We already are a young team. We were the youngest team in the playoffs this year. Not Boston. Not Philly.
This team revolves entirely around Dame and CJ, who will be 28 and 27 next season... they are not going to get any better... they are who they are. Meanwhile other teams like Celtics, Philly, Utah, Milwaukee and others have their core players under 25 with a lot of room to make major strides in their game.
And he had to leave so they could get 3 more No. 1 overall picks in 4 years. They basically went through two rounds of tanking - 5 years before landing LeBron and then 4 more years of tanking while he took his act to South Beach. I guess we could always trade Dame to GSW, tank for 4 years and hope he comes back. BNM
So no player at the age of 27 and 28 ever had a better year after they turned that age? Lillard didn't shoot well in the playoffs. Do you think it can't improve from this year?
Your exact words were "try to build a championship team 3-5 years from now." How about just naming some teams that simply contended for titles within 3-5 years after stripping everything down? After losing in the 2nd round of the 2005 playoffs Seattle/OKC made the playoffs in their 5th year and lost in the 1st round. Year 6 they made the jump to the WCF and year 7 made it all the way to the NBA Finals but never won a title. Can you think of a better example?
Philly and Boston this year to name a few... I’m not gonna waste my time going through history for you. If you want to be happy with mediocrity that is your choice.
I have a question for you... if Dame and CJ are kept together with Stotts as coach this upcoming season, and Blazers win 40 some games again and get bounced in first round again, are you gonna still be patient for the year after... just curious where your limit is for waiting on this team
Philly was a title contender this year? I thought they lost in the second round 4-1. Didn't we do that the year before? Boston was given a miracle by Brooklyn/New Jersey but still haven't won a title.
Man, you have an excuse for everything... Boston is in final 4 teams in NBA... FACT. Philly was a few rookie end of game mistakes from being there themselves... if you actually watched the games you would appreciate the talent and how hard those teams play... makes you realize how far the Blazers are with much older core players
They have a fan msg board too....you like Boston...hey...you can cheer for them all the time..choices.
The Blazers have done what Philly has done this year with 2 almost completely different teams over the last 5 years that it took Philly to get to this point. While I give you that Boston has an amazing core of young draft picks thanks to a miracle trade, their success over the last few years has mostly been due to trades and free agents (IT, Crowder, Horford) and their best two players aren't even playing right now but were also not young players or draft picks (Kyrie and Hayward). They never really stripped it down completely. You don't want to waste your time because you know you can't come up with any good ones.
Boston did not strip it down to the extent you are talking about. They only missed the playoffs one year and they still won 25 games. They traded their old stars who were in their mid 30's. Can we rely on finding someone as stupid as the Nets to deal with? Can we rely on attracting free agents like Boston does? Did Al Horford give us any love when when he signed with Boston? Edit: Damn Hoopsjock you keep typing faster then me and saying the same damn thing.
NO! I am on record as saying if they are going to keep the core of this team intact that they need to go all-in this summer with the tax-MLE, the Trade Exceptions, and draft picks. They have the flexibility to get better this summer despite being over the cap. I want to see if they learn from this adversity. If they once again are hovering around .500 halfway through the season then I will be upset. If they make the playoffs and get throttled again and if Dame can't use the way he was defended to get better for the future when he sees it again then yes blow it up. I think it is possible to grow every summer without making major changes.
I can respect that you have a limit... mine is just a half season to full season sooner. Seems like many in here though will follow Neil to his grave
Look, if I’m wrong I will happily eat crow... as I have said before I’m a die hard Blazers fan and team success means more than my ego in a forum debate... I just see no path for this roster centered around Dame/CJ combo... it sucks that I will have to wait another year for others to see what I see now