To be fair, I don’t Dame thinks those guys are needle movers. It’s to the point that I think dame wants all-star caliber help.
Disagree with this one. It's close, but Hart does more to help a team win. He doesn't have as flashy of a game - so he gets underrated.
We can speculate what Hart and Grant we'll make, but we'll know for sure in July. I'm going to guess Grant is going to make an additional $10m/year more than Hart, but I could be way off. I'm not worried about Hart's splits in the last 6 weeks. I'm more interested in his stats over a larger period of time. If Hart were 6'8" with a 7'2" wingspan and could play PF, I would be more interested in a deep dive comparison between the two. Sadly, he is not.
Cronin built a team with oft injured players. Now the Blazers are claiming injuries derailed the season. That's a crafty little road the Blazers built towards the boat dock. It's early season fishing time, stock up the coolers.
Hart does the intangible dirty work that contributes to winning. It's a shame he wasn't 3 inches taller.
Cronin said we had a trade exception from the Payton trade. how/what is this? I don't see it listed anywhere. Did we restructure that deal to generate one?
So here’s the questions I have about GP2 Did we know he was hurt when we signed him? Did we know he was going to be a big bitch baby? Joe isn’t a mind reader so he probably didn’t know that Payton was going to sulk and sand bag because he really wanted to stay in the Bay Area. I still didn’t like the signing at the time and Payton being a piece of shit was only an unpleasant added bonus.
Grant is taller. Grant is a better shooter. But Grant contributes less to his team's success than Josh Hart does. And if Grant is your PF then you BETTER have a SF like Hart who can rebound like a motherfucker, because Grant's rebounding is anemic. Grant dribbles like a PF but in all other respects is a SF. Trading Hart was our first and most important tanking move.
“I don’t have much of an appetite for bringing in guys two and three years away from really going after it,” Lillard said. “I think we get Shaedon at 19 and he’s just different. Just being around him, his disposition, how he listens, his frame, his natural talent and his ability. I think, that’s enough 19-year-olds. You probably won’t find one that will come along the way he has. I’m just not interested in that. “And this is not a secret. I want a chance to go for it. And if the route is to do that, then that’s not my route. I think we’re all in line with doing what we got to do to put a team together that we can actually go out there and get something done. I don't know how it can be any clearer?
Agreed. Agreed. Disagree. Debatable. Disagree. And Hart is gone. He's not coming back. I liked Hart, but it was obvious in the fall this was a short-term deal for a variety of reasons.
For those who think Grant is a SF. Take a look at his minute distribution throughout the years. https://cleaningtheglass.com/stats/player/1352/positions#tab-team_efficiency
We've seen him defend other teams PGs. I'm not against him defending other teams SFs. That's all the more reason to not have a 6'4" SF next to him because that person would be less likely to be able to switch over a defend the other teams PF whe Grant is on opponents SFs. You'd also have to look at who was on the floor when he played those minutes to get a clearer picture.
Blazers let Joe Ingels walk for nothing, Eric Bledsoe contract expire for nothing, trade away Hart for a pick, trade away Powell for salary relief, trade away Roco for nothing, add Nance in a trade for nothing. None of those actions sound like a franchise trying to go for it and win now. Problem is it wasn't a franchise collecting valuable contracts either. They overpaid greatly for Nurk, overpaid a bit for Ant, overpaid for GP2 and got hard capped, and appear likely to overpay greatly for Grant. There's no possible way to build a winning team that both spends less and where it does spend gets poor value. The time to decide to build a contender with Dame was when Neil got fired. The Blazers didn't, they saved cashed and gutted the talent off the roster. It's just not feasible to now flip to a different strategy. Cronin has dealt himself a hand that can't be turned into a contender. He doesn't have tradable contracts to add a starter. He has a superstar plus a growing number of fans wanting the team to try and push all in to win now. There is no realistic way this franchise can contend soon. I just hope they don't throw away all their young talent, picks, and future for a doomed to fail attempt to win with mediocre veterans.
I like Hart significantly better, but he's smaller so less of a fit on a roster than has almost all sub-6'7" guys.
