All of these things are now obvious: The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum Lillard is on the downslope of his career Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self Billups is not a better coach than Stotts Shaedon Sharp is a huge project Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker The Blazers are not a playoff team A big mid-season trade won’t change that Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
They do seem worse without CJ, even thought they added an actual forward. That said, they are just a worse version of mediocre than before. Not good enough to be anywhere close to a contender. Not bad enough to get a significant player in the Draft.
What if we got Giannis at the deadline? Huh? Huh? Oh, right, he'd get a microfracture injury in his foot shortly thereafter.
Too slow at the 5 position on both ends, period. Don't ask me how to improve that, but that's the glaring weakness.
I'm not sure CJ is the reason they're worse. Lillard just finished one of the best weeks of his career. Yes on Nurk Yes on Billups Yes on Sharp Depends what you define "difference-maker" They can make the playoff, but the roster was never good enough to make noise It's have to be a major (steal of a) trade to become a 2nd round playoff team.
The beauty of these "Dame has reached his peak" predictions we've been reading for a few years is that the people making them will eventually be right. I look forward to hearing about it for another 5+ years.
I'm sure Dame is further than halfway through his career but he is solidly in his prime. He's playing as good on offense as has been as an all nba player and he's playing the best defense I've seen out of him. We aren't worse without CJ, we have the same problems because Ant is so similar in weaknesses. Nurk needs a change of scenery and a coach that will stay on him about using the most massive body in the league in a way that makes sense on both ends... Chauncey obviously isn't that guy. Chauncey doesn't seem like he's better than Stotts but Terry did have teams with a lot more length... Terry looked terrible when he had to coach undersized teams and his bench was never this lacking in size, he at least had two bigs on every roster and usually more. Shae looks good but he also looks like he needs a lot more time before he is confident enough to be a difference maker on a winning team. Gary needs to get healthy but he is a difference maker on defense and has been finishing when open inside and out. The Blazers are literally a game and a half out of 6th in the West. No trade is making us a contender but I'm sure there are a few moves that could make us four or five games better in relation to .500 than we are right now and that would put us in the fifth seed. Not making a trade because it won't win us a championship this season is not an acceptable reason for a front office to neglect there duty to try and make the roster better. Sorry that's just the way I see it.
Dame's offense plateaued seasons ago but it has not dropped off. His defense has never looked better. I think he'll look worse four seasons from now, I would almost guarantee that but I doubt he is going to have a huge dropoff next season or the season after... look at Steph. Both guys played four years of college ball, both guys took a year off to get healthy and both guys play similar styles of offense. Steph is still thriving, Dame will likely be thriving as far into his career as Steph is now and maybe further into his career then Steph does because Dame's frame is sturdier. The fact is Dame hasn't shown any signs of falling off.
I don't think the question is if we were better two years ago vs today, I think the question is why: We were also better when TJ Leaf was on the roster than we are when Jerami Grant was. However, to imply losing Leaf or obtaining Grant is the reason for the slippage would seem inaccuate. The Blazers were 21-33 before trading CJ last year, so I'd say the downfall started prior to CJ being moved.
The chairs weren't the problem on the Titanic. It was the iceberg, and we'll call it Neil Fucking Olshey.
The Blazers have had the 11 toughest strength of schedule so far. https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other Portland has the second easiest strength of schedule to finish the season... And several of the teams ahead of us have among the toughest schedules to finish. And we're a game or two from the 6th seed right now. Barring major injury problems I'd be shocked if we miss the playoffs. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba...r-nba-all-star-break/pydaqsigmc0kq7jxvbcnuzyr
I wouldn't argue against Dame being past his peak. But he's still damn good and I think he has many solid years ahead of him.
I started saying it this summer when the $200 million extension came into play. It’s not that I don’t think Lillard is washed, it’s that his window is closing. 2, maybe 3 years of typical Lillard level ball is what I expect.
