Currently he's the heart and soul of a sucky team. It's funny - if you read that with a certain emphasis it sounds like you're desperate to trade him.
Carlos Boozer is one of the worst defensive players I have ever seen. His career DRtg is 102. In 3 of his seasons with the Bulls, his DRtg was 95, 98, & 99. If you go by the stats, he's one of the all time great defenders. In Boozer's first season with the Bulls, they lost in the ECF to the super team Heat. Derrick Rose won the MVP with numbers comparable to Dame's. He was a sieve on defense, but his DRtg was 103 that season (Boozer's 99). Yet the team was 2nd in fewest points given up and first in team DRtg. A great defensive scheme makes up for a player's weaknesses. I absolutely see no reason to trade Dame. Better to fix the defensive scheme.
Balanced is putting Aminu and Plumlee at SF and PF with CJ as PG and a non-ball handler in Crabbe at SG? No thanks. That team would be bottom 10 offensively. Setting screens is a peewee basketball concept. Any NBA player can "run an offense". All things being even, of you surround MJ with average offense, they're going to be top 10. Even the worst center in the league can dunk on wide open looks created by someone like MJ. You still have to guard players because even the worst players in the league can hit certain shots of their wide open. But if that fringe-NBA center gets taken to the low post because he's an awful defender, he's getting scored on. What could someone like Gary Payton or Bruce Bowen do about it? Yes, you need role players, but a good offensive guard usually has a big factor on every offensive possession, whether it be breaking down the defense and kicking, spacing the floor, or creating for himself.. Good guards have an imprint on almost every possession. But defensively, he can only guard one player, and if the offense is going through a frontcourt player that's scoring, the guard can't do shit about it. You're not gonna put CP3 on Lebron, even though CP3 is a great defender. However, CP3 can control and create great looks for himself and others on every offensive possession. There's a reason Lillard and McCollum are more valuable than Tony Allen.
Exactly. Stotts has done this these past couple games. They shut down Boogie most of the game steer he went off for 55 last time. Dame being out has no effect on that whatsoever. They've hedged, trapped, and switched up pick n roll schemes, things I've been being for Stotts to do for years. And look, it's fucking working.
I'll play devil's advocate. How many season(s) of losing will Lillard put up with, before he demands to be traded? It's inevitably happened with all our best players over the course of the franchise history, and we've never received equal compensation for each of their departures. So, maybe, this time learn from past lessons and...entertain the notion of this thread? Not saying that's how I feel, but I think the idea has merit on some level.
I'd rather have a few more years with Dame and his leadership and potential than another 10-15 years of non playoff ball. Nobody is going to trade straight up one on one for the guys we would do it for, so we would get a package in return. Id be okay with doing that fir CJ, but not Dame. Not the leader of this team, not the face of our franchise, not the most loyal player we have possibly ever seen...
You mean like Antetocounmpo, Gobert, Porzingis, Jokic, Embiid, Ben Simmons? Bums! What I don't get, is how come Fez doesn't get this "humor"? He actually knows about these guys. I just know more than YOU guys, which doesn't require much.
Here's a question for you, while we're talking "most loyal": who's the best Blazers player who never played a minute for any other NBA team (whose career is now over)?
Probably need a list, which I bet is pretty short. However, I'm preliminarily putting Geoff Petrie at the top of that list.
All right BESIDES Petrie. (And he sort of doesn't count because he was a Hawk when his career ended, even if he didn't play a game for them. (Not a bad trade for the Blazers that, as it got them Maurice Lucas.) So perhaps I should amend my question to "was never on the roster of any other NBA team.")
Again, probably need a list of players who qualify (especially since you're changing the rules on us after I come up with the best possible answer). Since it's your question, I think that it's incumbent upon you to provide. Sadly, we have nobody on the Wikipedia list of players who've spent their entire careers with one franchise. This article says Larry Steele would be the choice.
Hmm. That's incomplete then. (And I notice the list of current players starts at 7 seasons, even though it doesn't explicitly say that, otherwise Lillard would be on there, of course (but also people like Pat Connaughton).)
