I watched the CP3 & Barnes presser. I'll just say they didn't look estatically thrilled to be Spurs. Castle looks like a really fun player. Go Spurs Go is an exciting tank, but it's still too heavy for playoff combat.
OK, not sure what your argument here is, that JoeCro requires too much from LAL? If you say that we do not know what was or was not offered, so if we believe that he asked for 2 FRPs from LAL, it makes sense to take it that he did not think what they offered with 1 remote FRP was enough which still leaves us in the talent acquisition lane. Trading Dame was a requirement that did not come from JoeCro, it came after a trade request. Now, the entire matching MT, giving Ant and Grant their contracts clearly fall in the "not letting talent go for nothing", and the contracts seem to be size appropriate for the NBA of today so can be used in trades in the future, so clearly still fit in the talent acquisition lane. Finally, the Nurkic for DA trade, clearly an upgrade in talent for the modern NBA, DA can play center in the drop and do switching as required by the modern NBA, Nurkic could not. Before Dame's trade request Joe mentioned he wants to balance the roster and add athletic ability which he was clearly working on even before the trade request. Once that trade request was made, it was clearly a move to talent acquisition since Dame's trade has really decreased the actualized talent on the roster. I really do not understand this stance that there are multiple lanes here, once Dame made the trade request JoeCro made multiple moves to retain talent on tradeable contracts, draft for talent emphasizing upside, athletic ability and roster balance. That's the lane. It's a single lane. You can not acquire talent if you let talent on the roster walk for nothing. The Blazers have to have a minimum salary - and the talent that could "walk away" was extended in league norms. In an NBA where Quickly got $175m contract, Ant is not overpaid. Royce O'neal got basically the same contract per year (an extra year) as MT did for a similar kind of player, again, not overpaid. Grant, a bit overpaid, for sure, but better to keep him and wait for the market to get out of control (See BI's next contract, Siakam getting the max) and all of a sudden, JG's contract as the 3rd option does not look out of place in the NBA - he is making $30m this year, MPJ is making $36m this year... that's a tradeable contract, if not thing year, next year for sure.
you see just one lane....I see more. agree to disagree my main position is that any lane that has Portland shooting for wins and a play-in spot with Ant-Grant-Ayton is a dumb and pointless lane to take. And my hunch is that is what the Blazers will try, at least until the trade deadline approaches. And by then, it's very likely the Blazers will have completely scuttled their chances at good odds in the lottery for a significantly better draft than this year's, especially in the top-5-7 slots
I am certainly concerned that none of Ant, Grant, Thybulle or Williams will be traded before the season starts. Adding Advija to the mix could certainly lead to undesired competitiveness and wins. This is a team needing a star like Flagg or Ace. At minimum, the above vets should never play in the fourth quarter. That is where the young players need to get experience, compete some, but ultimately lose games. That is the best compromise I can rap my brain around if trades are not made.
I'm sure 20 wins will land a rebuilding team in slots 1-3 this next season. Depends how hard teams embrace the tank. Several new candidates to go along with the usual suspects.
We can't just bring those vets back and not play them in the 4th quarter - that could cause major problems in the locker room as well as development of our youth (Scoot/Sharpe/etc) Two of these vets need to be traded away so we can just play the remaining vets/youth to win as hard as possible and still end up with a great pick.
15-20 wins should be the goal, with a lot of "morale victories" where our youth plays well for flashes but ultimately losses.
I’d go watch us lose all 82 games on purpose if that’s what it took to land Flagg. Something tells me the NBA won’t allow him to land here though.
Someone needs to talk to Ant about Jamal Crawford. Ant would be perfect instant scoring as the 6th man. If he could embrace that role it would be one less need for the team to address.
I think that role will get filled by default. We aren't going to hit all stars on all of our draft picks. But we want as many opportunities as possible to hit in the shortest amount of time. Need to try and get a good chance at a good pick out of Ant.
there wasn't enough competitiveness at all last season. The repercussions of losing to Portland was devastating. List of teams that lost vs. Blazers, then fired their Coach: Suns Cavs Bucks Pistons Nets there may be more management changes I'm unaware of. Just a drop in the bucket when dropping games to Portland.
