OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA: APRIL 2023

You definitely might be on to something here?

 

did you also notice I listed assist rate, PER, and winshares? And did you notice that Powell had a 19% higher assist rate while Eubanks had a 140% higher rebound rate. Aren't guards with good handles and more than double the usage rate expected to have a much higher assist rate than a big like Eubanks? For certainly there is a proportional advantage for rebounding over assists, but 140% vs 19% is a pretty noticeable gap

I'd say if you can gauge the Powell trade on Portland not getting a 1st round pick it's sure fair for me to compare Powell's impact to other players who would NEVER be traded for a 1st round pick. I suppose I could have just confined the comparison to PER, Winshares, BPM, and Vorp...the sum of which points at them having about the same impact...do you disagree with that? (by the way, Raptor and WAR stats show them essentially even as well)

you also used the Blazers getting a 1st for Hart as 'evidence' that that the Powell trade was a disaster. I'd say Hart has a lot more value than Powell because of his versatility and 2-way game. I'd also say that after Minny and Cleveland paid a total 12 first round picks and swaps last summer, the price of 1st round picks dropped a lot compared to when Powell was traded. And first's were probably devalued even further when it was reported the Raptors were asking for 3 first's for OG. In other words Hart was traded in a different market for picks than Powell was

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my take on Powell is this: he has some good positive value because he's a good three point shooter and he attacks the basket well while getting to the FT line. Those are good attributes. But that is offset by the reality he's a 6'3 guard with short arms who plays poor defense. He's not a two-way player or a 3&D guy. He's at a substantial disadvantage when he's matched up against 6'6-6'9 wings. He has almost no PG skills yet he's not good starting 2-guard material and as a backup his 18M/year salary is not attractive. Ballmer is willing to pay but a lot of other teams wouldn't be. All that goes to offset the positive value

 

I'd say it's more minutes than height involved in that skew

but I'd also point out I used several more categories than just PER

I'd also wonder if it's possible that a 6'10 player who rebounds well, blocks shots, and hustles, has as much value on a basketball court as a significantly undersized wing who scores well, doesn't run an offense, and plays bad defense?

 

Why do you think he has short arms?

He had the 6th longest wingspan among guards in his draft while being easily the shortest guy.

 

coached harden in OKC. harden rumored interest in houston FA

 

That would be great, Chauncey needs a new lead assistant.

 

Yeah, maybe it's Ime as associate head coach if he doesn't get the HC gig with Toronto. Then if Chauncey can't coach this team to win (if it is a win now team) then Ime can take over.

 

I guess I got his arm length wrong....might have been confusing him with CJ

 

Norm was supposed to be a decent defender when we traded for him, and one of the reasons they claimed he would be able to play small forward was his wingspan. It turned out to be false. His wingspan is only an advantage against other guards.

 

ok...I have thought, for years, that wingspan was a really overrated component of basketball

what's important for defense is reaction, reflex, lateral mobility, and vision

 

#FireStotts

 

But weren’t you in here 10x a day two years ago wanting to fire Stotts? Anybody is better right? When do you stop bro?

 

Why are we not in the playoffs? Kawhi, PG13 out. Embiid is hurt. Suns one injury away from being eliminated, Giannis hurt. It’s wide open this year.

 

Completely agree. But Im not sure he would bring in a top coach

 

We didn’t win enough games to qualify.

 

IF we had made the playoffs, we'd be the team getting run out of the gym by Denver. That's why we pivoted to the lottery. We weren't good enough to win a game, let alone a series.

 

If the Cavs fizzle out, I think Jarrett Allen could be moved. Having him and Mobley in at the same time is not optimal for offensive spacing.

 

There are two problems, yes the Blazers didn't get draft picks or assets for rotational level player(s). So yes the initial asset return was basically non-existent.

Second problem with trading away Norm, Nance, Roco for virtually nothing and then Jody pocketing the cash from Bledsoe, Ingels, trade exceptions...... is the Blazers now don't even have contracts to acquire the vets Dame urgently wants. If the Blazers were to offer their lottery pick or future picks for a quality starter this summer they can't just throw in dead salary. The Blazers also have to part with a starting level player in Ant/Nurk, even if the other team doesn't care and would be happy with an expiring contract.

Joe claimed the Clippers trade gave the Blazers future "flexibility" but it didn't; it did the exact opposite! The Blazers won't be under the cap, they need player on contracts that are not overpaid for "flexibility".

If the Blazers had Norm they could flip him and an asset for a star, or keep Norm as the first guard off the bench and flip Ant for a forward. Multiple options to add rotational players to this roster would be "flexibility". Instead Joes trades saved the Blazers cash and reduced his future options. As a result of Joes trades there are less possibilities of bringing multiple winning players onto the roster.

We just had so many fans blinded by Neil Olshey hate they wanted to celebrate any moves that seemingly went against what Olshey had built.

The Clippers trade was the start to the disaster that has been this franchise since Neil was fired. I'm super grateful Joe has done a single good move in taking the risk to draft Sharpe. But I'm afraid we have mostly bad moves coming as in dumping Norm and signing Hard Cap GP2. I'm afraid we have far fewer of the smart moves coming such as taking a chance on Sharpe. Would love to be proven wrong, but if you look at all of the Cronin moves, and where the team is now vs when he was hired it's very discouraging.

 

Because collectively Portland's talent is not good.

STOMP