OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA: APRIL 2023

I have to agree with you on this. He did say by the time 11 games were left they were essentially mathematically out of the race. That indeed was fact. They would have had to finish 9-2 and that was not going to happen.
My problem starts with 30 games left when they were 26-26 and had just won at the Wizards. Then they beat the Warriors here on Feb 8th. Trade deadline was the 9th.
The one thing @KingSpeed or @KSF-ERIC had correct all along was December and January did matter. There was another guy on here that was continuously saying "It was only January" so the games didn't really account for much?
I think he also said this about December if I'm correct?
Can't quite remember who that might have been but I know i read it.

 

I'm not turning the "Around the NBA" thread into a "Trade" thread. There are and were multiple threads covering this both at the trade deadline and currently as well as last summer.
Have at it.

My position stands. Tanking Sucks!

 

Sign a veteran minimum backup center instead of having 10 guards on the roster, a super injury prone Nurk, and a 3rd string player in Eubanks
Sign Bruce Brown to the MLE instead of Gary Payton
Acquire Hartenstein instead of Cam Reddish
Resign Joe Ingels
Instead of trading Hart away... just keep him
Trade Eric Bledsoe contract and Winslow with a pick for John Collins or Julius Randle

There were plenty of ways to improve the Blazers so they didnt tank last year and legit tried to win. Now the shit hole position the team was in at the deadline was really from a terrible offseason, and goes back to the terrible Clippers trade. I don't have a problem with the team finally tanking at the deadline when they made so many terrible moves to get to that place. However its really the moves before the deadline that were the turning point. The team very easily could have followed a path to make the playoffs all of last season with some very simple roster moves.

 

No, I listed an even mix of both. Yes my point was at the deadline tanking was actually the correct choice, since the Blazers put themselves in that position. Almost makes you wonder if the plan the entire season was to eventually tank. Thats almost more re-assuring, than the thought they legit believed this roster had a chance to win and were so wrong months later they had to drastically pivot.

However 3 of my suggested moves were for during the season;

Sign a veteran minimum backup center instead of having 10 guards on the roster, a super injury prone Nurk, and a 3rd string player in Eubanks
Acquire Hartenstein instead of Cam Reddish
Instead of trading Hart away... just keep him

 

fix your nba franchise with these three weird tricks.

 

Keep Hart… but acquire Hartenstein instead of Reddish? We traded Hart for Reddish, so that doesn’t particularly make sense.

And the guy said 3 moves that make this team “much” better.

Adding a vet min center, and keeping Hart (who was already playing for us while we sucked), doesn’t seem to fit “3 moves that make us a LOT better”.

 

Hart showing why he's worth everything he can get this offseason. He showed it here as well. Absolutely hated him getting trading. The Blazers have got to somehow, figure a way to not over pay to keep talent. I know the Blazers want to do right by players, but i think they would have been better served by letting Nurk & Ant find their value to other teams, and then the Blazers could have matched. Or moved on. To me there is too much money being paid to guys who don't lift their share of the weight. I'd rather have been able to keep Hart at 18 - 20, then pay Ant or Nurk that. I guess it will work out if they can deal those contracts in big deals for game changers.

 

Thought we acquired Reddish for picks into a trade exception and traded Hart for different picks. Perhaps you are right though, however I wrote it as 3 possible different moves, not necessarily 3 moves that all had to happen together.

Keeping Hart and having a legit center would've made us much better than the tanking this team did, which is the post I responded too.

My point was there were simple easy moves that could have had a real difference to get more wins throughout this season. That the Blazers didn't pursue those in the offseason or at the deadline shows to me they weren't truly trying to win at either time, or they're incompetent.

 

How do you know that was on the table?

 

some posters have chosen to ignore what Hart explicitly said, and that was his wife really wanted to live back east closer to her family, and that Hart himself was more comfortable back east. Not trading him would have very likely resulted in the Blazers being stuck between the rock of grossly over-paying Hart or the hard place of letting him walk for nothing. But yeah, let's ignore all that so we can bash the Blazers some more for a calculation they had to perform

and I agree about Ant and Nurkic. Neither was going to get an offer anywhere close to what Portland signed them for last summer. There was very little cap-space league-wide and the few teams that had that space didn't need an undersized SG or an injury-prone traditional C. I guess the hope is that those salaries will be a critical part of a blockbuster trade

 

Some people believe if we kept Hart and tried to win and paid him more than any of those MLE east teams could he'd likely stay.

