Ha, well I agree with this part, anyway. I thought they should have traded Dame last summer when his value was significantly higher.
You don't think Dame would be incredibly pissed if Durant said he wanted to come to Portland and we said No thanks? I don't think Brooklyn would realistically want Dame. There would be no point for us to trade for KD if we had to give up Dame.
We've already seen what KD did with Kyrie - not much. I'm less worried about if Dame would get mad and more concerned with my team being good from top to bottom. Trading for Durant would not help the team win. Drafting well and acquiring players who punch their salary cap weight does.
If Portland ever got a chance at putting Dame and Durant together they better move on that. Never mind we could have drafted the guy.
Dame is better than Kyrie. Kyrie is a weird dude. Kyrie was hurt last year and barely played this year because he wouldn't get vaccinated. I don't think it is a good representation of what he would do with Dame.
They were in Brooklyn 3 seasons together. Year 1 - KD was out the entire year with a torn Achilles. Year 2 - Both Kyrie and Harden (who they traded a lot of their depth for) got hurt and KD was 1/2 inch away from basically beating the Bucks single-handedly. Year 3 - Was a mess from the beginning with Kyrie not playing. By the time he played again, he and KD really hadn't developed a good rhythm. The Nets all-in moves definitely blew up badly but I don't think it was because KD isn't good enough to help a team like Portland win.
Kyrie was healthy for the playoffs. He played with Durant for two years into the playoffs, so we have a pretty good sample. I don't share your opinion that Dame is clearly better -they have put up pretty similar numbers over the years, and Kyrie is two years younger in a comparison of two guys both on the wrong side of 30. Durant himself will be 34 when the season starts. The more significant comp to me is the payroll of each team. The Nets could afford to surround Durant and irving with more talent, and they still weren't able to get past the 2nd round either year they played together. The adjustments that Portland would have to make to bring in Durant would pretty much guarantee there would be little money left to fill out a team, as we have already seen for a number of years with Dame and C.J.
Okay, fair enough, but how much time would Durant and Lillard have to get into a rhythm? And meanwhile, what would trading away assets to acquire Durant do to the future of the team? Lillard and Durant would not win without a significant surrounding cast, which the team would not be able to afford with $90 million going to two guys. THe more likely scenario is that one or both of them would get injured and the Blazers would be catapulted right back into the lottery. No thanks; I like the trajectory the Blazers are on now. Grow through the draft and by signing younger players who can grow on the team.
Why do you care? It isn't your money. We got under the tax this year. We would still have Grant for one year, Hart for one year, who knows what Nurkic will cost. Probably not much more than 12 million a year. So we have all these dudes for one year, get to see what happens with the team, and have options to let salary go if it is a colossal failure. Better than just hanging out without a shot at contending the next few years with an aging star.
People keep saying that, as they said it when Paul was alive, and they ignore the fact that ownership - the people whose money it is- clearly care how much of it is spent. Now that the team is probably being prepped for sale, I think they probably REALLY care. In any case, this argument ignores my earlier objection: what about the future of the team? Durant is signed for the next four years. There is no way ownership is going to pay luxury tax over that span. So that means letting guys go when their contracts expire, and a steady diet of player rentals and minimum contracts. We've already seen where that leads us. No thanks, I think Cronin gets it and is taking the team in a different direction, thankfully. The Blazers are getting younger and deeper, and that is how you win.
Hello, How many games did copout Kyrie play in? Less than half i believe? Not what KD signed up for, im sure.
Might as well trade Dame then. Ownership absolutely can care about the money, but you gotta pay to win in most cases. Jody sure seemed stoked about the team in the war room. I don't think having Durant and Dame on the team at their salaries would scare off someone like Phil Knight from offering up money to buy the team. Building for the future means you don't intend to win anytime soon. Why keep Dame if a prize is looking at you straight in the face saying I can make you a contender? A team with Dame and Durant would get ring chasers. That is a good thing. Dame could even decide to extend for less money than $50 million per year to be able to keep other players. Too many variables. Bottom line is, you don't turn down KD wanting to team up with Dame. Doing so is straight up idiocy, even if it means we only are Finals contenders for 2 years. Be honest with yourself, when is the last time we really were contenders as a franchise?
I wouldn't trade Damian for KD, but the two of them teaming up in PDX seems like a no-brainer. Sure, it may gut the future, but just to taste one chip? Who cares about 2028?
I think it's legitimate to point out that ring chasers might come to Portland on cheap contracts. On the other hand, I can't remember that ever happening in Portland, even when the Blazers were contenders. I do turn down Durant wanting to team up with Dame. I think that would be a disaster for my favorite team that is just starting to come out of a similar multi-year disaster. My hope is that this new team gels and the young guys are able to jump in and contribute like I see on other contenders. With all the picks Olshey traded away in recent years, this is the first year that it feels like a real pipeline is being built. Hopefully, they stay on that course and don't let the siren song of some aging team-hopper lull them into burning it all down again.
Staying the course and letting the cake bake worked for us last time, right? We are talking about one of the best players to ever play in the NBA. Rod Strickland and Detlef Schrempf signed on when we were contenders. We haven't been real contenders since back then.
This is a way different cake...you can't go back to ten years of Olshey and compare what the front office is trying to do now in my view....Jerami Grant isn't Mario Hezonja and Josh Hart isn't Anthony Tolliver so....let's move on from what didn't work last time..we had a contender before Wes went down though...Dame Wes Nico LA and Rolo were as good as any team in the league that season.
I'm not talking about Olshey. I'm talking about Roy, Sergio, Rudy, Bayless, Oden, Aldridge, Batum etc. "Let the cake bake' was the statement people like Maris made when anyone suggested consolidating some of our young players for vets to catapult the team.
If they're both healthy, I think by halfway through the season they'd be in rhythm. As far as cast goes, they'd for sure still have Jerami Grant and Jusuf Nurkic. That's a very solid start. They'd also for sure have one of Sharpe/Ant/Hart. IMO, Jabari Walker would be able to fill some minutes right away with a Dame/KD team as a 3&D guy. Winslow is someone that you could probably keep as well. Use the MLE on a Victor Oladipo. Re-sign Ingles for when he's healthy. Sign smart minimums, like you mentioned players would likely come to ring chase. The hard part is getting two top-10ish players on the same roster. Filling in the gaps is the easy part.
