Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th seed

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

LeBron (best player at his position), Carmelo, Dwight Howard (best player at his position), Chris Paul (best player at his position) all left their teams eventually. Lillard is very competitive. He will want to leave too if we don't build a contender around him. That's the key. Build around the stars you have. We can't just succumb (sp?) to Aldridge's possible desire to leave. We need to fight for him. Ultimately, he wants to win. Let's build him a winner in Portland. He's an All Star. Lillard and maybe Batum will be All Stars. We have the star talent to win it all. We just need to let them grow together and put the right players around them. I think we had a terrific offseason. Let's see how they look together. Or would you prefer Aldridge win a title elsewhere?

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

Well said

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

Thank you.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

I would prefer Portland have the best chances of winning, and having a player so much older than the teams core, and having a desire to leave is not my idea of a good chance of winning. I couldn't care less if he helps someone else win because it doesn't effect Portland one bit.

Eric, you mention James, Melo, Dwight, Paul, and all of them re-signed with the teams that drafted them. Stars will stay with a team 7 years or so, and if the franchise isn't making headway, then they go bye bye. Like Portland and Aldridge. You mention Lillard and maybe Batum will be all-stars....why? Lillard seems to be a very good young player, but Batum isn't close.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

Yeah agreed. Hey maybe Aldridge does end up leaving but we are two years away from that happening. We have seen the Roy/Oden dream crumble in a few months and we saw Kobe go from demanding a trade to winning a title in less than a year. NBA teams outlook can change drastically on a whim and it is hard to predict. Maybe we end up with an unexpected all-star and are a contender this year stranger things have happened. Just last year most thought the Lakers were the favorites in the West look how they failed.

If we can get $0.30 on a dollar for Aldridge today I'd rather gamble that we get even money and keep him or trade him for a higher return later on. Is there a chance we get left with nothing and lose that return? Sure. But nothing rumored is terribly enticing. The Texas teams spare parts or Carlos Boozer have almost no appeal to me. I'd rather just gamble on the chance that Aldridge walks and if he does so be it, we use his cap space on something else at that time.

There is no sense in cutting off an arm because your worried it might get infected from a wound that hasn't happened yet.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

The most likely path to contend is to add an additional piece to the core we have. If one of CJ, Trob, Batum, Meyers became that all-star then we would be there. If we find a team trading away an all-star for youth or picks we would be right there.

If we trade away LaMarcus then we are two all-stars away from contending, with the clock ticking on when our sole all-star will be disgruntled. Then Lillard will not develop as well as a player on a losing team. Players pick up bad habits and have poor shot selection when they are on sub .500 teams. All of our rotational players will not develop as effectively on a losing team. Acquiring one all-star is exponentially easier than acquiring two.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

At one point last season, Sean Elliott said Batum was the best SF in the league. Hoopsworld listed him as honorable mention on their top 6 SFs ranking. I definitely think Batum has the potential to be a top 5 SF in the league and that makes him an All Star most likely. He was awesome at the beginning of last season. He is one of like 11 people ALL TIME to get a 5 x 5. Everyone else on the list has been an All Star. He had what two triple doubles last season? Hit a game winning shot on the road in 2OT. He could absolutely become an All Star.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

But you're referencing the two extremes (and painting the best one as highly unlikely and the worst one as highly likely) to disprove the viability of getting better through high draft picks. LAC doesn't prove your point - they were the worst run franchise in the NBA for decades and cheaped out when it came to building a roster. The Blazers are not even remotely comparable to the Clippers. So we'd fall somewhere in the middle. And again, we aren't operating of a "strategy primarily based on making a team far worse to eventually be better". Trading LMA may bump us from the 7-9 range down to the 8-11 range - that's hardly becoming "far worse" but could mean the difference between having or not having a draft pick in what is supposedly a very good draft. We'd also still have Lillard, Nic, Wes, CJ, Robinson - that right there is far better than anything LAC fielded during their decades of futility. And on top of that we'd obtain other (cheaper?) assets that could either help us on the floor or help us in future trades.

Totally agree - and LMA is set to become one of those overpaid free agents in a couple years. That is the primary reason he should be traded - him wanting to leave is a secondary reason. And as pointed out above, we already have some pretty good talent on the team - another draft pick likely won't be a "hall of famer", but given Olshey's track record he should get another good, young, cheap player to add to the roster.
This team - even after an LMA trade - just won't be bad enough to justify your concerns of becoming a perennial cellar dweller or not having talent to put around a good draft pick. Just like the team WITH LMA won't ever be good enough to put forth a good challenge for the championship.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

Unfortunately, we were baking a delicate soufflé and it collapsed.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

That's how I see it. I don't want to trade LaMarcus. I want him to want to be here and to be part of our core (corps). If he doesn't want to be here, however, and the Blazers definitely know that one way or the other, then let's get in on the draft party and try to replace him as best we can.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

That was an awesome sentence! So fitting!

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

The Bulls didn't draft Pippen either.

:MARIS61:

Go Blazers

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

I tend to take what Coaches say with a grain of salt because unless they have an axe to grind they usually say fluff pieces about other teams when asked about them, but it is nice to hear Rivers say The Blazers will be scary.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

He's only scared of the Blazers because he thinks we will trade Aldridge to Houston.

 

Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

That's just sickening thinking about because Harden/Dwight/LMA is pretty much what we should have had with Roy/LMA/Oden.

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Re: Blazers: Best offseason of all Westen Conference lottery teams, should be 7th see

So glad to hear that from Rivers. He knows the game of basketball. That's another reason to keep Aldridge. This year, he will be in his prime and playing with a legit center at his side. Aldridge has never had a guy like Lopez in the frontcourt with him. Someone who can defend but can score better than Joel and Camby could. He's still young and has upside. Now, LaMarcus won't have to guard centers and more often, he won't be guarded by centers anymore. They'll have to handle Lopez. I'm very excited about this coming season. Lopez could be Most Improved Player. Robinson and McCollum wll be Sixth Man of the Year candidates.