MAILBAG: How Many Veterans Will the Trail Blazers Trade at the Draft?
Plus, questions on Shaedon Sharpe's health, where Joe Cronin and Chauncey Billups stand with ownership, and coaching staff hires.
If you missed part one of this month’s mailbag yesterday, which focuses on next month’s draft, you can get it below:
Part two delves into topics outside of the draft—namely, which veterans may be traded before the end of June, the Chauncey Billups situation, how long of a runway the Joe Cronin-led front office has with ownership, and a Shaedon Sharpe medical update.
Here we go.
How many veterans do you think Portland will part with at or leading up to the draft? Feels like Brogdon has to be moved. Williams? Grant?
- Mike W.
I would agree with you that out of the veterans, Malcolm Brogdon is the one they probably “need” to trade before the start of camp. He’s going into the final year of his contract, plays a position where the Blazers need to open up minutes, has clear value to contenders and is at a point in his career where he probably wants to be in a winning situation. It just makes sense for both sides to move on. As I’ve reported going back to the deadline, the reason they didn’t trade Brogdon in February is all the offers they got were based around picks in this year’s draft, which weren’t of interest to them (and you’re starting to see now how little value those picks have on the market). A first in any future draft will probably get it done.
They probably should trade at least one other veteran, especially if they’re planning on using both of their first-round picks. The two I think they value the most highly, and would want the most in return for, are Anfernee Simons and Jerami Grant. They’re not in a rush to trade either one if they don’t get an offer they like but they shouldn’t be closed off to the possibility. Matisse Thybulle is the kind of player that’s more valuable on playoff teams than he is on rebuilding teams, so I could see there being some interest from contenders there. Robert Williams III could get some interest if teams are willing to gamble on him staying healthy.
(On Williams: Everything I’ve heard is that he is expected to be fully recovered from his knee surgery by training camp, but it would be more than understandable if any team had reservations about trading for him given his injury history.)
I’d set the over/under at two veterans being moved this summer. Brogdon is the most urgent, and it makes sense to trade at least one other guy. Maybe more. It depends on what offers they get. But running back last year’s roster with minimal changes doesn’t make sense financially or basketball-wise.
What sort of accountability/pressure does Joe Cronin have from ownership for his performance? Tear it down and rebuild is a great cover but as some point he needs to show that he has a plan beyond that.
- Jonathan M.
That’s a good assessment of it. Cronin does have to show that he has a plan beyond being bad until they get enough good draft picks to be better, which could take a decade if you’re not careful. The next 12 months I think are going to be crucial on a lot of levels.
The Blazers’ record next season is going to be similar to what it was this year, and nobody in the organization—including ownership—has any expectations otherwise. Everyone knows the deal in the short term. They need at least one more high lottery pick, and next year’s draft class is much stronger at the top than this one.
But the position they’re in today can’t be the position they’re in a year from now. There needs to be meaningful improvement from the important young players in the rebuild. You can’t control how many injuries they had this year, but another year of not knowing what they do or don’t have isn’t going to be good for anyone. They have to know who the coach is going to be long-term, whether that means deciding Chauncey Billups is their guy and giving him an extension or letting him go next summer when his contract ends and hiring someone else. Better lottery luck than they had this year wouldn’t hurt, either.
There’s a world where Scoot Henderson and Shaedon Sharpe stay healthy and take real steps forward next season, they hit on their draft picks this year, the coaching situation is settled one way or the other and they win the lottery and get Cooper Flagg. If that happens, Cronin’s in great shape as far as job security.
There’s also a world where next season is hamstrung by injuries again, the player development you want to see doesn’t materialize, and they fall back in the lottery again after another season of tanking and are staring down another several years of not knowing who the building blocks are. If that happens, you might start to hear some hot-seat chatter for the front office, although I can’t see ownership actually making that move until 2026 at the earliest, if all of the worst-case scenarios come true.
Any word on Sharpe's health and if he's going to Team Canada's Olympic camp?
- PtownJake
I don’t think any decisions have been made from Team Canada’s end about who’s getting an invite, but I have heard that Sharpe and his representatives have been lobbying pretty hard for him to be included. It would be great if he got that opportunity—even if he doesn’t make the cut to play for the Olympic team in Paris, spending a couple of weeks going up against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Dillon Brooks and Jamal Murray in training camp would be a good experience for him.
As far as Sharpe’s health, the last I’ve heard is he’s pretty much fully recovered from the core muscle surgery he had in February. He was getting close at the end of the season but didn’t quite get there before the final game. But my understanding is that if training camp started tomorrow, he’d be a full go. I know that as the national-team possibility goes, the Blazers organization is fully in favor of him doing it if the invite comes, so that’s a good sign for where they feel he is physically.
Has there been any further chatter about the status of Chauncey? Feels like he and the front office may be starting to fracture a bit.
- Mike W.
Nothing new since two weeks ago, when the noise was pretty loud and Billups’ name came up in some capacity when the Suns job came open. At this point, it feels like if they were going to make a change this offseason, they would have done it already. My read right now is the same as it was after the end of the season: the most likely way this plays out is they let Billups finish out the last year of his contract and then move on next summer. Until they extend him or pick up his fifth-year option, that’s going to be my working assumption for how the next year will go on that front.
When can we expect our empty coaching roles to be filled?
- Marcus A.
That’s a good question, and one that I’m curious about as well. I don’t think they’re close on anything right now. There are still a few head-coaching openings to be filled (namely the Lakers, Wizards and Cavs, plus potentially the Pistons if newly hired team president Trajan Langdon decides to move on from Monty Williams), so they’re waiting to see how all of that shakes out and which assistants from other staffs become available.
But, as I wrote last week in relation to the noise about Billups’ status, it will be interesting to see what the bench looks like and who they’re able to get as assistants. Being totally honest, it’s not a very attractive job right now—you’re asking someone to join the staff of a rebuilding team with a head coach that the whole league knows is going into a contract year, so you might be out the door again a year from now if they let Billups go and whoever they hire to replace him wants to bring in their own staff. Job security for assistant coaches is never a sure thing, but this is an especially precarious situation to walk into. The most in-demand names on the market (Phil Handy, recently let go by the Lakers, is one a lot of fans are clamoring for) are going to have better options.
In an ideal world, they’d like to have the staff sorted out in time for Summer League or sooner, but there’s no guarantee things progress on that timeline.
On the staffing they are going to have to guarantee multiple years for people to take the job and just eat it if they move on from Chauncey. Otherwise it's going to be a very weak staff and could impact player development.