I want the Blazers to draft the best player available. I didn't want them to target PF as you alluded to in prior posts. That mindset is how teams repeatedly end up with lesser talent. I have no idea what our roster will look like when a player drafted today develops. Dame is on the wrong side of 30 a d has been injured a year. Not certain he'll be dominant again, or that the team doesn't trade him a few months into the season. Ant isn't signed in the team, he could end up in a trade, max offer and walk, or never lives up to potential like Allen Crabbe. The Blazers are so far from contending they need to prioritize talent acquisition, not the starting lineup fit of a contender.
If I'm weighing what measurements matter most for evaluating prospects, height is down the list behind wingspan, standing reach, weight and a slew of athletic measures. If Portland is to keep this pick, regardless of where it lands I'm hoping they aren't focused on 2022-3 potential & how they fit the current roster. Select the guy with the potential to have the best career. STOMP
Every time. In the draft, you acquire talent and figure how to best utilize the guys down the line. STOMP
Agreed. BPA within a Tier. Close? By need/position. Then, there’s just bad evaluation. Martell Webster vs. CP3. If Ivey is available, it will be a nice problem to have … being in the Top 4!
It appears to me that BPA in this draft is perhaps the most unsure (wide open) as any draft I have seen. So one person's/GM's/draft analysts.scouts BPA may be significantly different than many others. And given that this draft in the top 15-20 at least is wing/SF/PF heavy we should have NO problem having BPA be one of those.
This is so correct and BPA has always been a misnomer anyway. Sometimes there are players on tiers of their own and it's obvious that fit doesn't matter because they are so far ahead of any other player available when your pick is up and your team is on the clock, in that case you take that player or find the team that has the highest value for him and take an offer that maximizes the value at that pick but if that player rates as a generational talent then you take him and make fit work later. That's just very rarely the situation. Usually like with the first five guys in this draft (Chet, Jabari, Paolo, Shaedon and Jaden) you're dealing with guys that could all very easily be seen as on the same tier... hopefully we'll know more after the combine, pro days and workouts. After that there are a lot of guys with big upside and Keegan Murray who seems closer to his ceiling and ready to play but all belong in a similar tier. Draft boards are all over the place and so are grades on prospects this year more than others and yeah if our team has a prospect that would be redundant on this roster available when we pick graded as by far the BPA, you pick that guy and do what's necessary moving forward but again that's really rarely the case. Usually you have guys that fit different needs and are around the same grade and some that are around that grade that make no sense with your team's needs.
I don't play real close attention to prospects. Maybe because the Blazers, lately, haven't had many picks and when they do the picks are late in the draft but from what I've seen about this year's class is there is no real consensus at all on tiers like there usually is. Sure, Jabari, Bacnchero, Holmgren....they usually show up in the top-5, but outside of those guys it's a dart board there is almost always multiple players with all-star talent in every draft. I doubt this draft will be an exception. So, for Portland, there will need to be some good luck. First, in the lottery, and next, in landing on the right player (and not using the pick for a stupid trade) of course, I fully expect a 7 or 8 pick. that's because, as a Blazer fan, I'm convinced this is the team's theme song:
If the BPA when we draft is a guard, that's who you take. A) Simons is promising, not proven. B) We have no idea how Simons and Dame will mesh as starters. C) If both Simons and the rookie pan out, you have a valuable trade comodity.
It really just depends on how much better than the next forward this guard is. If he's just marginally the best then I'd take the position of need but if our front office grades the guy out as the next big thing then we've got to take him and straighten out the rest later... unless of course another team is willing to give us value commensurate with that guard being the next big thing.
And it is true Simons is promising not proven … for now. With Dame, Hart (we know who he is), and Simons, I like that guard rotation. (I’d rather have a 6’6 to 6’8 true point forward who can D up. Then, a shorter SG isn’t such a weakness.) Portland has exactly ZERO proven forwards … except Ingles the UFA coming off the ACL and age 34. Glad this draft MAY actually fill a need.
But we didn’t and Jordan was the next best prospect. We passed on him and chose a position of need instead of BPA
When posters talk about prospects being on tiers, this is a classic example. But in pointing to passing on Jordan, people dismiss how great of a prospect Bowie was. He was the #1 guy in his HS class ahead of Ewing. In college he'd suffered a setback with a freak break of his femur, but had trended up towards his former dominance at the end of his time at Kentucky. I recall a game I attended his rookie year where he bested HoFer Artis Gilmore who was one of the best 5s in the league at the time. I remember leaving that game being so stoked about Bowie. Maybe with the advances in modern medicine teams could have foreseen Bowie turning out to be Mr Glass, maybe not. Had he enjoyed health while he wouldn't have turned into the GOAT, I'm sure he'd have been a multiple time All Star which wouldn't have been all that horrible with everything else that was in place. STOMP
Not that I completely disagree. Sam made the all rookie team and was a damn good player, but……Jordan was the better prospect
I don't disagree (he was being compared to Dr J) and tried to I convey that when I spoke of different tiers and GOAT. I was also trying to call out people acting like choosing Bowie (not here so much but overall) was without merit. I am always for choosing the BPA if they are on different tiers as prospects. STOMP
it's true that the Blazers had an excuse to pass on Jordan because they already had Drexler, and Paxson but what is also true is that Bowie was healthy at Kentucky; and that the NBA in 1984 was the age of big men. Teams really needed a dominant C. Lakers had Jabbar; Philly had Moses; Boston had Parish; Detroit had Laimbeer; Houston had Sampson (and soon, Hakeem); Seattle had Sikma; Knicks had Bill Cartwright. Teams needed a big C in the middle and Portland didn't have one still, the thought of a Porter Jordan Drexler Kersey/Robinson Duckworth lineup is something. As long as we are dreaming: Sabonis decides to come over as soon as he could and it's a Porter-Jordan-Drexler-Kersey-Sabonis team or, the Blazers win the coin flip in 1984 and it's Porter Drexler Kersey Robinson Hakeem
I predict we win lottery, select Chet, never hear about Oden being biggest bust in franchise history again. and the wheel keeps turning.
Bridges would be awesome imo, imagine if the last 3 decades of shit ended and we got a top 3 pick(Smith), and signed Bridges. Dame Ant/Hart Bridges/Nas Smith Nurk I like that 7 man, a lot.
There's just the pesky salary cap. If we have the players we have under contract, keep Hart and re-sign Ant and Nurk, there is almost no room to sign anyone and definitely not enough room to make an offer on Bridges that the Hornets would instantly match.