10% chance of grabbing an All Star with a pick in the 8-10 range. Maybe even better odds in this loaded draft.
Man, I know I can't convert you into a true fan, but I can at least try. Stop worrying about the upcoming draft. Look at the team before your eyes. Have you seen a team like this in the Dame and CJ era?
The Blazers looked much better in many seasons of the DameCJ era. They were #3 seeds twice. They had stretches in other season with longer runs of wins. They were hot in the bubble. Dame won 4 playoff series. Those teams always seemed to be fools gold though, I never felt like we had a shot at contending outside maybe a sliver of a chance with the LaMarcus teams before Wes tore his Achilles. Just too hard to win multiple playoff series with a team led by a tiny guard that can be schemed out of the offense. I've really enjoyed the wins of this years team and I'm fully on board with making the playoffs to send our pick to Chicago. But lets not kid ourselves - this is not a complete roster that could ever win playoff series. Its more similar to the flukey 13 game win streak of the Blazers in 2007 that had Pryz/Blake/Webster starting. That team finished 41-41. Fun exciting story. Zero chance of ever winning in the playoffs. The Blazers certainly will need a big piece added to this roster if they ever hope of one day contending. In ~40 years we've only seen 3 players added from losing as top6 picks that delivered a title. So rest assured there are plenty of other avenues to get that piece than tanking.
Grant is awful to you due to the role he plays on OUR team and his contract. On another team as lesssr option he will be good. So just wording it was Grant is awful just shows how bias your thought process is. never said I was happy with meaningless wins, but you don’t seem to understand we haven’t won a ring since 1971 and the last few years have been a nightmare for the franchise and empty seats. You really don’t think taking a tank route for many more years to come to try and get a top 3 pick AND strike gold, (Scoot was #3 but it’s not enough apparently), which might not happen in ur lifetime, could potentially cause more fans to tune out and maybe cause the franchise to relocate at some point? Or maybe cause players we have right now, Sharpe and Scoot to want to leave for a better situation down the road? There is a double edged sword to any route we take, but you guys just complain about the same things on here 24/7 and even still when we are actually playing good now. I also said I’m open to trading those guys, but you guys want to trade these guys at all costs and that’s just silly, grant I could understand more because of his years on his contract but Ayton and Ant will have one more year left after this, and don’t forget how valuable just letting their contracts off the books too can be if we want to resign Sharpe and Scoot to long term contracts one day.
Shocked is the limb you’re going out on? Remind me not to invite you to the first annual MM hold ‘em tournament
Let me put it this way, even if we won the Finals this year with this group, I would still call it a mistake.
Got to admit I wanted Ayton traded but he truly is a difference maker. I know the argument is he does this every year and then disappears again. He really seems to love this team and it’s showing up on the court. I like Clingan but hes limited as defensive specialist who picks up fouls quick. Ayton is really good offensive player who seems to be putting out more effort on defense. Throw in RW and our center spot is deepen at in the NBA. guess what I’m saying I’m not ready to trade Ayton….
I think you would find I'm a super nice guy; online with this stuff, I definitely have a different persona and a lot of posturing to go along with the amount of dislike I have for tanking and draft chasing. And I have a fervent love and support for this team. I've been a fan since I won a ticket in the fourth grade and got to go see Drexler and company play in 1989 against the Sonics. I guess I think of forms and online conversations as a different world and we are more like avatars and not real people with invested feelings, to a point. I don't mean to sound like a jerk or be nasty, I like to try to further this philosophy: TO BUILD, NOT TO REBUILD. We already have gone through a rebuild for some time now and we have great pieces that we just need to keep together and build. Don't need to rebuild every year.
This is a little extreme. If we win the finals I'll flip my opinion so hard I'll donate a car to the Cronin fan club.
Meanwhile I'm over here thinking that people who are excited about the shiny new win streak are morons who don't remember what it feels like to be stuck as a middle of the road team with no future. Every season pointless because you already know how it's going to end up. That's why the NBA is failing and the NFL is thriving. We are trading a bright future for a quick thrill. This would be like deciding to become a drug dealer because you can make a few grand easily, instead of going to school, getting your degree, and getting a legitimate high paying job. To use your stupid analogy, you guys are marrying the first girl that will sleep with you instead of actually trying to find a soul mate. A partner. Guess how that usually ends up? You can't change people.
No, I would counter that we are happy with the proven, great girl that we have instead of trying to trade her out for a younger, newer model.
So what you're saying is, you're happy being an also-ran and having no shot at a championship. Got it. You do you, boo.
The thing about Cooper Flagg is that he's sort of a super-duper role player. His strengths are on D and his offense is a work in progress. Now, Andrei Kirilenko (who seems the obvious comparison) did lead his Russia team to an unexpected Euro championship over Dirk Nowtizki's Germany, but Cooper Flagg's strengths are already the strengths of our "core" players, Toumani, Deni and Clingan. So adding him to the current squad just wouldn't be as transformative as, say, Jokic or a young Steph or Durant or someone like that. And there just aren't those players in this draft (or if there are, they'll be shock lower picks, like, y'know, Steph or Jokic.
You have no clue how it worked that off season clearly and it shows. Almsot every team had to spend money that summer to get just above the minimum spent, are you that clueless how on it worked that off season? Teams HAD to sign players, to get ABOVE the salary cap limit. No, the Blazers couldn't have used that cap space to get picks from another team, so wrong there. We didn't have to sign Turner to a 4 year, that is correct. But then again, teams like Portland that rarely sign any big free agents had to take the best they could have gotten, maybe Turner wouldn't have signed with us if it wasn't a 4 year deal. We would have then had some other scrub who was worse than Turner on a contract. Not defending Oshley, defending the fact that you don't seem to understand we had to sign the best players that WOULD have signed with us, and that went for almost every single team that wasn't majorly over the salary cap already. From a article, 2017 NBA Summer, With $900 million in the system, Christmas came to NBA players in July. The unprecedented one-year rise in the salary cap, from $70 million in 2015-16 to $94 million the following year — the result of the start of the NBA’s new national TV rights deal in 2016, an eight-year, $24 billion contract — meant almost every team in the league was suddenly flush with copious salary cap space, something that had never occurred before. But not smoothing has had ramifications, as noted above. The 2016 spike meant just about every team in the league was flush with cap space, with not enough quality players to spend it on. With all teams legally obligated under the CBA to spend at least 90 percent of their caps on player salaries, that meant everyone had to have at least a payroll of at least $84.69 million — a huge leap from the 2015-16 cap figure of $70 million. "delusional' is some of the negative pouting I see from you in here all the time LMAO. Next time do some proper homework on the subject you're talking about at least before coming at me.
