Exit Interviews

So wait.... are they done? No more players? I dunno why I was under the impression that there would be multiple sessions.

 

He should never have been given the opportunity to "fix it."

They should hive hired a new GM this summer and let that executive mold the team. Not some rookie GM who might not even be here after this season.

 

2 wrongs don't make a right. Olshey should have been gone a long time ago.

If Joe can't make us a contender, he has to go. I don't care if he is a nice guy. Rich Cho was the nicest guy and he got booted after a year.

 

I don't look at it this way at all; the trade of CJ was either bad, neutral, or good back when it happened. Cronin doesn't have a crystal ball nor should we expect him to. You can't grade a trade in hindsight.

There was always a risk the pick could not convey, what actually happens with the pick in May is irrelevant in grading the trade back in February. If the pick jumped up to #5 Cronin shouldn't get all that credit, nor all the blame for the pick not conveying. There was always a risk/reward outcome possibility with this pick, Cronin should get credit for the expected value of the pick back in February.

 

He took a massive gamble with one of our only tradable assets. It still might work out, but there's a big chance it won't. If the goal is to build a contender around Dame, trading one of the best players for a hope and a prayer wasn't really the best move.

 

Don't they also have a really small chance of building a contender w/out Dame?

 

Yeah, we did not exactly crush it at the trade deadline. But I can't say we got less talented either. For me, it is all about who you have left as opposed to what you gave up. Sure we all wanted more draft picks, but generally, most players are quickly replaceable.

I loved CJ, but Hart and Simons will fill his minutes just as well, if not better next year. I liked Nance, but he was always hurt, and hell I think we can make a case for Watford being just as useful by next year. I liked Norm but he was being played out of position, and I would rather have Little and Winslow (and Hart) at SF. As for Covington, he was a free agent and was not coming back, so losing him meant nothing to me.

There are others that were involved as well but nobody that can't be replaced. CJ was by far the best player we lost in the trades, but the meJ posts on this board every day were so annoying that it was almost worth losing him just so they would all shut up.

Anyway, my point is when you have a salary cap and you have a limited number of players on a team, there seldom is a player that can't be easily replaced. Dame IMO is the one that can't be easily replaced. Even if we just add someone like Grant, I think an argument can be made that we will be better next year than we have been in a few years. Of course health will be a huge wildcard in that as usual

 

Agreed. The problem is Jody/Vulcans gave Joe the authority to do massive changes to the roster as in interim during the season. They should have decided on a permeate GM then have that GM implement a new long term direction. In the interim Joe should've just done deals to maximizing value of expiring contracts and get out of the luxury tax.

Instead Joe has stripped the starting talent off this roster so there is no way to realistically build a contender around Dame, nor is there a way to maximize the exchange of starting players for youth/draft picks of a long rebuild.

There are a few homer delusional fans or people blindsided by Neil hate that they can't see the above. A majority of rational Blazer fans see the writing on the wall and how depressing the future of this franchise is.

 

Nah, I'd argue that we have a worse chance of winning a championship soon the longer we hold onto Dame. He keeps us just good enough to not get good picks, but we don't have the flexibility or assets to put the players around him that could win a ring.

 

I think trading Roco was fine because he was a free agent. I think trading CJ and Norm was flat out stupid. Norm was a good player on a decent contract. Joe should have been fired for that deal. The CJ deal might end up being decent. I guess we will see.

 

Dude, he just had a kid. I'm sure he would have LOVED that vacation.

 

What gives you confidence we'll find someone as good or better than Dame to replace him?

Or do you believe in the theory that a bunch of good players are better than a team with two superstars and role players?

 

It's not about confidence. It's about odds.

We have worse odds of building a championship caliber team around Dame while he's still one of the top 10 best players in the world than we do potentially hitting on a draft pick and resetting our window. But we can't even begin rolling those dice until we're bad enough to consistently get lottery picks.... but who knows... maybe we'll get a top 3 pick and draft a stud and we will be fine.

Were the Sonics/Thunder better off keeping Ray Allen or blowing it up and getting Durant/Westbrook/Harden?

 

The Sonics only had Durant, for one.

I think the odds of us drafting a superstar this year with our pick to add to Dame is greater than our odds of trading Dame and drafting 2 superstars. I don't think either are over 50/50, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

In franchise history we haven't drafted many superstars, so the math would say drafting one is more likely than drafting two.

 

How often have we really been this high in the lottery?

 

This question will be a lot easier to answer when we know our pick.

However, I think the is a lot of data about the odds of finding a superstar at 6 & 11.

According to this website, the 6th pick had a 25% chance of a being a star while the 11th has a 15% chance. So the odds of drafting two stars with those picks would be 3.8%. The odds of keeping Dame and drafting a star with the 6th pick is 25%.

Let's say we could trade Dame for the #2 pick. That would still put us around a 19% chance of drafting two superstars.

http://www.82games.com/nbadraftpicks.htm

 

That would be a good argument

 

I much rather get Rubio, this year 1st, early second, and future second like what pacers got for LeVert.