When have you been less excited for the start of a Blazers season?

The thing I see is If Dame at his best with reasonable role players can only keep this team as a bottom playoff team then Grant certainly won’t be able to hold them out of the lottery.

 

I have no clue on those guys, but I think folks are conflating 'they aren't unloading veterans' with 'they actually want to compete'. There's a massive grey middle--and I say that as someone who thinks it would be useful if they had made more trade(s) this summer.

 

Being "in" the lottery isn't enough. We don't have enough talent. We need to be as high in the lottery as possible for the next couple years.

 

This is a big problem. This will almost certainly keep us from reaching contender status (unless he changes as a player, which is incredibly unlikely).

Keeping Grant for that long will be a huge mistake unless we get a top five pick (in a quality draft) out of him.

*Edit* to clarify, I think it is pretty much impossible for us to get a top 5 pic out of Grant. He needs to be traded immediately for the best possible youth/draft package we can get.

 

PGR - as much as I would love a top five pick for Grant, I'm not sure that feasible unless we take back poison. Hope Im wrong....

 

I don't see either of those players keeping this team out of the lottery? This team will be very close to the bottom. Makes no difference if you win 20 games instead of 18.
And I certainly hope this is the last year they try to lose. Been tanking for 3 years already.

 

Especially if you want the pick in this next draft. Only a team who thinks they can be a contender would trade for him, and unless they own someone else's pick that ain't happening.

 

Top 5 will absolutely never happen. 1st round? Probable. Top 5 is out of the question. Even if they take on a bad player contract. Why would a team do that?

 

I don't think it's at all possible. Hence, I think he needs to be dealt ASAP. Preferably before playing any games.

 

Once again, being "in the lottery" is not good enough for right now. We need to be high in the lottery. Very high.

 

It's not just the minutes - yeah we may not have bench players that need way more minutes. But its about having Scoot/Sharpe/Camera/Deni/Clingan/etc learning to imitate offense and building their leadership of the team instead of standing in the corner while Simons/Ayton/Grant dominate the ball.

 

It takes 5 to 6 years for a team like us to rebuild through the draft. Unless you get lucky and get LeBron James. Unfortunately that's just the reality of situation. That's what the numbers tell us.

I don't think we have gotten a player of that caliber, so we need to get realistic about the fact that if we actually want to ever compete we need to lose for a few more years. And probably lose big for another year or two.

 

Well sure the Blazers may be somewhere in the lottery with Grant. But wouldn't it be better to have Grant on a different team, get an asset for him, give our youth those shots, and improve our pick?

I don't see the purpose in holding onto Grant or demanding multiple first round picks for him.

 

Plenty of teams trade away picks then end up high in the lottery. Look at the Houston pick a few months ago - it was #3 sent from Brooklyn, when the Nets acquired Harden they believed they would still have a dynasty at this point and it would be an end of the first round pick, whoops.

Thats why getting a 2029 Lakers pick or something for Grant would be a great haul. Sure there is a chance it could be at the very end of the draft, but theres a chance it could be high in the lottery as well. That is the smart type of gamble a team like the Blazers should take.

 

If this was true, and I have watched plenty of film that disputes it, then that is a coaching problem not a player problem.
Seriously do you really think Ayton dominates the ball?

 

Well, when we get a new coach and give him a couple years to get caught up we can stop worrying about it. Until then, we need to proceed with what we know, in my opinion.

Unfortunately by then Scoot, Sharpe, and our other young guys will probably be good enough that we won't be ABLE to tank anymore. Then we'll be stuck in purgatory again.

We are wasting critical opportunities by keeping Simons and Grant. I think Ayton could be a part of our future. Part of a contending team, built around another two or three drafts. So I'm not necessarily set on trading him right now. But I've seen enough of both Simons and Grant to know they aren't a part of that picture.

 

Lottery team is a lottery team. Saying high lottery is what? Top 7-8? They been there for 3 years? They will be in the top 7 again with or without Grant and Simons.

 

Well you got your wish I guess. This is year 4 already.

 

Like top 3 or 4. We've been screwing the pooch for the last 3 years. We kind of get a pass on last year because it was such a bad draft, But that makes missing the prior two years (if they aren't at least borderline All Stars eventually) a huge deal.

 

It's not my wish. I wish we still had Dame. This is just what it takes for a team in our situation to compile enough talent to actually compete in the future.

Without doing that you have to luck into a generational talent. We haven't lucked into that. This is not a wish or desire of mine. This is literally what the numbers tell us is required unless something extraordinary happens.

We should not plan for something extraordinary to happen. That would be a mistake.