Grade the Blazers' roster changes

See I think we all get caught up on where we are when the season ends and that is what counts. Who the fuck cares about seeding ultimately? HCA seems like a feather in the cap until our playoff run is over and then it's meaningless. This team's success will be measured by (if we can stay healthy) if we can improve on what we did the season before last. That means I and many others will be dissatisfied if we don't win at least one game in the WCF. That's the bar for success, not HCA.

 

It's hard to compare last year's team to this roster because the team that started the year was very different from the team that finished the year. Let's look at last year's roster in the bubble compared to this year:

Starters
Dame = Dame
CJ = CJ
Nurk = Nurk
Mel0 <DJJ (I'm guessing that DJJ will start at the beginning of the year with Hood still being rusty and not 100% from his injury. This could also be RoCo or GTJ. Either way, this spot should be an upgrade on defense).
Collins < RoCo (again I'm guessing that Stotts will want to play Covington at the power forward spot. I think he's an upgrade over Collins on offense and is a better defender at this stage of his career).

Bench
Whiteside < Kanter (simply because Kanter will do much better off the bench)
GTJ < GTJ (I'm actually going to say that GTJ will be better going into this season compared to going into the bubble because we know what he can do.)
Hezonja < Melo (even at his age and with his problems, Melo is clear upgrade over Mario off the bench).
Wenyen < Hood (it's going to be interesting to see how he performs fresh off the injury but I think he'll be a clear upgrade on our second unit until he's healthy enough to start.)
Hoard < Giles

Out of the rotation
Ant
Little
Elleby

We have clearly had a really good offseason when you look at what we were running in July compared to what we have now. As players like Hood and Collins get healthy, if will become very difficult to find minutes for everyone.

 

Being a paranoid small market fan, I care.... because I think the refs care.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if there was a blockbuster that we are involved with down the court.

 

I think we make a trade before the deadline. I think Collins need to come back but it sure seems like we are setting it up to trade Zach and maybe CJ.

 

If this is the way we enter the season plus a couple of two-way contracts (oh I think Elleby, Wenyen, Hoard and Brown haven't been signed yet because they'll be competing for contracts at training camp) but if this is what we end up with I have two grades for the team.

I give the off season an F because once again this team has decided to look away from the glaring need to trade CJ, all of the moves we've made that supposedly sure up our perimeter D are for nothing if we're planning on playing Dame and CJ together for 20+ minutes a game... all of the moves we've made to have a more versatile offense are for nothing if we get the same CJ that refuses to make quick decisions when getting the ball out of a Dame trap and wants to go one on five whenever he gets the ball on the wing during a half-court set.

If I ignore the CJ debacle and just look at how we've improved the roster I give the signings and trades that we did make an A-, really great moves. I'm really happy with all of them. I don't share the pessimism of some in here about DJJ, I think he is a fantastic addition that points to a more diversified way of looking to score the ball and a commitment to defense. I love that we re-signed Hood and as long as he earns his minutes Melo as well. I love the RoCo upgrade, that is my favorite move out of all of these great moves. Kanter was a great pick up. I was pissed that we hadn't re-signed Wenyen yet but then we got Giles who I really like. There's nothing overwhelmingly good about getting a guy like CJ Elleby at 46 but I haven't scouted the guy, he seems to be pretty good and what do you expect from a perennial playoff team with a mid second round pick besides a guy who can compete for a roster spot. So yeah in my wildest imagination we could have gotten one more big time sure fire impact player but in reality this is just about as good as we could have done staying committed to the Dame/CJ mistake.

 

I didn’t say it was a measure of success. I said it meant a team is in a position to contend for the title. If things go your way, you have a shot. That’s it. Period.

 

There's only one simple acceptable blockbuster this team can make and that's a trade that has CJ as one of the pieces moved. Trading Dame is pretty much unacceptable. Packaging a ton of our other talent to bring in an all-star or all-nba player who can bolt at the end of the season is unacceptable if this new superstar has to play with the flawed Dame/CJ back court because then they will bolt. So a good blockbuster means saying goodbye to CJ.

I'm wrong if a CJ, Gary, RoCo, Giannis, Nurk, DJJ, Hood, Kanter, Giles and a vet free agent PG signed for the min, rotation won the championship. Giannis would then stay and we would have a CJ/Giannis led team with a ton of really good role players which if Giannis re-signed would benefit from a legit backup PG signed with the MLE. That would mean we would be willing to gamble the best Blazers player ever on the chance at winning enough with Giannis to get him to stay and Milwaukee feeling like the certainty of having Dame, the potential of Zach and some picks would be worth the reigning two time MVP they couldn't be sure would stay.

 

Elleby signs:

https://www.nba.com/blazers/news/2020/11/22/blazers-sign-cj-elleby

 

Top 20 shooting guards in the NBA in 2019-20 | RSN
www.nbcsports.com › washington › wizards › top-20-sho...

 

To a rookie deal or a 2-way?

 

Elleby said in his interview that that would be ironed out "this weekend".

 

looks like 2-year at minimum.

 

I gave it an A- only because of Elleby. Maybe he will be fine. Not my choice at that point but they know what they’re doing. Feel like he would have gone undrafted.

 

Training camp starts next Tuesday. Damn, I'm excited. Hoping for good health-- that's all.

 

We have more talent then we did the last day of least season.

 

Agree

 

Self hate is such a bummer.

 

45 wins this season is equal to 51 in a normal season. Think our expectations are a bit higher with health