The team needs to rebuild through the draft. The core just isn't there yet to compete. *Wes is a below average starting SG *Batum is an average starting SF *No legit starting C *No legit starting PG "The team management are in denial." Ben said what a lot of fans have been saying all year: this team NEEDS a rebuild. The best option is to trade up and get that player who can be a major impact player in a year or two.
Oh I'm sure the team thinks they will be able to sign a couple of core rotation players this summer and either trade the picks or draft some good players. The culmination of all this getting us back into the playoffs... which is great and everything, but I'm sick and tired of making the playoffs and getting bounced in the first round. This team needs a lot more than what we can get in free agency.
Outside of #1, I am not convinced that the next 5-6 players or so aren't on the same level...So I don't think POR needs to trade up...I'd keep #6...and #11, maybe you could trade #11 for #14 & #16? I would consider a dela like that and I agree it sure seems that POR announcers\analysts are in denial...and many fans...I am not sure about mgmt...
That's how I feel... unless they want to draft Robinson. This team needs inside scoring in the worst way.
Listening to Ben I get the sense that the Blazer management are totally unrealistic about this roster and are in total denial. Are they that stupid to re-tool when you only have two legit starters on the entire roster? Welcome to purgatory.
Nic put up a 17.3 PER this season. By that definition, he's 'above average'. I think Nic's easily in the top half of SFs. Whether or not he's worth more than $10 million is the question that the Blazers need to answer for themselves.
The thing is, his defense hasn't been anywhere near what it was billed as, and his scoring is replaceable. It would be one thing if he was the lockdown defender that everyone thought he'd be, but he isn't. Even 9 million per year seems high to me, and anything over that is overpaying for a position that can be replaced. What's Nic's ceiling? He's not Scottie Pippen as some people though he might be. I'd put him more in the Danny Granger echelon.
so pretty much what Bens been saying on Blazers edge all year. I guess I'm in deniel because I disagree with almost everything Bens been saying all year. Sent from my LS670 using Tapatalk 2
I listened as well, and thought his summary was spot on. It was either him or Parrish on Canzano's show, that said we'll likely choose between Barnes, Beal, Lamb and the two point guards at 6. Doesn't think we have the stable infrastructure to take on a project like Drummond and doesn't feel Sullinger is a good fit for our team. Feels MKG and Robinson will likely be gone by 6. As far as dealing the picks, on one hand Allen is on record saying he doesn't want to go through another rebuild, leading to think he'd deal the picks for a vet. On the other hand, draft time is Allen's favorite activity as an owner. Does he bow out of the fun of having two lottery picks in the same draft? I think and hope they'll keep the picks. If the GM search is any indication, we won't be overwhelmed by any of the trade offers and we'll hold our cards.
I like Batum but he is pretty much a one-dimensional scorer. He has no mid-range game and his post game is a long way away.
Exactly. Next thing you know, he's going to be 28 and he won't have grown at all from the player we know today.
Or he'll be a 28 year-old multiple all-star. That's five or six years away. It's hard to say. I would agree, though, that he's an average small forward right now. His PER is good, and I love that, but he's within a standard deviation, I'd bet, of average. I anticipate him getting significantly better, but that isn't a given and it's definitely not a certainty to happen next year. I don't see a scenario where the Blazers trade both of their lottery picks and get good enough to matter. I think that the team is best off taking two cracks at getting really good players, using their cap space to get better immediately, and then hope that one or both of the lottery picks blossom into something special that can make a difference in a couple of years as Aldridge and Batum are in their primes. Ed O.
Your standard deviation would put a starting SF with a PER of 12.7 in the same group as Nic, at least in terms of a spread from "average". Nic was 8th in the NBA among qualified SFs in Hollinger's PER rankings. Can the Blazers give up an above-average starter who is in his early 20s? http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/holl...n.go.com/nba/hollinger/statistics?position=sf
The #1 reason why we need to retain Batum is..... Kevin Durant (the second coming of MJ). Nic is the only player that can really match up with KD, bottom line. And that's huge.
I didn't hear the interview, so I'll take your synopsis at face value. That said, I get a real kick out of a guy like Ben, with his superb experience as an NBA guru, issuing a proclamation that Blazers management are in denial and that a total rebuild through the draft is the only way to go. We've had multiple discussions on rebuilding through the draft and it's been demonstrated over and over again that it doesn't guarantee anything in the way of becoming a legitimate contender. Of the four teams still playing for the title this year, the Spurs and the Thunder can legitimately be said to have rebuilt through the draft. The Heat and Celtics are the products of getting one All-Star level player through the draft (Wade for the Heat and Pierce for the Celtics) and then engineering trades that brought in additional All-Star talent. I don't know that one model is necessarily more successful than the other, but both take smart moves by management as well as a considerable amount of luck. I don't know what moves the Blazers will be able to pull off this summer, but I have absolutely no problem with them taking a shot at trying to add pieces to their current core as opposed to a tear-down and rebuild through the draft. My guess is that the actual plan is a little of both...get an established player through a FA signing or a trade and add one or two solid prospects through the draft. Seems to me to be a reasonable plan.
That's the approach I'd take. I find it difficult to fathom giving up an All-Star big for draft picks or a lesser player, and thinking that constitutes a "rebuild". That's a "tear down", and I don't think the Blazers are in that situation, and I'm not sure they'd make it through another tear down. Without that 2006 draft, would Paul Allen even still own the team?
