Furthermore, once you get Lillard in Brooklyn, you can use your players and picks to build your next super team with guys who have always wanted to play with him, and now he's in New York City. Maybe there's a team like Miami or Toronto who have an older player like Siakam or Butler who will take some picks.
Cool. I got a c’mon man! [Extremely polite response. ] The answer is no. The real question is which teams would have a combination of a youngish vet and picks and a star SF and who would have enough after a Dame trade for it to make sense?
actually, I think the question would be what teams would be interested enough in Lillard to trade a huge package for him. This wouldn't be 26 year old Donovan Mitchell. This would be 33 year old Damian Lillard with 4 years left on his contract at 54M/year the pool of teams that would be interested would be really really small...as in 2 or 3 or 4 at the most. And all would have to be close enough to contending or already contending, to justify the risk. The odds of any decent draft picks coming Portland's way over the next 3 to 4 years would be really small. Think picks in the 20's. The best Portland might see in high draft compensation might be picks and/or swaps 5-7 years in the future. Portland might get a Cam Johnson level player in the deal, and maybe a Vanderbilt, but no all-star. But they will also have to take on some substantial contract burden to match dame's salary people have these fantasies about getting some godfather package for Lillard, but I don't think that's in the cards. Maybe 3 or 4 years ago. But not this summer.
this is all nonsense if the Blazers had 26 year old Mikal Bridges, and 26 year old Cam Johnson, and a bunch of 1st's, there isn't a single person in this forum, including me who is a big Dame fan, who would be advocating trading a package something like Bridges, Johnson, Nurkic, Sharpe and 4 first round picks for 33 year old Lillard. Not one single poster. Dame is special in Portland. For other cities he's an elite PG but he's also 33 years old and his loyalty to Portland doesn't count for anything
Is the team's goal to 'shy tank'? If they really wanted to compete for a Playoff spot, they would have went and got some much needed size that was available. With so many other teams improving and by them not addressing their 'biggest' need, it seems like they are quite okay with being in the Lottery again.
Now that the dust has settled, the more I think about it the more I think this was a great deadline for us. 1. we aren’t winning the ship this year, so we didn’t make any desperate win now moves that would have involved doing stupid things like giving up sharpe or unprotecting picks for a player of the caliber of OG or something, who wouldn’t have moved the needle for us anyway. 2. we got a first for an expiring player that we couldn’t pay. 3. we got a shitload of 2nd rounders for a 1-dimensional malcontent on a long term deal. 4. we got thuybulle for nothing to evaluate. All 4 decisions were smart. Good work.
IMHO, it wasn't a "great deadline for us." Semantics about one word, only. I gave it a C at first, did some reading, listening ... then switched to a B ... for basically everything you've said. Nurkic is still a Blazer. Hope that changes this summer. No big, mobile, defender was brought in -- Not Vanderbilt (PF), not Bamba -- and Drew and Trendon can only do what they can do, and no one should expect the end of the bench bigs to do much except get better someday. I'll buy the reasoning Cronin gave ... for now. After this summer if not much happens? Not so much.
I've had that thought. Build assets but not big man assets that might help us squeeze into the playoffs. We can fill those needs in the off season.
I watched the Brooklyn Nets last night against the 76ers. They led the game from the first quarter to near the end then got one field goal in the last 7 minutes of the game and lost. They obviously need a go-to clutch scorer.
I agree, but if we felt like this season was out of reach to contend for a title (which it is), no need to burn assets for a mobile big. We can do that this summer. I would be absolutely shocked if we go into next season with both Ant and Nurk. I expect one or both to be gone.
Totally agree it was great, but only in a Neil Olshey-sense. No needle-movers were obtained. Honestly, with our personnel, I'm not sure why we're not a top 3 or 4 seed, but whatever the problem is, this deadline did not solve it.
the PR spin surrounding this botched trade deadline is uncharted. During the recent Blazers Edge t.d. podcast analysis, featuring only positive outcomes, the writers over there claimed Lillard putting up MVP performances is prohibiting Anfernee Simons from reaching his maximum potential. WTF ?? I think Damian is outta here this summer. Portland's Anfernee Simons hype is reaching new lows. BLAME LILLARD
It's so weird how widely opinion can vary. "Our personnel" is not very good. Dame is awesome but other than that guys are either young and unproven and/or just not that good. We're undersized and have very little depth. We play our starters a ton due to that and due to our coach, and that's just begging for more injuries to our key players. In other words: us being a 3 or 4 seed is crazy, and no trade we were going to make was going to get us there.
Nothing against Dame, but Dame and Ant's style will keep them both from reaching their peak at the same time. Ant is better when he has the ball in his hands. It's what got him paid even though it wouldn't be his role as long as Dame is here. It's not that Ant can't be good playing off of Dame, but "maximum potential"? Very doubtful because of how they both play. If Ant were more like say, Klay Thompson, perhaps he could reach his max potential, but he is not. He is also stuck playing out of position. That is not Dame's fault, but a result of the roster construction. His D is not good to start with. Then put him against bigger, stronger players and it isn't going to get better any time soon. He has said he is more comfortable playing at under 200 lbs. There will be matchups where that size/frame is just going to get crushed....even more than usual. So I can agree with the basic premise that he can't reach his peak, but as for it being Dame's fault, that is more of a collateral result than something overtly on Dame.
We got bigger players than what we had. going by ESPN's roster: 6' 8" Reddish, 6' 7" Knox and 6' 5" Thybulle.
I don't believe that Simons would be better not playing with Dame we heard that same narrative for years about CJ....how much better he'd be if he was on another team and wasn't playing with Dame. "CJ would be an all-star if he wasn't paired with Dame!" But the reality is he isn't better. In fact, he's a little worse, maybe because he hasn't had Dame around to be the focus of opposing defenses CJ's career PER is 17.5, this year it's 16.0; his career TS% is .552, this year it's .540; his career eFG% is .526, this year it's .512. Both his career 2ptFG% and 3ptFG% are better than his marks this season. His career winshare/48 is .101, this year it .075; his career BPM is 1.3, this year it's 1.2. The only area where CJ is above his career norms is assists; but then he's the full-time starting PG for the Pels with the ball in his hands all the time. And it's no coincidence that his turnover rate is by far the worst of his career so no, I don't buy that Simons would be better off not playing with Dame. Dame is always the focus of opposing defenses and draws the best defender, so, like CJ, Simons gets to draft off of the single coverage he gets playing with Dame I find it strange the the widely accepted logic is that playing with an elite player opens up opportunities for teammates to be better. But somehow playing with Dame inhibits opportunities. I don't think playing with Dame limits Simons. What limits him is his talent, versatility, and experience
