BTW sleeper of this draft is OG Anunoby. That dudes gonna be a stud. Jonathan Jeanne is French, which is funny because he reminds me exactly of Gobert before that draft.
Starting all over and building though the draft has not been successful for the Blazers. We need to start building though trades.
In the mock draft I referenced, we are projected to pick him in our slot. We might be able to get him by simply not trading our pick.
I will never condone tanking. Not only is that shitty sportsmanship, it is spitting on the fans. Always play your best. If that best happens to be not very good and turns out to result in missing the playoffs, and garnering a lottery pick then make the best of it. There is always a need in upgrading the PG position....if one of those players is better than napier, or has the potential to be, go for it.
I don't believe in dumping assets just to suck and get a better pick, but I'm fine with making present-for-future deals that make sense on their own (that don't require the subsequent step of getting a better draft pick to justify them). If those present-for-future deals cause the team to drop in the standings and into a better pick, that's fine. But if, for example, you could trade McCollum for Cousins, I'd do that even though that isn't a present-for-future deal. I still think you maneuver with what you have to build towards a contender. Sometimes that means trading for future assets because your best players are near the end of their prime or the best value you can get are younger players--but I don't think the Blazers have to go that route right now.