The Goal is to get bad and get ping pong balls. The players know it, the coaches know it, the front office certainly knows it. The fans need to get on board with it and embrace the suckitude. Boo wins and cheer losses. They are neck-and-neck with Charlotte for the 4th seed in the Draft, doubtful that we can tank hard enough to catch San Antonio for #3. If the team wins another game this season, I will be very disappointed. Trade bait pre-draft should be Simons, Brogdon, Timelord, maybe Thybulle. Trade up if necessary to get either Alex Sarr or Zaccharie Risacher. Then tank AGAIN for Cooper Flagg. This year and next year are necessary for the future of the franchise. The untouchable core is Scoot, Shaeden, Grant, and Ayton.
I have no idea why Jerami would be on the team next season, let alone untouchable. By the time Scoot and Shaedon are ready to contribute to playoff wins as starters Jerami will be in his mid 30s. Get value for him now when he can still be a starter on a contender for a handful more years. Also that's why I think the mission for February 2024 was definitely not accomplished. If Malcolm and Jerami were gone and we had some combo of a prospect and a couple firsts or three firsts and expirings in return for them the month would have been a success. Not saying that Joe necessarily had the right deals to get that done, just saying that should have been the objective and that objective was not achieved. Now we will lose a lot but those guys will either just sit out while getting older or take reps from our young players who are hopefully the future of this team.
Yay - we're going to get the #1 pick in the draft between the Wemby draft and the Cooper Flagg draft. Next Anthony Bennett, here we come!
I am ok with trading him for a young player who we think can eventually start. But as we have discussed endlessly, how many teams have a good young forward who they want to trade for a vet who plays the same position? If the value is just for a non-lottery draft pick, (or future pick) then we are only contributing to an extra year of tanking. Most likely we are drafting his eventual replacement this summer anyway, so although I don't consider him untouchable by any means, I would rather keep him while he is in his prime for another couple of years so we have the depth to be competitive. I can't take another year of tanking.
Would you rather be back in 20+ years of basketball purgatory/mediocrity that the team was ensnared? If it means competing for an eventual title, I'm all for 1-3 years of tanking.
I think they will tank next year too but not intentionally. Hopefully Grant and other vets are dealt and they can get down to playing with a more or less fixed roster. CB is basically now picking names from a hat for starting lineups.
everyone tells me the ping pong balls suck this year. Right now this 9 game losing skid isn't about draft positions. The Blazers are a frankenstien roster, that's been handicapped with multiple players dealing with injuries. I saw the Hamberblab guy talking about draft positioning while the Hornets were playing kinda crappy, and the Blazers looked hopelessly awful. It is TOO SOON to be excited for draft day. There's 25 games left in this season. I know Portland wants their fans to look towards the horizon, but this team is on a bumpy road, and beverages are getting spilled all over the Pinwheel Caravan.
Disagree. I think that if anything, this is year two. Last year, Cronin's half-ass attempts to give Dame a roster to compete with was laughably inadequate to anyone paying attention, and Lillard was all that was keeping the team from a full-fledged tank. High draft picks this year and next year will put the team in the position where OKC is in now: a lot of young good talent trying to figure out how to win consistently and mesh.
I don’t think Grant and Ayton are untouchable. I think Camara and Rupert are. I agree about tanking for Flagg.
And you are probably correct, but that is not due to a lack of talent. Robert was certainly a known commodity. Giannis was climbing draft boards. GM's just didn't have the balls to pull the plug on obvious talent because they were not USA players. Everyone of them was afraid they would be fired if they didn't pan out. But guess what, you get fired eventually. Very few GM's leave on their terms. Portland has Schmitz. His job is to find a Giannis and get him drafted. Paying him money to find these players and a GM/Owner not listening would just prove what a shit show state the Blazers are in. Not saying Schmitz knew Giannis, Rudy or even Jokic were future stars. Talent evaluators need to be able to find these players. They are clear cut number one draft picks in most drafts.
Nah grant should be in any and all trades. He's quite the opposite! I agree with you. Scoot and sharpe stay the rest can go, some for stricter prices than others.
last season was not a full tank. Cronin's super duper trade deadline altered the team's destiny. The 28-30 Blazers traded their scrappiest player Josh Hart, for some 3rd string Knickerbockers and a draft pick. Cronin snuck Matisse Thybulle and Kevin Knox into the 20 player trade roundabout, and sent Gary Payton and his bag of Toradol back to the Warriors. Blazers struggled after last year's trade deadline, then all the starters got an early vacation to "develop" young players like: Trendon Watford (cut, now in Brooklyn) Skylar Mays (paying him to be a Laker?) Keon Johnson (traded, then waived) Cam Reddish (not re-signed) Shaq Harrison (Lakers?) Jeenathan Williams (no clue) John Butler (go away) Chance Comanche (arrested for murder) Justin Minaya (averaging 0.9 ppg) The late great tank idea worked, Blazers drafted Scoot. Then Lillard and his mega-max contract couldn't handle bad Blazer basketball anymore. Now Dame is trapped on a really good team, with Blazer fans posting his bad shooting nights to escape the reality that Portland can't win no matter how hard they try. the season before that ?? CJ McCollum got swapped for Josh Hart and a lottery draft pick that mysteriously vanished into thin air. Then we were told Norman Powell has 0 trade value. (oh, by the way... Norman Powell is currently shooting 45.6% from three. Ranked #2 behind another player Cronin traded, Grayson Allen, who leads NBA 3pt shooting at 48%)
There are examples using the draft. How about a familiar one: To get Grant, we paid Detroit Milwaukee's 2025 #1 pick. The same day, 7/6/22, Detroit traded that pick to get rookie #13 pick Jalen Duran. In his 2nd year, 6 foot 10 Duran is the leading NBA rebounder. He doesn't shoot 3s, but he could have been ours instead of 30-year-old Grant. Our GMs have never been sharp draft evaluators.
