Olshey says he has a plan but what else is he going to say, sell your season tickets cause we are fucked in LA leaves. Well we do not know what that plan is but until LA actually signs elsewhere we should work our ass off to keep him. PG Lillard is the starter here he is a stud offensively and could benefit from some support defensively similar to what Curry gets in Golden State. Back Up PG Patrick Beverly This guy plays hard, he gets in your face, tugs your jersey and make your life hell if your the man he is guarding. We need someone like this. SG CJ McCollum The kid can get his own shot and has some range we need someone like him with some offensive pop. He made big strides in the playoffs now its time to prove he has turned the corner. SG Gerald Henderson we have him right now but I think we can do better. I would add him as a piece for a salary match. SG Wesley Matthews can he come back from that injury? Is he for real asking for 15 million? We obviously cannot give him anything close to that figure. As LA's best friend on the team, a great 3 point shooter, and a good defender Matthews has too much value to ignore. SG Danny Green If Matthews is not healthy I would make a serious bid to sign him from the Spurs. He does everything Matthews does he is a great 3 point shooter and a defender. He might not be the vocal leader Matthews is but he would be a major upgrade over Henderson or McCollum. SF Demare Carroll this is where the Henderson contract becomes handy. We won't have the cap space to sign him outright if we get Matthews or Green but Henderson and Kaman give us the money needed to sign him. Adding Plumlee or Vonleh could be important here to swing the deal. PF Lamarcus Aldridge he has to return or this whole off season plan really goes down hill. PF Joel Freeland he is a quality bench defender and should come cheaply you cant have stars 10 deep in the NBA so having a cheap quality role player will help. C Noah Vonleh/ Mason Plumlee we will likely need to deal one in order to facilitate a sign and trade for Green or Carroll. I would do the same for the other as well. C Meyers Leonard the kid can shoot that is certain and guarding the rim he is a plus defender. He needs a lot of work guarding his man away from the basket and in pick and roll but he is not a complete lost cause here. Offense is his true value as a floor spacing big with a terrific outside shot. C Omer Asik he knows his role and that is to defend and rebound he is very good at both of those areas and he is a terrific rim protector and a true banger someone LA would relish having on his side. Giving up Plumlee or Vonleh to help the salaries match is a gamble but I believe work the risk. That is my 9 man rotation Lillard Beverly Matthews/ Green McCollum Carroll Aldridge Freeland Leonard Asik Offensively and defensive there is a lot of talent on this team. We also have plenty of three point shooting with Lillard, Matthews/ Green, McCollum, Carroll, and Leonard. SF depth remains an issue but if Portland looks like a legit threat in the playoffs adding someone just after the trade deadline off the waiver wire is a viable option. I think we can still make a splash this summer. Hopefully Neil believes so too and gets it done. Let me know your thoughts on the team, weaknesses of the team, better options etc. Obviously such a specific plan would be very difficult to pull off but those are the kind of players I value.
Go sit on your patio. Drink a solid bottle of wine. Have a stogie. Smoke some blue orca. Drink a big glass of cool water, maybe 2. Get a good sleep, 8-10 hours. Please come back and try again.
Bitching is easy show me better. I added the leagues best defensive PG, kept a healthy Matthews or replaced him with someone with the same skill set. Carroll is a better shooter than Batum was and an excellent defender making him a good choice to replace him. Brought back LA and improved our rim protection and rebounding by adding Asik. I fail to see any issue with that team other than the difficulty acquiring all those pieces would present.
If be more concerned about that if Beno didn't destroy us every single time we played him. Like Dragic.
My plan to keep Aldridge was to offer him more money than the other 29 teams can. I would also point out that the other 29 teams that he could go to suck, including Golden State, what have they done recently?
As an NBA player I would relish a chance to play vs Dame. I know I will have my work cut out for me on defense but I will feast on offense. Life gets a lot harder when your now guarding Lillard and then have Beverly locking you up on D when Lillard hits the pine.
I blame Lillard for melting whenever a screen comes his way. Not enough effort on his part to prevent those open mid range J's.
He's not supposed to prevent the mid range shot, that's the problem with our system against players that feast there like beno, Dragic, and the Morris twins.
No but his job is to contest it, we want to push people off the three point line and stop them from getting to the rim. None of that matters though if we allow uncontested jumpers all day,
On all seriousness, the plan Neil is implementing to Keep Lamarcus is way better than yours. I believe what happens from here is we give Lamarcus his max then split the remaining 22ish million between Matthews and a replacement SF for Batum. It's great to have our own.mad scientists ideas of how the team should be built, but it's good practice to actually analyze the moves being made to identify the true direction of the team and the GMs actual plans. An additional part of the equation is identifying the strengths and system of the coach in place. So here is what I see so far, we moved 2 guys who have a tendency of being too passive, and who don't shoot when open. We have added high motor guys that play hard and attack the basket. Typical analyst knock on the Blazers they are a jump shooting team who doesn't stack the basket. We already have shooters for spacing now we added guys who will use those lanes. But let's go a little deeper.... Vonleh - athletic above the rim player Henderson - athletic above the rim player Plumlee - athletic above the rim player Connaughton - athletic above the rim player Neil is showing that he is building a team that is athletic and hard working. Guys like Asik don't fit that mold... nor do Kaman and to an extent Lopez. The Blazers are not extending a qualifying offer to Freeland, so unless he is taking a pay cut he won't be back. It has been rumored that similar money and a starting role will draw him back to Europe. Imo that's a good move for Freeland. Then we talk about Terry Stotts. Quite simply put we aren't going to be adding offensive liabilities to this team. It doesn't mean we won't add guys who can play D... Henderson, Vonleh and Plumlee all do... but what we won't add are guys that play D but have no offensive game. Sorry Patrick Beverly does not fit with our coach or style, honestly the days of teams that are built on defense 1st are done. The future is teams who score a lot and play good team defense. Demanded Carroll does fit that role. So does Luol Deng.
Wrong. He's not supposed to prevent mid range shots, he's supposed to prevent 3s. The big prevents layins. You can't contest mid range jumpers when you're trailing from behind
Part of our problem on pick and roll defense is our bigs aren't quick enough to switch and recover. Yes Damian is not a good defender but what we really get killed on is pick and roll, and that's a team defense issue.
My blueprint to keep Aldridge is as follows: 1.) keep Noah and Plumlee 2.) trade Kaman (5mil after July 1st) and cap space to get Roy Hibbert, leaving us around 14 mil in cap space. 3.) sign Danny Green for 11 mil or offer Deng 9 mil 4.) possibly use Anderson and 3 mil cap space to grab a starting caliber SF or 5 mil cap space and Anderson to get a Danny Green Caliber SG.
