"If you’re tired of this 3+ year purgatory the Blazers are in, might I suggest rooting for a nuclear meltdown over next 3 months. It’s a way out." As constructed, also factoring in the absurd contracts Neil gave out, this team is on a treadmill - and that's putting it mildly. First things first though: Send Olshey the fuck back to LA!
All Ropps plan does is put us in Phoenix’s shoes where we hope we are back in this very spot in 5 years after being a 20 win team for a while. I listen to primetime here and there Ropp is in no way suggesting anything thats helpful to the Blazers, he simply wants NO fired because he has an ax to grind. Thats fine fire Stotts too whole you’re at it. Ropp isnt looking out for the best interest of the Blazers though, he doesnt like NO and thats what its about, its not about basketball for him.
In regards to the "nuclear meltdown" scenario, the one saving grace that I saw with the playoff debacle this year was that it would spur some serious changes with the team finally. And yet here we are. I won't be holding my breath at this point.
Well it's not working the way things are or were the year before.... or the year before.... or.... We're not getting anyone via free agency and Olshey seems to only be able to dumpster dive via trades.... So what else is there?
But there is a chance it gets greener. Right now, it is mostly all brown with almost no chance of it getting very green. It is a long shot, but I'm guessing a team like Dallas (2 games up in the loss column on the Blazers) are pretty excited about their future.
They willingly broke up a championship team and took 7 years to get some semblance of hope. They haven't won a single playoff series since they won the title in 2011. And even now, their roster is a weird hodgepodge of old and young without a clear direction (they're not exactly a good example of a roster overhaul). Outside of Luka, they have very little to show for three lottery years. Maybe you can stomach that. I can't. Do you think Doncic has a ceiling higher than Dame? Unless you do, there's no point to us going "nuclear" and waiting for years trying to land a guy as good as Dame is now.
HUGE difference starting with They Won a Title. So in the past 7 years they haven't won a Playoff series while Portland has won 2....one on a historically magical shot from 30' and the other with their 2 best Players injured after it was tied 2-2 but the Clips still had HCA. Think if they are healthy and with 2 of three games at home the Blazers win that series? So both franchises have been incredibly irrelevant but at least they have a title to show for it. And they may be a hodgepodge of a roster but they are still 2 games up in the loss column on us when we have a 1st team all-nba player and another guard who supposedly gives us a top-3 back court in the NBA. Then add in a better than average center and the Blazers should have advantages over a lot of teams that are above them in the standings. Clearly, how Portland is doing it isn't working either.....and that is with one of the top salary's in the league.
about Olshey's dumpster diving: he's been good at it, generally, but he had cap-space to offer. He doesn't have that anymore so likely, those bargain bins trades he's fond of are foreclosed to him, especially considering the tax implications he does have the 3.5M Vonleh TPE to use, but that will almost certainly expire like the Crabbe TPE did (and after the fact, Olshey will "lament" that he didn't use it...his soap opera acting skills are handy) just about everybody will admit that Portland has a mismatched, outclassed, poorly functioning roster stuck in the rut of the same successes and failures it's shown since 2015. Yet, many don't want to fire the architect of that mess of a roster who is in his 7th year on the job. I guess the thinking is you need a full decade to gauge how a GM is doing...
I believe that with his size, skill, and vision--at only 19--Doncic is potentially a future league MVP. So yes, I believe his ceiling is higher than what Dame has achieved to date.
All this is true. But our current situation is what we expected. Unless you got suckered into thinking that early season run was sustainable, everything is going to plan. Our December is brutal. We will inevitably make another run before the playoffs and sneak in. Losing 8 games of the last 11, or continuing to lose in December isn't a reason to go nuclear. This overhaul that the OP is talking about is a complete fundamental change. No losing streak in the middle of a brutal stretch in the schedule will result in large changes. I agree that Olshey needs to go. Do that first, then everything else. I don't want him trying to construct any more rosters.
We can compare rookie numbers but it's not an apples-to-apples comparison because Luka is 19 in his rookie season while Dame was 22. Player - Dame - Luka PPG....... 19.0 ... 18.0 RPG........ 3.1 ...... 6.8 APG........ 6.5 ...... 4.4 TOV........ 3.0 ...... 3.5 Stls......... 0.9 ....... 1.1 FG%....... .429 .... .425 3Pt%...... .368 .... .369 Outside of the flip-flop advantage with rebounding and assists, those numbers are surprisingly close. Given that Luka is 3 years younger, that is pretty damn impressive.
