Are the Blazers absolute shit right now? Yes. Obviously. But the operative words are *right now* But with as bad as everything is *right now* Portland is just 3.5 games out of the playoffs. It’s not even December. There are 60+ games left. If they can hover around until Nurk gets healthy, I’d take it. In the meantime, younger players that wouldn’t have been playing unless they had to are going to get valuable development time. There will be ups and downs as with most young players, but the payoff could come sooner than had everyone stayed healthy/productive. Olshey has SEVEN expirings to work with, two being significant in size, that will allow him to be in play for just about any player on the block. He also has an open spot. I can almost guarantee the roster you see now is not the roster you will see after the all star break, you know, when teams usually make their runs. Does the rotation need to be mixed up? Sure, but the rotation has been in flux all season. I shit on Stotts a lot, but the minute allocations change on a game to game basis. Nothing is really set in stone. The team has an obvious immediate need at center, and I’d be surprised if it wasn’t addressed sooner than later. I guess what I’m saying is I’ll save the real bitching for the spring. In the meantime, smoke a joint, stick by your team, and let’s see what happens. Worst comes to worst we end up in the lottery, and honestly, that wouldn’t be the worst thing either. Fuck it.
I'm not that mad about it (I think it sucks, but the team is missing 2 essential starters). I just hope they develop Little and Simons. Anything is possible, but it just seems unlikely that Mario, Kent and Tolliver will be more than what the 10th, 11th and 12th men should be. Plus, the interior defense is just sooooooo bad.
Mario, Kent, and Tolliver could/should be elsewhere come March. And I think Nurkic and Collins could have something to say about that interior defense.
If we make a trade Mario and Tolliver would be 3rd stringers on the cheap....we need role players that don't break the bank...a trade would be for impact players that probably won't come cheap
I think we can handle 1 of those three, but not all three. I'm not holding my breath for Collins or Nurk to return.
I think it’s more likely Olshey trades for another Hood type than doing a blockbuster like Blake. He’s been pretty consistent in his idea of how to build a team. I can’t see him trading Simons or Collins, two of his better assets, just as I can’t see a team like Detroit settling for less.
I love Rodney on our team...he brings something we need with his ability to post up over mismatches in the paint. I think we end up trading expirings for an Aldridge type player but I'm real interested in picking up Andre Iguodala
We're 3.5 games out of the playoffs. We're 2 games out of being last in the West. I think it's much more likely that the latter will continue than the former until/unless we get Zach and Nurk back.
that's not accurate; the first 17 games have been decided. That's not nothing, it's definitely something...just not everything
I appreciate this thread Scalma. It's nice to have some that offset all of the negative ones. We still have a chance this year. It may be slim, but it's still there.
There's no real positive way to spin the fact we've lost 10 of our last 12 games, including against dreadful Golden State and Cavs teams. One of the wins went to overtime, and it was against the 4-12 Hawks. And a lot of those losses happened before Dame's back gave out from trying to carry the team. It's not just the losses, it's the way we're losing. The defense and rebounding just look really, really bad. This is definitely shaping up to be a tank season, even if we don't want it to. If Skal, Little, Ant and Trent are all playing 12-18mpg, and we're losing to Cleveland, there's really not much point in watching them. You're either refining with vets or rebuilding with youth in the NBA. Portland's playing Melo 35mpg, which is neither. I think I'm going to take a break from Blazers games for a while.