The way this team gets into real contention is trading for guys like Nurk (not painted into a corner, case in point) or drafting players who pan out like CJ. That's how it is for every team but one or two (who are likely conference finals or beyond), "painted into corners" or not. It looks to me like there aren't going to be many teams with much cap space this summer (painted into corners). It also looks to me like there are a lot of teams with contracts they couldn't move. Tyreke Evans wasn't moved. Gasol wasn't moved. The demand for big expiring deals wasn't there this trade deadline, for whatever reasons. NO collected three 1st round picks and then traded two of them for a better pick (Collins). I don't call that somehow handicapped. In spite of all the negativity, the Blazers are 8-4 in their last 12 games. It's remarkable how expectations with the beast version of Nurk were so high. You can't fault NO for not trying, but people will.
Zach Collins was drafted #10. So was CJ. I don't think 10 years at 14-18 is accurate at all. Here's a team that spent at least 3 years in the top 5 of the lottery.
Perhaps you are thinking of the Philly model, how ‘bout Nerlens Noel, followed by Okufor and then Embiid? They had to tack on a few more years of pathetic playing to get where they are now - mid-tier. Not a model I want to emulate.
If you don’t feel comfortable with a top 5 pick maybe there needs to be a change at gm? Danny Ainge seems to do ok with lottery picks.
You guys are right, spending year after year talking about what 1-3 seed might be easier to take to a game 5 is much better, you win.
You would rather have our current future than philly? Lol ok And that 10th pick wasn’t ours, we traded 15 and 20 to get it(we won’t have multiple firsts to do that most years)and then passed on Mitchell. Luckily we made up for it by taking Caleb one pick in front of Kuzma, that was close
There aren't any guarantees, is all. I'd rather try hard as we can to win every game and take our chances. You can talk about our chances, but they actually have to play the games. We're in year 3 of the rebuild. A rebuild where we were expected to be a horrible team (especially that first season after LMA left). How good are we supposed to be in year 3? The Celtics in the Stevens era won 25, 40, and 48 games the first three seasons. The Blazers in the post LMA era won 44, 41, and on pace for 45. Seems pretty close to me. Plus the Blazers are in the much tougher conference.
Did those teams you mention have the 5th highest payroll in the league in year 3 with zero cap flexibility for the foreseeable future?
The grass isn't always greener. I think we're better than Philly by quite a bit at this point, and certainly the past few seasons. I wouldn't sell Dame and CJ short - both teams have a "big 2." After Embiid and Simmons, I'm not seeing that tanking and all those high draft picks have been a great success; just a bunch of average players at best.
And yet we signed one of their lottery busts to a 17 mil per deal we can go round and round, wake me up in 2020 when we can start over again.
Why should we care about payroll? Paying a payroll right up to the LT is ideal. That we are is a point in NO's favor.
The front office screwed this orginization in 2016 when it made drastic emotional responses to Chandler Parsons and Dwight Howard denying us by signing scrubs to outrageous contracts. That can’t be argued.
Yeah that's what the Lakers did. And the only thing that will bail them out are top FA's....which we all know we don't get.
Not a bust, one who turned into a role player rather than a star but neither is he a bust. Overpaid? Yes. Your seeming preference for us to have many chances to generate busts for the rare opportunity to gain a true game-changer is not a road I wish to travel. The Sixers have some up-and-coming players but I don’t consider any of them game-changers (such as LeBron would be). That’s ok, some people always want to go for the big score, others prefer alternative approaches. I would love a big score, but not at the cost of the Philly model you seem to prefer.
I'm beginning to think that Denny is really Neil Olshey..... Or at least has a vested interest in his performance
I met Larry Bowa once and we got to talking. He was manager at the time. I asked him why teams didn't just throw pickoff after pickoff when they were losing and it looked like it might rain. Doing so would delay the game until it rained and would force the game to be restarted the next day (or whenever). His answer: "it's bush league." Tanking is bush league.
