Love isn't a FA this summer but his name is out there as a PF to be had. Don't need to be a FA to be an available PF next summer. Also LA has said he wants to stay in Ptd and it makes no financial sense for him to sign this summer. I know saying he wants to stay doesn't guarantee anything, but coming off a successful season, how can fans not want to see id we can improve on that. Same arguments were being made last summer. What an absolute bummer it would have been to trade him last summer and miss out the best season the Blazers have had in over a decade. I don't know what this next season is going to bring, but I'm pretty excited about it given last season. Plenty of time to rebuild, rarely are the Blazers in a position where if they grow and progress from the season before, they are looking at the WCF. Got to play something like that out, IMO.
You whine and call people names all the damn time sure PapaG was abrasive and could get under a persons skin but you do the same damn thing in my opinion but get a free pass as a mod.
I do not use personal information to attack people on this forum. I have never done that. It's one thing to get into an argument and say someone is being a dick, but something else entirely to make a post about someone having cancer, or someone being bald, or someone having marital problems or whatever. Those are completely over the line. We expect people to get upset with each other, and when people get upset they can call each other names. We usually just edit them and move on. When someone truly attacks someone personally, that's when we tend to react.
I hesitate to play this game b/c I don't believe in it (too much butterfly effect), but if we would've traded for one of the rumored packages (#1 last year, Thompson, 1st this year) it could be Lillard/Oladipo/Batum/Parker/Lopez right now with Wes and Robinson off the bench, and with Lillard/Oladipo/Parker tied up for at least 7 years. And 10+M in cap space. Or something like that. I know, I know...can't count on CLE winning the lotto if they had LMA this year. But that's what assets can (potentially) do for you.
Or Lillard Batum Wiggins Noel Lopez with Thompson and Matthews making up the bench and the Blazers with their own lottery pick
For me, not as much as a proven roster who is still on the way up, but I get the the hype of a young team where the sky is the potential. I was into Roy/Aldrdige/Oden as much as anybody. That was exciting. So is a team full of proven players that showed they have what it takes to be successful. It just seems to trade LA now is acting in a position of fear. If the Blazers had a bad year (like the Wolves) . . . well I even said last summer there was always this summer. Don't get me wrong, that roster you put out there sounds great and a GM looking to build a team would probably want the roster you put out there, so I'm being a homer here . . . a homer who is tired of rebuilding and wants to keep going forward. If that means Blazers run the risk of losing Aldridige for nothing and having it all blow up, it's a risk I can live with for the possibility of what can happen next year . . . and beyond if he stay. I see your points, the only part I really take issue with is your analysis of no PF next summer . . . don't have to be a FA to be available . . . and don't need the PF to be one of the big 3. That is enough cap space to get a big name to put with Lillard and fill in the rest with legit starters and bench. Big 3 is optimal, but big 2 with solid players can work too.
or lillard/wes/batum/thompson/rolo with anthony bennett and nick stauskas on the bench, a 35 win team guess we will never know
I still think $20+ million a year for five years is simply too much for Aldridge (assuming he doesn't sign the max extension)
You antagonize that weirdo constantly and then get to ban him when your panties finally get so sandy that you just can't stand it. Pretty fucked up. He might be a douche at times, but he is a pretty smart douche.