I feel that if a player is made available that improves the team significantly, where it is needed, Joe would include any player on the team except Dame to make the deal work. If he was able to acquire a player like Pascal or KD or Brown, yes Ant and/or Shaedon would be offered. The idea is too surround Dame with the players needed for him to contend.
Speaking of Scotty Brooks have you noticed he's getting up and standing on the sideline with Chauncey, bending coaches ear. And he will stand there a while.
Why is it so essential to build around Dame instead of building for the future? We are not exactly seeing MVP level Dame this year. He makes plenty of bad decisions on the court. Is he a top 10 player? I really like Dame and think the world of him but at some point the team has to throw on the towel and look to have a solid young team when he retires. I am trying to look at it from a purely basketball perspective. Not saying he is trash etc.
Certainly hasn't helped our endgame or offensive in my view....I still can't believe we burned 3 timeouts with a couple minutes left in that game and got a 5 second inbounds turnover that probably sunk the game....we went 9 minutes without a bucket with our best shooters on the floor...we should have been rested...I was really disappointed in how the coach handled the end of that game and yeah....we were shorthanded. We let Ant brick away like Russell Westbrook when we should have had Dame at the free throw line at the end of that game. Brooks isn't an offensive genius
Yeah there's a reason Brooks isn't a head coach anymore. Was thinking this last night as our offense $hit the bed.
Not every team can or do execute defensively like the Warriors did at the end of the game last night. But if the Blazers run into such a team, they're in trouble. I was hoping with a new defensive-minded (supposedly) coach the Blazers would turn the tables and become one of those teams that can derail an opponents offense at the end of a game, and also finally execute on offense to beat an overly-aggressive defense.
They need Simons out and Siakam in. (Yes I know Simons can't be traded for two weeks.) Needs Toronto to continue playing poorly until February so they decide to blow it up. I have said that Toronto wouldn't do this without Sharpe but let's give it a try anyway! Simons and Keon Johnson go to them plus two first round picks. Also GPII contract (as filler, I consider him now to be a negative asset) and whichever they want of Winslow or Little. to help the financials work and also so we can get somebody else back to try to fill out our roster, they give us Banton, Hernangomez or Koloko. Toronto might want to include a third team where they send Simons for draft picks, Our starting lineup: Lillard, Hart, Grant , Siakam, Nurk. This trade would really be for next year so hopefully over the summer we could put together a decent bench. Try to find a shooter and a solid point guard..
Along with Orlando, Sacramento has an excess of playable bigs. Not stars, but guys who could get minutes in a pinch. Sabonis, Holmes, Metu, Len and Queta. Like I said, not stars but serviceable. I don't think it would take very little to acquire a couple of them.
Siakim is due 37M next year. Grant will want 30M easily. Is the Jody really gonna write those checks? To pay Siakim and Grant you have to unload Nurk and probably Payton too. Should trade those two anyways.
That is a huge issue. Yes, the Blazers are missing some important reserves reserves, but it's not like other teams don't have injuries as well. Most nights, we are rolling out Dame/Ant/Grant/Nurk and Hart.....and being out-efforted, out-hustled and out-executed. It's quite obvious who is playing their asses off regardless of results. That starts with Hart and Eubanks.
With the talent upgrade and parity across the league it's coming to the point where paying the luxury tax is how you become a contender...see the Warriors. Owners know they have to have top shelf talent and that means luxury tax to get a real shot at the chip. It's just been fun seeing the Lakers fail at it but check out Golden State's luxury tax bill over their conternder period and it's some serious scratch. We're just used to pinching pennies and shopping at the bench player version of the dollar store...G league call ups, etc...I guess I'm saying we need to be trusting enough of a roster to pay a luxury tax to compete at the highest level. Actually I'm glad we've struggled a bit going into the deadline because I think we need to move some pieces and upgrade our 3 pt shooting.
So Dame is averaging 27.8ppg (10th in the league) on 49.3% from the floor and 37.3% from three. He is averaging 7.1apg (11th in the league). He's playing the best defense in his career. He's had the disadvantage of an injury interrupting his reacclimation to the game but I think his best ball this season is ahead of him on both ends. I think he is a top ten player in the NBA right now. There are younger guys that should have higher trade value than Dame who are just below him right now in current in game value but they haven't gotten ahead of him and likely won't for a few seasons. I don't think there's anything wrong with a franchise being loyal to a player that's loyal to them. I think moves have to be made and yeah if we had no loyalty or heart and were going on pure logic the right idea might be to trade Dame and JG to get the most we can for them and probably Nurk and Hart as well. Then build around a core of Ant, Sharpe and what we get for those guys. That being said there is just as much logic in continuing to try and build around Dame. If we can get a second superstar or even all star that fits better with Dame and in Chauncey's system then we should trade Ant and Nurk, if the player is great enough we should include the incredibly promising Sharpe or whoever it takes to make this team a serious contender which I don't think it is at the moment because it's a good collection of talent that doesn't fit and the talent is incredibly unbalanced... with way too much of the talent and money invested in positions 1-3 and just Nurk as someone who is a serious 5 in this league but not a 5 that switches well which would be ideal for Chauncey's system. The big problem I see is that our management might not be able to make a decision between now and the future. If we can't get past either our hope for the future of Ant or our loyalty to Dame this could be a painful time.