Of course after the trade he'll say a bunch of stuff about why he likes the trade and area in NY, similar to what he said when coming to Portland. Doesn't mean he wouldn't have signed in Portland if the Blazers had taken real steps to build a winner and either paid tax or didn't blow salary on stupid Nurk/Payton/etc contracts.

 

You asked for examples of moves that could realistically happen. I gave you six of them.

Maybe Blazers could get Hartenstein or maybe not, it was rumored they could. If it makes you feel better sub in Vanderbilt, Hachimura, Wiseman, Saddiq Bey etc that were actually moved for very little. Any competent GM could've easily got them if they wanted, and the Blazers haven't acquire any of these guys. Instead we overpaid Nurk, signed an injured GPII, and ran out a ridiculous short team claiming at first we were trying to win with Dame.

 

I know you don't like Cronin and think he's stupid...but do you really think he didn't have discussions with Hart and his agent for months before the trade was done? Do you really believe that Cronin didn't have a good idea about Hart's intentions?

 

it seems pretty clear cronin was keeping his powder dry for a bigger move and trying to maximize the value of their lottery pick—either by keeping it or trading it for big game. there's a scenario where cronin moves heaven and earth at the deadline and gets portland into the spot that minnesota is at.

love cronin or hate him (I think he's fine; not good, not great, but fine) we can't criticize olshey for these marginal upgrades using firsts and then criticize cronin for not doing so.

that also means cronin has to deliver this summer (and probably more specifically, before cronin calls in our pick). dame has said as much.

 

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. I'd guess me and you know the same here and only have our assumptions.

Regardless; the job of the GM is to assemble talent on the basketball team and also to retain it. It's not just to ask Hart his intentions, which almost sounds like an excuse to mutually agree to part ways. What if I ask my wife if she believes we will still be married years from now or does she have other intentions? A GM job if trying to retain players is to tell and show Hart why the Blazers are building a winner, why they want him to be a valuable part of it, and why Portland can be great for his family.

I don't think trading Hart is a horrible move in isolation, heck I might even prefer the pick if we go to rebuild around Ant/Sharpe. But it completely goes against the idea of trying to win next year with Dame, raises more concerns about the team properly getting return in the CJ trade, and just another one of these penny pinching moves of prioritize cash over talent.

 

Three of his moves are deadline moves but yes the conversation is more about the entire season. Go read the Wemby thread and the posts from around Oct 10th. During the terrible start of pre season Then all the sudden like magic a few posts went positive and they just quit posting until the end of Nov.

Keeping Hart and adding a decent Center to back up Nurk at times are absolutely two of the moves i would have done. Even signing Cousins who was effective just last year in the playoffs could have made a huge difference. The 3rd and maybe even 4th moves have too much grey area? I just was not in Joe's office when he was on the phone. There is no way for us to know what he tried or was told was not an option. People say they would lose Hart for nothing. Well my response to that is maybe not if they get to the semi's and he decides he wants to win here with Dame and what they are building. Spend the money to keep him.

Bottom line i simply hate the fact this team quit again this season. So next season if things are tough in December are they going to start tanking again? I totally get it that the goal is a championship. If they don't have a championship caliber roster next year are we okay with tanking again because they won't. Not even if they get the #1 pick.
They need to build the team both through draft and good quality decisions. On those issues i totally agree with people. I just feel they gave up way too soon this year.
30 games left and a .500 record and they quit.

Now maybe we should not turn the Around the NBA thread into another Trade Thread. There are plenty of places on this site for you guys to have this conversation another couple hundred times.

 

Rooting for Becky Hammon to get the Raptors job. It’s Time!

 

Sorry but i guess we just disagree here. Yeah i think signing another center and keeping Hart are two moves that would make the team a lot better. Adding some legth as a third option also makes them better.