Another thought: in a three-star system, why not try to groom Robin as our third? He was anyway, and is still young enough to not be at his ceiling yet. Give him touches and see what he can do. If he blossoms, you have your big three naturally.
Let's go over Lamarcus' glaring weaknesses (for a player in his 8th season): Cannot establish and maintain low post position. Consistently gets pushed from his spot and ends up "posting up" 15 feet from the basket. Left hand is still very shaky. Shies away from contact. Poor at finishing with contact. Plays terrible Help side Defense. Can still barely dribble (cannot face up and take his man off the dribble and score) Settles for jumpers frequently. Consistently swipes down on defense instead of attempting to use his 7'4" wingspan and actually block someone. Still kinda soft.... :-( This is all just off the top of my head.
Which of the draft picks are guaranteed to make the Blazers a better team next season? From your list, just about anybody in the draft, I guess. Why is Portland stuck with such a shitty player? I'm amazed the Blazers made the playoffs with such a shitty player, let alone won a series.
They have 2 stars. They drafted both of them (well, LMA was Chicago's, but you catch my drift). Now people want to give up the leading scorer and rebounder for a chance to draft a player that might someday be an All-Star. Every summer, it's the same thing here.
I'm still laughing at the guy who is pissed that LMA isn't a guard or a banger. Draft some 19 year-old! Surely that player will be more well-rounded than LMA.
With the progress LA made this year, I say no. Huge gamble that the pick ends up as good and the cap space is not going to land us a star.
Are you saying that an All-Star isn't going to want to come sign a max deal with the Blazers to play with Lillard, a rookie, and a bunch of role players?
My point was that LA has glaring weaknesses too. I'm not advocating trading him for any pick. Personally, I'm fine with staying out of this draft. We need veterans not more youth. I was simply playing devil's advocate.
I'm also pissed that LMA can't play back-up PG when Lillard is out of the game. Imagine how good a 6'11" player who can play the point like an All-Star would be! I'm just giving you a hard time, because you clearly put some thought into your post about LMA's glaring weaknesses. I disagree with most of them, but I've been having the same conversation with other posters for 8 years now about LMA, and how the team shouldn't give up on him.
This is really pretty simple, LA is making the smart business decision... to the tune of +$70mill or so, I can't blame him for that. Next summer he could look to move, but that would cost him approx $22mil, unless we negotiate a S&T. If Neil knows for a fact, and he will know exactly where LA stands, that LA wants to leave he might trade him at the deadline.
Which would be the prudent thing to do. I doubt it gets to that, though. Next year's team could push 60 wins if the right bench players are added. It's hard to improve on that.
Aldridge has reached the level we all hoped for when we traded for him on magical draft day 2006. Don't trade him for a guess!! Build around him. Find another way to get the 3rd star. What will Batum and Matthews and any bench player bring?? What if we were able to sign Deng for MLE - does this open up being able to trade Batum or Matthews for something better?
I didn't put much thought into it at all. Again, those weaknesses are glaring. IMO they are weaknesses that are pretty easy to assess. We saw them all when he got owned by Tiago Splitter.
Deng for the MLE would be a dream scenario. I don't see it happening, but then again, Deng will be 29 next year, and maybe would take an extended MLE deal.
Splitter 7ppg/6rpg for the series LMA 22ppg/10rpg/ for the series I guess we have different definitions for getting "owned." Unless LMA is supposed to get 40/20 every game, while driving to the hoop like Tony Parker and banging in the paint like Shaq.
Probably. As I said, it would be a dream scenario for me as an armchair GM, because I think Nic has a lot of value around the league.
