Fools like Danny Mainge , who helped a broken down Laker team be a potential contender. If the Lakers stay healthy, and win it all, Ainge should be given a Lakers championship ring. You NEVER help the Lakers.
Not true. They're very good backups. Even if the Blazers win the rights to draft Wemby, and make a trade for Mikal Bridges, they still need a quality bench that can spell the starters. Watford and Eubanks are those kinda players now.
Someone always seems to help the Lakers... not to be completely argumentative but if it's the Pelicans or the Grizz back in the day or the Hornets even earlier than that... someone always seems to help them. I want us to build around Dame but we could definitely be looked at the same way history looks at the Hornets for trading Kobe for Vlade if we're not careful.
I find it interesting that the Blazers have built multiple teams around Dame that have not worked, yet y'all continue to insist it's the other players. Hmmm.
We insist that he's never had the opportunity to play with a fellow all star, since his third season in the league. We basically insist that even though there has been a ton of tinkering with the roster around him, since his third year he hasn't had a complementary or particularly talented roster around him.
I'd be willing to bet that no star has ever competed for a championship when surounded by a similar level of talent Dame's had on the team since Aldridge left.
While I think the Blazers management's attempts have been very lackluster over the years and are primarily to blame, I do think it is at least fair to ask the question of Dame's role in the team's shortcomings. The potential issues: He has long been a negative on the defensive side of the ball, and like virtually all Blazers' guards for the last decade, really struggles to get over screens and stay in front of quicker players. He's a ball-dominant guard that prefers playing at a slower pace. Unlike Curry, to whom he is rightfully compared, he doesn't move off-of-the-ball with the same intentionality (some of this may be system as well, of course). His primary weapon is his otherworldly shooting. It has an effect on a defense regardless of whether he is making or missing, but shooting by its nature is more sporadic. His gravity is undeniable, but it hasn't consistently generated easy opportunities for his teammates. He's a good and willing passer with good court vision, but his playmaking for others will always be a secondary skill as he is not simply able to break down his man and draw a second defender off of the dribble. And his shot profile isn't one that easily creates offensive rebounds and second opportunities. Through two coaches now, our offense is really stagnant and often devolves into an isolation possession from one of our guards or a two-man pick-and-roll with three other players standing and watching. I sometimes wonder about the effect this has on the other players, and perhaps even on their defensive performances as well. Damian Lillard is my all-time favorite basketball player, a pure joy to watch and root for, and a player whose greatness cannot be denied. I also think that the messy teams that have surrounded Dame throughout his career and his coaches' ability to get the team to perform at a better level defensely are by far the primary reasons we are where we are. That said, I think it is reasonable to also admit that his superstar profile isn't the easiest around which to build a team, especially in the current era of NBA basketball.
Is everyone convinced Ant will never become the same catch-and-shoot guy he once was again? We still don’t actually know what the lineup looks like with Simons coming off the bench. I think it’s worth at least trying before saying ‘trade him, he doesn’t work with Dame’. If he really studied under Dame, I think he would know that the best thing to do in that situation is at least is try it out. Jordan Poole is making more money than him and he’s only started half the season. Draft the best available talent with the lotto pick. Use or trade the NYK pick for a difference maker or draft someone with potential to fill a spot of the future (Dereck Lively is someone I’d love if Schmitz thinks he’s the right fit). Re-sign Grant. Sign/trade a real C and SF. Let the young guys keep growing. Run it back.
I love Dame. He's awesome. I don't think it's his fault that the guys we've added around him haven't been very good. We had management making bad decisions about who to acquire, who to draft, and where to spend money. That's not on Dame (except maybe Grant, if he requested Grant). The thing is that there's no guarantee we're doing to be able to add superior players to the guys we have in the past. We could go back in time and had Olshey trade for good players instead of, say, Nance, and it might have worked. Who? Dunno. But Cronin doesn't have a track record of making good trades... he cut his teeth working with Olshey and I don't have confidence that he'll be better at it. The other thing is that the team is not close. If we got another Grant-level player for free AND added our lottery pick, I think we'd be pretty good. I'd be happy with that. But getting another Grant-level player (who I am not even a big fan of) will cost us something... a rotation player, or draft picks that will hurt us in the future. In addition to a dearth of talent, we're small. I like Nurk more than most, but only having two guys taller than 6'9" available for our rotation is just ridiculous. The final thing (at least for this post) is that Dame is aging. He is going to be making a SHIT-TON of money, which limits our team spending both in salary cap ways and real-life ways. Was he fantastic this year? Absolutely. But humans just start to break down more as we age (news flash) and Dame is going to be 33 in three months. He's going to get injured more and more even as he gets more expensive, and it's going to be doubly damaging to our teams' prospects. Bottom line? Past failures are not Dame's fault, but we cannot win big with him moving forward.
You watched this season and thought, "Tinker with things a little and then RUN IT BACK."? Thanks Olshey but I think we've had enough of that. I don't think Ant is coming off of the bench mostly because if we do use draft picks to acquire a difference maker Ant's salary will be needed just to start to match the salary of a proven difference maker.
Suppose you were told that it has to be retool, that rebuild isn't even an option. What would you think of something like this: Main problem with this is that Grant is a FA, so his salary would change (but it can go up significantly and the numbers would work) but I have a feeling that you can't sign-and-trade somebody along with other players? Anyway, the core of the trade is Anfernee for Butler. There's literally a DECADE difference in age. But Butler is still probably younger than Chris Paul was when the Suns traded for him, right? And he's literally better than Anfernee will ever be. That's obviously true in terms of defense, but he can also just decide to take over a game offensively and do it, and he is a culture-changer in that he will not accept losing (which is why I think he might agitate for a trade from Miami, who seem to be in a bad way this year). The question is, would Miami want Simons? If they pair him with Herro that's got to be the worst-defending backcourt, certainly in their history and probably in the NBA. They would have to just outscore teams. But they've got a very adaptable coach... (Also, the sweetener for them is that they unload Robinson.)
I wondered about that a few weeks ago and Googled it. I was surprised to see that you could sign and trade with multiple players. But I would love to have someone who knows for sure verify it. Not sure that Miami would be interested, but other teams might.
genuinely curious what the market return would be for these two. Plain cheerios—no strawberry or sugar draft capital on top.
The chances of a team needing both (while giving us a player back that is better than either) are slim. Draft picks would need to be included for a difference-maker. Maybe a 3 team trade could work. I guess another option would be to a team for a player we like (but not necessarily love) while also taking back a bad salary.
Yea. And there are less and less ‘bad contracts’ left in the league due to CBA changes over the years. Ben Simmons, Duncan Robinson, Kyle Lowry, John Collins are a few that come to mind. Tobias Harris used to be on that list but he’s expiring and not a total minus player so he’s off the list now, i think.
The only way they MIGHT be interested is if Butler demanded a trade. Presumably other teams would give them good offers, but maybe not great given that Butler is nearly 34. Also we'd have to sweeten the deal by taking one of their (many) terrible contracts off them (in my example, Robinson).
We're calling John Collins a bad contract now? One bad year (after his team has basically marginalized him) and he's a scrub? Man--if we could somehow acquire him in a 3-way deal sending Ant out, I would be so down for that!
They're no ordinary scrubs. They're BLAZER SCRUBS. Nothing better then listening to the podcasts yak about the terrificly talented Blazer scrubs. Heck... one of the scrubs named Anfernee Simons can shoot really good sometimes and averaged 20ppg this season!
