[Semi-OT] The Lakers are an absolute Dumpster Fire and I am loving every second of it

Look I get your position but if this team isn't trying to win games by 2026 all fucking hell will break loose. Every person i know that watches Blazers have pretty much written them off. Two more years of this and there won't be any fans.

 

Get ready for it. Regardless of if we're trying to win or not, it's not going to be pretty by 2026 unless we strike gold in the draft.

 

There is no chance we make the playoffs the next two years.

Can we make the playoffs after that in 2027 or 2028? I'd tend to think its more likely we miss both than make it either of those seasons. But its hard to predict that far out. If any of Scoot/Sharpe/Deni/Klingan become an allstar (seems unlikely) we are probably much more likely to make it. Or if we draft a stud rookie (Flag/Ace/etc) then yeah might be more likely we make it.

If neither of those happen I guess at least we won't have given up a FRP and will only lose a 2nd rounder. Thanks Neil Olshey?

 

I sort of agree but that just the big problem with where the Blazers roster is at today and the strategy they have followed the last couple years. There is no quick fix that will lead to a contending team. I guess if we strike gold with Flag or Ace that is about our only hope. Otherwise with more losses and lack of fan support I'm worried we'll start to make even worse decisions such as take a Chicago Bulls path.

The Bulls got impatient and sent out multiple picks and cap space for DeRozen/Vucevic type of average starters. Teams like that never build a contender. Maybe it gets us to .500 level basketball sooner, but we'll be even further from having a contender. Will be such a waste of these years of tanking if we just give up and settle for a mediocre below average playoff team.

 

hyperbole

Blazers spent 5 straight years in the lottery in 2003-2008 and in the 5th year they ranked 7th in the NBA in attendance. From 2003-2013, the Blazers spent 8 of 11 years in the lottery, only won 5 playoff games in 11 years, and in the 11th season of that stretch, Portland ranked 3rd in attendance

the keys to those attendance numbers was that the Blazers had youngish players that offered a lot of hope and upside. First it was Roy, Aldridge, Oden; then it was Dame, Batum, Matthews.

if the Blazers had just rebooted the roster, year after year, and tried to win with a bunch of average to mediocre veterans like Derek Anderson (Simons), Darius Miles (Grant), Theo Ratliff (Ayton), Dale Davis (Timelord) and Reuben Patterson (Thybulle)....then yeah, fans would have stayed away in droves. That was the actually the team when Portland's attendance numbers cratered all the way down to 20th. When the absolute best a team can hope for is a 1st round exit, and a realistic goal is the play-in or back end of lottery, fans will start not giving a shit in a hurry

it is not a stretch of 22-30 win seasons that kill attendance; it's the purgatory of perpetual 35-41 win seasons

 

I'd like to add, if Portland can figure out how to move Ant/Grant, have Ayton and Timelord on expiring contracts after this season and Thybulle opt out after this season, Portland can go full rebuild with Scoot, Sharpe, Clingan, Deni and the new pick, hopefully Flagg or Ace. Fans will come back in droves to see such a loaded young team. Sure, they won't win a lot, which leads to another lotto pick while still developing. This is what I want to watch.

 

Bingo. Fans will be excited to watch a young team with potential.

 

looks like SlyPoker's cat is tired of the antics of SlyPoker's dog

 

#FireStotts #AnybodyIsBetterThanHim

 

NICE!

 

Hope this isn’t Springfield, OH

 

So you think it’s hyperbole then compare 5 years to 10?
I see?

 

Fans will wonder when a young team with potential get a chance to play?

 

The young guys should be getting a chance to play now. Move the middle aged guys for draft capital/prospects and they will be playing. And they'll be losing games because they won't have enough experience to win games. Rather than because we're trying to lose.

It kills it for me when I see Ant and Grant out there playing ISO ball with the young guys either on the bench or standing around watching. At that point I pretty much stop paying attention to the game. And then I'm less likely to watch the next one.

 

If they are still tanking in 2028 these players we have now will be gone. The new players will not want to play here because the culture is losing. Losers lose. Players who are losers are ok with losing. Fans that are okay with losing expect losses. Don’t think for a second losing for a decade is a good thing. It isn’t.

 

It wouldn't be tanking. We'd be trying to win with a young team. And if we weren't winning by then those players wouldn't likely be worth hanging on to.

It shouldn't take a decade. It should take 5 to 6 years. Unfortunately, we haven't chosen a path and moved our middle-aged players for draft capital yet so it will likely take longer.

 

Their success from 1989-through 2002 was the jet fuel that kept fans in the seats. This team's previous 15 years hasn't captured that synergy, imo.
Look how long red hot and rollin ket this team relevant with the fans.