Yeah but Winslow can push the ball better down the court better than those two. Dame, Ant, Hart should all benefit from that. And if you get a PF who can also shoot, you can slide Winslow to the 3 to do the same. Of course, we still need a high-scoring PF. As many have alluded to, John Collins would be a good fit. Better than Grant.
The Dame and Simon will start next year at the beginning because you actually have to look at to see if going to work on both side of the ball. Then Billups will have choice to switch it if don't work. Let don't jump to conclusions about Joe does until we see the roster next year at the start of the season.
Not sure who will start, but I assume all three will finish most games. Dame, Ant, Hart, Nurk and the PF YTD Either way, they will get 30 + minutes
Interesting OP. Apparently, he's a Tier drafter, which isn't surprising. When does the "interim" tag get removed?
Makes me wonder about Shaedon Sharpe. He’s probably the drafts biggest mystery and is gonna go in the lottery (safe bet he declares) based purely on talent. If we have two lottery picks, may as well take a couple big swings. Duren and Sharpe would be ultimate upside plays.
Hart was starting as a four for the pelicans this season. Also have to remember that in Billups’ system a three and a two are the same thing. I mean he has literally said it. The main problem was never really size. It was that Powell and CJ were shit defenders and rebounders. Hart is neither of those things. Simons has a higher defensive ceiling as well than those two aging players. His prime will be spent under the tutelage of a defensive minded coach, he has no choice but to play D. I see Hart starting at the three with Nas backing him up. Billups likes versatile defenders so they can play matchups. I’m not worried about it too much. The power forward position is the biggest question mark.
good points but Im thinking in order to acquire that star front line player we'd have to couple one of Naz, Simons, Hart with a pick?
the odds of them trading any of those guys are slim imo. Think their lotto picks will be the main assets, but I’m not sure this power forward is coming from another team, at least not before the deadline next season. I guess it depends on who becomes available. Siakam and Collins are two guys worth holding out for.
Interesting article in Forbes on the reasons for the Blazers’ sell low deadline trades: https://apple.news/AlLWRjlqdRXiM_IVmsBtsAQ
We got more talent!!! We fans have to stop the homerism; Compare RoCo’s stats as a starting PF against the other teams. CJ hogged the ball for years, never played a lick of defense and his contract was a problem; Norm vs Hart = Hart all day long. And we have a large trade exception, some picks and more room. PS: a healthy Ingles off the bench!! A good thing.
We need more talent, but we also need more talent per dollar in salary. Hart is probably more valuable than CJ, even if he's not as good. I'd like to think that's why Hart and maybe Winslow are valued by the Blazers--those guys haven't been big difference-makers in the NBA, let alone important players on good teams, so if they are supposed to be the type of core players we seek in terms of talent, and we give them big contracts as a result, then we're going to be a bad team for a long time.
We got so much less talent and you are the one being a homer about this. Just look at what CJ is doing and has done throughout his career and you could easily say that the value we got back from all of the trades is as much as CJ and filler are worth. We got Josh Hart, Justise Winslow, a first that is a huge gamble and might very well be Milwaukee's 2025 FRP, a 2025 SRP, career role players that are completely washed, two prospects that look like scrubs and a TPE that you have to have draft assets to tag onto for it to have any value at all. Norm vs Hart is an interesting argument. Hart is marginally the better defender and Norm is the better offensive weapon but not by a huge stretch but Norm and Hart weren't even close to being in the same trade. Obviously RoCo wasn't fitting in well with Chauncey but the idea that RoCo and Justise are even close to as good as each other is just not accurate. Justise can do a few things at a good level, for a backup on a decent team. RoCo is a very solid spot up shooter and one of the best defensive disruptors in the game. Larry Nance is on a 9M dollar contract next season and we know that he is fantastic in a lot of areas of the game a much much better version of Winslow, not that they were in the same trade either. Winslow is a guy making 4M a season and by no means is he underpaid. The fact that you mention "Ingles off the bench!!" is a great example of just how dedicated to the narrative that these trades were good. Ingles' game had digressed so severely over the last two seasons and he just blew out his knee which should add to the problems he was already having with degraded mobility. Also he's an unrestricted free agent who should not make the full MLE and just about any team has a shot at, if he can still play at the NBA level. Josh Hart was the only solid piece of talent we got in this trade. There's a chance we get lucky and Keon pans out to be a contributor, there's also a chance that we end up with a lottery pick in the upcoming draft. If those two maybe's happen the trade's are less laughable but still bad and trades being contingent on getting lucky are terrible trades. Look around twitter and Reddit to fans that aren't big on any of the teams involved and see what the consensus is. We got fleeced.
I know these things My season tickets aren’t getting renewed until I know who the GM is going forward. The NO deal doesn’t happen if we are still over the cap….VERY credible source We REALLY tried to get Ben Simmons Also made inquiries on Siakam
I get that Dame likes him, but otherwise, don't get the Grant fascination. Would rather have Collins, Wood or Siakim from the list of players that might be available.
Why would the CJ deal not happen if we were in the tax? That move alone brings us under the lux tax. Do we really think NO does not do that deal on Wednesday morning and they are holding out the fact that we are in the tax over our head? Classic inexperienced move by Cronin. Now maybe we end up doing the deal Wednesday and fail to get any value from Covington and Powell. But we got nothing out of Covington anyways so whatever?
The comment about the NO deal just confirms my belief that Cronin and/or the Seattle Mafia are hopeless and clueless. We had zero chance at Simmons without trading Dame, so I don't hole that against Cronin. I do wonder what we offered for Siakam. I think your season ticket decision is very wise.