I 100% agree. I think Nate bringing up those players made very little sense because we didn't draft them, it was 20+ years ago, etc. I also agree that the draft is probably the best way to have a chance at obtaining an All-NBA player in Portland. Of course, I'd also say, in the rare opportunity you draft that level of player, Portland needs to retain said player to have a great chance at winning. Which is why I was less optimistic that moving off of Dame would yield better results. Now, if we trade Dame for a younger, All-NBA player, then that's fantastic and I'll be totally wrong!
Well, the reason I am optimistic is that the Blazers have potential for 2 all-NBA players already on the roster - and Cronin's modus operandi seems to indicate he understands that the draft is his way of best chance of getting more talent, so hopefully he can get some draft capital from the Dame trade and convert it either by having high-draft-picks or through smart drafting from the 2nd round / end of 1st round - which is why he brought Schmitz to the FO. I also think that Cronin understood that even with Dame on the roster. I believe he wanted to build around Dame - and given what was available in the market, believed that what was available at the draft was better than anything he could get in the trade market.
It's really the only way. But, the Blazers will have to get lucky and draft enough good players in the next few years to put together a good team before everyones contracts are up and or everyone is ready to get paid. Because without an owner like Paul willing to pay to win, the Blazers will again overpay some to stay and have to trade others. Its hard to aggregate a good roster when you are not willing to pay taxes to win.
You missed the point. I listed off players that we have had on this team who were top 6 talent and what that talent could achieve. We NEED more of that caliber of talent. The problem was that Dame never got top 6 talent again after LMA left. So our only way these days to get that level of talent is in the draft.
I agree that's the easiest way and we've been able to achieve that goal of sucking, with Dame. We didn't even had to trade him to do that.
Again, why did you bring up 3 top 6 picks we obtained via trade as an example that we need to draft players to get that level of talent? If we're taking small sample sizes, we could point to a handful of non-top 6 draft picks around the league that were 1st team All-NBA level as well. I agreed with a different poster that we do need to draft well to optimize our chance of success, still not sure what you're disagreeing with.
I feel like I have stated WHY several times.... It's not about drafting well. You can draft well but if you're a mid-to-late first round pick, you have a much crappier pool of talent to choose from.
I hear you. I'm really not trying to crap on your optimism, but this gets back to my original point that I believe the expectation that Sharpe/Scott are both going to be All-NBA players is most likely going to result disappointment. That's not based off what I think of them, it's based off the data we have to this point. If all we're saying is they have a potential (but it's unlikely) that they'll both be All-NBA players in Portland, then I agree; but would go back to that not being a good strategy.
I am well aware of the statistics. But the beauty of sports fandom is that it allows us to have fun hoping for the unexpected which we would not, realistically, be able to do in real life where you have to ensure your kids gets to go to school dressed and not hungry... I guess that my lack of enthusiasm for Blazers basketball in recent years (before Sharpe was drafted) was because the reality was presented year after year that it became hard to ignore the statistical improbability that the team will succeed. At the end of the day, that's the only reason we really care about sports as fans, I suspect, it's an escape, entertainment and you can enjoy it with your fellow (wo)men with little consequences. With the new era, there is hope that at the very least, it will be different.
I wouldn't either. Still needs to happen. Isn't she under a mandate to sell to the highest bidder though? Like, she has to sell at some point. I seriously doubt losing Dame has helped the value of the franchise... At some point can't somebody who benefits from the trust force her to sell if she's doing such a shitty job?
Since the Dame trade request, I joined twitter. I've come to realize that not only are many of the interesting tweets fake, but they reference people who said no such thing.
You also realized hopefully that those tweets ALOT of times is the ammo some in here use as their inside sources.
Because it seems to me like you broke it down to drafting well, but I'm saying that you need to be in the high end of the lottery for drafting well to really make a difference.
