Still have the TPE and MLE available to address that. Just saying that Harris doesn't feel like a piece worth keeping.
to be clear, the trade 'idea' that started this didn't include Thybulle....who is getting rated extremely high for a guy who who averaged 6 points and 2 rebounds. Yeah, I know, defense!....but one-way players are role players, and they need to play on teams with a couple of offensive all-stars, not on a team with none. Blazers need two-way players desperately; they don't need to trade defensive ineptitude for offensive ineptitude. It's bop-a-mole in reverse also, that team would be Portland paying Gobert/Harris 80M year....a purgatory every bit as dead-end as the olshey-era
I think if we end up at 7 we will trade back either for the Spurs 9 and 25 or the Hornets 13 and 15. I think Joe (assuming it's just Joe) will trade the 25th pick and our Bucks 2025 pick for Grant or he'll trade the 15th for Grant straight up. Either at 9 or 13 we should be able to get Eason, Dieng or Sochan who is another guy I like for us. I think if Joe gets his way our starting lineup will be Dame, Ant, one of those three rookies, Grant, Nurk with Hart and Nas off the bench along with someone we sign with the TPMLE and whoever wins the other one or two rotation spot(s) out of Trendon, Greg, Keon, pick 36, Didi, hell maybe pick 57. Who knows? Edit: I always fucking forget Justise. He will definitely be in that rotation.
If Portland gets the #2 pick & Detroit #4 or 5, I'd totally trade down & pick up Grant.... then trade down again & pick up Dieng & Eason
One way players are not always role players Dame is a one way player. Is he a role player? Is CJ? Trae Young? Luka? Harden? Also “Yeah, I know, defense” to describe an NBA all defensive team guy is a little insulting. Until this fucking franchise starts caring about defense, it’s going nowhere. So if it is destined for purgatory, which it may be, tell us the off season that gets us out of purgatory…..or at least starts that process
I love asset accumulation, but it seems we need to take a much of a shot as possible on getting a 'star'. To me, Grant doesn't meet that criteria, and I don't see it out of Dieng or Eason anytime soon even though I like both players.
At what point do we start thinking Sochan should be our first pick without trading down? In 2-3 years which PF will be the best in the group? They all seem to have different strengths and weaknesses but assuming they will all improve on their game, who will end up being the best two-way player? Could he be better than Smith, Banchero, and Chet in 3 years? Or let's say those guys go 1-2-3 and we end up with the 4th pick, is Sochan, not the most versatile big on the board if we really value defense? We all value what Simmons does on D, could Sochan do the same? Granted he does not have Simmons handles, but he does show the potential to be a better shooter. I think he will go higher than the current mocks have him. Where does he fall on our big board....if defense wins championships.
To me this is effectively trading the #7 pick for Grant. If Cronin does this and tries to weasel his way out of admitting so by saying we traded down for a player we prefer.... he'd be more a used car salesman than Neil.
I think it's a way for him to salvage the plan that blew up in his face. Of course he's going to spin it that we got the guy we wanted in the draft and Grant who has been our target since Joe took over. I do think that it could be a bad thing and show us that Cronin is stubborn but I also think it could be alright. I think Sochan and Eason are really good. I especially like Sochan's aggressiveness on both ends of the court. I also have heard that our scouting staff has Dieng really highly rated... maybe they leaked that because of a plan to do this sort of thing. The fact for me remains that Cronin fucked up the mid season trades and should not be our main decision maker heading into such an important draft but if he is I hope whatever he does works well.
it's not insulting...it's simply an acknowledgement of the situation in the NBA right now, and of Portland's situation as well you say Dame & Trae & Luka & Harden are one-way players even though they are not only elite scorers but elite playmakers & initiators. Players like that have a ton more value than a one-way player whose only skill is defense but who is a bad shooter, terrible rebounder for his position, and not a playmaker. He needs to be on a team that has several offensive stars...like Philly. look at this: those were the all-star game rosters this season, but that also represents past all-star game rosters really well; and it represents the elite players in the league. Do you see any perimeter one-way player there whose one skill is defense? Gobert is all-defense but he's also an elite rim-protector and consistently a top-3 rebounder. Draymond is all-defense but he also has great handles and court vision and is an elite play-maker. Thybulle has no other skill than perimeter defense and is offensively challenged. That's not saying that perimeter defense is unimportant, just that Thybulle has flaws and limitations that restrict his overall value. In other words, “Yeah, I know, defense” I agree, but the solution is not to over-correct in such an obviously ridiculous way. There needs to be balance between offense and defense and that hypothetical roster didn't have it, at all Portland took a step in the right direction by firing Olshey. He barely cared about defense. He did accidentally assemble a good defensive roster in the 2017-18 season. That team was 8th in the NBA in defense while having a Dame/CJ starting back-court. The trick is to not have any other defensive sieves in the rotation and speaking of "going nowhere" I'd say a pretty obvious definition of going nowhere is paying Gobert/Harris 80M year the first step of the "process" started on December 3rd when the Blazers fired Olshey. The 2nd step was dumping the 4 players who were hogging half of the payroll without adding an upside. There may be valid reasons to debate the incoming value those players were dumped for, but they were definitely "going nowhere" players. The next steps I don't know, and neither does anybody else who can't predict the future it sure seems like some of you expected Portland to be able to trade away those 4 non-contender assets immediately for contender assets. That Portland could trade a used Honda Accord for a new Lexus. Doesn't seem like a realistic expectation. Portland was in a dead end. To back out of that dead end, turn around, and find a street with some upside might take a couple of years rather than a couple of minutes
2020-21: 2019-20: 2018-19: obviously, nobody is saying that that Thybulle is a top player. But out of those 45 names on the all-NBA teams, the names of "one-way" players appear 22 times. Offense matters more than defense, especially for individual players. Teams can scheme their way to solid defense, even if they have some poor defenders in the rotation. They can't scheme their way to a high 3pt% if they don't have good shooters, or to a high assist/turnover rate if they don't have good passers but more than that, even assuming Philly would be willing to trade both Maxey & Thybulle, along with Harris, for Dame, which I seriously doubt to the point I'd say they wouldn't, it still doesn't make Portland any better that they were last season when they lost to Denver in the playoffs. They'd be better on defense, but be worse on offense
