Here we go again, another superstar gets traded and we were nowhere near to get him. Am i the only one that kinda feels an invisible wall between us and the high floors of the NBA? When a star is rumored to be on the market you never see the Blazers as potential landing spot. When a good player is waived you never see the Blazers as potential landing spot. When a star open his free agency meetings you never see the Blazers as potential landing spot. We are the periphery of the NBA, nobody seems to calculate us in the equation of the franchises that matters in the NBA. Obviously we are not L.A. or New York but exactly for this reason i feel like we should have hired some big personalities both as a coach and as a GM. Kawhi choose the Clippers also because of Doc Rivers and Jerry West, i feel like Stotts and Olshey don't make good impressions on players, they're not good at recruiting.
I'll give you another example, if Iguodala gets waived by Memphis and is willing to take the veteran minimum i don't expect to see the Blazers as one of the possible destinations. You'll definitely see some Woj tweet saying "Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, Rockets all interested in Iguodala"
No, Kawhi chose the Clippers because he’s from LA and because LA is a glamour destination with movie stars and beaches and sunshine. Had very little to do with their coach or their consultant.
I have a feeling George had a handshake agreement that if he wanted out they would accommodate him. It was just done so quietly. Usually these type of players get leaked out they are available and then the bidding begins.
Lillard didn't even know that PG was on the market, so i'm pretty sure even Olshey didn't. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What is going on lol</p>— Damian Lillard (@Dame_Lillard) <a href="">July 6, 2019</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Kanter got waived and Portland landed him. Yeah Portland never gets good players off buyouts. Tell me again how you can't trust Lillard.
I mean if that was the price of for Geroge, in this case Im ok. That was a kings ransom in picks and that would murder any future we try to build with Collins, Simons, Little etc. Does it put us as legit contenders this year and perhaps next few seasons? Yeah, probably, but nothing is guaranteed.
The NBA is as wide open as ever because Kawhi is different and didn't want to be generic like most other guys and form a superteam big 3 with LeBron and AD and people are whining about it? My god. A superstar gets traded and we were nowhere to get him? Yeah, because we didn't have 5 picks, 2 swap opportunities, a near star-level forward and a young guard who's already good and has legit all-star potential to give up. They gave up the best package I've ever seen a star land. How tf were we going to beat that? 6 years from now, both LA teams will be fucked, and they won't be able to rebound for another decade. And they're not even all that much better than we are now and we have the ability to improve at the deadline since we still have a ton of assets. "When a good player is waived you never see the Blazers as a potential landing spot"... Kanter picked us over the Lakers just this past season. Rodney Hood likely did as well. We need "big personalities"...? Huh? You think that'll make Kawhi want to come to a small market compared to staying in the city where he just won a championship or going home...? Kawhi choose the Clippers because he's from LA. Doc and West helped, but if he was from Portland, wanted to go home, and we had cap space and Dame, we would've landed him. It wasn't because of Doc and West. Stotts and Olshey don't make good impressions? We just signed Kanter because of his past history with Olshey and players love playing for Stotts (even if I don't like him). Rodney gave up money to stay... Recruiting? We haven't had cap space for 3 years to even have a chance. We didn't have a good enough reputation after losing Aldridge to make noise either. TLDR; WTF are you talking about?
The thing is, if we gave up unprotected 1sts in 2020, 2022, 2024, 2026 as well as pick swaps in 2021, 2023, 2025 as well as Little, Simons, and Collins, I still don't think we beat what the Clippers gave up for PG. That's how ridiculously loaded that package was.
I don't think he picked LA for the glamour. He has roots there. Good weather. Laid back vibe. Wanted a fresh journey after winning two rings with two organizations. I don't blame Kawhi. I respect the hell out of him for wanting to compete against the Lakers instead of join them.
Do you actually read things before you post? You would save yourself a lot of time if you actually knew what was happening.