This is what I've been sating all along... That the owner has more invested in their young guys and wants to build around them and Thibs wants to win now and build around his guys. Ownership has humored him. They traded away two young players and a high lottery pick for Butler, let Thibs overpay Taj Gibson to get a second Thibs guy on the roster. They let him sign Derrick Rose and Loul Deng, but when it comes to Butler vs. KAT and Wiggins, this is where Taylor draws the line in the sand. Butler is available and the owner doesn't give a shit about anyone's list but his own. Fuck what Butler wants. Fuck what Thibs wants. There is one thing on Glen Taylor's list: get the most he can for Jimmy Butler and get it now. BNM
The relevance is whether there’s a significant chance that the Blazers would contend this season so that Butler would be enticed to stay. I don’t think there’s much chance that they make that big of a leap this season. While I am hoping Collins and Nurk are better this year, I think next season is more likely for a big leap, especially for Collins. By then, Butler is likely gone. I’m not a fan of Butler at SF. His size and strength give him an advantage at SG. At SF he’s not that big of an improvement over Mo.
I will just say this.... with Butler the Wolves were a top 4 team in the west. When he went down they became a shit heap again. Dame Butler Aminu Collins Nurk That (in my opinion) is a team that could win a championship. Obviously it's contingent on Collins developing, but Aminu is best at small forward. That's an exceptionally good defensive team, it's a team that can shoot, and it's a very long and athletic lineup.
Because when he plays small forward he's a net positive, and when he plays power forward he's a net negative. http://www.82games.com/1718/17POR10.HTM
Define contend? With Butler, I think the Blazer cement themselves as the rd best team in the West. I also think they are MUCH better equipped for the post season. If GSW or HOU are 100% healthy and playing close to their potential, they would still be favored in a 7-game series, but we all know CP3's history of post season injuries, and he's not getting any younger. We have also see James Harden completely disappear when a series is on the line. I don't share your opinion that Butler would be a 1-year rental. Butler's biggest complaint has been playing with rosters full of young guys who don't put in any effort on defense and don't seem to care about winning. In POR, Damian Lillard has taught our young guys well. He has led by example. His work ethic and determination has rubbed off on our young guys. Nurk has worked his ass off the last two summers to get in the best shape of his life and completely transformed our team defense. Zach Collins is also a hard worker who plays hard nosed defense. The things that pissed Jimmy off in CHI and MIN the past two seasons just don't exist in POR. Plus, we would have his Bird Right's, which would let us offer him a 5th year and bigger annual increaases than any other team. BNM
You make some good points, but I’m still hoping there’s a deal that lets the Blazers keep CJ and add another All-Star caliber player instead of just switching out CJ for someone else. I think CJ still has some upside and I don’t want to see it materialize in Minnesota.
LOL, small sample size alert. You left out the most important part. Aminu only played 1% of the available minutes at SF last season: Just to put that in perspective, C.J. played 6x as many minutes at SF as Aminu and had far greater Net-48 production at that spot than Chief: BNM
I think peak C.J. was what we saw in 2016-17. He had one of the top shooting seasons in the history of the league. That's going to be hard to beat. Plus, I see ZERO upside from him on the defensive end. Butler is consistently voted as one of the top 10 defenders in the league (4x 2nd team All Defense). At 6'8" he has the size and strength to guard guys C.J. can't and never will be able to. BNM
And you know this because???? You don't think Neil signing two veteran free agent SGs and drafting two more increases the likelihood that he'll trade C.J.? Why the fuck did he add 4 shooting guards to the roster if he plans to keep C.J. long term??? Since you know what he's thinking, please explain. BNM
The main growth I am looking for from CJ is improving his passing. Instead of jacking up some of those tough shots in tight coverage situations, dishthe ball to a teammate for an open look. CJ is never going to be the defensive player Butler is, but Butler is never going to be the shooter or ball handler that CJ is. And the real potential for a one year rental situation scares me off.
The same reason he created a surplus of bigs a couple seasons ago and didn’t do anything to balance the team out. He sucks at roster management.
Personally I think Jimmy Butler would thrive here. I think that he is probably the only Superstar that does not want to be in with the Lebron crowd or the Warriors crowd. I think he wants to take them down. I think he wants a team with good work ethic. He may be an asshole but I think he is looking for a team to fit in on and not filled with whiney prima donna's. I would take a chance on him only because I think he might stay and he is what this team needs. Would I give up CJ? Only as a last resort I would give up a 2019 and a 2020 Protected 1st round pick
Wiggins and KAT are far from whiny prima donnas... Also, we can't give up first round picks in consecutive years.
Please refresh my memory. I can't recall any time in recent years where we've had a surplus of players at the 4 and 5 positions. When was this and who were they? BNM
I think its perception. Not vs reality but the perception of amount of players who are actually deserving of NBA minutes. Like this year they do have a similar number of centers / PF’s as years past but for the most part many of those names we (the collective we), just dont trust. Just like at times there has been the feeling they dont have any guards! Well most of the time what we’re saying is they dont have any guards who we think can play.
