[Semi-OT] The Lakers are an absolute Dumpster Fire and I am loving every second of it

Portland has been tanking for 3 seasons. They were in the playoffs 40 months ago

5 years would be 2026; 10 years would be 2031

 

lol...c'mon man.

Pippen and Sabonis were 12 years gone and weren't putting fans in the seats in 2013 when the Blazers won 33 games but ranked 4th in attendance

the 'jet fuel' for Portland has always been because it's the only game in town

the Blazers were 3rd in attendance when they won 59 games and played in the WCF. They were 4th in attendance when they won 33 games and were in the lottery

 

Why are you all talking about this in a Lakers thread?

 

This is the 4th year. The conversation is and has been about 2028. He also mentioned a couple more years following that.
Sorry but that is a decade.

 

What did they rank last year? Just curious?

 

That’s pretty impressive with the level of talent they were trotting out there last year. I know I quit going and won’t buy many tickets this year unless I’m taking someone who wants to go. I have no interest in paying to see a team try to lose. I can watch that on TV if I happen to have time to tune in.

 

Just saying winning ways breeds fandom. C'mon man you dint believe that?

 

what I believe is that Portland's current veterans won't generate winning ways

 

13th

but again, what I said is that the key wasn't winning 35-40 games and squeaking into the play-in vs 21-28 games and a shot at a high pick; the key is having youngish players that generate enthusiasm and hope, like Roy and Aldridge; or Dame and Aldridge

if Sharpe had had a ROY season followed by improvement last season, instead of being out by mid January; if Scoot hadn't looked like he was 2 years away from being 2 years away, attendance would have been better.

a lot of people aren't interested in watching Simons and Grant do their boring iso all night, or Ayton shooting spin-around jumpers....all while posting a 35-40% winning rate (at best). The Blazers were boring last season

 

The vets we currently have don't play winning basketball... We're not going to learn winning ways from them.

 

What are you referring to? Did I miss something? Nobody is advocating losing until 2028 or 2030.

But keeping Grant and Simons is a great way to do that.

 

I’m actually amazed they did as well as they did. I would venture a guess if they continue to try to lose it will get worse before better.

 

Anybody else very skeptical of these attendance figures?

I know the Blazers decades ago were basically giving away tickets to keep a "sellout" streak alive. Not sure if some of these "attendance" figures are counting season ticket holders who are flipping the majority of their tickets and have many dates of unused tickets. Are those all tracked as 100% attended? What about companies with unused tickets? What about all the Blazer vision subscribers who will get 2 tickets?

When the Blazers have had some very bad teams the arena has looked extremely empty. That's going to eventually flow through to TV viewership and then media revenue to the Blazers as well.

Now Jody's unique person as a controlling "owner" who only gets a management fee but no actual direct profit from the organization is a very unusual dynamic. So she might not have the same motivation long term to maximize every dollar of revenue as a typical owner does. Maybe that will be a very good thing or a very bad thing.

 

Every team does it. The attendance announced and reported isn't actually the # of people who attended the game.

 

I believe its typically off of tickets sold.
Corporations can buy out a whole section, not attend the game snd they would consider the section sold out.

They don't actually care how many people attend, they only care about how many tix are sold.
I say this for all major sports franchises. Not just the Blazers.

 

I wasn't referring to the vets or team we have now, my comment was pertaining to a period of time where winning basketball created and retained fandom. Think any franchise in this era that's good with losing for 5-8 years straight to build assets is rolling the dice.
The NBA has been successful because they expanded playoffs and made playoff basketball fun for fans. Now they even have an in season playoff. The reasoning is fandom and tv it generates revenue.

 

It takes 5 to 8 years to rebuild. Unless you get lucky and draft a superstar. Or if you have a superstar owner or manager. Or if you're a destination city.

We don't have any of that. The only way for us to control our destiny is to lose for 5 or 6 years. And hope that it doesn't take 8 (it shouldn't, unless we're incredibly unlucky or have incredibly bad draft strategy).

But building around players like Simons and Grant is a great way to get ourselves back in the situation where the fans are apathetic and Paul Allen was looking to sell the team to another city. I think that's the most likely scenario for Portland to lose this franchise.

 

who said anything about current vets generating winning ways?

 

Im not sure you can build around any of the players on this team just yet. I mean teams like Minnie, Sac, Clips for years thought they had a f-8 year plan that would work but what happens is they end up starting all over again after 3-5 years.