Keeping our pick? This might be a Lottery year

Whats your preference trade the picks for Dame time or keep one or both and trade Dame? Maybe they could trade up and get that out of the gate super star for Dame Time?

 

I know you're asking blazerkor, but I'm a jerk so I'll step in front and answer

* first thing...never trade Dame unless he demands to be traded

* 2nd thing...if the Blazers have a top-3 pick I would hope there's a good enough target available that player could start, and play well as a rookie

* 3rd thing...if they have 2 lottery picks but both outside the top-4 (likely), then sure, be willing to trade both for a major upgrade. But that upgrade has to be a higher level than Grant. John Collins, yes; probably; maybe?....Grant, no. I wouldn't trade a top-10 pick for Grant unless it was 9th or 10th and the Pistons were willing to trade for Bledsoe, effectively preserving that 21M TPE

it sure looks like Cronin is planning on copying a template many of the good teams use. That being having 2 or 3 or 4 highly paid players (20M or more); a couple around MLE-level; and then filling out the roster and lower end of the rotation with bargain & minimum contracts

Blazers have Dame/Ant. I am quite a bit more optimistic about that pairing than I ever was about Dame/CJ. Maybe my pro-Dame bias is blinding me to reality, I don't know. I just happen to think that Dame/Ant with Hart as the 3rd guard and Billups as coach is a much better formula that Dame/CJ + short guards & Stotts. And Portland has Nurkic who can be really good in a limited role. By limited I mean he should not be a primary offensive option. He's just too inconsistent. But his 2-man game with Dame can be dynamic.

what Portland lacks is a quality 2-way forward. Apparently Cronin thinks Grant can plug that hole. I'm hoping for somebody better. I like Little but he can's stay healthy; can't depend on him. I'm hoping Portland isn't forced to start Hart at SF because he fits so well with Dame/Ant as 3rd guard. I like Watford and Winslow as bench support; and even Eubanks as a backup C although I'm not sure he's good enough to be 2nd in C rotation. Portland seems to have enough options for those minimum salaries. They mainly need another star, even assuming Ant gets there sooner rather than later

 

My preference is to get lucky in the lottery and land a front court player who would make an immediate impact and be an all star player while Dame is still playing at an all nba or all star level or trade the picks for someone who is already an all star. When I say picks, I think if we're going all in on Dame the way that Cronin said we are about to, then we should do the small thing that it takes to get Chicago to let us lift the conditions on the pick we will owe them next season, so we can also trade up to three future firsts in order to build a win now team for Dame. That's my preference.

I think what happens between now and two months from tonight has the chance to change the way all of us see our team's future. That being said, unlike many in here I still believe we have the right assets to build a real contender and therefore if things go the right way for us a champion around Dame. We just have to get really ambitious right now. BPA with both picks, re-signing Ant, Nurk and then getting a rotational player in free agency isn't the right way to go. If we think that Dame and Ant are a championship back court despite their redundancies being familiar to us, then we either need to put our two picks and future firsts together for a superstar PF or use picks to get us two new borderline or established all stars that wouldn't necessarily have to be superstar level talent. Any way you look at it huge moves are still needed.

If none of that can be done, then yeah with a heavy heart we would need to draft the BPA that fit with Ant and Nas and move Dame for a young player with superstar potential or a young player or two with all star potential combined with some first rounders. That would restart us with a young core that should be able to compete immediately day to day in the NBA and potentially be a contender within the next few seasons if we get the right prospects. I see why that might be appealing to some fans and a new GM if Joe isn't retained but for me I really want to see what a complementary roster can do with Dame running things before we give up on that dream.

 

Going to the two afternoon games today players to watch for draft?

 

Agree about Dame, I'm glad it appears that he direction for the next few years anyway. I hope Grant isn't who Joe is targeting . You'd think with the picks and player current assets we'd be able to maybe get target a guy like Brown? I see Boston maybe breaking them up? I mean, its possible we have a new GM before draft night and a plan is already in place.

 

I think if we did drop the conditions on the pick we owe the Bulls, lets just say for the later of our two second rounders then our future firsts starting in 2025 are open. I could then see us trading our pick if it was 4-6, a future first or two and both Bledsoe and Hart for Brown. Then I think the Pelicans pick for Grant would make sense. Obviously we'd re-sign Ant and Nurk at that point. We could get a really good backup big for the TPMLE (Portis or Boucher) and maybe even another with our second rounder (Adji).

Dame, Ant, Jaylen, Jerami, Nurk, Nas, Portis, Justise and whoever does the best out of Keon, Greg, Trendon and Didi. Really if we had those eight guys who are such known commodities we wouldn't really have a position of need so that last rotational spot or whatever minutes are leftover would just be up for grabs from our young guys. If you assume that Ant would be the second scoring option, it would be like Grant, Brown and Nurk would be jockeying for options 3a-c. We would have a scary offensive attack with as good of Chauncey style defenders around Dame and Ant as you could really ask for.

I guess for me the only dream scenario that's better is winning the first pick in the lotto with which we pick Jabari Smith, then preemptively break up Dame and Ant by sign and trading Ant and the Pelicans pick for Jaylen Brown. Then we would just re-sign Nurk. We'd probably want to pick up someone like Tyus Jones to backup Dame with the full MLE. Dame, Nas or Hart, Jaylen, Jabari, Nurk, Nas or Hart, Justise, Jones and Trendon or some min level big or a big we pick up with our second rounder. That's a contending team, especially with Chauncey's schemes.

 

Good grief, Jalen Duren's hands ... it's like watching Connie Hawkins.

 

Duren's first shot in the game against Boise State was an airball over the hoop from 7 feet away on the baseline.

 

sucks that i can't watch this today.

 

now that observation says "hey, I'm really old"

 

Duren is is slow on his feet and imo, not at top 7 talent.

 

Jeremy Sochan is starting to look a little intriguing, shooting is horrific though.

 

I really like Murray's demeanor. Calming presence who you cant speed up

 

is there any kind of consensus in mock drafts past the top 3 picks or so?

 

He's just raw. Those quick twitch muscles for bigs seem to fire a bit later and the kid is only 18. He looks kinda like dale davis today

 

Even top 3 is not set in stone. Only top 2 so far. People are dropping Paolo below 5 in some instances which seems wild to me

 

He’s built like DHoward.
Is he a top 5 pick you think?

 

They even run alike. Glad Iowa has big jersey numbers

 

I've been pretty cool on him from the start but his size is hard to dismiss. Need to see who else jumps up in the mocks. We're still two months from workouts where guys can have a big jump.