Keeping our pick? This might be a Lottery year

Only difference is, the trade value of our "parts" has probably tanked.

 

I feel about a team overhaul pretty much the way I felt about firing Stotts in order to get to contender status--it probably won't work but what are we really trying to hang onto, what are we risking? In Stotts' case, it was a so-so coach who had been around 9 years. In the status quo's case, it's a team with a firm ceiling of reaching the second round and getting summarily (and easily) ejected.

It's low risk/low reward. I can't really summon strong feelings either way.

 

Dame is special, no doubt about it, but there are certainly players in the last 10 years that teams have drafted that are at least his equal. Even in franchise history, and with as poorly as we've drafted, we've had players of his talent or better. Now injuries destroyed some of those careers, but in terms of special talent, we've had a few.

Walton - arguably the best Blazer ever even if only for a brief time.
Drexler - rose as high as 2nd to the GOAT and took the Blazers to 2 Finals
Roy - what might have been if he had knees.
Oden - Completely imposing and physically dominating, but... (see Roy)
Aldridge - one of the more talented bigs for over a decade....but never a #1.
Lillard - great leader and statistical accumulator, but it hasn't led to the levels of Walton or Drexler.

So it's not like we haven't had uber talented players and with good scouting, proper management, can do so again. It's hard to let go or say good-bye to someone or something we love, but this 'marriage' has run it's course. Now I would be okay with a tank/rebuild where Nurk/CJ/RoCo etc were moved for younger players on less expensive contracts while Dame had the surgery he may need and was out the rest of the year. Get a very good Lottery pick, use that to combine with Dame or trade it for a piece that can fit with Dame and go from there. A bunch of younger players around an older vet like what the Suns did with CP3.

That rejuvenated his career and they should at least be in the Conference Finals for a 2nd year in a row.

 

Just name one player... one player who has had their career derailed by an abdominal injury. This isn't a career ending or altering injury... if the rest and cortisone injection don't clear it up, then they will operate on it, it will heal and Dame will be Dame.

 

Do you know how many players have had a serious abdominal injury in the nba?

im asking. I haven't a clue, but I'm guessing its not many at all and if thats the case. Small sample size?

 

The only way it would be "proven" would be if we still had Stotts.

 

Don't know of any, but that might not be the point. If Dame won't have it fixed (he's said he has dealt with this for years), then maybe he as he ages, it's tougher to overcome and he doesn't get back. He certainly has the time to recover and get better, but if he won't sit out for more than a week or so, it's not going to heal.

 

Yeah I can't find many. LeBron has missed stretches of games several times with abdominal injuries. Wendell Carter Jr. had surgery on one in 2019 but had several injuries after that, that were unrelated. He's playing the best ball of his career this season. Steve Blake had a surgery for the same injury as Dame when Blake was 31 and was still putting up numbers on par with the rest of his career for a couple more seasons after that before really being relegated to spot minutes later in his career. I know Shaq had abdominal injuries that made him miss quite a few games throughout his career but they would just take him out and then he'd come back and dominate like nothing happened... never a slump like Dame. LeBron's play has been affected by it before he's taken time off in the past. According to both the Blake story, the Carter story and a story from the NHL the surgery takes 6-8 weeks to recover from and has a high success rate. Bosh had the injury in his second season with the Heatles, missed some time rehabbing it and came back from it to play at a high level for the rest of his career until blood clots ended it.

 

right on. Much of this validates the opinion he should shut it down and get the surgery and get right so he can get back to Dame time.

 

His stock is skyrocketing

 

Yeah, that could be true. I think if this last rest and injection doesn't work, Dame's smart enough to at least get it taken care of in the off season but probably before if he's still shooting like shit. I know he says he's been dealing with it for years but now it's hurting his game so I'd have to think at some point he would do whatever has to be done to be rid of it.

I only see three abdominal tear surgeries (Steve Blake 2012, Wendell Carter 2019 and an NHL player) all three had recovery times of 6-8 weeks and all three had success afterwards.

 

LeBron and Shaq each only shut it down for a few weeks to a couple months and didn't get surgery. If Dame has already tried that and it's been nagging him for years maybe he will consider the surgery.

 

There were rumblings that he wanted to challenge the NBA minimum age - Developing in the G-League:



He’d be my #1 target if he were in this draft and we had a top-2 pick.

 

Only 17? There are some higher level skills he possesses.

 

OK, that is a very good argument.

 

My only concern about Chet is his build - no, I don’t think he’s going to be injury prone - but he has identical physical traits as Isaiah Austin who found out that he had Marfan Syndrome during the pre-draft process. A condition missed by all his pre-college physicals and by Baylor University.

Other than that Chet is #1 on my early draft board. He’s a cerebral defender with an elite feel/timing on that end.

 

Dame 31, CJ 30, Powell 28.

Ivey is 20, long, athletic, good form on J & plays an all around game. If he's really 6'4 (& my eyes agree) he's an inch taller then Powell and 2" taller then Ant, CJ & Dame. Not saying he's the guy but he's intriguing though he'd probably take to be ready. Also, in the draft I'm generally for acquiring the best talent available regardless of fit to the current roster.

STOMP

 

okay fair enough, but then we need to move the others. Im not opposed to that, but thats starting a decent sized shapeshift vs drafting a position of need, due to lack of depth and balance.

 

This might be a record for how fast a post has aged.

 

Outside the top3 this is my guy!

He has a lot of Jimmy Butler to his game/impact.