Wholeheartedly agree. I want to keep the 7. There are so many unknowns in this draft class. My prediction is that there will be a few second rounders that end up better than some of the first rounders. Moreso than normal years.
Looks like a playoff team to me with an outside shot at getting out of the first round. Whoopee! STOMP
San Antonio. Moving up to secure...whoever it is they want. Sharpe or Daniels before new Orleans does. Toronto gets duren at 9 to better balance their lineup.
And Nas And Nurk And Winslow Fragile team if we add OG and Grant, but I wouldn't complain unless we give up too much.
Doesn’t adding 2 good players basically put right back where we were? Good enough not to be good enough or bad enough to be good at some point
Grant has played in 101 of 154 games the past two seasons, which is 2/3rds not 1/2. Injuries of concern (for me anyway) are generally joint injuries where cartilage is cut away. After bumping around on google, I'm not aware that Grant has had any of those. Last year he suffered a torn thumb ligament on his shooting hand which was surgically repaired and he seemed to be fine afterwords. He also had a calf strain down the stretch. The year prior he had knee inflammation which was treated with rest. OG had a knee scoped in college. While he's been anything but an ironman, the past two seasons he's had a series of injuries that shouldn't cause longterm concern. A broken finger, strained calf, sprained ankle & Covid have had him appearing in 91 of 154 games the past two seasons. A healthy version of either of these two would be the best Blazer forward in 5 years. I don't think they'd be an ideal pairing though as they're both SF sized and neither could reasonably switch onto Bigs on D. One would be a welcome addition and then I'd direct my talent acquisition efforts elsewhere. STOMP
I really like OG, despite his injury issues. I think he'd be a huge addition for us, and the best SF we've had in a long time. I think that starting 5, with Hart, Winslow, Watford is more intriguing than what we've had in a while.
Toronto added him with the 23rd pick in his respective draft. Grant was the 39th pick. Portland needs to draft better. STOMP
2018 all NBA first team Damian Lillard with CJ, Nurk, Aminu, Harkless lost in the first round. A healthy Dame and good players doesn’t mean shit. CJ averaged 21.4 that season. We need a superstar or star 2way wing
Dame was playing hurt in 2018 as well...not the same team...I said a "healthy" Dame...also no CJ, Chief or Mo....Chief hasn't been a starter since he left Portland...Nurk hasn't played with a great PF..last really good defender we had was Evan Turner...and he couldn't shoot. Nurk was good next to Chief but Mo and Chief were completely left open to brick shots...put even more pressure on Dame...right now we're an unfinished product but I think Dame is going to have a career year...my speculation. Whether they go deep in the playoffs, who knows?
That is not the same as Dame, Ant, Hart, Winslow, hopefully-healthy Little, Nurk and "new forward" being coached by Chauncy Billups. A big difference in the guard rotation. A big difference in the coach. And a big difference in the forwards. Neither Harkless nor Aminu ever became the players we hoped for, or felt integral to the chemistry of the team. They felt more like bench players. Hart and Winslow are the opposites of that. Little has the consistent energy that Harkless didn't. A very different team to me.
Due to the horrible fit on both ends that Dame and CJ were on top of the limitations that Moe and Chief had... I have hope that we'll put together a better team than Dame has had around him to this point and one of those teams made it to the conference finals... barely. I'm excited to see Dame playing healthy for the first time since before he was all nba first team. I'm excited to see if we put players around him that are a better fit than we have before. So we'll see if we do that and if we do what the results will be. Do I wonder if Dame/Ant will just be Dame/CJ part 2? Yeah, I do. Do I wonder if Grant can be more than he's been when paired with a superstar like Dame but still given more opportunities than he was on the Nuggets or if he'll just be mediocre? Yeah, I do. I also wonder if this front office will be better at drafting and if they're even interested in drafting this year. I guess we'll see the answer to all of those questions and that's exciting.
