Forum Game How do you build a contender around Dame in the next couple years?

Stand back and watch before your very eyes.

 

Hope that at least one of our or New Orleans' picks ends up at least in top 10, trade it plus a second and one of Watford, Brown (I'd like to say Elleby, but truth is he is my favorite Blazer) for Christian Wood. Sign Slo-Mo and Boucher as free agents. (Unless we could sign LaVine and then trade off one of our guards for something else good),

 

Man I have some real reservations about using one or both lottery picks for trades. It’s funny because I was all about trading our three picks for immediate help back in the Collins draft but at this point I want to draft the BPA. I’m not confident we can put a real contender around Dame.

 

Do. Not. Trade. First. Round. Picks.

 

First of all, I've never seen a championship contender built around a 6'2 point guard, so that's a problem. The fact that the Blazers already have at least 80% of said point guard in a rookie contract, well, there's your answer. There is no other way out than to trade Dame.

 

I agree with you that it’s time to trade him but the pistons built around Isiah Thomas. It’s rare though.

 

I don't think there was more to get. Nobody wanted those contracts.

 

The best answer should be don't.

The team shouldn't try to build an immediate contender around Dame. Now they can spin this how they want to drive ticket sales but title contention next season should not be the goal.

We are in asset accumulation mode. Draft the best player available. Sign players to contracts that provide value to the team. Make trades that give other teams salary relief or immediate benefit but gives us more long term upside.

If the team shocks us and gets multiple guys playing out of their mind next year, then maybe we consider more of a win now trade then. But we are so far away from contending there are no moves this offseason to get us there.

The flip side is if the team is deep in the lottery next season we may explore trading Dame for youth. So don't take an action that removes this possibility of doing a quality rebuild. We can always recover from going young now, building up our assets, and trying to accelerate the win now timeline later.

Alternatively as we saw with the Roco and Nance trades; if we try to win now and send out young assets we won't be able to recover those.

 

I think the Blazers have made the decision to make one last go for it with Lillard. I think they will give it two years. If that is the plan, then you need to trade first round picks, unless you draft so high you think you have a starting player in the draft. I am also hoping that they will forget about all luxury tax concerns during this two year window. Sign free agents from other teams first, then Nurk and Anf. I think Jody will go along with this in honor of her brother. If you want to keep draft picks, I think you need to trade Lillard; that is another route.
I'm not in favor of trading draft picks for guys like Roco or Nance; trade targets have to be better than that.

 

Haha we won’t. No one’s signing here that’s worth a damn and we don’t really have players that will fetch much in trade.

Our best bet is trading away Lillard for a young player that is on the verge of stardom and hit home runs in the draft like Memphis and Toronto have.

Lillard doesn’t have too many years left of being a star. I’m maybe giving him 2 more years of really solid play at most.

If we’re going to scrap out the team like we have, we need to get rid of Lillard too.

I’m really failing to see Cronin’s vision.

 

My Money's on Dame. Some of Ya'll keep on doubting him. A healthy Dame, is a Lethal Dame. And he's 31, not 36. Quit trying to put him out to pasture.

 

His age certainly plays into it, but the bigger issue is that he is not a position of need for the Blazers. His trade value is far more valuable than his value % over Simons. Simons and Smith Jr are a PG random that any team in the league would be happy with.

 

We are starting from nearly scratch. Look at our roster. How are we going to put a team around him in the next 2-3 years?

Either we go all-in and trade Simons and the draft picks for players that can help now, or we trade Dame. There's really no middle ground because we have zero assets.

 

lol...yeah, Blazers should just give up now before even trying because some fans can't see how it can be done

just about everybody agreed that the first step was to break up the Dame/CJ back court. For chrissakes CJ was traded almost 4 days ago and Portland isn't a contender yet? What the fuck is the holdup?

oy yeah, sure...the Blazers are going to get a great package of young players and picks for Dame. I mean, look at all the great assets they got for CJ-RoCo-Powell-Nance. There's the template!!! Yeah, it's obvious that teams will be lining up to mortgage their future to trade for a 31 year old 6'2 inch PG, out with a chronic injury, who is on a super-max contract.

 

He’ll be 32 next time he plays a game. In NBA years for a PG that has had to piggy back his team for years, that’s ancient.

 

I was in favor of breaking up the Dame/CJ backcourt when I thought we could trade him for a small forward. My plans were always to keep Norm/RoCo and move CJ for hopefully a really good small forward.

Dame
Norm
???
RoCo
Nurk

Or you move CJ and RoCo, get someone like Randle or Grant and start Nas. But instead the Blazers dumped CJ/Norm/RoCo and basically got zero back in the way of immediate help for Dame. We got Hart. That's it. And we definitely didn't need another guard. Cronin has done a piss poor job of getting immediate help, and he's banking on things that are historically not a good way to acquire talent in Portland.

Free agency? LOL

The draft? Sure.... if you have several years for the players to pan out, which we don't. How exactly are we going to acquire the kind of talent that we need to contend?

Dame
Ant
Nas
????
Nurk

I don't care who you plug into that four spot, that's not a contending team.

 

For a little more context:

Out:
46.8 ppg
11.9 rebounds
8 assists
2.3 blocks
3.5 steals

Where are we going to find that production? Ant can probably step in and replicate CJ (including his horrible defense), and RoCo's numbers were pretty pedestrian, but Norm's offensive output was pretty damn good. We gave up a solid starter for basically nothing after trading away GTJ (another solid starter)

 

I understand your pessimism, but you're acting like Portland lost something irreplaceable with these trades. They didn't. Olshey had driven the team down a narrow dead end lane. There was no room to turn around so the team bus had to be backed out of the dead end. Portland has not lost a thing of any real value with these trades. They were locked on a treadmill of crappy draft picks and 1st round exits. Where they are right now, is a better place than where they were a week ago.

but go ahead, convince me. With Philly now out of the running now, give me a couple of examples of realistic teams that would trade for dame and give up the kinds of assets you guy keep assuring everybody that Portland would get. And keep in mind that the trades they just made are the back drop for the kind of assets they'd get for Dame

 

I agree that we needed to blow it up. I have been saying that for months.

However if you're going to blow it up, you fully commit and you trade Dame. You also get way better value for Norm in terms of young players or picks, which we did not do. We got crappy young players and we got crappy picks. Everything you said basically just supported my point that we're not going to be able to put a contender around Dame in a short period of time. If Portland lost no real value, what value do they currently have to make moves to acquire talent?

Also, I flatly disagree that the Simmons/Harden trade is the back drop of the kind of assets we would get for Dame. Those two players are massive headcases. Harden has forced his way out of two teams in two years. Simmons has been sitting out for months now. Dame is nothing but class, a great leader and a great teammate. Not even in the same ballpark.