I'm wondering if Billups to Lakers is a possibility. Anyone think that we could extract 2-3 future seconds to let him leave?
I'd take a 6 foot sub from them, personally. Might be greedy and ask for double meat and cheese though.
No. Honestly, I don't think Vogel is any better than Billups. He might be better X & O technician (although not great), Billups is a better teacher and gets respect from the players. With an eye on Phoenix, it appears that the Bud transition has been in the works for about a week or so. Rumors have been that Bud has been trying to assemble his staff. IF Brooks is part of that staff (top assistant), will everyone who has been saying that the Blazers have been underhanded in trying to get Billups to quit retract their accusations?
What exactly did we do the past three years? This summer, we'll have tanked for lotto picks three straight times. So we're ready for a Gobert trade now?
Minnesota sucked a lot longer than three years. You have to draft well too. Remains to be seen if we have done that. But add a Sarr or Buzelis to this team and Flagg next year (if we got lucky) and maybe we could get there with development from Sharpe, Scoot etc.
All that is fine. I just disagree with the Minny example to validate tanking. OKC, I agree with. And I also agree with the strategy, but it is questionable if that is actually what we're doing. OKC didn't waste the majority of their cap on vets they benched. They took shots on guys and prioritized player development.
Gotta keep going until you get a legit star or two. If any of our previous picks turn into stars on the way, that works too. We need stars though. You worry about consolidation later. If you are going to dip your toe into the tank pool, you might as well fully jump in.
Minny wouldn't have gotten KAT or Edwards if it weren't for losing though. Dame never got a costar as good as KAT except for Aldridge. I wish we would have traded the farm for Dame and Aldridge when we had both. Those Twolves picks will probably be in the 20's the next 3 years. Edwards is on the rise and will probably be Top 5 as early as 2025. I think (hope) our vision becomes more clear this offseason and we trade some vets away. We will see. Trade Grant, Brogdon, Thybulle for as much as you can get.
Good coaches put good collections of players in a better position to win. Nothing more, nothing less. Not sure Phil Jackson could’ve squeezed too many more wins out of this team
Dame was injured on Team USA before Billups coached him a game, eventually having season ending surgery. When did Stotts have that?
OKC only tanked two years. Other years they were surprising in the playoffs. After trading Westbrook they were 16 games over .500, or last year around .500 and in the playin. The Blazers have already tanked longer.
The Thunder were super aggressive with their rebuilding/tanking they committed to it 100%. Might be why it seems longer than two tanking years as they did it so intensely. No two timelines bullshit like the Blazers have straddled since Olshey was fired. They flipped every vet possible for picks. They didn't sign any vet free agents to huge deals. They took on overpaid vets for picks sometimes later flipping them again for more picks. They even flipped picks for picks. If the Blazers had committed to that all in rebuild perhaps we'd be further along in this process and closer to fully trying to take that next step to realistically win. The sooner the Blazers commit to one direction the better. This lack of consistency of one comprehensive plan ultimately makes the rebuild take longer and cause more losses. Pick a lane Joe!
Dame played with that injury for quite a while. He felt good before the season. He missed time with it while playing for Stotts.
the Blazers "let go" of the head coach that helped the OG Thunder rebuild. losing stinks, i think Portland is going to be better next season. The media keep using "expect the worst", but Billups thinks this team can compete. Joe originally said "improve like Rockets" at the trade deadline. I don't see where the 'press conference signals got crossed'. The GM explained how much injuries de-railed the roster. What's wrong with a bunch of cool wins? It might show this team is onto something, and no longer need to tank. OKC did not bench starters last year, and now they look terrific.
