over the court with the likes of Toumani Camara and Deni Avdija. How scary would it be if Avdija settled into the point guard position and Portland went with a lineup of Deni-Shaedon Sharpe-Camara-Kuminga-Donovan Clingan? Even if you surmise Deni as the shooting guard and maybe Scoot at point (and Shaedon gone), that\u2019s still a formidable defensive lineup.<\/p>\n
The problems with Kuminga are two:<\/p>\n
His offense has fallen off. He\u2019s shooting 43% from the field, 32% from the arc this season. His career highs were 53% and 37%, but that was 2-3 years ago. Jerami Grant blows him out of the water offensively, is also a fairly rangy defender, and has veteran savvy. Kuminga makes less than Grant now, but if the Blazers re-sign him\u2026Obviously, Kuminga just isn\u2019t playing. Some folks have cited an oil-and-water situation with Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr, but come on. That team has Steph Curry and Draymond Green on it. They\u2019re champions, the soul of the franchise. If one or both were advocating for Kuminga, there\u2019s no way he\u2019d be buried no matter what Kerr felt. (Keep in mind this team played Jordan Poole for 266 games, and Green full-on punched him in the face.) That means, probably, that Kerr, Curry, and Green are all at peace with Kuminga being passed by as they win half their games. Honestly, I kinda want to know why.<\/p>\n
Obviously I\u2019d take Kuminga at a good price. But I think expectations and compensation for him will be inflated beyond the level the Blazers want to go. I also don\u2019t see what the Blazers would offer Golden State beyond draft picks that would make sense. Grant would be over-saturation for them and a huge contract obligation. Sharpe would be too much from Portland\u2019s end. Robert Williams III, filler, and draft picks? I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
I wouldn\u2019t faint from shock if Kuminga ended up here, but I don\u2019t foresee it happening.<\/p>\n
If you want some other names who might be worth looking at as the deadline approaches, consider some of these maybe. The list isn\u2019t exhaustive, but people have been asking, so I\u2019m sharing.<\/p>\n
The Sacramento Kings are projected to blow up their core. The one guy I\u2019d consider heavily\u2014I mean, Domantas Sabonis would always be tempting aside from the lack of defense, but besides him\u2014would be Malik Monk. He\u2019s 27, is making $3 million less than Kuminga, and is signed longer. He defends well, doesn\u2019t have to start, and he shoots 42% from distance. Playing 22 minutes per game at $18 million per year, he\u2019s exactly the kind of player a rebuilding Kings squad wouldn\u2019t need but the \u201cnext step\u201d Trail Blazers could use. The one disadvantage is that he\u2019s a 6\u20193 shooting guard, which is out of vogue, but the Blazers could switch-cover with a longer defender, putting Monk on the point guard on the defensive end and switching Avdija to shooting guard. Or just let Camara defend the point and put Monk as a secondary defender on the perimeter.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve mentioned Rui Hachimura for a couple straight trade seasons now. He\u2019s the ultimate utility guy for the Lakers. It seems like he\u2019s been in the league forever but he\u2019s only 27. He\u2019s on an expiring contract around $18 million per year. I love Hachimura\u2019s court sense, plus he has shooting splits of 52% from the field, 44% from the arc. He eats 32 minutes per game in his current role. He\u2019s like a middle-innings pitcher in Major League Baseball\u2026not your ace, but he\u2019s going to give you six innings whenever you need it. If the Blazers could keep him at a reasonable price, I\u2019d be down.<\/p>\n
The Chicago Bulls are all about trading Coby White but I don\u2019t love him for the Blazers. Josh Giddey is untouchable, sadly. I don\u2019t hate Ayo Dosunmu, though. He\u2019s an active defender, fitting Portland\u2019s hustle culture. He shoots almost 45% from the arc without needing the ball. He\u2019s making $7.5 million on an expiring contract. If the Blazers could purloin him and re-sign, he could be a real value get.<\/p>\n
I think any of these players would be more likely, and a better fit, than Kuminga. But what say you? Do you have a pet project trade we don\u2019t know about yet? Share in the comments section and let us peruse it!<\/p>\n
Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we\u2019ll try to answer as many as possible. Also, if you haven\u2019t donated a ticket so kids in need can see the Blazers play this March, would you think about doing so? It\u2019s not expensive and it makes a huge difference! You can find an explanation of the event here<\/a> and the Blazers\u2019 donation website here<\/a>. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today is the day when final trade restrictions are lifted and all players eligible to be traded before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3784],"tags":[7,601,37787,38295,6,687,471,3967,1617],"class_list":{"0":"post-539065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-portland-trail-blazers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-blazers","10":"tag-blazers-analysis","11":"tag-blazers-mailbags","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-portland","14":"tag-portland-trail-blazers","15":"tag-portlandtrailblazers","16":"tag-trail-blazers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115900982495243500","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}