Dame mad about Barton trade for years

that could be, and I didn't even know he was eligible for induction yet

maybe the more fundamental point is that generally, championship teams have two or three elite talents, not one like Portland. And when exceptions occur, those cases see teams loaded with two-way players and one elite talent. Portland has one elite talent, but they don't have any other championship components

edit: on 2nd thought, maybe the championship formula is more specific....teams need elite talent on the wing. Off the top of my head, the Lakers had it with Kobe; Celtics had it with Pierce and Allen; Spurs had it with Manu; Heat had it with Lebron and DWade. Warriors had it with Durant and Klay and Green; Toronto had it with Kawhi and Siakam. Lakers have it with Lebron, and AD plays like a wing most of the time, kind of like Dirk did when the Mavs won the title

 

One of the exceptions to your observation would be the Larry Brown Pistons...really not one elite star on that team and an undersized center but they did have two way players and chemistry...the Chauncey, Sheed Hamilton Prince Wallsce and 6 man Hunter were a thing of beauty to watch...those Pistons are the model for the Blazers to succeed

 

Yeah, I don't know how you get that kind of collection of talent though Chauncey, Prince and Wallace were all all-defensive team machines and Sheed probably should have been all defense at least once in his career. Chauncey and Sheed were two way beasts. Rip was an absolute bucket getter and could handle himself defensively. Ben Wallace might be the greatest one dimensional defender in the history of basketball. The guy owned the paint, owned the paint and owned the paint. I mean Hakeem, Wilt, Bill Russell and Dikembe all owned the paint as well but they had quite a few more facets to their games respectively. Hunter was also nice on both ends of the court. They had a pretty deep bench too with Corliss Williamson, Okur, Bobby Sura, a young Mike James and two contributing old heads in Hubert Davis and Elden Campbell. That's a deep bench and when you add Melo to the mix... oh wait... that's right, Darko not Melo. With that exception that team was expertly built. We may never see a team again that is that well rounded, with that kind of bench and in the post Jordan era there will likely never be another team that dominant defensively.

 

well stated

and that loops right back around to how far away the Blazers are from contention right now. Hint: a long ways. Portland is simply lacking in high level, 2-way talent on the wing. And in today's NBA, wings are SG's, SF's, and PF's. It doesn't matter who the Blazers are starting at the forward positions, Ariza/Collins; Trent/Ariza; Trent/Melo; Ariza/Melo....that's going to be a significant mismatch disadvantage against the elite wings that comprise elite teams...

and the elephant in that room of reality is CJ. Elite wings can play both ends of the floor at the 3 wing positions. CJ plays one end of the floor at only one of the wing positions, and he's a damn long ways from being elite on that end of the floor. Yet, he dominates the ball, Blazer possessions, and the salary cap like he's elite talent; all-NBA. Other than management, and possibly Blazer coaching, that's the biggest issue locking Portland on the treadmill they are pretty obviously on

 

Rodney Hood was a solid fit at SF before getting hurt. Really looking forward to him getting some run with Nurkic/Collins/Dame/CJ as a unit next season.

 

I think Rodney will be a career Blazer now...retire here..great great piece to put next to Dame..we really missed him last season

 

Rodney hood was Trent before Trent emerged. Meaning that I really thought Hood should’ve been a starter at SG so we could trade CJ for a stud SF. Cause with Hood at SG and whatever SF we could’ve have some real nice length with Dame, Hood, SF, Collins, and Whiteside starting this year. With that being said Hood is and should be a blazers for the rest of his career. If he want to coach then he can still stay lol

 

Hood has never, ever in his career shown the same level of defense that Trent showed last season. He's not a 3&D player, he's simply a 3.

 

Trent is too small to guard elite wings. Hood is a SF. Why would you want him at SG? Curious, because that puts all of the ball-handling on Dame on the starting unit. Trent was one of the worst defensive players on the floor in the Lakers series according to advanced metrics.

Also, Hood was shooting 49% from three this season before he snapped the Achilles.

 

I was referring to Trent's ability to be a 3&D player. Advanced defensive metrics are not very accurate, especially when the entire team is getting creamed on that side of the floor. Most teams don't have a LeBron, and I'd be confident that Trent can guard most wings in the league, Hood would have done just as bad if not worse against him.

Hood has never, ever shown the type of defensive ability as Trent did in those last 8 games. He regularly gets screened out on pick and rolls, does not move his feet the same way as Trent to stay in front of guys, and doesn't have the same level of defensive instincts that Trent does. Not to mention he's coming off a major injury that is known to hamper lateral quickness.

 

Re: CJ an all-star in the East: we just don't know. Compare the numbers he puts up when Dame is out with Eastern All-Star guards