should the blazers embrace full rebuild or rebuild through trades & free agency

personally, the only thing thats stoping me from wanting the full rebuild is dame lillard, as i would love to see him play his entire career with the blazers and its rare to see a star player do that, as they usually go elsewhere to win a ring or simply want to enjoy life in a great city... how great would it be for our franchise to have a star player that have played his entire career in rip city and that achievement would get him a statue outside of the rose garden for sure (he might get one if he leaves too, but still)

dallas mavs have dirk nowitzki, indiana pacers have reggie miller, utah jazz have john stockton, etc & id like to see us have dame lillard as our greatest blazer ever who played his entire career here

obviously, dame lillard is not a caliber of a player like lebron james or kevin durant, so his legacy wont be tarnished if he doesnt win a chip and loyalty to the blazers probably means more for his legacy than a chip elsewhere and i think dame believes that too and i think deep down he knows he wouldnt be a 1st option on some contending team (lets say phila)

for the blazers, speaking from a bball, not a business point, full rebuild most likely would be the best decision going foward, just go okc & houston route, cause blazers wont be a contender, with this team or with any trade/free agency moves, wed be a playoff team and we have been that for like a decade and weve got tired of it... or maybe weve got tired of the dame lillard-cj mccollum-nurk trio and we need new players, just something to get excited again

 

Currently 12 of 30 teams are above 500. 16 of 30 500 and below. I would like to see what kind of trades can happen and wait till end of season to decide to blow it up or keep building around Dame.
We may have a new GM coming in so I would expect him to be involved with a different direction. We do have assets so lets see what Cronin can do, his job as IGM depends on it too.

 

Swing for the fences type of trade to help Lillard. Role players won't get done.

A full rebuild will be useless, tank and draft studs? Because young stars will see how badly the organization is at surrounding Lillard with top talent and will assume they will do that to them too. If the Blazers will fuck Lillard's time here more by not getting him the talent he needs around him, it doesn't bode well for future draft picks wanting to stay in Portland.

 

You guys are making way too much sense.
I'm going to some other thread where I can start a fight...

 

We already are like OKC. They’re just a half game below us.

 

Free Agency has never been successful in the entire history of the franchise other than a few players none would consider star caliber. Full rebuild and getting lucky in the draft is the only way for us to contend. all it took was a 15 pick for the bucks to go from a joke for years to having an mvp player, championship and be a contented for years. I know that its really lucky for them to get that but I would rather have that chance to get a player or players like that then be a treadmill team losing in the first round for eternity.

 

Swing for the fences and rest Lillard. Draft well.
Kill it next season.

*Trading Dame makes it tough for us to keep stars in the future. Do everything possible to get that man a title in Portland.

 

I disagree, but only slightly. I agree there has to be a rebuild, but I think a full rebuild but still around Dame is possible. A bad year this year wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. That would guarantee a lotto pick. Trading CJ + Covington could get you enough cracks at finding that star like Giannis in the next few years or you could them for a star. Nassir will continue to get better and is pretty much a guarantee to be our starting SF next year. Powell is still a good player on a very reasonable contract that can get us picks or a young guy back.

Still a lot of reasons to be optimistic with a Dame as our star to embrace a *full* rebuild in my opinion. Trading him only serves future stars a reminder that they should get out of Portland ASAP if they get drafted here.

 

And probably with a much brighter future as long as they use their picks wisely. SGA is the real deal too.

 

When you say Free Agency are you talking about real players or just left over scrub players?

 

Yeah, the Bucks got lucky on Giannis, but they also made smart trades (Middleton from Detroit and Holiday from the Pelicans) and FA signings (Lopez, Matthews, Connaughton, etc.)
Teams that “build through the draft” tend to stay in the draft lottery (Kings, Timberwolves).

 

Warriors are a counterargument. They drafted their core.

The Spurs drafted winners.

For a small market team, the draft is a tool to acquire talent. You just have to hit multiple times and make good trades. We hit on the star in Lillard. We hit on a star in Aldridge. There is zero chance we would have ever gotten either of those players without getting a lotto pick.

 

Yep. We have to face the fact that we need an actual basketball guy as a GM. Someone with a vision for players that jive and Neil wasn't it. He was more of a bullshit artist than basketball guy.

 

Not as long as Dame is here.

He’s Batman and Sleepy Joe Cronin has the task of finding his Robin.

 

Both the Spurs and Warriors were stupendously fortunate to get core players like Ginobili and Green in the second round of the draft. The Robinson injury that netted Duncan was something you can’t plan. You need luck in great quantities plus smart trades and FA signings to build a contender.

 

Absolutely, but the Warriors whiffed on a lot of picks before hitting home runs with Klay and Curry. They couldn't have done that without having high draft picks.

Same with the Spurs. If they didn't suck, they never would have gotten Duncan. Duncan is a top 15 player of all time. Better than anyone we have ever had.

I have minimal faith we will ever sign an impact free agent. We overpay for role players.

So, the only way we can get stars is through the draft and trades. The draft is the easier place to do so since teams generally aren't going to want to let stars go, and stars aren't going to force their way to Portland.

 

I don't know if the word bleak got lost in translation and in no way am I saying that to be snarky but if we're thinking that it means the same thing then the poll question is shitty. There are so many ways that Dame stays with the team throughout his entire career and the team gets a lot better than we currently are and even gets better than the best we've been since Dame has been here. So I won't answer the poll question because I want big moves made around Dame that make us more competitive immediately and going forward over the next five or so years at least.

 

To me the way we get stars is to make them when they get here before anyone else knows they are....like a Nas....that's what the Blazers fishing pond is....trades and drafts...when they are constantly a top 4 team in the league they'll get some older stars who will play to win but until then, our talent will probably come from home cookin' and great scouting

 

Huh?