I take it you weren't one of the people around here who was real high on Jones? Some thought he was the missing piece.
They both have hops(I think Keon broke the combine record actually) but Keon is way more coordinated and doesn’t look like a baby fawn trying to walk for the first time and doesn’t end up on the ground 15 times per game.
I think this is a hard moment for the people who have been artificially propping up the players/contracts on our roster the last handful of years. Having to face the reality that we were over-valuing guys by way of trade and contracts and not wanting to blame Billups (he shouldn't be blamed), leaves very few options.
My scout on him is different. I feel he's very offensively challenged. Not to say he can't get better (Nas has), but this guy will not be ready to contribute in Dame's prime IMO.
Norman Powell has value around the league. 3 and D guy with a handle. We settled in that trade and also gave up the best player in the deal. I’m not saying we could’ve got someone special for Norman. But Eric Bledsoe and parts? Yuck
Sounds like Johnson was the jewel for the Blazers but what is curious is he is like 6'4 and even if he can blossom are the Blazers setting themselves up for small guard issue in the future if he does turn into a good player ? I believe in the Blazers mind they traded Powell and Cov for Bledsoe ( some cap saving ) , Justice ( Harkless 2.0 project / longshot AND a 1st round pick in Johnson -- now it's a gamble but let's say johnson is 1st round talent if this is the case was it really as bad as we all think it was meaning this trade talent wise went from a F / D to maybe a C plus to solid B IF Johnson can live up to his potential. I went around and read some of the scouting reports and seems like HIGH ceiling but a LOW floor too so it is a gamble BUT one thing i noticed is almost every report i read says he can be a great D player in the league and one even mentioned a young Ron Artest and he has MAD hops broke the vertical record in the combine too.
Why do you think we turned down better offers to settle for Bledsoe? 5 year deals for role players are typically not loved around the league. And I like Powell more than most here.
I think we didn’t exercise patience. A week to go and you’re pulling the trigger on that deal? GM’s get a little more desperate when it’s crunch time.
I know I am in the minority here, but again it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog. There are plenty of short guards who are good defensively (and can score) CP3 is prime example #1. And plenty of tall guards who are not. You are either a good defender or you are not. I have no idea if Keon is but an extra inch or two IMO does not make much difference at the guard position.
Okay, let's just say you don't know some things and leave it at that. People love that we show true emotion and don't hold back when the team makes a horrific trade.
I loved it. I was feeling the same kind of way. It is an indefensible trade. You'll notice like 95% of the board is sad. The other 5% will never be upset with the Blazers unless they moved. And they would probably still spin it and forgive them.
I don't know which to be more excited about: Keon Johnson as a Blazer or The Commanders as an NFL team name.
If they did wing it, do you think Chauncey would say something different? Surely we aren't getting fooled by press spin anymore, right?
He says the right thing every time. I've never once seen him go rogue. Whenever he criticizes publicly he follows it up with praise. The dude is incredibly media savvy. He would say the right thing because if he said he didn't know about it and hinted that he didn't like it that would hurt our chances of getting good value in the next deal or deals because other GMs would smell blood in the water.
There's no way to make that combo work with the trade restrictions on Bledsoe. With that said if we could get a lottery protected first, Boucher and Achiuwa from the Raptors and then trade that first and our second this year to the Bulls for our first back then we would free up our future first rounders and could do this. I don't really know what we would do for the rest of this season but we would need to re-sign Boucher and obviously Ant in the off season. We would have Dame, Ant, Nas, Simmons, Boucher, Achiuwa, our first rounder, GB3, Johnson and a bunch of min players.
