Does Dame fit any more?

of course you didnt mention nurk, you hater (and little, while were at it)

 

is there any question about Dame's connection to Nurkic?

 

no, but you said "ants emergance" and nurk also took his game to another level and so did little

he also must be encouraged with hart & winslow

 

I know you are seeing insults to Nurkic's greatness in every post that doesn't praise him, but even allowing for that bias, that take is a real stretch. Why would there be any question about Nurkic going beast mode and Dame not supporting it? When Nurk went beast mode in 2017-19 it was fueled by Dame empowering Nurkic by lots of feeds in the PnR and feeds to him in the low post. In fact, I think Dame had more assists to Nurkic in that period than any other combo in the league

I mentioned Ant because Dame and Ant play very similar roles and Ant could theoretically take touches and shot opportunities from Dame. That Dame seems just fine with that is a real positive sign

 

We haven't yet seen recovered healthy Dame playing next to improved Simons with the improved energy added by Hart and Winslow and Nurk. Let's look forward to it and cheer them on. A string of wins is ahead!

 

I look forward to it.....next year. Unless the improved play and Dame coming back means we can take down Phoenix or Golden State in the 1st round, it seems we could use a high Lottery pick more than yet another 1st round dismissal. Making the Playoffs and getting beat does give us control over future Draft picks again, but is that more valuable than losing now and getting a Top-5 pick with a legit shot at getting into the Top-3?

 

I'd say, with how the Blazers have been playing and the lightness of their schedule. Portland will definitely be in the play-in. Meaning that if they did get beat in the play-in their pre-lottery slot would fall in the 11-14 range. Meaning about the best they could do is an 8% shot at a 1-4 pick. If they are 13th a 6% chance; 14th a 2.4% chance

those aren't good odds at all. A 'miracle' could happen I suppose. But honestly, assuming the Pels pick is 8th for instance, I'm not sure what would be better: an 8th pick + 13th pick with all future 1st's still locked away; or an 8th pick + all future 1st's