I believe you were calling into question whether Oladipo/Sabonis was a "haul" and I was merely stating that two young players who immediately or almost immediately became All-Stars is pretty haul-ish. And I agreed that the situations were not apples to apples, mostly because George is a wing, which is more desirable than a 6'3 point guard. But if the Blazers HAD moved Dame earlier on, I believe they would have gotten a better haul. Possibly after the first round flame out against Denver.
it's sort of inevitable that players and staff will circulate onto other teams. the nba is a small fraternity of top-end talent, both on the fo side and player side. the hope is that you retain some of that talent and build an ecosystem. it's not necessarily a bad thing to have staff move on to bigger and better things, though.
It just seems telling to me that neither Neil or Terry Stotts have been offered similar positions around the league.
I explained why I didn't think it was a haul, at the time....even though that label is so generically vague. If you're going to count Oladipo's all-star nods, you also have to count that his body failed. He played 120 games in 3 seasons (2.6 to be precise) in Indiana. The Pacers dumped Oladipo less than 3 years after they landed him. Seems pretty obvious they knew what his injury riddled future would be. Sabonis didn't make an all-star game till his 3rd season in Indy, and when he was selected, Oladipo had just played a total of 9 games that season and already hd been traded now maybe, Indy was really high on Oladipo & Sabonis. Or maybe they just couldn't find a good market for PG13 because he was an expiring contract and OKC's offer was best but I simply can's agree with your notion that Portland should have traded Dame before he asked to be traded. It was 30 years between Clyde and Dame. It's not like the Blazers add an all-nba player every 5 years. Franchise loyalty by a player has great value, especially for a small market team. Paul George said a big reason why he soured on Indy was because how they treated Danny Granger and George Hill. The Blazers blindsiding and trading away the most loyal superstar they have ever had, when he was in his prime, would have left a major black mark on the franchise among other NBA players and showed clearly, they didn't reciprocate loyalty
Trading him after the Denver series would not have been "blindsiding" him. That was when all the smoke started about him wanting out and the feud with Henry Abbott. That was when it became clear that the team wasn't going to be able to build around Dame and they should have parted ways.
whatever....Olshey was still GM so that flushes Portland's chances for an alternate universe haul down the toilet
The point I was trying to make is that at least Pritchard has the cajones to swing for big deals, and we could have used that in Dame's prime.
Siakam is padding stats in a blowout loss. Those 3 draft picks Pacers traded will haunt Indiana for decades. Only smart teams hoard picks and lose on purpose.
