Going into the game with ATL, the Blazers were in the #11 spot in the Lottery. With the loss last night they moved into a tie for #10 and with Sacramento's win over the Lakers, they climb to #9 without doing a thing. Whether they use that pick, leverage it in a trade or consolidate it with another pick/asset to move up, that pick is getting more valuable by the night. Here is the current race with teams all within 2 games of the Blazers: Philadelphia 76'ers::::: 21-34... .382 New Orleans Pelicans: 22-34... .393 Dallas Mavericks::::::: 22-33.... .400 New York Knicks ::::::: 23-33... .411 Trail Blazers::::::::::: 23-32... .418 Sacramento Kings:::::: 24-32... .429 Miami Heat::::::::::::::: 24-32... .429 Charlotte Hornets::::::: 24-31.... .436 Tough to root for key losses but at this point, I have much more anticipation to what the value of a better pick can bring than the drubbing we would get at the hands of the Warriors....or perhaps even worse, winning just enough games to be around #12-14 in the Lottery.
could he play SF? he looks like he'd be better off as a Tracy Mcgrady/Kobe type player, instead of a PG. Btw, his form is gawd awful ugly.
We only need to be high enough to draft one of Jackson, Tatum, Isaac or Giles. Which probably means top 10.
I originally didn't think we could get a top 10 pick, still don't unless we make a few changes, but man I want us to get farther into the lottery. Lillard needs to "Rest" to get right since he hasn't' been the same since his injury and its easy to see, CJ's hand needs to start bother him so he sits for tons of games as well. TANK NO TANK!
They are supposed to be very talented. A lot of guards from this draft will be very good but we do not need any of them. Fultz is so pleasant to watch, Philadelphia should commence the tank and take him. Or Sacramento should tank so that they can skip him and get a random big who was projected to go 25th.
I wonder what Lakers are going to do with their pick if they end up in top 3 of the draft and don't have to trade that. Reasonable solution would be to draft Josh Jackson if available and let him or Ingram play at SG. They don't really need to draft another point guard because they'd be just getting into each other's way with Russell. Teams like New Orleans, Philadelphia must be extremely excited about the prospect of drafting a good playmaker. On the other hand it must be a huge anti-climax for Boston to know that the best players available play in the exact same position as their best player. Then again, build for the future, and you could even play Thomas and someone like Fultz together at times (terrible undersized but impossible to handle). They could also go for Isaac/Jackson.
If you think about it the Blazers were built to score in the lottery last season and had a weird alignment of the planets... essentially this is the same team just a year behind schedule in the rebuild process.
The problem is our flexibility in our cap. We have a few large contracts that prevent us from taking on salary in lopsided trades. Giving ET an 18 mil/yr contract is killer. AC I get that you HAD to keep. But even with ET being the better player, we essentially bid against ourselves to get this dude, who is not a game changer.
How many lopsided trades really happen in the history of the NBA where absorbing extra salary was a key part of the equation?
I'd imagine Boston will be trying to use that pick as trade asset. Maybe to try and pick up someone like Jimmy Butler, who you'd figure would be expensive but available. The Bulls, if they move on from Butler, would need a star prospect to build/hope around. Butler would fit really well in Boston--young-prime, doesn't hurt their defense while improving their offense, fits well into a backcourt with Thomas.
That would be a tremendous deal for both teams. Send pick and maybe even sweeten this with Jae Crowder. They could also consider trading that pick for Boogie but he could screw their chemistry.