With the 7th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, The Portland Trailblazers select. . .

He sounds like someone we want to hang our hat on then. Give him minutes and he'll get tired and suck. He really proved the nay sayers wrong.

 

From the Athletic today:



#13? Do they know something we don't?

 

Rasta - thanks for showing this cause this was interesting and I am a little surprised but in some ways not so much and this makes me want to go look at those players and look at this and compare so might give my thoughts on that too


Minutes later --

I was going to do a breakdown myself but got long so decided to keep it brief so here it is. Only 10 picks in the lotto since 04 to 22 ( not including Sharpe and Scoot ) and while there was some obvious placement there also was legit discussion where a player would be put into . I do agree with the Athetic's take and I think the front offices in the past 10 years or so have done a good job in the lotto it's the back half of the first where things get a little more murky. --

One more thing is going over the drafts almost deserves a post on it's own cause the draft did little to help the Blazers in the Dame and CJ era so no matter how it ended ( dame era ) the draft did have a big influence in how it went .

 

Yeah I don't agree at all that he regressed.

He looked good when he was healthy and when he was adequately rested. He dipped when he was being overplayed and after he got hurt. He also struggled when most of the team was hurt

 

Sharpe may not have regressed but he didn't really improve last year like many of us hoped. Now it was chaotic with Scoot playing horrible at the start of the year, Ant injured in game1, and Brogdon even missing time, so yeah Sharpe didn't have an optimal environment either. The #1 issue was his injury robbing him of the last 2/3rds of the season which was such a downer for the whole year.

That example of last year is also part of the reason I'm not in a rush to trade away both Ant and Brogdon. If both of them are gone were going to have problems with backups or a missed game just as when Sharpe had that stretches of playing over 40mpgs. If we get the right assets its probably still worth it to do both those trades just for the long term upside. But if one of Ant or Brogdon don't have good trade offers there is a huge benefit to having one stay here and shoulder some of the load with Scoot/Sharpe next year.

 

I remember Nic looking horrible in summer league and then I think he was starting from Day 1. He's the ultimate complementary piece/Swiss Army knife. He can't carry a team, but he makes it better. If you have good players, he'll find them with passes, make shots when they draw defense, he'll take fouls so they don't have to, he'd bring the ball up court to keep them from being fatigued. Now, is that Williams, or does he possess the self-awareness and BBall IQ to be that? I think that determines his floor.

 

Sarr don’t want to go to the Hawks, is there a way we can trade up?

 

He wants to play for the Wizards.

 

That has to be a first, doesn't it???

 

Buzelis is definitely a Spur. He looks like a Coach Pop guy pairing him with Wemby

 

I'm just gonna throw this out there, and I don't think it's gonna happen..... but if we take Edey at 7 I'm going to be fucking furious.

 

God damn! We got a 7-5 player with an 8 foot wingspan who can dominate the paint.

 

Boy I sure am glad that we found a time machine to go back to the 90s where a big ass center who plays exclusively in the post is still relevant!

 

So you'd get mad if we drafted Shaq or Yao Ming?

 

Are you saying that Zach Edey is either of those players?

 

I would be mad today if we drafted Yao. People forget how fast Shaq's feet moved. He was able to get up and down the court faster than Yao and Edey. He switched better than Yao and I'm assuming Edey from everything I've seen. He was a good pick and roll defender, even when his team wasn't playing drop. He was just a helluva lot faster and quicker than either of these two guys that you just grouped him with.

 

Skill-wise he is closer to Yao as anyone who has come around since. So the question is does Yao work in today's NBA?

 

They were both "big ass centers who play exclusively in the post". Shaq is even from the 90s

 

So, it's a done deal?

Idk the answer to your question but man in the 2000s Yao was amazing. Too bad his health didn't cooperate, but if Edey is close to Yao, to get that at 14 wouldn't be bad at all.