Wes's achilles blew and tore apart the franchise. If the Blazers were healthy and made the WCF, Aldridge and the gang would all be re-signed and we'd be arguing over which MLE player gets us over the top. Shit happens. It happens a lot to this franchise.
This makes no sense. The best rumored trades were not from the Texas teams. Why would any team that was shitty, gamble on a short term rental. On the other hand why did he look at LA and Phoenix if you were so sure he wanted to go home? And which offers seemed reasonable to you? The ones I remember two years ago were for draft picks a full year before the draft. How do we know how good that pick would have been? It did not make sense then, nor does it make sense to me now. It is one of those "agree to disagree" because I have thought about it often, and every time i come to the same conclusion. Try to keep your best players unless you are guaranteed a star in return.
The most widely confirmed rumor was in 2013 when Cleveland offered Tristan Thompson and the #1 for Aldridge. That could have been Thompson and Oladipo. I would sure as shit have taken that combo over nothing. Or maybe if we had known he was leaving last summer, we could have gotten in on the Wiggins sweepstakes.
I blame that on Neil as well. There were signs and of course he was oblivious to it and had no foresight. They should have moved him the moment he decided he wasn't going to extend. It may have been unpopular at the time. But would have been better off today for it.
This is exactly my point. What I argued then and I still believe, is that with LMA and Kyrie on the same team, Cleveland could/would have been better.........so the pick would not have been good enough in that shitty draft to be worth much. And Thompson is no better than someone like Ed Davis which we can pick up any time.
The other rumor, which who knows if it's actually true, but supposedly the Warriors offered Lee and either Thompson or Harrison fucking Barnes for Aldridge. I would LOVE to have Klay Thompson right about now.
Wait, no the rumor was right before the draft. This thread is in June. The rumors started in mid June. It was the #1 pick. It would have been Thompson (who just signed a huge contract) and ___________ (probably Oladipo).
OK that could be true, but it doesn't change anything. It was a shitty draft. What if we would have taken a PF to replace LA, (like Cleveland did in choosing Bennett-Ouch! I like Oladipo, but he was not worth rolling the dice over. Again it comes doen to gambling when we did not have to. In hind sight sure, (although we could still get a a player with the cap space) but still the right call was to let it play out unless you got a guaranteed star in return. And that draft was horrible.
I don't think we would've taken a PF with Thompson already on our squad. BPA was Oladipo (or Noel, if you trusted the knee). But we come back to: trading a guy who can leave in 22 months for nothing, while getting in return two players you can control for the next 7-9 years if you'd like? On a rookie scale? Whatever. Hindsight.
Which would be unfortunate, because what Wesley's injury really revealed is just how paper thin the Blazers' hopes of contending actually were with last year's group.
What was our record without Wes? something like .300 down the stretch. That's a pretty damning indictment if you ask me.
