Yeah thats normally when players start to decline. Of course there are exceptions like CP3/Steph/Lebron. But theres others like Blake Griffin. An athletic wing that has had major injury concerns like OG might decline even sooner.
I thought the prevailing thought that 29 was peak prime. If 29 is declining than Dame is ancient at 33.
Per a Dartmout study its about 27 https://sites.dartmouth.edu/sportsanalytics/2021/11/10/peak-age-in-sports/
Scoot is ready to win now. He's making passes that teammates need to convert to points now, not in 3 seasons. If the Blazers get a top-half-of-NBA small forward, why tank?
I'm fine with the Blazers trying to win, and yeah I'm a huge Scoot fan. But I wouldn't give up unprotected picks for non star injury prone forwards. If the Blazers end up exceeding expectations and can try to make the playoffs then great go for it. I'd suspect they are ultimately closer to the tanking side of competing next season until we see otherwise. Scoot won't be able to do everything, and I question a lot of the Blazers frontcourt.
Big reason why I thought the contend with Dame idea was always a huge longshot. Only players to lead a team to a title that were older than Dame were MJ/Wilt/Kareem/LBJ. Even with that said I'd have probably traded #3 for Brown or Bridges - but that was it, and that was more something I wanted to do with my heart than the thought it maximized the Blazers chance to best build a title winning team. Fans always hold on to the ideal of big NBA star names well after their decline.
Sure, we'd have to see the cost of getting a non-rookie-contract small forward before there's something to compare. I'm saying in general, if the Blazers can get a solid small forward when Lillard is traded, I'd want to do that as a priority. I'm against further intentional tanking.
We need to keep our salary low so we can take bad contracts in exchange for assets like picks. OKC did it right with 35 picks in the next 7 years. 15 of them being 1st rounders. I would take draft picks to take Ben Simmons. I agree that he could turn his career around. He only has 2 years left anyways. In one year he'll be an asset.
Yeah I like Ant more than most but I'd trade him for OG. The issue is giving up unprotected picks and Portland not being likely to win anything of significance now with OG. It makes no sense to go that direction if we're rebuilding. Better to hoard picks and not really try our hardest to win. Although if we end up winning more than expected thats great, it just shouldn't be the main goal right now. Winning now should've been the urgent goal if we were building around Dame, not when building around a 19/20 year old backcourt.
So if I sell my car for $20k I can spend it all on strippers and blow because its the dealerships money? I'll have to let my wife know... it wasn't any of our money, it was the dealerships. I wonder what she'll say.
