First Sheed, then ZBo, now Aldridge...

Personally I think it is about 50/50 both. As I mentioned above, for all of Nate's faults he did get LMA to play inside last year (even though LMA has admitted he basically hated it). If a player isn't willing, and a coach barely tries it...

 

If we didn't want to win then I don't think they would run the starting lineup into the ground like they have all season. I now the bench is crap but if you aren't trying to win too many games anyways then...

 

The coach doesn't make the roster, the GM does. I think once we struck out on Hibbert it became full rebuilding mode. As in, this year means nothing except collecting experience and ping pong balls. I'm sure Stotts will try to win regardless until the fat lady sings, but I think playing his starters this much is going to have a negative impact.

 

You keep saying that "it hardly ever works", but what is the alternative? Look at the top teams around the league. They're either in a major market that a star wants to go to via trade or FA, OR they were drafted by their team.

Major Market teams:

Miami - LeBron, Bosh, Wade
LA - Dwight, Nash, CP3, Kobe
NY - Carmelo, Amare, Deron

Small Market teams that built through the draft -

San Antonio - Duncan, Manu, Parker (all drafted)
OKC - Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka
Memphis - Gay, Conley, and then Gasol/Randolph were picked up on the cheap.

Your argument doesn't hold much water when the top three teams in the west were all built over time through the draft and trades for unknowns.

 

And how is it any different, then, that we're also building through the draft, and by adding unknowns? Lillard-PGOTF-draft, Aldridge-draft, Batum-draft, Wes, realtive unknown added. Leonard-draft. We ARE building through the draft.
Look at the teams you mention, are any of them all the same age? What is everyone's fascination here, dating back to Aldridge's rookie year, and all of our bench guys being seemingly untouchable, with having a roster of guys all the same age. They don't all just grow happily together. That team didn't. OKC traded away Jeff Green for an older player. Duncan is 6 years older than Parker. Memphis is 1st in the west with a 31 year old PF, and a PG who is only 25. Lillard and Aldridge are closer in age than that. So why should we worry of "wasting his prime" here? When Memphis is easily showing you can have people at different stages of their career and development and be a competent team. It doesn't happen overnight. And when it doesn't, most in here want to break it all down. It's broken down. I don't see great compelling reasons to break it further.

 

Pet peeve- when people say losing games gets us more ping pong balls. That is not the way the lottery works anymore. You get more number combinations. The balls have numbers on them, not team names. So the correct thing to say is losing gets us more number combinations or more lottery tickets.

 

So then we should keep Aldridge since we drafted him and continue building the team up through more free agency and some draft picks. Glad you agree with me.

It's a process of building a team in a small market and that takes patience, not turning on the leading scorer when he really isn't the problem and playing musical draft chairs. If you actually took the time to look at the make up of the team, you would see that trading him is beyond stupid....especially for what has been mentioned.

 

Probably biggest thing right there. Knowing when to be patient.

 

Fans are emotional, ie not that.

 

Remember when we traded ZBO to allow Aldridge to take over? That sweet cap space....yah...we've gone down that road and nothing really came from it. It wasn't crucial to deal him at all. Same situation some people are just strong headed with poor vision and ideas so they pretend they can find a diamond in the rough with throwaway players

 

Pet peeve - When people take comments too literal and then proceed to 'educate' others on common knowledge.

 

Aldridge doesn't fit the window. He'll be at the end of his peak when Dame and Batum are finally hitting their groove. I'm not talking about trading Aldridge for cap space, I'm talking about trading him for a high lotto pick and another promising young talent. He puts up good numbers, but do you think Aldridge is someone you want to go to war with? Has he ever shown up in the playoffs? My point is that you can trade Aldridge, start Hickson, and you don't lose THAT much, but you could gain a couple of very nice pieces that fit our window better.

Or you could sit on Aldridge, waste our cap space this summer on some crappy bench player or overpay someone like OJ Mayo, and then use our mid-range lotto on another Luke Babbitt. Is that a playoff team? Or, more important, is that a championship team?

 

We traded ZBO because Roy wanted him gone.

 

Gonna have to call BS on this one. Aldridge is what 27? Dirk was 32-33 when he won his ring.

 

Doesn't fit our window? come on.
Zach didn't fit Memphis' window, and that window wouldn't have opened for another year or two from now if they did things "the right way".

 

Aldridge is not Dirk. Not even close to Dirk. Not even in the same universe as Dirk.

 

Yeah I know Aldridge only has 2 or 3 seasons left in him. Please. He is only 27 and relatively injury free for his size.

We only need lillard to get better, fill out the bench and a few smart moves and we are back in it. Lillard and Aldridge have good potential to be a nice 1-2 combo.

Suppose we do this, it's only a number of seasons until you repeat the same song and dance with lillard or whomever the current scapegoat of the moment is. It's a perpetual circle jerk with the strange fetish to want to stay in the lotto.

Your plan is horrible...just trade your best player for unknowns and hope they stick. It's what loser franchises do....you're throwing darts at a board. Some people will never be happy.

It's best we just "agree to disagree"

 

And we don't need him to be Dirk if Lillard can be what he looks like he has the potential to be. We need him to be roughly what he is, IMO. And he has a game that will be fine as he ages.

 

My thoughts exactly. Also, Nate- Faried was a mid first round pick. We just have to make better decisions. They're not all Babbitts. Fuck, Matthews wasn't even drafted.