This works cap wise, but I suspect it will take more. Throw in a pick or two and/or a young player. Or agree to take back Dieng's horrible contract in exchange for Meyers' smaller, shorter contract: Again a pick and/or young player can be added as necessary. BNM
I want the Blazers to finally be the ones on the strong end of the deal. How many times have we been surprised by how little some players have been had for in the past?
I kinda get a deja vu to the days of us against the Lakers. "Shaq will get his no matter what, but he's not our biggest problem - Kobe is the one we should have contained." I guess i just don't like "what if(s)" too much. CJ McCollum, 25.3 PPG 52% /2 42% /3 Defensive Rating 119 Damian Lillard 18.5 PPG 35% /2 30% / 3 Defensive Rating 119 We see these stats and we blame Dame's performance on CJ's play-style and limitations. Maybe our gameplan sucked? maybe our plays get boring and predictable? one of the worst teams in the league in 'Team APG'? superstars get "constant double teams" since Moses wore short pants, there's nothing new about it. Can someone here actually tell me with a straight face that Terry Stotts is good at making adjustments? Of course i do have to acknowledge that CJ is a very bad defender, but even if you get Butler and he replaces CJ's defense - you still have the problem of Dame's defense and you still have maybe 3.5 good players for every game while the rest of the team presents complete darkness. I'm sorry, but that's not enough to be a contender.
Dame improved his defense a LOT last season. He went from bad to slightly below average. That may not sound like much, but surround him with guys like Butler, Nurk, Aminu/Collins, and he'll be fine. You can hide one weak defender, but it's really hard to hide two weak defenders, especially when they are both too short to guard SFs or PFs. You also don't seem to think any of your young players will amount to anything. Collins and Nurk should both be better this year. I think Trent Jr. is closer to contributing than most think and Simons has some real potential. In the mean time Curry isn't his brother, but he's still solid and better than any bench player we've had in a while. Maybe not immediate contender status, but a lot close than we are now. To me, that's a move in the right direction. BNM
Well said. It's funny that i wrote something similar before i read your post. I would just like to point out that Javale Bigtits McGee had an alley hop party against us in the playoffs only a year prior to what we saw in New Orleans. I repeat: WE COULD NOT CONTAIN JAVALE MCGEE !
I don't know what is the value of Nurkic and Collins tbh, Collins ceiling seem to move all the time. He is a confusing player IMO. I'm not sure Nurkic fits the league as a modern Center, maybe he can come out with a solid 3point shot this year + if he can finish at the rim like he should then we are definitely better. Nothing seems to make me believe in this roster, i want to see change and consistency before i get myself hyped again. Maybe if Stotts,Turner and Mayers were gone... I am excited about seeing Simons and Trent though, both of them look fresh and interesting enough.
We were missing Nurk and Ed Davis. We were starting Meyers Leonard and Noah Vonleh at center. That wasn't coaching, that was personnel. BNM
Yet we still had the same personnel problem against Davis. We're getting a bit deep here lol, but wouldn't you say that an alley oop is an alley oop? Of course it's more humiliating when it's McGee, but it's not really a "skillful" move. Just wanted to point out we had the same problem a year before.
A hoops magazine just asked it's online readers where they thought Jimmy Butler will end up? The best answer: The injury list
I fail to see the equivalence. McGee benefited from us missing our starting and back up centers. He also benefited from playing with three of the greatest shooters in the history of the game to spread the floor for him. JaVale McGee was not the reason we lost that series. Anthony Davis is just flat out a great player. He had a great series and averaged 5 points more per game against us than he did in the regular season, but he made an even bigger impact against us on the defensive end. So, still not seeing how one == the other. BNM
The Trade Machine isn't right. "Hollinger's Analysis" is based on PER. It sees us giving up Meyers Leonard and his 17.8 PER and actually thinks we're giving up a really good player, therefore, fewer wins. Regardless, the reason we'd want Dieng is he (specifically his contract) may be the price we have to pay to get Jimmy Butler. BNM
https://clutchpoints.com/timberwolves-rumors-eastern-conference-exec-watching-jimmy-butler/ "One Eastern Conference FO exec. today via text: "We watch with great interest but ultimately it comes down to not effing up the future - at what cost is it worth it?" "Former NBA sharpshooter Tim Legler, now a basketball analyst, said Wednesday that while Butler is a great player, if he’s the best player on a team, that team won’t compete for a championship." "Strong words, indeed. But amid all the perception on Butler, it’s worth noting that he’s one of the hardest workers in the NBA. So much so that his tenacity has often rubbed people the wrong way." I think he'd get along fine with Dame. They are both hard workers, but Dame is a better leader. BNM
I actually didn't ignore the fact that Jrue scored a lot of points in b2b games. The points that killed Portland in that series was transition opportunities. That comes from Stotts allowing the Pelicans to load up on one side of the floor and trying to force scoring opportunities out of it. It comes from Stotts forcing Lillard to play out of the P&R against the best defensive big in the game today. Bad shots, and Portland had a lot of them in the NoP series. Lead to transition opportunities. I don't think Butler would've made any difference in that series if Portland's gameplan didn't change. That series wasn't lost because of the players. It was lost because of shitty coaching out of Terry Stotts.
I think for the most part Stotts is an ok coach, but I almost feel like just that series along is a fireable offense. He got worked, in basically every facet. You can blame the roster to some extent but it was really bad...
So, if that's true, we don't need to make any trades. Neil has already built us a championship roster. All we need is a better coach. I don't believe that for one second and, as much as you hate Stotts, I don't think you do either. Butler would make us significantly better on both ends of the floor. If you can get that kind of player, you should go all in to do so, regardless of past failures. You don't pass on a 2-way talent like Jimmy Butler because you hate the coach. BNM
Dame-Butler-Mo-Aminu-Nurk would be a very, very good defensive team. Collins-Baldwin-Curry off the bench would be an excellent defensive bench as well.
