There are three games left but I am already looking at next season. We have the draft and free agency. We are still waiting to see if the Pelicans pick conveys(not looking good) and what pick the Blazers end up with for their own. The Blazers have several paths they can take. It appears they will be going after Grant like it or not. Is that conditioned on getting the Pels pick this year? Will the Blazers trade their own pick if the other doesn't convey to get Grant. It's been rumored Lillard wants to play with him and the Blazers want to keep him happy. Question is are they going to focus more on building a team that can compete or appeasing Dame? If the Blazers by the grace of the basketball Gods somehow jump into the top three in the lottery, they could use it to take Banchero, Smith Jr, Holmgren, or perhaps a dark horse like Ivey. Or they could trade it. There aren't really any big stars in this year's FA that are going to leave their current teams. Beal maybe? Harden? LaVine will re-sign with Chicago. I don't see the Blazers getting a star in FA. There are a handful of solid players that could make us better. TJ Warren, Jalen Smith, Kyle Anderson, Gary Harris. We could take a chance with Ingles. Keep McLemore around. Develop Keon. I hope the Blazers next year consists of some variation of the following players: Damian Lillard Jusuf Nurkic Anfernee Simons Nassir Little Josh Hart Justice Winslow Jerami Grant TJ Warren Kyle Anderson Gary Harris Rookie (Banchero, Smith Jr, Holmgren?) Drew Eubanks JaVale McGee Trendon Watford Joe Ingles Ben McLemore Keon Johnson? Of course we will have Brandon Williams under a 2 way and another two way spot open.
Hate to give up on Brown so soon but not bad. We do need a 3rd center though. I guess it could be a two-way contract.
I think you need an actual backup big on that roster. Not a 4 who you can play at the 5 in spots but a guy who can fill in the Nurk role if necessary.
I think most of us stared looking forward to next season about 30 games ago... what took you so long?
As much as I love Dame, I'm not here for this thing about bringing in good players he likes and paying them like great players. If Dame really wants to win here, he needs to let the personnel people do their job. I'm not saying he shouldn't be consulted or advised or offering his two cents, but overpaying for Jerami Grant because Dame had a good time with him in Tokyo is a mistake. We're trying to build a championship-level team, not an entourage. Dame, go make more friends with great players who can help you win.
if the Blazers go with Nurkic and Eubanks, a 3rd C needs to be a guy who can slide between C and PF. Guys like Harry Giles or Skal Labissere. Yeah, those are probably bad examples because they were injury magnets. Then I meant guys like Dwight Powell (who would be a great add) or Jaxson Hayes. Too bad that Cronin couldn't have pried Hayes loose in the CJ trade...although Hayes' legal issues are a pretty big red flag
as somebody who spends all year, every year, in Oregon, what I've been looking forward too is summer. I wish it would get here at my age, I have about a 70 day limit on what I look forward too. Tomorrow is promised to nobody
Eubanks isn't a real 5, though. He's a PF with the game of a 5. You don't want him battling on the block with Embiid or AD or Gobert for any substantial amount of time. He's your smaller lineup 5. This roster needs an actual backup 5. It needs a Plumlee kind of player.
That's my hope. But I see a lot of people throwing up their hands and saying we're going to have Grant on the team next year by Dame's decree, and, quite honestly, I can't say the FO or even the coach won't buckle to him if those are the wheels in motion.
Eubanks won't be matched up against Embiid, AD, or Rudy. He'll be going up against their backups. We can prolly snag Drew for the minimum, and he'll out-produce that contract given his production and role. I like him as a backup.
We have already seen the Chauncey's system can work. When we try to win, we do well even with a depleted roster, imagine when everyone is healthy next year and we have some better players to fill the roster. That and the Lakers not making the playoffs keep me going.
I will be rooting for SAS in the Play-in, but it looks like the Blazers might have to wait for the Bucks 2025 pick instead of the Pels pick this year.
On this roster? He absolutely gets matched up with those guys and Joker, etc. and players like that for some time. What if Nurk gets hurt or into foul trouble or gets in one of his funks? Eubanks is your only option. That loses games. If Nurk misses a couple of months, your season is over. That doesn't even get into who those backups are he's going against. DeAndre Jordan backs up Embiid. Hassan Whiteside backs up Gobert. Dwight backs up AD. Etc. I get it. People like Eubanks. He dunks. He hustles. He plays hard. If you fall in love with him because of that and think he's going to be a rotation player doing the same stuff he sometimes does now against other tanking teams versus real teams that are really trying to win, you're going to hate Eubanks sooner rather than later.
Please, it's too early in the morning to be trying to be cute or pedantic on here or trying to start an argument where one need not exist. We haven't heard Dame say that. We have a lot of people say Dame likes Grant. He have stories out there of deals that were in the works and interest we have in Grant and people saying Dame liking Grant at least moves the needle toward trying to acquire Grant. I'm speaking hypothetically and replying directly to the OP's hypothetical, so, please, let's not go off on an out-of-context tangent based on unrelated details and make my post something other than it clearly was.
That's the kind of player that would make sense. McGee. Harteinstein. Someone in that mold. Eubanks and Watford can't be your (only) backups to Nurk, though, if you are planning to get good placement for the playoffs and winning there.
It's got nothing to do with liking the guy. It's that he's a capable backup who plays ~15 mpg for the minimum. Given the other massive holes on our roster, I'd rather not spend anything more than the minimum on a backup C after giving Nurk his extension.
I was not wanting to rile up anyone, I sincerely havent seen anything but per conjecture or he said she said. At going on 72 I miss a lot especially when ive been playing nurse and fulltime house keeper since wifes knee replacements. Im going fishing Friday to clear my head. Hours on here just doesn’t do it.!
