I'm curious what the consensus is. This is before any moves this summer, before the draft, before anything. Just curious if people think that the plan is to tank once more for a shot at Flagg? And will they go all-in on tanking? Trade away vets?
My hope is they can somehow trade players and our picks to make the team better now. So a tentative, hopeful, no tank.
I mean they could - I just hope they don't do this type of short sided move. I want the team to continue to go young and trade Grant/Brogdon/etc for more youth/picks. However I do hope they try harder to win and don't have soo many scrubs that are borderline NBA players playing huge minutes for a 4th straight year. At this point since Cronin has done it EVERY single year he's been GM I think you need to expect him to do the same until we see him do something differently. Still think it's likely we get a top5 pick even trying to win, even without those scrubs playing huge roles - we have such little talent. If our young guys exceed that and end up closer to .500 that will be great, that would mean we have better young talent than expected! But if it's a bunch of overpaid aging vets like Brogdon/Grant/etc and we give up future youth/picks for more of them, then no that's not a good process to improve! That would just be driving down towards years of purgatory.
They "will lose" and won't need to "try" to tank if they fully commit to a rebuild by trading 3 of 4 of (Ant/Grant/Thybulle/Brog), that for me is the correct course to take. Play the youngsters again, those from this year and the new draftees. Probably results in one more very bad season and if we draft solidly and Scoot/Sharpe and others show good development, then maybe we can start a slow rise from the bottom.
I hope the team comes out and plays well, with Shae Scoot Walker Camani Ayton gelling. If they take another step w/o injuries the synergy woukd help the youngsters pop. Don’t purposely tank.
Conditional tank. If they prove utterly uncompetitive or hopeless, due lack of skill, injuries or whatever else, they go in full-tank mode. However, I don’t believe they start that way, I think they are hoping that either through draft, increased experience, trades or some combination thereof, they are hoping for playoffs or playin.
We better tank. It takes two Allstars on a team to win the championship and one should play a position other than guard. Bottom line, we need more talent.
One more tank. Try at the beginning of the year. Then when it fails, and it will, yank everyone and tank for Flagg.
Tanktastic. One more year. Grant has 4 years of contract (final is p-opt) Brogdon has 1. Ayton, Matisse, Ant, Time Lord -- all have 2 more years (Matisse with p-opt with the final year). Cronin has decisions about the big dollar players to make, soon ... February ... but this summer is good, too.
I've repeated my suspicion and it's that Cronin will try to win with Ant-Grant-Ayton. It would only work 'well' enough to put the Blazers in the 10-11 range of the lottery. And yeah, that would be dumb...but it's the Blazers and it's the next fence to straddle
I don't think they want to tank. But we should have a better idea this summer based on who they trade and who they draft.
I'm not sure if they will try to be bad. They just won't be in a position to be good as things stand with the current composition of the roster, and they aren't trading the young guys and picks for someone that substantially improves them. I don't really count that as tanking. More a matter than at least half the roster next year is going to have three years or less in NBA experience and the West still will be loaded. Unless Sharpe and Scoot have huge upticks next season, the Blazers are going to remain in the lottery without having to hold guys out with phantom injuries.
Look at how strong the West is right now. The Blazers don't need to try to tank. They can play hard and still be looking at lottery picks.
I think this completely depends on who's on the roster when the season tips off. If they shed salary and trade the vets for picks then, yup....we're tanking. This off season should give a good hint as to what they plan on doing next season. Chauncey will be the coach so let's see if he can take a dive seasons in a row. I think he'll try to make the playoffs. Whether he does or not is yet to be seen.
