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

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mo...old-on/ar-AASdrUJ?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBnbfcL

Interesting analogy.

 

15 pick isn’t a lottery pick. Also- Bucks weren’t much of a joke. They were in ECF in 2001 and then had solid Bogut years.

 

There are trades to be made and any of them could pan out to be much better than any of us can foresee at the moment. Then there are free agents that can sign here, obviously it's unlikely to be an established star but it might be a player like Wes once was that is a difference maker that we get from out of nowhere. We will also draft players between now and the time Dame is no longer relevant, we could hit big on one of those picks. Nas also has a lot of potential, I don't think he's going to be an all star but I can't rule that out.

Let's see what happens between now and February 10th. That will be the first thing to look at for signs of life. Like I've said a lot lately if Cronin wants this job and the guy obviously does, he has to knock it out of the park between now and the deadline. If he doesn't do something that significantly upgrades this roster, he will not have the interim removed and will have to move on to another team or back to being an assistant GM for this one. That makes me think he will take a big shot and that big shot might make a huge difference in our team's ability to compete.

So to answer your "Huh?" There are an innumerable amount of ways that this roster with Dame on it can get better than we were when we got swept out of the Western Conference Finals. I realize that putting odds on what this team might be and might not be at any one point in the next five or so seasons if Dame stays is nearly impossible but if you lack the imagination to understand that there are just as many things that can go incredibly right, as there are that can go incredibly wrong or that can be incredibly blah, then I don't know what to tell you. Possibilities.

 

Except what is being suggested would be the equivalent of the Warriors trading Steph to draft Klay.

or trading Aldridge to draft Lillard.

I would like to see an example of a team selling the farm & it working out for them.

 

No.

We would be bad for multiple years to draft multiple star players. Or, we would have enough assets to make moves to try to get multiple star players through the draft.

A lotto pick this year and trading Dame for a lotto pick and other assets could achieve that, if we drafted the right way.

Since it is the rookies first year we probably would be picking top 10 next year too.

 

Blazers currently at a 37.2% shot at a top 4 pick

 

There is zero point to try to claw our way to a 1st round exit.

At least a lotto pick gives us some hope moving forward.

I don't get fans in love with the treadmill aspect.

 

the Bucks actually traded for the right to draft Middleton. So, their two best players came from the draft. And yeah, I consider draft day trades and trading for draft rights as building thru the draft

I disagree, to a degree, on the notion that teams in the lottery stay in the lottery. Certainly some of them do but that's simply bad management. The Kings and Wolves being classic examples of that

But a lot of contenders, maybe even a big majority over the years, built their core thru the draft and supplement with a key trade or two.

* The Lakers and Celtics in the 80's did that. Magic, Worthy, Michael Cooper - Bird, McHale, Maxwell

* The Bulls won 6 championships after 'drafting' Jordan, Pippen, Horace Grant, and BJ Armstrong

* The Pistons won 2 after drafting Isiah Thomas, Dumars, Rodman, and John Salley

* The Spurs and Warriors have combined for 8 championships with their cores almost exclusively coming from the draft...and that includes this season's version of the Warriors

* the current Suns team added Booker, Bridges, Ayton, and Johnson thru the draft

not only that, Portland built their only championship team when they added Walton, Gross, Hollins, Steele, & Davis thru the regular draft and Lucas & Twardzick thru the dispersal draft. A decade later they built another contender by drafting Drexler, Porter, Kersey, and Robinson; then trading a former #2 pick for Buck Williams

sure, it requires some luck. But you have to be in a position to get lucky in the first place. Portland had a chance at that position in 2016. After the Aldridge team broke up, the Blazers could have doubled down on a bad roster by trading CJ while leveraging cap-space for 'bad' contracts and picks. But they went the other direction. Blazers could have a great team right now, maybe a strong contender, if Olshey hadn't been such a fucking idiot in the 2017 draft

They are currently in 6th place in the lottery with a 37% chance at a top-4 pick. That's an asset right now...one of the best they have frankly. Will they maximize it by clever management or dilute it for no good reason?

it would have required some incredible luck, but Portland could have come out of the 2013 draft with Dame, Giannis, and Gobert all Blazers. A generational opportunity although I'd imagine Giannis and Gobert would have spent a lot of time stepping on each other's toes. But Giannis + Dame? my oh my

I do not agree with those advocating trading Dame right now. I think the Blazers owe it to Dame, and the fans, one honest shot at building a contender around Dame. Olshey never did. But it's to the point where there will not be any single magic-bullet trade that will accomplish that. It will need to be a process that starts with a realistic appraisal of the terribly balanced roster, as individual trade assets. And again, with an opportunity for a high draft pick in 6 months, maybe a discussion with Dame about the reality Portland is facing.

 

Agree 100%.

 

for sure I was just using it as an example of how much the draft can transform a franchise that doesn't really get free agents. 2001 was almost more than 20 years ago we were also in the wcf 20 years ago about.

 

Bam Adebayo or John Collins instead of Zach Collins.

 

I disagree is all. There’s no way this roster is full of enough assets that will return such a drastically different team of talent and cohesion that they all of a sudden are a WCF team. Not with GS, Phoenix, Utah, and eventually Denver, the Clips, all clearly better than then. Then there’s the Lakers who will eventually give up on AD and LJ and go get Lamelo Ball and Zion who miraculously gets healthy for LA. This team is nowhere near a WCF let alone Finals. The only way that happens is to reload via draft and pray you get something back for these guys with some young guys who blossom. So as far as “innumerable” ways, I don’t see it. Like at all. But you are free to feel any way you want of course and hopefully you’re right and I’m wrong.

 

Dame has been loyal to us so we should try under new management and coaching to bring in players via trades, draft that could at least keep us in contention in the west for a few years.