Nurk was probably better than half the west all stars last year. Hassan is up there too. To me that counts as 2+ All stars. That’s also two elite defenders though only one on the court at any time. Collins has the potential to be a great defender though he’s not proved anything yet. The problem as I see it is our depth. To contend we’d need Trent, Skal, and Little to all blossom into average+ players and one of them, probably Trent, to become a starting level player. And we need to ditch Melo ASAP which we won’t of course. He’s terrible and he detracts from those player’s PT.
Hard to compare teams 30's apart because the styles of the game has changed so much, but it would be interesting to breakdown the differences from the Clyde team and this team. Could make a case the current #1 is better (though it's debatable). Not sure the comparisons 2-9 would be that close, but again, very hard to do.
Totally on board with your second paragraph in regards to depth; it's a real issue. I think you'd have a hard time finding a majority of non-Blazer fans who would agree with your first paragraph in terms of Nurk or Whiteside being all-star caliber players. The voting by players or media last year do not indicate they have them ranked inside the top 30 of frontcourt players in the West. I have no problem with you saying they're good defenders, even though they have some liabilities, they're a net positive for sure.
LeBron James James Harden Kevin Durant Damian Lillard Klay Thompson Karl-Anthony Towns LaMarcus Aldridge Anthony Davis Stephen Curry Paul George Russell Westbrook Nikola Jokić better? no...maybe at the level of Klay, LMA, and Westbrook. 8 are definitely better, and I think you can make a case for a couple more but more than that is that C's...true big men....don't lead teams to championships anymore. Here are the last 15 league MVP's: G. Antetokounmpo J. Harden R. Westbrook S. Curry S. Curry K. Durant L. James L. James D. Rose L. James L. James K. Bryant D. Nowitzki S. Nash S. Nash and here are the last 15 finals MVP's: Tim Duncan (3) Dwyane Wade Tony Parker Paul Pierce Kobe Bryant Kobe Bryant (2) Dirk Nowitzki LeBron James^ LeBron James^ (2) Kawhi Leonard^ Andre Iguodala^ LeBron James^ (3) Kevin Durant^ Kevin Durant^ (2) Kawhi Leonard^ (2) Dirk was tall, but he was a perimeter player. Out of those 30 MVP's, Duncan was the only big, and he was 15 years ago. It's almost all wings...that's how teams contend and win championships. There's a little hope because there are some PG's among those names, but the last one, Rose, was 9 years ago and he was a controversial choice Portland would be bucking long odds by having a PG as the best player and a maybe-all-star C as their 2nd best player. The problem, again, is that C's don't win championships any more, and Portland's best player is 6'2 and much easier to shut down than a ball-handling wing. Out of 51 Finals MVP's, only two have been PG's like Dame, Tony Parker in 2007 and Isiah Thomas in 1990. Portland needs a wing as talented as Dame, but that's a big ask, especially when the GM is clinging so tightly to an undersized non-all-star SG
$31.6m Dame $29.3m CJ $14.1m Nurk $12.8m Ariza $6.0m Hood $5.4m Collins $2.2m Simons $2.2m Little $1.9m Mario $1.7m Trent $107.2m for 10 players $4.8m dead cap hit (Nicholson & Varejao) Signings: $3.6m Melo (using Bi-annual) $13.0m Whiteside (using Bird Rights) $3.8m TBD (1st round pick) $1.5m Gabriel (using part of MLE) $4.0m Skal (using Bird Rights) $25.9m for 5 new players TOTAL: $137.9m (15 players), but Portland would still have most of the MLE left as long as they don't go over the hardcap line. Projected cap ~$115m, so tax line would be ~$139m & hard cap would be ~$145m
Ok not 1/2 but I would take last year’s Nurk over LMA, Westbrook, and KAT any day. Klay is a close call. Yeah I wish we had a dominant wing but they aren’t easy to come by. I’d love to have Iggy, one of my fav players ever, even if he is long in the tooth. Anyway this was to contend, not necessarily to win.
Fans like silky offense and underrate defense. I would take Nurk and Whiteside over LMA and KAT without a thought. Defensively RPM ranked them 7th and 14th in the NBA last year, both ahead of AD. BPM has Nurk basically the same as AD and HW a bit worse. Both in the ballpark of Rudy Gobert..
This might be weird to say but the team that came to mind for me with how Dame's been playing is the Kobe-led Lakers who won it in 2009 and 2010. Obviously Kobe was a bigger wing than Dame is so I'm not trying to argue that a PG is the same as a big wing but in terms of them dominating scoring baskets. Gasol those two years averaged around 18 and 11 as the 2nd best player but the thing that made him a great fit was his passing ability, basketball IQ, and his mesh mentally with Kobe. If healthy, Nurk can play similarly and has a connection with Dame. Whiteside has been better than Bynum was, plus Bynum was injured a lot too (more Nurk like). The problem is that neither Whiteside or Nurk can play the 4 like Gasol could. But yeah, in terms of a team winning with a scoring machine, a great big man, and mostly role players I think that's a decent comparison.
That 6 seed Pelicans team was a contender when healthy (I have them as the 3rd best team, behind GSW and Houston). They just weren't healthy very much. They were very healthy against Portland in that series.
This is an excellent post. The Blazers have not shown yet that they can defeat a great team which blankets Dame with two long defenders. Dame is great. He's creeping up on Walton as best Blazer ever, IMO. Can he hit from the logo with 2 long defenders on him? Maybe once per game. Is that an offense we should rely on? No. I like to think when doubled up top he'll be able to find either Ariza or CJ for 3, or if they're covered they should be able to swing it to a post for the open layup. I really do think we're better prepared for this with Ariza in the line-up than we have been in the past. Credit to NO for "lucking into" another upgrade. Is it enough? I'm not sure...
Ariza has been a huge deal for this. Perfect player for Dame. We got a legit good strong defender that can guard 1 through 4. He is also good hitting open 3s. He doesn’t show lots on stat sheet but he is vital, esp when you got Nuclear Dame on your team
No one. That was my point lol. That's why our recent showings do not reflect our ceiling this season.
