With the #7 pick, the Portland Trail Blazers select....

Here’s the “#7” predicament:

Assuming “championship” is the goal…

Our BEST shot (and maybe only shot) at a championship is drafting a player at #7 and hoping they BOOM OR trading down slightly to get another player who could possibly boom + getting and using an asset to get a veteran.

Alternatively, we can trade 7, but pretty much any realistic “player target” is not going to be good enough to make us… good enough… to contend for a TITLE. Especially not Jerami Grant. Or DeAndre Ayton (this is literally a LOL to me, no clue why people want him).

 

Ayton averaged 17/10 this season and is extremely young.

 

Ayton had Chris Paul TPG setting him up.

The Suns with…

CP3
Ayton
Booker
Bridges
Crowder

didn’t even make the conference finals.
But

Dame
Ant
??
??
Ayton
is a contender?

Give me a break. Not even close to them defensively AND Ayton will regress offensively.

 

We still don't have a legit second superstar and nobody is winning a title these days with only one superstar. Denver has Jokic and they can't do it. Dallas has Luka and I highly doubt they get past GSW. The funny thing is that our best shot at actually getting a legit second superstar is the draft.

 

Better than undersized Norm and RoCo. Plus Josh Hart, maybe Ingles. Decent playoff fodder

 

You don’t have to convince me. I’m all about trading Dame in HOPES of getting a future front court star to pair with Ant

 

?

We gonna ignore their finals run 10 months ago?

 

"Jeremy Sochan is everything Spurs need in a Draft pick."
this is a slideshow-type story but worth the inconvenience.
https://airalamo.com/posts/jeremy-sochan-everything-san-antonio-spurs-need-draft-pick

Ding ding. It seems a lot of people are busy in their minds thinking of hypothetical rosters and trades that they can't or don't want to acknowledge this simple fact. Maybe because we're picking 7th. But we don't know who will be drafted before the 7th pick, so to me the draft is option #1.

 

7 and 36 for 9 and 20

 

i like it, but if we're throwing in 36, i want 25 as well. we can throw 59.

7+ 36+59 for 9+ 20+25.

How badly does SA want Sochan... is the question.

 

Then 9 for 12 and 30, 20 and 25 for grant. BPA at 12 and 30.

 

Something tells me if we trade 7 whoever is picked at 7 will become a superstar and three years from now someone will start a depressing thread titled “Redrafting the 2022 Draft” Good times.

 

Jalen Duren is the player in this draft that complements Damian Lillard the best, and Duren has the best bet to reach his potential paired with Damian Lillard.
Others have given evidence how good Lillard is in the pick and roll. Jalen Duren hasn't had the chance to play with anyone remotely as talented as Lillard, and I believe Duren's potential will be realized sooner rather than later if he's drafted by the Trail Blazers.

For the people stuck on Duren's likely position of center, when was the last time we saw Nurkic do a chase-down block like this (video below)? Same position, very different player.

https://youtube.com/shorts/hl9vyqawlJg?feature=share

 

Hard disagree. You don't spend your resources on the least important position in basketball. Also, centers take several years to develop.

If they think he's head and shoulders better than everyone else, okay. I don't. Daniels, Murray, Sochan, Eason and Dieng all seem infinitely more intriguing. They can pickup a center in the 2nd.

 

Portland has had a terrible collection of forwards since LA & Batum were a duo... very low bar to clear.

STOMP

 

Obviously ignoring the fact that the reason the fast break even occurred in the first place - is because Duren made a HORRIBLE pass that was stolen.

 

Based on PER you’re pretty much getting an even exchange between Jerami/Kuzma and RoCo/Norm, and I think CJ is better than Simons “in general”. I need to see more out of Simons. But I think Kuzma and Jerami are both ridiculously overrated, but I did say it’s a much better “balance”.

Might be marginally better assuming we keep Hart and Simons continues on his current trajectory.

 

Yeah, I am. Just like our WCF appearance was a flash in the pan i think their finals appearance was.

 

Hart and Simons are forwards? Thats literally all that I addressed.

STOMP

 

Lol sure. 2 wins in the finals followed by 64 wins is a flash in the pan.

Rationalize it however you want to fit your ridiculous narrative.