OK, so that's one, potentially. How many top 20 players have been traded and had their team get better? How many of those traded were the best player and had their former teams get better? I'll save you some work... Not many. Because trading away all stars is how teams get worse, not better.
Agree I think he and Nurkic could potentially co-exist if the team is adamant about resigning Nurk. If you were Cronin, if the only two choices were Wood or Grant, who would you pursue?
There were some who thought it was bad for the Celtics to trade away Pierce and Garnett. People though Brooklyn would be a strong contender. A decade later the Celtics have Tatum and Brown. But if you compared the immediate years after the Celtics were initially worse. Usually a team trades away a top 20 player because they can't contend with them. So they should get worse. But if the team gets younger assets along with improving their own picks they could be better 5-10 years from now as opposed to staying the course. So the whole premises of your question is flawed. The comparison isn't how the top 20 player team was previously vs the future without said player. The comparison is the teams future with a old aging player and an uncompetitive roster, or with the assets returned from a trade of that player.
who thought that? Garnett was 36 years old when Boston traded him. Pierce was 35. It had been 5 years since they had won the championship and they had just lost in the 1st round while being eliminated on their own floor. It was obvious that Boston needed a total rebuild. And of course, every team needs a Billy King around when they are dumping aging players 5-10 years? lol...good to know that when you guys guarantee that Portland can't contend with Dame, what you mean is they should trade him in 2022, so then, if they are lucky, they can maybe contend in 2030. Nice to have a target date
We'll be more competitive with Dame than without him. And he's a better leader and ambassador for the team than likely anybody we would replace him with. If he wants to be here I want him to be here.
I did a post on this a while back. From what I remember Woods a much more efficient shooter and better rebounder. Their advanced stats somewhat similar (and Woods better in former years when he played PF). So, for me, Woods. Does Billups think he could make him a better defender might be the deciding factor.
that's my position: if Dame wants to stay in Portland and doesn't ask to be traded, his trade value is irrelevant. Don't even consider trading him. Bill Walton walked away from Portland, then sued them. Clyde asked to be traded to Houston than treated Portland like shit afterward. Dame has remained loyal to his teammates, coaches, organization, community, and city (the one person he wasn't loyal to, eventually, was Olshey). That kind of loyalty is valuable to a franchise
My stance on Dame is if he wants to stay he needs to understand that because of the way Olshey destroyed this franchise we need to build for the future.
I'm not really sure what you mean...? next season is the future just as 2027 is the future. With the nature of contracts, planning for a future 5 years from now seems way too hypothetical. Nurkic is UFA this summer. Simons could be UFA 3 years from this summer. The future will have plenty of roster turnover....it always does Dame seemed to be more than OK with Stotts being fired and with CJ, RoCo, Powell, and Nance being traded away. Those were definitely moves sacrificing a 'win-now-mirage' in favor of a potential future upside. I don't believe that a roster built for 2022-23 has to be incompatible with 2025-26; and looking further ahead than that seems pointless considering there are only 2 players with guaranteed contracts in 2024-25, Dame & Watford
My running list of notable players who could be available (not necessarily our targets but could be on the move) after reading some offseason primer articles from various NBA folk: - Gobert, Mitchell, Bogdanovic, Conley - LaVine - Simmons, Kyrie (some eye opening comments from Sean Marks today). - Collins, Capela, Hunter - Hayward, Bridges - Tobias Harris (I think Philly will try to dump him so that they can open up some space after a Harden extension for a better fit). - Collin Sexton, Kevin Love - Duncan Robinson - Julius Randle, Cam Reddish - Brogdan, TJ Warren, Rubio - Kyle Anderson, Brandon Clarke - Otto Porter, James Wiseman - Tim Hardaway Jr. - Aaron Gordon - D'Angelo Russell - Harrison Barnes - Christian Wood
The Blazers went from 28 to 33 to 54 wins ten years or so ago. Why the negativity? Dame, Ant, Hart, Nurk, a lottery pick, cap space and others. It’s not like we are an expansion franchise