Official HCP's Win Total Prediction Goes Boom Thread

agreed, but every team is facing the same dilemma...Durant, Lebron, etc...Cleveland, San Antonio, a lot of teams are going to have to pay multiple max contracts just to stand pat

 

Yup Problem w/ Nets is Prokhorov, he played a little basketball & THINKS he knows NBA basketball but... he doesn't & I suspect he never will; I'd b willing to bet that most of us in this forum would make better decisions for the Nets vs. Prokhorov.

 

I have never been happier to see hcp fail. A high pick would be great, but you can't tell your players to stop trying. I am proud of our guys.

 

I guess I assume players want to be in a stable organization with a lot of upside. It comes down to value systems..David West sure didn't chase a paycheck in San Antonio..players like him can afford to choose a desirable destination, they're already wealthy..which comes down to me thinking Portland is a desirable destination. Personal bias by me, but I wouldn't want to raise a family in Cleveland

 

Yeah you see some of this with a lot of new NBA owners or impatient aging owners. Not quite as stupid as the Nets; never seen a team trade away 5 years of unprotected picks. But the Suns, Kings, Nuggets, Knicks, Pelicans all have a bunch of problems with similarities. Heck you could even throw the Lakers in with that group in the times since Dr Buss died and his idiot son started running the team.

 

If Lebron James wasn't from there he sure as hell wouldn't be playing for them right now?

Are there any 18 year old small forwards and centers living in Portland right now?

 

^ part of my logic when I predicted 37 wins for us (I'm still sticking w/ that BUT hope I'm wrong & we win more! I'm not into tanking, I think we can trade assets/$ for a good pick). I am surprised the Timber Pups haven't played better/don't have a better record BUT I'm pleased!

 

The Blazers are likely to finish with a sub .500 record. Really think about that for a minute.

 

Yeah I'm gonna root for the team when they're playing; and when the seasons over I'm gonna hope we have the best draft pick we can have. No sense in worrying about a pick now. We are starting a 20 year old who wouldn't be getting a single minute on a contender and didn't acquire any win now veterans so I have nothing but pleasant surprise with the success the team is having.

 

I agree with the highlighted part of his statement. Its more telling of your attitude and perception.

 

Half the board thinks about it everyday here, somebody has to balance the scales...see HCPs prediction thread..it's all there

 

Kupchak...

 

I thought we would be a lot worse than we are. And I want that draft pick. I can't help but root for these guys though!

 

With respect to @riverman's comment about the blazers being a desirable landing spot for free agents, what does it say about my attitude? Please enlighten me.

 

Riverman stated stability and upside could be a draw to free agents. We've seen evidence of Neil acquiring valuable free agents before. We have a stable management team and a respected owner. We have young popular all star level players. His statements are two very valid statements to a casual informed observer.

Your reply predicts the Blazers losing more games than they win the rest of the year, and any free agent draw is less than Riverman implies. The tone of your reply implies its obvious to a reader of his statement; while I suspect fans and analysts would have a very different perception from you.

I believe the majority of observers would read your attitude as overly negative, critical, and pessimistic.

 

I'm always critical and I do my best not to sugarcoat what I say. If you don't like it, put me on ignore.

As for "valuable free agents" What I'm talking about aren't the sloppy seconds and role-players, but the dyed-in-the-wool, bonafide, ass kicking elite players of the NBA - which the Blazers probably need one more of to have any serious hopes of competing for a championship in the next 4-5 years before Lillard peaks and declines.

 

Who was the Spurs, Mavs, Lakers, Celtics, or Pistons "elite" free agent they acquired to win a title? Thats 5 of the last 7 champs who didn't win by bring in an "elite" free agent to win a title. The Heat are the only team to do it recently and perhaps the Warriors if you consider Iggy that stud free agent; although I'd argue they were primarily a contending team from the other players they had.

So no I disagree with your "any serious hopes" statement being predicated entirely on the Blazers bringing in an "elite" free agent. Again its an example of you're overly negative pessimistic unrealistic simple approach to evaluating a team. I suppose that's you're shtick but I just thought I'd point out to me and I believe most balanced informed observers it seems to be a ludicrous way to evaluate a franchise.

 

In a better than perfect world, we already have like 8 lottery picks with upside.
Oh wait....

 

Which is why I advocated tanking all along, but since it appears the Blazers can't even do that right, we're left with less savory options.