What more do we need to see before realizing the Dame/CJ pairing will never work. There is just no ball movement when your 2 highest paid players play ISO ball. DEAD LAST in the entire NBA in assist 2 of last 3 years... bottom 10 every other year Dame/CJ has started together. Then you add in the defensive deficiencies of an 6’ 3 and under backcourt. There are better ways to use the salary cap resources then $30+ mil per year to CJ over the next 4 years. Dame will be 30 next season... if we don’t try something new now, we will waste Dame’s time in Portland... very sad.
Actually, 2 players who can ISO are better than 1 player that can ISO. Options are a good thing. You want a SG who CAN'T get his own shot? That would help us? Less is not more in this case.
If Dame and CJ, getting paid around 80 mil per year the next 4 season are not good enough to at least lead a team to respectability, maybe they are not worth that much money?? Neil will never admit he is wrong.
I'd really like to give our backcourt guys a new coach with a new outlook. And, I'm not even the biggest CJ fan. I'd certainly be willing to trade him but not if that means a loss on return.
It would not be a wise move to say that players you just signed to an extension are overpaid, so I think it's safe to say he wouldn't admit he's wrong. Even if he thought we bet against ourselves and overpaid, he'd blame it on the fact that Portland can't sign free agents.
No one is suggesting getting a player who CAN'T iso. Just trade CJ for a player who's 1st, 2nd, and 3rd thoughts are not iso
Can someone teach/force CJ to actually pass? I can't believe he once had a triple double. Imagine that. CJ with 10 assists.
that's one thing....for me, the another thing is that Portland needs a player who isn't so redundant with Dame. The two of them are too similar in style, size, ball dominance, tendencies, and weak defense. This is the 5th season that they've been back court partners, and I think Dame has better synergy with Whiteside after 35 games and Melo after 23 games than he does with CJ after 490 games. And the same was true with Nurkic after his first 20 games as a Blazer. Dame & Matthews had a much better mesh than Dame & CJ. the biggest difference is that Dame carries the team a bunch and makes teammates better, while CJ only makes himself better I've wanted CJ traded for years and a significant chunk of my Olshey disdain is Olshey's ridiculous fucking man-love for CJ. That CJ extension was just a bad idea, but I knew Olshey was going to do it no matter what, just like he was determined to give Meyers that extension in 2015 & 2016 so that almost certainly means that in order for CJ to be traded, Olshey's ass needs to be fired. Likely won't be happening soon, but you never know what will percolate out of the Vulcan office up north anyway, I'd like to see CJ traded and I think it would be a mistake to insist it was an equal talent for talent equation, if you could even set those parameters. Sometimes, sacrificing some talent for a better fit is the way to go. And I think Portland is so far gone down a wrong path that it may very well be they need to take some steps back before they can steps forward.
I got it, we trade CJ for Stotts. CJ would have rapport with his players, and Stotts has good height for a guard. barfo
The problem with CJ and Dame is somewhat that they're redundant, but to me it's more that neither is a really good defender for his position, let alone be able to defend multiple positions like a Klay Thompson can do. If CJ was 6'6" and played like Joe Johnson on offense and Klay Thompson on defense, I think that would work even if the offense was redundant. With CJ being how big he is, the Blazers lose the option of effectively switching on defense as well as having a good defender against shooting guards. What the Blazers really need is a /some guys who can dribble, shoot and defend multiple positions. We hoped Evan Turner could have been that guy but it didn't pan out. Those guys are hard to get which could be why Olshey gave him the big money and hoped it would work.
Outside of Whiteside we might have the worst frontcourt in the league. But somehow you think trading CJ is the answer. Alrighty then.
Maybe because Neil blew his wad on CJ and there is no money left to improve the frontcourt. And Whiteside is 1st in blocks, 4th in rebounds, 6th in PER, 8th in FG... if Neil used CJ’s money on SF/PF this would be a much better team. DEAD LAST in the NBA in assist due to the ISO ball duo.
Yes, after 5 years it is mythical to think there would be any frontcourt player that would fit this team better than CJ..
