That is just dumb IMO. Aldridge is one of the best PFs in the league, top 3 or 4 and still young and on a reasonable contract. You only trade him for a star who is currently better than him.
That's something that a team looking to win a ring would do. Say the Nets get the #1 pick in the draft. Then trade that pick for Aldridge to go with Deron Williams. Blammo, contender. then Portland gets stuck in permanent rebuild mode...building through the luck of ping pong balls.
It's only dumb if you don't have a good idea where the dude going number one is going with his career. If you see him as a Marcus Camby in three or four years, yes it's dumb. If you see him closer to Dwight Howard. I can't see where that would be dumb.
No, its just dumb regardless. You don't trade a guy entering his prime who you can build around, with some good role players already on the team while you have tons of cap space and draft picks to complete the team.....for a draft pick. "Hey, we have a good centerpiece, fuck it, lets just trade him and start over and build over the next 5 years". You're missing the entire point here. We have the assets and flexibility to make a major move THIS offseason. Trading LaMarcus Aldridge is possibly the dumbest move out of everything, all things considered.
LA ain't leading you anywere. If you have the gut feeling that Anthony Davis is closer to Dwight Howard. That has a better shot of winning you a title than a team lead by LA.
So...say the Nets gets the #1 pick, then you team Aldridge and Deron Williams in brooklyn. IMO, they are contenders right away. Because that's the Portland "pipedream". There's also a very good chance that Anthony Davis doesn't ever get better than Aldridge. I just think its monumentally stupid to trade him when you have this much immediate cap room, current talent on the team and tradable assets.
Let me say that again. All-star player in his early prime. Decent role players Lots of free cap space Draft picks that can be used as trade assets or to get more role players You don't take all of this and say "fuck it" lets go draft Anthony Davis and build through the draft. It'll take 5 years to do so. Then what, you trade him again for the lure of having the #1 pick again? Some people are just entranced by having high draft picks year after year. Sure, chances are you will get talent but if you already have the talent, stop thinking about it.
Dude freaking Thabo Sefolosha, Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka are on OKC as starters. You trying to tell me they're "better options" on offense than Wes? Yeah, Harden comes off of the bench but is realistically their number 3 (sometimes higher) guy. So there are 3 guys on OKC who are clearly better offensive options than Wes. Does that mean he'd be the 4th best player? Not necessarily, because those 3 starters I mentioned all play important ROLES within their team, it just doesn't involve scoring. Wes is easily a better offensive player than those guys, but does he fill a role like they do? That's a lot more debatable, and I'd say no given how well OKC works together. But that doesn't negate the fact that on their team, Wes wouldn't be 6th-8th option on that team. That's just ridiculous.
Has Dwight proven to be someone easy to build around? Better than LMA, sure, because of his fantastic defense, but he has a similar issue to LA as your #1 guy where he's someone you can't reliably go to at the end of a game to get you a win consistently. Does Davis change that? He's not physically dominating like Shaq, and never will be. Can he be Garnett? Sure. Minnesota built around Garnett for how long, or tried to, before having to trade him? Lather, rinse, repeat. We trade Aldridge for him, and there's a good chance we end up with a slightly better player, but still no titles, and in 8 years, we're talking about moving him for someone we can build around, because he's not a #1 guy.
Homer..... Ibaka for one is WAY WAY better than Wes....That will be confirmed when his contract comes up....
Bullshit.... and uh, yeah you did cherry pick.....JUST choosing picks #6 & #11 and ignoring picks #7-10 or players chosen within a few picks of those is flat out misleading....Teams make bad picks, some scouts are better than others....this isn't a discussion about whether POR CAN make the right pick (that IS entirely debateable), this is a discussion on whether or not a good\very good player IS there to be chosen in the 1st place....Which there almost always is. Big difference.... and again, i will repeat, this draft is stronger than MANY drafts before it, the majority of 2 & 3 years worth of top talent compressed into 1 draft....more good players to be taken, so #6 & #11 are MUCH stronger this year than they have been in recent years, that is FACT.....
Dude you are dreaming.... You can't even come up with some realistic and I emphasize REALISTIC players that POR could trade for\sign as free agents that could instantly turn this team into a contender... A CONTENDER....Buying into this "reload" bullshit that POR mgmt is trying to sell you is the biggest pipedream that some of you guys can't help yourselves from smoking.... Reloading to a 1st round and out team of insignificance IS relatively easy...yeah they can do that...Building a team that can compete for a championship IS NOT easy and actually REQUIRES forward thinking and planning....Not pinning all your hopes on one years' flurry of activity as they would have you believe...THAT is preposterous...and yet that is exactly what you seem to be pushing for...
It's easy to list players that could "potentially" make us contenders if everything goes right with them. The EXACT same way it is building through the draft, where you need players that right now do not at all look like franchise players become just that in order for us to be title contenders. Does Beal or Lamb right now look like #1 franchise changing guys? No. Could they be? I suppose. And you can take a 2-4 year flyer on seeing if they are. Could a combination of, say, Evans and Iguodola make us title contenders? Maybe. There's unknown in both. It's simply risking on whether a guy can develop into something that he has not shown to be, or taking a chance on proven players all coming together and being a "sum is greater than the parts" team. Is either wrong? No. Personally, I'd take a chance on the latter, but that's just me. But being condescending to others as if they're plan is stupid while you're banking on guys like Henson as top 10 HS talents become build a title team around guys is equally as stupid to me. ALL plans take luck. Laughing at someone else's luck is kind of odd.
Did Dwayne Wade when he came out? Joe Johnson? What about Paul Pierce? I know what Iguodala, Gortat & Lowry can do...and I am not impressed...yeah they would make the team better, but not good enough to go anywhere, and once again isn't that the whole point? You have to ask yourselves as fans whether or not you want to support a franchise that lies to you and then asks you to stick with them while they put together middling teams that if they are fortunate to make the playoffs, can't advance past the 1st round.... Yeah there is unknown in the draft, yeah you could totally miss on a pick...I'd rather take my chances on guys like Beal, Lamb, Rivers, Barnes, P.Jones than settle...SETTLE for mid tier talent and hope that it all magically clicks together...You have to have scouts and a GM who know what the heck they are doing though...ALL the more important for POR to get a REAL GM in here as quickly as possible.... One method HAS proven to be better..it IS the draft...ALMOST every team has core players that were drafted, particularly smaller market teams....and this draft has a ton of TOP 5 HS players in it...and that percentage translates pretty darn well into good\very good players....better odds than Iguodala and Gortat suddenly making this team better than 1st round fodder.... Sorry if reality hurts, but that is reality...
no the "reality" is that most teams do BOTH well. Yes they add guys through the draft but most also get a big trade or FA to come along and push their team over the top. We have built through the draft with LA, now if they are serious about "reloading" they will use the assets on hand and pull off a trade or signing to put the team in a position to make a run.
The most likely scenario is that guys like Beal, Lamb, Rivers, Barnes, and P.Jones will develop into solid NBA players at best, but not franchise-level talent. Simply go back over the past ten years worth of drafts and you'll see that proven out over and over again. Sorry if that reality hurts, but it's a fact that there are way more 3rd option players than stars each and every year, and there are more busts than just about anything else. I've got nothing against the Blazers taking one or more guys in the draft, but they absolutely have to find a way to get a proven star this summer.
