There can be trades up to the deadline and how do you know maybe Ant, Naz, Sharpe or Johnson may pop and/or become stars? As i have mentioned 10 of 30 teams have won the championship in the last 30 years and there is a good chance, a combination of those same ten will win the next 5?
7 of 15 teams in the WC finished at 500 or better. Every year 80% of the league are mediocre at best. This is a league built around tv contracts, playoff basketball, and filling seats. Only 10-15% each year will be contenders.
It's way too early to speak of that, we have yet to see a healthy dame under Chauncey - so, unless he ask for a trade, you keep him and evaluate
you take the guys you have and make a rock solid string defensive minded team...we have those guys...now it's up to coaching and buying in. you see what gels and come trade deadline mid season you try and find that one other guy on the market or maybe..Joe will find him in the next few weeks.....nobody thought undrafted G leaguer Trendon Watford on a two way contact could play but he proved them wrong...with Schmitz and our coaching staff I think player evaluation is something that we've improved .. It's leadership and coaching. Lot of teams that think they have "that guy with that money" find out that guy is lazy and fickle about buying in....AD comes to mind. People need to look past the autographs and find the hidden gems ...that's how you get those guys..Coaches Rogers and Curry are said to be amazing development coaches. Grant, Ant, Dame and Hart and even Nurk can score in bunches....maybe Sharpe as well down the road...it's defense that will make us a scary team to face.
What about all the flexibility we got from the Clippers trade? We sent out two starters but now have massive flexibility, so we just need to give Cronin a chance to show us what he'll do with it.
uh....last February is not the measuring stick for what he's done with the flexibility...Roco wasn't a starter...he got benched and only started again when Nance got hurt again...and Norm was mailing it in ...both got their asses handed to them by CJ in the playin.....you overvalue those guys....Winslow can out guard both of them combined as it is. Keon was a first round draft pick the year before...both Norm and Roco got bounced the last two year in the playoffs without impressing anyone. Move on. Josh Hart is so much better than Norm and Winslow is so much better than Roco that it's easy to see why the last batch of guys Olshey brought in were sent out. Norm and Roco left Nurk on an island on defense all the time which made Nurk pick up fouls....Hart and Winslow with Nurk shut teams down....big upgrade
This thread feels like a 'kardashians run amok' type/celebrity gossip/national enquirer thing. Kinda gross, actually.
I'd like to say never, that's my preference, but it's not realistic. Lillard will eventually ask and when he does the Blazers will then need to trade him.
…and some of the flexibility has allowed us to re-sign both Nurkic and Ant plus add Grant and Payton.
This is the 1st time that the Blazers have started to try to build a contender team around Dame. At a minimum, we should give them 2 years of building talent, coaching team fit on O and D, and allowing the best Dame ever to excel with a coach that was a Champion at his position. Even thinking of the time to consider trading Dame should wait until Dame is 36. Some of the comment in this thread are 4+ years too early! Any thought of trading Dame before expiration of his contract in 2027 seems destructive to the future of the Blazers, and highly likely to end the interest of most of the fans (and thus the financial feasibility of the Blazers in Portland). Let's wait at least 2 years and see whether the new build around Dame era can produce an NBA Championship. I think it is likely!