if you haven't noticed, pretty much everyone is ignoring your inflammatory posts... but I'll play! For the last couple months, barely 24 year old Deni is averaging 22.5, 9.6 & 5.2 and the team is winning at a much higher clip (14-14). Are those not All NBA type stats? If the other youngins continue to improve (as young players tend to do... even 24 y/olds) and that results in even more winning (expect it), Deni will likely shoulder the blame with All NBA selections. If so, will you man up and offer the board a mea culpa for all the nay saying or change your handle & continue to snipe? STOMP
I agree that Deni could be all nba but it only happens if Shaedon is too. I definitely think both have it in them if the other is taking some of the pressure off. Tou is a perfect complementary all defensive player for them. I think if we get a starting level small ball 5 it would allow us to dictate when Clingan is the mismatch and not the other way around and that would make Clingan way more effective (see Bobby Portis and Brook Lopez). That would leave us one starting level role player and some bench pieces away from being legit. I think Joe can pull that stuff off even being as risk averse as he is. With the way Deni has stepped up and Shaedon has been getting more consistent with his superstar looking play instead of it just being glimpses, I think the future looks bright for our team. We'll wait and see what we get in the draft and what we get if and hopefully when Ant is shipped out. I think there will be some value in the return we get for Ant, I think there still could be some value in the return for Rob. I think we could unload both Jerami and Deandre but I think we'll end up with guys we waive in return for them and not much value other than that. I guess time will tell on all of it but I'm still excited to see how much better the young guys currently on the roster get and who we acquire to play with them.
If everything goes perfect we have a slim path to be very good. I just don't like having to count on everything going perfect.
I agree completely and if you play the odds on guys reaching there ceilings and then add in the odds on injuries it's way more likely that we're just a team that fights for a playoff spot, probably peaks in like 6 years or so as a 4 seed and then start to tail off. So in other words we'll get stuck in playoff purgatory making the playoffs but averaging a first round exit. That's if things go alright, things could go worse or like you said they could go perfectly and we would end up a contender. I do think this year's draft pick could be important if we hit big on it that gives us a little more fire power to get to contender status but yeah as constituted every thing will have to go perfectly to become a contender while only adding role players to the existing young core.
I see it a bit differently. If the FO is going to extend billups, the team is and will keep on being in his image. That is - a defensive oriented group with grit and team mentality that can eventually peek for a season or two as a 'way better than the sum of its' parts' and reach actual contention - all without having a 'true' NBA Allstar caliber player. The few recent games showed that Sharpe and Deni can hold thier own as 'aduequeate' scorers - imagine the potential for team scoring once you group them around additional good starter team-friendly caliber players you can trade for instead of the current 'old-school' vets..
sure, maybe, I suppose...but...Deni is 24 and in his 5th season SGA was all-NBA at 24 Anthony Edwards was all-NBA at 22 Paul George at 22 Kawhi Leonard at 24 Kevin Durant at 21 Blake Griffin at 22 Carmelo at 21 Harden at 23 Kevin Love at 23 CP3 at 23 Klay Thompson at 24 AD at 21 Damian Lillard at 23 Giannis at 22 Jayson Tatum at 21 LaMarcus Aldridge made 3rd team all-NBA at 25 Jimmy Butler at 27, but it was only his 6th season DeMar Derozan at 27 in his 8th season Siakam at 25 in his 4th season Draymond at 25 in his 4th season for the most part, all-NBA players become that at 24 or sooner. There are some exceptions to that obviously. And it's not always elite players making all-NBA teams. Victor Oladipo, Kemba Walker, and Julius Randle have all been named to all-NBA teams, usually 3rd team though of course, if Deni will be sharing the ball, usage, & shots while competing for minutes with Simons, Ayton, & Grant, he won't be gaining much all-nba traction
It's not always obvious how things will unfold. The Warriors 2015 championship was a surprise, Raptors in 2019, Nuggets in 2023 just to name a few. The Blazers will be champions and it too will be a surprise
This last line better not be the case. Other than that Butler in his 6th season, Derozan in his 8th are good enough precedent for me. I said if everything goes perfectly and all of our young guys, including Deni reach their ceiling... I don't think he's at his but I could be wrong. There's also Steve Nash who didn't make his first all star game and then all nba team until he was 28 and had been in the league for 6 seasons, went on to be a back to back MVP. I don't think that's Deni's ceiling and I don't even think it's necessarily a perennial all nba guy but I can't be sure of that either. Deni has definitely tapped into something over the past month or so that has him putting up all star stats albeit on a well below .500 team. If he can further tap into what he's been doing and be this productive on a winning team then he's an all star/all nba player.
If Deni with his numbers make him a high end role player, what does that make Amen? "Thank you. Very good player but he’s just a high end role player that’s it."
The problem is, Chauncey's halfcourt offense isn't creative enough to contend without an all-NBA player. Deni has been statistically elite in isolation and you can see the massive difference when Deni isn't in to bail out the offense. The Blazers were 30th in AST% last year and is 28th this year. With the number of guys they gave that can pass and the number of athletes they have, this is ridiculous. This Blazers core will defend. Find a coach that knows how to get creative and something out of them offensively.
If they luck into Flagg, they will immediately be among the league's elite teams. Bailey would be a tremendous add as well STOMP
If there is a fan base that deserves it it’s us. Problem with it is if it was to happen immediately Steven A Smith would start saying how Flagg needed to get out of Portland.
I think the main thing he 'tapped' into was Grant and Ayton out of the lineup; plus an unsustainable level of 3 point shooting I'd agree that Deni is a better #1 option than Simons. Personally, I think Sharpe is too, especially if there was a throttle on the number of three's he shoots. But then I obviously have a low opinion of Simons. But I just can't see Deni being a #1 option on a contender. And his turnover issues really need to get corrected. He has a 1.44 assist/turnover ratio this season; that's not very good. Certainly not good enough for a primary ball-handler and top option. In the last 5 games, he has 29 assists, but 23 turnovers (4.6 turnovers/game). So, while Sharpe needs a throttle on his chucking mode, Deni needs a throttle on his turbo mode related to all this: in the last 3 games that Simons has missed, Deni is averaging 31.3 points (including a triple-double); while Sharpe is averaging 30.7 points there is also this from Portland's 2-man lineups, sorted by net points first the top 5: and the bottom-5: then there are the same top/bottom of 3-man lineups: notice what the worst 3 man combo is; and that 4 of the 5 worst have two of those vets most people want traded. By the way, when looking thru all those lineups, it's pretty clear that Simons and Sharpe are bad for each other when they share the floor; oil and water. Grant hasn't been good for anybody. And Deni may be the best at making teammates better obviously, these lineup stats, like a lot of stats, can be pretty noisy. What's unknown can be more important context than what's known, if that makes any sense what doesn't make sense is those 3 veterans on the Blazer team. They shouldn't be there. Portland is more entertaining and plays a better brand of basketball without them
I would love to get Flagg, but the argument we are all making is that we lack a star who can take over games to win a championship. I am not sure Flagg is that type of star. He certainly would be a key component, but will he dominate on the offensive end against NBA players? Maybe, maybe not. What seems to be certain is he will be a really good player......but a dominant player?
