OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA: DECEMBER 2023

Jalen Brunson went 9-9 from downtown, Knicks win.

 

Such a tough position you have put me in. Do you expect me to just BLATANTLY like that post? My GOD MAN! You want me to enjoy losing! But wait??? I'm supposed to LIKE LOSING this year?
WTF? OKAY Great Post! But I don't have to LIKE it!

Edit--I will put this in GREEN font if you want me to?

 

Third year in the lottery and now of an epically weak draft. When do we stop carrying about tanking if not this year? After 8 years of losing?

Not saying we should try to win at all costs or anything. But worrying about our tank standings after 20 games is nuts.

 

That’s awesome!

 

The better one is what happened before that.

 

I was joking around with him but yes I agree.

 

I was channeling my inner Casey Holdahl

 

Bucks are an 18 point favorite against Pistons today.
(where's the facepalm emoji on this thing?)

 

there's not much else to root for this season. The development of Sharpe, Scoot, Camara, etc. is about it. People, including yourself, are busy talking about Portland trading Grant & Brogdon, mostly for draft assets as the main prizes. Those would certainly be tanking moves and I'm pretty sure if the trade deadline passes and both Grant and Brogdon are still Blazers, some people here will be irritated

and "8 years of losing"? That's all the way back to the beginning of the Dame/CJ team. The first 4 years of that experiment, Portland was 187-141. Winning record, although I'd certainly agree that those teams were pretenders, at best, and needed, desperately, a new vision and new direction. I said that over and over and the rebuttals were always those 'winning records'...and blahblah-straight years in the playoffs...and the WCF appearance.

the reality is that CJ/RoCo/Nance were traded less than two years ago when Cronin tried to retool instead of rebuild. And Dame/Nurkic were traded 6 months ago when the idea of a retool was shit-canned and a full rebuild begun. This rebuild is practically only in it's 1st year. The only true rebuilding pieces Portland has added from trading CJ/RoCo/Nance/Dame/Nurkic has been Camara and Murray. I consider Ayton a fence-straddling move; and a debatable one at that

so I don't see anything wrong with looking at lottery position when the team is at most, 18 months into a full rebuild and 6 months away from trading the franchise player. I'm not sure what the average length of a successful rebuild is but I'd estimate it's at least 5 seasons. And I think looking at the value of a subtle tank job is warranted when the team has the 5th worst record in the league and is only 1/2 game better than Memphis, with the 4th worst record...and Memphis will be getting Morant back next Tuesday

 

Brooks has become elite at stirring shit

 

On that one he was staying level headed. Pretty tough crowd right there.

 

Think he means the next 5 years being 8 years of losing. At least that's the way I read it.

 

I didn't mean the prior 8 years were losing, this is the 3rd year. I question how many years we go on heavily rooting for tank positions, 8 years would be 5 more seasons. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

It was the game by game analysis of our and other lottery team tanking standings this early in the season that shocked me. The last quarter of the season I get it. I just can't fathom following that game by game detail this early.

Of course all Blazers fans can follow the team however they want. That just seems nuts to me.

 

ok....sorry...I was looking 8 years in the wrong direction

like I said, Cronin dumped CJ/Nance/Roco/Powell 22 months ago in a shift into a retool, and it failed. Arguably the first adding-transaction of the retool was the Sharpe draft, which coincidentally (wink-wink) fit into a rebuild at the same time. After the retool failure, Cronin had the opportunity to go full-rebuild when trading Dame/Nurkic. I think he still tried to straddle a re-tool fence by keeping Ant and adding Ayton. I think that will fail too

mainly, I think the 'rebuild' has only been going on for 18 months, at most, and more practically 6 months. I think focusing on the first draft after trading the franchise player and looking at lottery position is fine. Yeah, it's too early to be looking at it with any depth. But with the reality that the Blazers might be shopping Grant and Brogdon at the deadlin, at minimum, talking about tanking by mid February might be the big thing again

 

Former Blazer garbage tank time scrub Chance Comanche was arrested by the FBI today...he's currently playing for the Kings G league team...they didn't mention what for

 

I think we got 2 more years of losing. By then, Scoot and Sharpe will be All Stars and it will be time to win at a high level with a new coach.

 

Interested take saying “New Coach”.
That seems possible but not certain to me?

 

Uh oh... not gonna speculate.
just glad the Jail Blazers era didn't get a reboot.