What's the most important priority for this roster come trade deadline? I still think we can upgrade this team with minor tweaks to the roster and climb out of the play-in range if we stay healthy. Obviously, we'd all like KD or OG, etc, but that's not really that feasible with how close we are to the hard cap (among other reasons). Name a player/target if you wish.
i didn't add it to the poll because: 1. it would win in a landslide as I noted in my OP. 2. i think if it does happen, it will be in the offseason once we can cross over the apron in our acquisitions and will no longer be hard capped.
would be a great target. can swing at the forward positions and be a backup 5 sporadically. Only makes 1.7 mil this year too, so contract could slot in quite easily. we can swap him for Keon or Nas in theory and still stay below the tax.
Practice time. A break from the constant injuries so a consistent rotation can develop. But in line with the poll, I’d say a two-way wing is the biggest roster need. The Blazers need size. I’d even be okay with moving Grant to 3 and bringing in a bigger PF.
I think the poll points out our most glaring need and that's a legit backup big. I don't know how we get one of those but we need to. That's a need. What I want after watching every game this season like many of you have, is a more complementary piece to Dame and the rest of this roster than Ant is. I know some want to give it a full season but just like with CJ I think it's very obvious that Dame and Ant are less than the sum of their parts when playing together... it's not as bad as it was with CJ but it's still not close to ideal. I know Ant is a great offensive small guard who can play on and off the ball... but we don't need two of those. If we could get a two way wing for Ant with a little more size than Hart and move Hart to SG, that should get done.
This roster is multiple moves away from contending, which makes this poll question tricky. If the concern is to keep the roster from going sideways this season, then the backup big issue should be priority #1. If Nurk were to sustain a serious injury, the roster is not equipped to sustain that. If you're not worried about making the 1st round of the playoffs this year, then staying out of the tax and not wasting assets on fringe players should be the priority. I'm always in the camp of increasing assets. Meaning to only take on good contracts and/or players that are desired around the league. Maximize flexibility so if that big name becomes available, we have the assets to make a serious offer.
This is the key - getting a player (or ideally players) with length. The experiment with 90% of the roster under 6’6” tall has been a miserable failure. We saw how good this team performed defensively with two “long” players (Harkless & Aminu) at the 3 & 4 positions. Imagine how much better it would be if we had a rangy, two-way 3 next to Grant at the 4.
Another superstar, one who makes it difficult for the other team on both ends of the floor. Or the best player possible the with the same qualities.
I didn't see this in the poll but.....fire the coaching staff, let HCP run practices, use a panel of texting S2 forumites for game management like the brains in jars on Star Trek, and pay the players in quatloos instead of dollars to stay out of the luxury tax.
More size and shooting. like even a Doug McDermott type guy or two to spread the court would be nice. But more size for sure. Particularly a rim protector aside from Eubanks
