OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA: APRIL 2023

Ha. So now you gonna move a pick anyway? Are they keeping the #7 pick? Heck are they even keeping the #2 pick.

This conversation has been had ad nauseam.

Make the playoffs and play to win. Put together the best team you can and work hard. They didn't even tank well. How do you find yourself throwing away games and still have 4 teams with better odds to get the #1 pick than you do?

Pathetic this board is actually watching the Heat get by the Bucks because of a "Lillard like" performance under the right circumstances which presented themselves with a back injury to Giannis making him miss 2 games then try to tell themselves "It's all for the best" because they got a 10% chance to get a player that might become a great player.

I'm never going to buy that. Ever. Make the playoffs and see what happens. You never get a chance to see true greatness if you aren't even at the show.

 

They certainly were way worse than the T-Wolves the way the season ended yes.
Go read the statement again and get back to us.

 

What 3 moves make this team a LOT better?

We don’t even have the assets to make 3 “good” moves.

And based on what Cronin said, it sounded like we didn’t have the assets at the time to make ONE good move which is why they pivoted into gathering more assets.

We don’t have depth.

We don’t have size.

Our defense sucks.

Our coach probably sucks (although hard to say for sure because our roster sucks).

And a good portion of our “experience” is injury prone.

And our experience isn’t “championship level”.

None of this is relatable to the Warriors, Lakers, or Heat.

 

Nah, I’m good.

It’s clear you think we are the same level as the Lakers, Heat, and Warriors… all who have championship level experience, better defense by exponential levels, mobile centers, and 2 of those teams have arguably top 5 coaches in the league.

Fairly hard to process how we are on that level, but to each their own.

 

It's so pointless to argue about this right now.

We don't know where our pick is going to be. We don't know which players are going to be available for trade. Sure, there are rumors, but the playoffs are still in full swing. Once the lottery happens and we know what our pick is, I think we can start assessing value and gauging what trades might be possible. But there are just so many unknowns at this moment.

 

It is pointless. All i said was

That simply doesn't seem like a good argument any longer.

The team could have made better moves and they did not have to tank.
1st they could have kept Hart. Yes we all know he wanted to go to New York. We also all know he was a free agent. The point is if the team kept him and did well he might have reconsidered? We just don't know i guess. I know If Dame does what Dame seems to do in big games with a guy like Hart next to him it can be very special.
2nd they could have added depth at the center position especially after getting rid of Payton.
3rd. We all know the buyout market had players available for more depth. There was no need to keep players that we all know are never going to amount to anything. Keon comes to mind. We had other roster spots available.
There was no reason to Hard Cap the team the way they did and everyone here knows it.

That is and will always be my stance on this. Even more so after watching multiple teams get lucky due to injuries to other teams best players.
Giannis
PG13
Leonard
Fox
Middleton was just coming back from injury
Zion was still out for the play in
Jordan Poole with his ankle
Dejounte Murray
Julius Randle
Enbiid is nursing a bad knee.

There are more but i just can't think of them and don't want to go and look it all up.

 

All we have to go off of is last year, so I thought it was funny that you mentioned the 7th pick because that's exactly where we picked Sharpe.

You said "Tanking for the 7th pick is never the right move. Not even 1 time out of 10." It's still early, but I think Sharpe is going to prove you wrong.

I can't really argue with you about whether it was worth tanking this year because we don't know what our pick will be, but if we somehow win the #1 pick I shall return to refute your point

 

I believe Stephen Curry was drafted #7 as well.

 

The NBA has to change the post season to give teams an incentive NOT to load manage. How about best season records choose who they want to play in the post-season, every round?

 

New Orleans wasn’t a legitimate contender. Nor was Memphis. #2 Denver, however, was and the Blazers beat them in 7, the most impressive performance the team has had since beating the Utah Jazz in the 1992 WCF and I’d say the Denver series win was more impressive actually. It’s easy to say “but they lost when they lost!” Well, yeah, and they won when they won. OKC considered themselves contenders in 2019 too by the way. In the end, the only thing you’re saying is that we’ve gone 1-12 vs the Warriors, one of the greatest teams of all time. Makes sense to me.

 

We played the Warriors when Steph either couldn't go or was way under 100%. Played them without Durant. Both times, we got smoked. We need talent and a lot of it.

 

Hell, the season was going nowhere ad we simply weren't a good team and would have had NO chance in the play in or playoffs. So might as well get a good pick and a what, 4o plus percent chance at a top 4 pick, and 10% chance at the #1 - why the F not? maybe we just get lucky, either way we get a shot at another very good player or trade chip.

 

No I don’t know but you don’t know either. I DO know we were 31-40 and needed to go 9-2 including a win over OKC to get the 10th seed. The chances of that happening were low and the 10th seed has never made the playoffs so there’s that too. The CHANCES of us reaching the 2nd round were extremely low. I’d rather have a 42% chance at a Top 4 pick. To most of us, that was more valuable than a playoff run we weren’t equipped for to win. It NEVER ends well for a team with a 31-40 record. Tanking was 100% the right decision even if we end up with only the #7 pick.

 

Keegan Murray started all year as a rookie and helped Kings not only make the playoffs but get the 3 seed.

 

When we chose to tank, it was no longer mathematically possible to crack the Top 4 in the lottery. We tanked at a very high level and got the very best odds we could get. Even if we tried to win, we very likely would’ve failed to make the play-in but ended up with 8th best odds instead of 5th. How is that desirable to you?

 

are you really trying to argue it was because of the Warriors that Portland looked so pathetic bowing out of the playoffs 8 times?

all you have to do is go back to the last time they faced the Warriors in the playoffs in 2019. That Warriors was 4-0 against the Blazers and 10-8 against the other three teams they faced. They didn't even win the championship. Three other teams beat them 8 times. Portland couldn't do it once. That's failure and that was the best Blazer team in the Dame/CJ era