First, you can really tell who needs to remain on this team to contend. The starting five couldn't get better unless you added lebron. LA- Aldridge should be considered the best pf in the nba because of his defense alone. The way he played Howard was amazing, and he has quicker hands on defense than Love or Griffin. I don't see a ton of room for improvement on his inside game, I just don't think that will ever be a huge part of his game. Lillard- The room for improvement in Lillards offense is immense, which is scary to think of. With 2:19 left in4th quarter of game six he took a difficult tear drop, he missed it but you can see that being a big way to improve his offense. I really think he comes back next year exponentially better at penetrating the rim, I can see him literally becoming unstoppable on offense. Lopez- Rolo is a beast of a center. Everyone refers to him as robin(superhero) but realistically he's more like the Incredible Hulk. Never seems fazed by contact and is surprisingly athletic for his size. Batum- Some one on these boards was talking heavily about Batum being a point forward. That person is spot on, he needs to work on his handles and assign to get his turnovers down, but he could definitely fill that role. Wes- He is the defensive glue of the starting unit. The kind of role player you always see on championship teams. As far as the bench goes - you cannot trade barton or robinson unless you are getting something big in return. Trobs hustle off the bench would mean worlds for our hopefully upgraded bench unit. He's the kind of player that will have the second unit amped, and that means they will be playing better. Barton and Trob play together great because their styles of play match each others so well. Which means you already have chemistry for new second unit players to build off of.
I like our starting five, but they absolutely have to get better. With Lillard that might come with development, but everybody else is probably pretty close to maxed out.
Wes is the most maxed out, then Rolo, followed by Aldridge, Batum, and Lillard who has the most opportunity to improve.
I agree on those 7 everyone else is expendable if we could get 2 savvy vets to work off the bench with barton and trobs energy. Id keep freeland too unless we get a decent center.
I don't see his push shot getting much better, nor his athleticism or lateral quickness. He's a really good compliment to LMA, though, because he is big, crashes the boards, and has great hands.
I don't think our starting 5 can't be improved on. I'd really like to see a move that results in Batum sliding to SG and we get an upgrade at SF. Either Matthews is moved to the bench or he's involved in a trade. I just think that Batum is more effective at shooting guard. He's good at guarding SG's, he's got SG handles and range, and he creates massive mismatch problems for other teams. It keeps him on the perimeter more on defense, where he's much more effective at using his length to bother shots, and it puts the ball in his hands more on the offensive end. The obvious upgrade at SF is Deng, but I don't know how we'd go about acquiring him. Several teams can offer more money. But I'd like to see a 3 and D type small forward to come in take that position. You could argue all I really want is a taller, stronger version of Wes Matthews.
I agree with moving Nic to SG. most of the teams with cap space are lotto teams. Portland could offer Deng a S&T getting him a salary of around $10 mill and a starting role on a playoff team. I think Portland could dump Freeland & T-Rob to get it done.... although it might cost Wes to get other teams to accept our crappy bench players in a trade.
I have been talking a lot about Batum as the point forward, and I think it could work very well. The guy is very heady. He makes some silly mistakes, but I think he'll continue to improve. He's looking more and more like Scottie Pippen every year.
Deng isn't a good 3 point shooter. Right now Wes actually does play a lot of SF fot us. I agree Batum is good at SG. A 3 and D small forward would be awesome but actually coming up with an attainable name is difficult. The good ones like Ariza are expensive and wanting to start. There are guys like Martel Webster or Chase Budinger that we could maybe get. Mike Dunleavey would be another.
As I recall, before the playoffs started several reports had all western playoff teams either wanting to play the Blazers or the Rockets in the playoffs. So if that's the case I don't know how you can tell much from that series. Why not watch the San Antonio series several times?
No. Everyone wanted to play the Blazers. They were just jealous that the Rockets got to play us. Then we won.
I reject the challenge because harden is no challenge. But id be more than happy to beat up on him some more.
You know what it comes down to.. Who remains healthy for the playofs. We can take our division because Durant is injured. When we go further and if we play The Rockets the 5th trough 7th players keep the game in flow. Their guy Belvidere is excellent. We have to have good bench stength to succeed
I have been a huge fan of Lillard getting a floater. That would help his game more than anything else he could right now. Changes things immensely for him. I keep referring to Tony Parker because that is what I think of when I think of effective floater.
Fool's gold. Remember when Juan Dixon was our starting SG and one of our leading scorers? It's the same thing.
