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

Stoudamire no.... but Brian Grant yes so there were 7. Detleft Schrempf shot 42% 40% 3pt the two years prior and was an allstar the year before those but lost his starting spot after the Pippen trade. He might have had a much better year if he had been starting in place of Pippen. Still shot 40% 3pt and contributed to that elite bench unit. Might argue he was on the level of Jerami Grant though because the talent was so stacked on those Blazers rosters and so decimated on the current squads.

 

The problem with the Blazers doing the two timeline rebuild they've done since Olshey was the GM is it delays the rebuild. If the Blazers had been aggressive in flipping every vet for an asset and using cap space on acquiring assets, and only played their youth so they had improved to more valuable assets they'd be in a much better position today. Unfortunately we didn't make those good decisions before, so now the Blazers are in a spot they can't quickly exit this rebuild successfully.

The Thunder aggressively rebuilt with urgency and committed to it 100%. They had two seasons with a ton of losses. The Rockets did a similar approach - and had 3 bad years of losses.

The Blazers will be 4 years in of heavy losses after this season with no end in sight. That's the problem with not committing to rebuild 100% - it turns into MANY MORE LOSING seasons.

What do the Blazers do going forward? Unfortunately just trying to win with more mediocre veterans will only continue to make it worse.

 

I'm not saying you trade them all for lottery picks. I'm saying trade them for the best draft capital possible.

I'm not going to be disappointed by whatever draft capital we get as long as it seems somewhat reasonable (except possibly with Ayton).

Why would a team who is already on the cusp of contending want a player like Grant or Simon's? Maybe they need added depth off the bench. Maybe they need somebody who has their talents.

Doesn't matter. They aren't going to help us get where we need to get. Whatever the max value we can get out of them we need to get that.

 

If we are a playin this year, you dont think the players will gain more experience and be better next year? We have a very young team i expect to continue to grow and get better over the next three years.
you seem to think that they will be a playin and then Plateau without any more growth or improvement?

That seems highly unlikely to me.

 

We don't have enough talent to be much better than that. If both Scoot and Sharpe become high level All-Star/all NBA players then we'll be fine.

I think that is incredibly unlikely.

It's more likely that neither is ever as good as Dame and we never get as far with them as we got with Dame.

 

You’re already throwing out that “incredibly unlikely” argument on 20 year old Scoot who just played 1 season and 21 year old Sharpe who only played 32 games last season?

That is quite ridiculous to say “incredibly unlikely”

 

I sincerely hope he does. But the odds are against him.

I'm a fan of Scoot. That doesn't impact what The numbers tell us we need to do to help him be on the best team possible.

It's important not to be emotional at this point in time.

 

Emotional is you saying that already just because you want to trade Ant and Grant and throwing that comment out to support your argument.

It's way to early to say that. You got to give them more time.

Imagine saying that after Kobe's first season. Or Steve Nash few couple seasons. Or Jimmy Butlers first couple seasons. or many more example.

It's also incredibly unlikely tanking will get us a All NBA player at some point. Getting a high pick or top 3 is no so easy. But guess what, we just got the #3 the year before and got Scoot. But now Scoot won't be ALL NBA according to you.

Even getting a top 3 pick, there is room for players drafted in the top 3 to turn out not to be ALL NBA players or even worse a bust, as I can list way more top 3 picks that didn't turn into All NBA players than did. We got one on our team right now who you say you don't think will be ALL NBA either in Ayton who was a #1 pick lol

 

I wonder what a Dame, Shae, Grant, Deni, and Ayton starting lineup would do. I am not saying it would ever have been possible, but I do think it would have been the best lineup Dame would have had since the Wes, LMA, Batum days.

 

Yeah, if we had Dame we would be in a much better place.

 

I really don't know what you're trying to say in all of this. You are clearly not listening to what I am saying.

I'm talking about percentages and odds and how to maximize our odds and you're talking about random what-ifs.

It's very clear we disagree on strategy.

I 100% hope that Scoot is the best point guard that has ever walked the face of the earth.

The odds are against that. I do not believe that we should plan for that right now. I think that would be a mistake. The statistics tell us that would be a mistake.

I don't believe in fairy tales. I believe the team that has the most talent usually wins. Especially if they can get that team a good coach and get them to play well together.

We don't have as much talent as most teams in the NBA. We need to keep doing the best we can to bring in the most talent.

It is well understood that the best way for a non-destination city to do that is by drafting as high as possible in the draft.

 

Your last sentence, drafting as high as possible is false, as I just said I show you many more top 3 picks that didn’t pan out to All NBA that did.

btw what pick was Dame? CJ? L.A?


We got a # 3 pick on our team and two #7’s and a #1 pick from 2018 in Ayton.

Giving Sharpe and Scoot more time to see what they can turn into is the better step, if they can take a leap they will naturally supplant guys like Ant and Grant on our team, and then you have talent with more talent around them.

Tanking and hoping we get a superstar is not guaranteed, and if we get a top pick and they don’t pan out, we keep trying for years and years to yank until we get it right? That silly imo.

 

I don't think that we can have this conversation until you understand the content of this video. I'm not even sure if that will be enough. But it would be a start.



But in summary, the higher you draft the better your odds of getting more talent are. If you consistently draft higher in the draft you will consistently get more talent than teams who draft lower in the draft.

We don't have as much talent as the top teams in the league. We cannot hope to compete with them until we do.

The best way for a bad team in a non-destination market to add talent is in the draft. The higher you draft the more likely you are to get better talent.

If you have great talent evaluators this increases your odds even more.

 

Deni + Grant (you mean Jerami, right, not Brian?) = Aldridge + Batum..? Maybe not, but a lot depends on how Avdija develops. He might be pretty good. I have no interest at all in Ayton. He's pretty much the opposite of what I'd like a C to be

I guess the big question: will Sharpe surpass Matthews, and will he do it soon? Wesley was pretty good

 

I'm not sure how you can come to that conclusion with so many young and improving players with potential to be better than they currently are.

 

If you would stop rambling and think to answer some questions for a second, but I forgot how far you have your head up your ass.

Countless people including myself have made very good and valid counter points to you and all you do is repeat the same things while thinking you’re smarter that others.

Im sorry I wasted my time.

the season can’t start soon enough.

 

The points I am not answering are the ones which are made irrelevant because they have already been considered by looking at draft history in the context of probabilities.

I'm not sure why you take all of this so personally, but if you don't at least try to understand probabilities then we can make no progress in this discussion.

 

It's one of the most ridiculous conclusions to come to so quickly...baffles me anyone can say something so silly with such small sample size.

 

Where are all the #FireStotts guy at? Remember how miserable we were making the playoffs every year? Sigh….. I miss the playoffs.
But ,”Anyone is better than Stotts!” right?