Joe Cronin Can Forget About Getting Jaylen Brown From Boston, Says Insider.
By 750 THE GAME STAFF
New conversation emerges in the NBA world daily, and evolves at record pace in the days leading up to the NBA draft next week.
Maggie & Perloff (12-3 p.m. weekdays on 750 The Game) got the latest from the notebook of Yahoo! NBA Insider Jake Fischer on Thursday, and the conversation turned to Portland, positioned with the No. 3 overall pick, but also with a star in Damian Lillard who doesn’t want to wait around for another teenage prospect to develop.
“If we take everyone at their word. Portland saying, we’re not going to try to do anything other than building around Dame. And Dame saying, well, if you don’t get this type of player to raise our ceiling for the championship, then I’m going to be asking out of here, you have to start playing process of elimination and see if the Blazers actually can get somebody who can really raise Portland’s ceiling,” Fischer said. “And it’s going to be difficult.”
The options are narrow, says Fischer, for Portland to acquire a bonafide star to pair with Lillard.
“Outside of throwing a really large offer for Chicago for someone like Zach LaVine or Pascal Siakam or OG Anunoby from Portland, I don’t really see too many players who are veterans who are proven to have success in the postseason that are actually on teams that are willing to go move off of an established player like that for a top pick,” Fischer said.
One of the main names tossed around in trade hypotheticals is Boston’s Jaylen Brown. Fischer said Blazers GM Joe Cronin can forget about making that trade.
“Jaylen Brown is not available for Portland’s dreamiest ideas of pairing Dame with a two-way wing like that,” he said.
With the chances being so slim for Portland to make a splashy trade to help Dame right now, what does that mean for the rest of the offseason? Fischer says only time will tell.
“At this point, I feel like it’s a wait and see,” he said. “Those dominoes you mentioned about Miami, like everyone wants to go to Miami. If the Heat all of a sudden go out and get Bradley Beal this week and that option is gone for Dame, if Brooklyn makes some other moves that takes them off the table. And all of a sudden he’s looking around and saying, there’s really nothing else out there for me anyway, maybe he sticks around.”
Would Lillard be left holding the bag?
“At a certain point, if you’re the last guy left in column A and there’s no teams left in column B, you kind of just might be stuck with the situation that you’re in.
“I’m not saying Dame would feel stuck, but he’s not going to request a trade until he feels like it’s absolutely necessary.”
Listen to the full conversation with Yahoo! NBA Insider Jake Fischer on Maggie & Perloff at the podcast below, or catch their show live 12-3 p.m. on 750 The Game.
