Paolo is a better team defender than Jabari, not nearly as good as Chet. Paolo is a PLUS one-on-one defender as well, though not nearly as good as Jabari. Teams rather go at Mark Williams, widely accepted as a really good college defender, in the PnR than Paolo. Paolo can guard Jabari or Chet. Neither Chet or Jabari can guard Paolo. The real reason Paolo has question marks is because of his cramping and sweating issue, not because of his play.
Yeah, I can't decide if I like him or Jabari better. Jabari has a better outside shot and a motor that doesn't stop. He's also probably the more explosive athlete but he doesn't have the level of ball handling that Paolo does or the passing ability. He's also not as strong, Paolo is a beast. Those are the only two guys I really want though, if we are going to be building around Dame to get to a contending level right away. I think that Chet and Jaden will have immediate game changing impacts on the teams they go to. Ivey will be an impact player regardless of who he's surrounded by unless he's buried on a bench behind guys like Dame, Ant and Hart. Chet needs specific personnel around him or the speed of the NBA game will really hurt him on defense. We don't have that personnel. The rest of the guys in this draft don't seem like instant difference makers and we just don't have the time to develop guys. So if we're not in position to get Jabari or Paolo, I think we have to find the most impactful player possible in a trade. It's funny because we don't know where we'll be drafting or if we'll have that second pick. If we don't have that second lottery pick I would just assume that we won't have the GM that has been sharing his plans with us in place by the time the draft is here. So then we'll have a real wild card situation in which maybe Dame is being moved for the best young player and additional assets possible, maybe that new GM wants to gauge the value he can get for Ant in a sign and trade since it should be much higher than the value coming back in most sign and trade deals because we have Ant restricted. Everything is very up in the air with this team right now, I can just guarantee that we will see a much different roster next year than we've ever seen play together before.
They need to win 2, but outside of possibly getting a win against the Pistons, where is the other win? They are tanking as well.
Trust me, Dame doesn’t want ANY of these KIDS you’re all debating about. He wants battle proven vets that can help him win NOW! He isn’t waiting 3-4 years for these dudes to become men on the court. I think these picks are good as gone.
Cronin's biggest achievement might be convincing FAs like Nurk/Simons to sit out games while on the verge of massive paydays. Simons coulda been the frontrunner for MIP if he was still on the floor. Obviously, these deals are already agreed upon.
The craziest part about that, unless the players have been given assurances that contradict what Vulcan is publicly saying about the GM job search, is that Cronin and his vision for this team's future and those players' value might not be what's steering this ship once the season is over.
Vulcan let Cronin hire/fire staff members throughout the front office. I think he's here as GM for the long haul. We might do a re-org and put someone else above him as a PoBO for further oversight but they aren't going to let Cronin make staffing decisions only to let him go in the summer.
That makes sense. I guess the only reason that they'd do that is if one of the candidates that they interview in this process convinces them that this front office that has been mostly intact for a decade has fucked up every decision that wasn't directly related to Dame and may have even mishandled him by letting him have too much say in what they did. Then they might just clean house, keeping a new hire or two and maybe one other person for continuity or not caring about continuity at all.
I don't have access to Dame so I have no idea what he wants or how much nuance there is to it. And how much nuance there is to it is important. For instance, if you have to trade both lottery picks and then throw a lot of money at Jerami Grant, I'd rather keep the picks and, if Dame doesn't like that, trade him. That's not a reactionary move on my part. That's just saying that trading for one Grant and making yourself even more cash-strapped is a foolish move because it doesn't move the needle enough right now to justify it and it hurts the Blazers considerably in the future, too. Gambling good assets on situational players or players with red flags/questionable fits is what put Portland in this situation in the first place. It's supply and demand and looking at the market and not making moves just because your star is buds with a guy and hopes he puts us over the top when anyone with a lick of sense knows he doesn't. If you can get a star player -- a Siakam -- for those two picks (presuming you don't get in the top three), then that's different. Siakam is a real game-changer. He's a couple of levels ahead of Grant. Or, if you can get Abdunaby by a trade that includes one of the lottery picks, that makes sense to me. Trading good assets for the best vet who happens to be available will put the Blazers right back where they were this season. You have to know what's on the table and what it's going to take to get them before just presuming a vet would be the better move.
I can’t wait personally until we trade pick/picks who later become stars in their early 20’s who we would have control over to add to young players Ant, Nassir, Watford, and instead get Jerami Grant and old Draymond Green so we can get beat by the Suns and Nuggets until Damian retires. Fun stuff.
I guess when it's a race to the bottom we should expect competition. After all its professional basketball.
It's a race for 5/6/7 really. 5. Indiana -- 25 wins remaining games: ATL, DEN, BOS, DET, PHL, PHL, BKN I see them winning the DET game, maybe. Perhaps the second PHL game if Doc tanks to get a favorable first round playoff matchup. 6. Sacramento -- 27 wins remaining games: MIA, HOU, HOU, GSW, NOP, LAC, PHX I see them winning at least one of the two Houston games because the Rockets will tank, and there is absolutely no way anyone is going to play for the Suns in that last game at Phoenix. 7. Portland -- 27 wins remaining games: OKC, NOP, SAS, SAS, OKC, NOP, DAL, UTA I can see us winning 2 or maybe 3 games if we're also playing tanking teams. This cannot happen. Blevins needs to play 35+ mpg in all these remaining games.
Ultimately, I see Indy retaining the 5th spot and us going to the wire with SAC. This 6th spot could potentially be decided with a coin flip if we both end up with the same record. If you guys recall, when we won the lottery in 2007, we had the 6th best odds that we won in a coin-flip with Minnesota. Also, the difference in odds now between 6 & 7 are not insignificant.
