https://twitter.com/massey_evan/status/1670206494732697601?s=20
I think the ideal trade for the blazers would be a three team trade.
Ant Simons + Portland's #3 -> Washington
Beal + Portland's #23 -> Boston
Brown -> Portland
Washington gets to rebuild quickly with a great player in Simons and with either Miller or Scoot.
Beal balances Boston's roster.
Brown is the defensive wing that Portland is looking for.
That is an interesting proposition. I don't have the knowledge to judge how each party might view this but it's interesting.
A lineup of Dame, Sharp, Brown, Grant, and Nurk is definitely an interesting 5. Not sure if Portland can really put together much of a bench though. Not sure anyone outside Eubanks and Little are really "championship caliber bench" players and I'm not really sure those 2 are good enough to be the first ones off the bench on a championship level team, especially one that doesn't have a top 5 player.
lineup of Dame, Sharp, Brown, Grant, and Nurk is definitely an interesting 5
I think it an ideal lineup for Dame. Position 2 to 5 are all plus defenders, and each player is also not bad offensively.
With the rise of Shaedon Sharpe, I would rather have him at the 2. Lillard would then be flanked from Position 2 to 5 with defenders, who also isnt bad at offense. I love Simons, but understand that he is being under utilized when Dame is on the floor with him. If Portland actually wants to get better defensively, they cant have 2 minus defenders on the floor at the same time. That's why Blazers defense was just awful last year, they kept exploiting Ant and Dame. Brown is what you hope a Brandon Miller can become, an All NBA talent. The benefit for Portland is Brown matches Lillard's timeline.
If you are Brad Stevens, Beal and a first round pick is a good exit strategy for a player that just cant go Left. Boston will be stuck paying Brown and locking their team up for the foreseeable future. with the 23rd pick, Boston can draft someone that would be ready to contribute now like Kris Murray that can do 80% of what you need Brown to do on a rookie scale contract. Beal would be perfect next to Tatum.
For the wizards, This is everything you are waiting for, you just get to reload. You get a very dynamic guard that is a younger and taller clone of Dame Lillard, on a really cheap contract; and you also get to build around with either Scoot or Brandon Miller. Which is also co-incidentally a great pairing with Simons. You can still trade away other assets like Kuzma and Porzingis for other draft capital and your rebuild will go very fast.
He'd make them better, but I think with Brown Portland's ceiling is second round exit. Is that really what they're shooting for?
If that's the case, they may be better served keeping #3 and trading Lillard. Might have a better actual shot at a championship.
What Dame really needs is defense. There would be no weakness defensively for the blazers except for Lillard. The scoring would be balanced as Sharpe, Brown, Grant, and Nurk can all score. Brown doesnt have to be a primary scorer either. Dame and Sharpe can definitely take on most of the scoring load. The Blazers would definitely need to make other moves after this one, but this is the first step.
Of course this is just the framework of the deal, they will have to add players to make salary match, etc. I just think its a win-win-win for everyone.
"Hey Blazers how about the 3rd pick for... Porzingis?". "No". That counts as discussion right?