Dame in Milwaukee thread

As far as I know, Nurk didn’t ask to be traded to the Suns, so I don’t get why him getting bounced is funny. Suns management were stupid in making the Beal trade. It bit them in the ass…hard.

Dame asked to be traded, but not to the Bucks. With Dame and Giannis sidelined by injuries, a first round exit doesn’t make any big statement on the wisdom of the Bucks making that trade. They need an offseason to tweak the roster to support their two main stars. That said, I’m never going to find humor in Dame missing out on a chance at a championship due to injuries.

 

Only those that still pine for the days the team built around that old roster. That is someone else's problem now... at least the Blazers realized that that old roster is not the way forward. That's something. They might not have hit on the solution to contend yet, but admitting you have a problem is the first step... and the Blazers finally admitted it in the last couple of years and started looking for an alternate solution.

 

maybe....but I'm not convinced they have

it's kind of looking like Cronin wants to reboot to a 2017-19 version of the Blazers with Ant-Grant-Ayton. It's a negative-image version, possibly with more offensive skill, but even worse defense. Biggest difference is the yesteryear Blazers had an elite #1 option, a top-10ish player and all-star. Next year's version could be a trio of high-paid 3rd options pretending to be 1st options. That doesn't look like a lesson learned to me. Maybe Cronin is hiding his cards well and has an ace or two up his sleeve, bit it does look like he might bet on his 3-of-a-kind, at least as the opener

 

Depends on how lucky we get in the draft. Sharpe at SG, Grant at SF, Sarr at PF, and Ayton at C are not worse defensively, especially with Camara backing up Grant. Who knows what happens with Thybulle, Williams, and Brogdon, but those are solid defenders off the bench. Rupert might be a year away but he adds D off the bench and Scoot will more than likely improve defensively as well.

 

I think Scoot and Shaedon play better together and with Deandre than either Ant or Jerami do and I think both Ant and Jerami ruin the good things that Scoot and Shae do. Tou, Kris and Bari look like really nice glue guys who are either in the rotation or fifth starter glue guys. This roster is screaming for the established players besides Deandre to be traded for other young prospects and/or future draft considerations along with almost unusable NBA vets just to match contracts.

Take our lumps, figure out who fits together and move forward. I've heard a lot of people say there are a bunch of ways to rebuild but I think the way with the best chance of building a contender in a small market is going really young. The vet filler can be our Earl Watson types like Dame says teams need but for meaningful minutes I hope Deandre is our oldest guy getting them and Ant is gone. Neither Ant or Jerami play the way the team says they want their offense to work and it just kills everything on that end... then Ant is just shit on defense. I think both guys would benefit from being coached by someone who sees them differently and will demand different things from them.

 

As far as the Bucks seemingly impending exit from the playoffs, I guess we'll have to wait and see. For the majority of this season they were playing Dame like a bunch of fucking morons and still had one of the best records in the league. If they can figure out how to maximize their offense, they already have guys that cover well for Dame on D and Dame has been better on that end under Doc. They are a legit contender especially if they can add even a couple more good fits in the rotation.

They only have a few more seasons at the most but over the next few seasons they could definitely make a run. I thought this would be a year to figure things out and that they'd be better next year and that was before the coaching change. I know Doc can make them a regular season top 2-4 team, I don't know if that guy can get out of his own way in the playoffs. Should be interesting going forward and I'm rooting for Dame.

 

I think they understood that Dame as the fulcrum is not enough, especially at this point in his career. The rest is just experimenting while accumulating assets and spend the money they had to spend in a way they can trade if they need to and have the flexibility when they have to commit to the young players. That's all it is.

It is going to take time, but the Blazers gave it a try with Dame when they got him Grant and got some vets like Hart, GP2, Nurkic, Winslow with some young guys like Simons and Sharpe. They realized that's way too far and they, rightfully did not want to mortgage the future (#3 pick) for a small upgrade. Not saying that every decision they made since made sense, some of it is mistakes, some of it is giving people time to see if they pop in a primary role (Simons). Some of it is just natural growth.

All I am saying is that it was the right decision not to put all the eggs in the build around Dame basket at this point of his career. That needed to happen in 2016, not 2023.

 

This seems unfair. You could probably say the same thing about Chris Bosh based on his numbers alone, but he was vital for the Heatles.

 

well, I was talking about what I suspect Cronin intends, and a big part of that is Ant at either the starting SG or starting PG. I would agree that simply tossing Ant out of the equation improves the hypothetical defense

I don't think Grant is anywhere close to a good defender, at either forward position. He's certainly not at the level of Aminu, Harkless, or Turner. And Ayton is as good a defender as Nurkic. In the 2017-18 season, Portland ranked 8th in defensive rating at 106.4. Now, a big part of that was the off-the-bench tag-team of Ed Davis & Zach. The next season, without Davis, with Nurkic getting injured, along with the addition of the poor-defense duo of Kanter and Hood, Portland slipped to 16th with a rating of 110.5. This year's team had a rating of 117.5; and that actually improved over the last 20 games or so with Ant-Grant sitting. Even getting close to the 2018-19 mark of 110.5 would require a 7 point improvement. That doesn't seem realistic. And an 11 point improvement is probably out of reach

Sarr seems a pipe-dream at this point and projecting how he'd fit with Ayton seems impossible

 

again, I wasn't saying what I thought should happen....only what I suspect Cronin intends. I'd be surprised if any of of Ant-Grant-Ayton are traded this summer. I would not be surprised, at all, if Brogdon isn't traded either

by the way, average age of the Blazers:

2015-16 - 24.3
2016-17 - 24.8
2017-18 - 25.6
2018-19 - 26.2
2019-20 - 27.5
2020-21 - 27.4
2021-22 - 25.6
2022-23 - 25.1
2023-24 - 24.1

this year's team, with 6 rookies and 3 other players in their 2nd seasons, was only, on average, a couple of months younger that the 2015-16 Blazer team that had a 44-38 record and made it to the 2nd round

 

Couple those guys lack experience though. The average age number needs context.

 

I agree, but I don't know where to find that context or even if it is available

 

Well we know we have some older rookies is all I think you can come up with.

 

I wonder if Milwaukee would take the Miami deal we passed on.

 

Why would Miami offer it? Dame doesn't put them over the top.

 

Milwaukee should target Alex Caruso.

 

That's the offer that Cleveland will take for Donovan Mitchell in a month or two.

 

...so what color would the grass be (certainly not greener) if it only meant 3 extra playoff games and season ending injury? could've been in Cancun (or even Miami) partying the offseason away already!

 

A lot less than Danny Ainge took them for.