Is Portland the best team in the West?

Discussion in 'Portland Trail Blazers' started by RonBrewer, Oct 23, 2022.

  1. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    Wait a minute? I'm not on this to protect Terry Stotts. Just to set the record straight a bit on this seemingly consistent thought process.
    Terry had a number of picks during his time here. Dame 6th pick who obviously played and developed. CJ 10th pick who played and was developed.
    Then Meyers Leonard 10th Pick who was given more chances than could ever been expected.
    Zach Collins 10th pick who was given lots of playing time.
    Nassir Little wasn't picked until #25 and we still wonder if he will turn it on?
    Picked 24th Simons was given as much as could have ever been expected his rookie year. Maybe could have been pushed faster? Hard to say?

    Anybody else picked didn't even stay in the league? Terry developed just fine for the picks he was given. Olshey constructed that roster.
     
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  2. bigbailes

    bigbailes Well-Known Member

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    Would it be fair to say we've seen Super Dame so far in the 4 games? He's been playing great and it's resulted in three narrow wins and a blowout where the role players really stepped up. When everything is going right, this team has a chance to be a top 4 team but that means little to no major injuries, role players stepping up every night and Dame being in his prime Dame. Take just one piece out of that equation and it's back to a 7 or 8 seed with a likely first round exit, take two out and it's back to the lottery we go.
     
  3. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    Can they? I don't fully understand the Hard Cap? Can they just sign a player or does it have to be through trade?
     
  4. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    I'd add that first win vs the Kings to what the Role players have brought to the season.
     
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  5. Pinwheel1

    Pinwheel1 Well-Known Member

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    You can't really argue with this, because it is true for most teams every year. You take their star away and if their role players don't step up.....you are lottery bound.
     
  6. Hoopguru

    Hoopguru Well-Known Member

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    For many teams there's not much margin for error/injuries.
    I mean look at the teams that are picked to contend for the west conference, most are susceptible to in juries historically. For me its still too early to access just how good the blazers can be and yes they could also be at the mercy of injuries too.
    I think I picked them to win 47 games before the season starts, whats your guess?
     
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  7. Wizard Mentor

    Wizard Mentor Wizard Mentor

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    Yeah, true. But if we took LBJ off the Lakers, they'd be 0-3. Oh wait....
     
  8. bigbailes

    bigbailes Well-Known Member

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    47 to 50 just feels right ... before the season I had major reservations about how good out of the gate Dame would be but those fears have obviously been put to rest. I still think any finish above 7th with this team is a major win on the season.
     
  9. Shaboid

    Shaboid Well-Known Member

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    8. Portland Trail Blazers
    2022-23 record: 4-0
    Preseason ranking: 21

    There's something brewing in Portland. The Blazers are 4-0, with an overtime win against Phoenix, a thrilling two-point victory over the Lakers and a rout of the Nuggets. Damian Lillard is heating up with two 41-point games, Anfernee Simons drilled seven 3s against Denver, Jusuf Nurkic is healthy and offseason addition Jerami Grant is starting to fit in. -- Youngmisuk

    Quite the jump!
     
  10. bigbailes

    bigbailes Well-Known Member

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    Not sure there is much he can do with that roster, outside of AD, there just isn't much talent anywhere to be seen. I'm sure he makes them better, but they still aren't very good!
     
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  11. AmirIcon

    AmirIcon Well-Known Member

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    I think people need to stop conflating developing with playing time. Terry didn't develop Simons. He played him but didn't let him get his because he wanted Ant to force feed Melo. Stotts had Mo Williams ahead of CJ in the rotation. He also was playing Mario Hezonja and Anthony Tolliver ahead of Nassir Little. Oh, and he didn't at all develop Noah Vonleh. Now Vonleh is a contributor on a great Boston team. After an initial successful showing, Meyers became strictly a stretch 5 because Terry wanted to stretch the floor.

    Olshey constructed the roster according to what Terry wanted. It's a fallacy to say he didn't have defensive players. He did. Wenyen Gabriel was a terrific defensive player and opted for Mario/Tolliver.

    Stotts didn't develop much.
     
  12. Idog1976

    Idog1976 Well-Known Member

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    Sure and if Giannis, Tatum or Luka got hurt how would those teams do?
     
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  13. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    Crazy what i just listened to on ESPN with Vince Carter giving the Bucks the "Team to beat" mantle in the east but was pretty much clueless about the Blazers 4-0 start and kind of sounded like he thought CJ was out injured or something? He went on saying he wasn't real sure about where they would end up play-in possible 10,9, 8 team and IF they get through the play-in they might be the 7 or 8 seed? (Duh)
    Seriously it was like he was told to say something (Just whatever) about the Blazers? No thought or even a look at who they have beat so far?
     
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  14. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    I would bet Anfernee Simons himself would disagree with you here. He played the kid and he coached him for 3 years. He was playing behind two of the best guards in the league. He played him 70 games in his 2nd season and 64 games in his 3rd. If you think that is conflating development with playing time then i don't know what to tell you? Playing time is exactly what that kid needed to develop.
    By the way Vonleh started a bunch of games for Stotts? A grand total of 97 games? How do you figure that guy was not in the developmental stage? Then he bounced from team to team and eventually ended up out of the league? Okay so he has 4 games with Boston this year. Nobody in their wildest dreams would think Vonleh didn't get his chances?
     
  15. Shaboid

    Shaboid Well-Known Member

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    Not all former players are great analysts. Not surprising.
     
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  16. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    he was talking about next season. Portland's hard cap restriction ends June 30
     
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  17. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    I guess i read "This Year" as the current year?
     
  18. wizenheimer

    wizenheimer Well-Known Member

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    yeah, I misread

    Portland is hard-capped meaning they can't exceed the Apron for any reason. The Apron is 156.98M. Portland's taxable salaries are 150.2M (which is 67K under the tax threshold). Meaning the Blazers have around 6.7M in maneuverable margin

    so, practically speaking they could make a trade(s) for 6.7M more incoming salary than they send out. They have no exception other than minimum salary exceptions to sign players.

    what Portland does have is a 6.5M trade exception from the RoCo trade; and a 3.3M exception from the NAW trade with Utah. Either of those would fit into the margin Portland has under the Apron
     
  19. Fairly-Hard

    Fairly-Hard Former Member Gone New!

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    Thank you for clearing that up for me. So technically they can sign a player but can only spend up to 6.7 million at most? Or is this only incoming trade value?
     
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  20. CJ_is_Gone

    CJ_is_Gone Well-Known Member

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    The Hard Cap is ~$6M over the lux tax line.
    Portland is currently sitting ~$60k UNDER the lux tax line.

    In theory, Portland could sign a player for ~$4M using the Bi-annual exception or make a trade as long as the net salary increase is <$6M.

    The biggest factor in all of this, is NOT actually paying the lux tax. It's that Portland would loose out of the tax re-distribution from the other tax teams.
    Currently there projects to be 11 tax paying teams with a total bill of approximately $694M. There may be some teams that make moves to try and lower/avoid the tax. So say there are 10 teams paying a bill $680M. I believe the league takes half & distributes the other half (although the league is not required) to the remaining 20 teams.

    By going OVER the tax line, Portland will forfeit approximately $17M of revenue (paid as a distribution from the other tax teams).

    So ANY move that would increase the teams salary (even signing a guy to a 10-day contract) has to be viewed in the lens of "Are they worth giving up $17M?"
    With that in mind, I would be flabbergasted if Portland went into the tax this season.
     

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