With how stacked, even more so than last year, the West became, I'm glad we pushed the reset button. Even if we brought everyone back, ending with the No. 7 seed would have been a decent probability. I'm excited for the season because it's basically a no expectations type of season and those can be some of the more fun ones to be around (Hello 98-99 and 07-08!). If we win with this young core led by Lillard - great! And if we struggle but see improved player development and add a high lottery pick? Also great.
I knew someome would take it that way, but I meant more in the sense of sleeping through those grades.
you seem to forget how incredibly limited we were last offseason. we didn't have the cap or the space to bring in a handful of top tier guys, and, if you'll remember, the top tier was severely limited in FA last year, with LBJ going back to cleveland and Melo staying with NY, that all but wrapped up the FA period. again, it comes to unrealistic expectations. my new choice phrase for this phenomenon is "you're expecting a guy to sculpt "David" but you're only giving him Playdoh"
This is where creativity comes in. Just another complaint I have with. Creativity in working lopsided trades or using the cap space to bring in real beneficial talent. Talent that will make a difference in the end. In the end, we are not the GM. It's up to him to just do these things and make say "Wow, did he really do that?" I don't think I have ever said that once with this GM.
See, I disagree with this. I think That going into last year, they picked up what they thought would be enough and guess what? at 30-8, we all that it was. Hindsight is 20/20. You don't think Neil knows he cant recruit here? Why do you think he is doing what he is doing? Because he knows he cant recruit star FA's here. But can anyone? Further more. Who is to say we don't have another star or two emerge from all these lotto picks? Did we know Dame was gonna be what he is when we drafted him? He was a lotto pick. Now we have a bunch of them. The offseason isn't a sprint to the finish line and everyone around here is all up in arms because they think this team is what it is based on the player's history. I said it once and I will say it again. Players not only blossom by improving their skill set. A player can also blossom in the right environment without any improvement to their game. If they are put into the right environment. How does anyone around here know who is going to do what this next season, and if you think you do know, your just foolin yourself. How can so many people put on the tunnel vision so early in the offseason when we haven't played a game yet?
You know, even if all our guys came back, I think we still only would have won 48-50 games, and STILL would have gotten 5th seed in the West... we might be in a better position for this particular round, but how much grit would we have been able to summon to beat the Clippers? Would CP3 have still broken his hand? Probably not. All in all, I think we would be in the same position today in either universe. But in this universe, we are younger, hungrier, and more fun to watch.
