Twitter rumor - Blazers to deal F Gerald Wallace for picks

wade was a top 5 player at the time

lma is not

at that time, miami was set to either lose wade, or add stars to him

do you not remember that?

 

Sorry Brian, by saying that, I don't mean to also imply then that the plan is worthless and not a good idea, or something to be intrigued by. I mean, I like our team this year. Not in a we are going to win the title way, but, I want to see Felton, Nola, Elliot, Wes, batum, Gerald, Aldridge, and maybe Jamal 0play together. I think it can be a fun season. But I have actually already started getting excited about next offseason,much, I imagine, in the same way you are. And have already started looking at who some RFA are, or might be, and what odds we have of landing different players, etc. I doubt Diwhgt and Deron or CP3 are a likely pair for us, but still see it being a fun time, and very interesting, with our desire it seems over the years to take shots at bigger names.

 

What's fun about watching a 30-40 win team try to grind out an 8 seed every year?

 

what's fun about trolling the internet?

 

lol, did I take a personal shot at you? who's trolling here?

I just find it odd (or maybe amusing) that such a passionate and knowledgeable fan base can be so content with mediocrity. It's ok to strive for more than that as a fan.

 

Can you not want and strive for more, while getting enjoyment watching the players you currently have, especially when it isn't the bare cupoboard of the Russians/Ha days? Yeah, I want better players, and a title contender. Should I just not watch this season, or curse the tv every time I turn it on to watch them play? I'm not content with mediocrity. Just said it could be a fun season.

As for the personal shot, I was around oregon live enough to call a spade a spade. You find the above amusing, I find someone spending hours on a computer trying to rile up unknown others odd(or maybe amusing).

 

Agreed rr7

 

I'm not saying you should not watch and enjoy this team, I'm saying that you should realize that there is no way this team will be able to get to the top of the mountain without tearing it down and rebuilding. You know that yet you would prefer to have the team remain mediocre. Seems odd to me but to each his own I guess.

As far as me trolling the internet... I enjoy talking hoops. Oregon Live used to be a great place to talk hoops... it was just an added bonus riling up you guys.

 

Gotcha. You think trading away Aldridge is a good idea. Seems odd to me but to each his own I guess. You know what it takes to win.

 

I would trade Aldridge, yes. Or better yet his heart condition could cause him to sit out this shortened season and we could trade away Wallace and Felton and start this thing over in the draft next year.

The worst place a franchise can be is stuck in the middle without a true superstar to add pieces around. Roy is gone, Oden is done. Time to start over.

 

The realities are that parlaying non-lottery picks into stars or turning cap space into stars is extremely unlikely. It's not some abstract "probability model," it observational reality.

I don't know, that seems like a pretty arbitrary set of conditions to work with. Why do you believe that those exact parameters are the crucial ones?

No, it was having a Hall of Famer caliber superstar in Wade, a friendship between the three stars in question and, yes, the market. I don't think if Wade were in Charlotte, the Bobcats would have all three players, even if they had the cap space. More likely, Wade would have chosen to join at least one of the other two in another market.

Yes, the cap space made it possible...the cap space did not make it likely. As I said, unlikely things do happen, but they come about due to a group of unique factors. I don't feel you can take improbable, outlier situations and (in general) build a predictive blueprint from them. It's possible that the set of conditions you isolated will turn out to be the crucial set that lead to another "outlier" but I wouldn't plan around that happening.

 

I think there's just a knee-jerk reaction a lot people have about the team risking being worse as they attempt to strive for more.

For instance imagine two hypothetical scenarios. In scenario A) you've got a 10% chance at a title and a 60% chance of sucking for 5+ years and being stuck in the lottery. In scenario B) you've only got a 2% chance at a title, but only a 10% chance of being truly awful for any extended period of time. I have a feeling a lot of people would prefer the second hypothetical; the route where they can say, "I know we got bounced in the first round again, but at least we gave 'em a helluva fight." In scenario B, every year you get to say your team is "respectable" and there's a probably a lot less heartburn.

And just so I don't hear a raft of shit about this, I'm not saying those percentages are real or predictions about the viability of the approaches being debated. I'm just talking risk tolerance and philosophy.

 

Ya, one is clean and one is very dirty. One is safe and one isn't. One is cloudy and rainy most of the year and one is sunny and rainy most of the year. One has palm trees and one has pine trees. And finally one you can get shot during a botched coke deal at anytime of day and one you can get high from all the pot smoke any time of day.

 

I would rather be where we're at then where the Cavs are at. The Cavs struck gold with one of the best #1 picks ever but couldn't put good teammates around him and now have nothing to show for it. Better to build a solid core of talent then put all your money in a few lotto picks. You have to suck for years, possibly a decade before you get one of those top picks and have that be the year there are game changers. Even if you win the lotto (as we did with Oden) it doesn't guarantee a hall of famer.

We need to keep collecting assets, get undervalued players, make smart trades, utilize cap space wisely. I think its more likely to build a contening team through incremental improvements then purposefully sucking for decades. Have the Lakers had to rebuild by being in the bottom of the lottery?

 

The Lakers don't have to "build" because the players come to them.

 

People are typically more scared of losing or the negative scenario than they are excited for the positive outcome.

I probably fall into that myself with this team.

a) a team that consistently makes the playoffs, with a tiny chance of advancing each year.
b) a team that absolutely sucks (like the 21-win seasons) in the hopes that we hit the jackpot at some point in the future.

I'll take (a), but I can see why some would choose (b).

 

You can't really compare us to the Lakers can you? They obviously have an advantage in that FA's LOVE to go to sunny SoCal and play. We are a small market team in a cold/wet climate. I would trade our 20 year playoff streak for a 2-3 year legit run at a ring and then have to rebuild from nothing.

It's the only way to get it done in Portland.

 

"US"? You aren't a Blazer fan.

 

Clearing cap space in the quest for big name free agents: big risk. Clearing cap space to have more leverage to make trades: worth considering. You don't need to trade Wallace to achieve the latter.

 

that's mostly true... I root for the Blazers because I am from Portland and love hoops..but I don't just blindly accept and follow my marching orders like you goofs do.