Yeah, I don't see any way we get Noel without giving up a pick. Philly likely doesn't care about our bigs, either.
I'm mostly valuing Cousins, not Noel. Cousins is one of the premier players in the league, and a far better player than McCollum, if he's straight. The fact that he's not always straight is why he'd be available at all. If Cousins had interest in being in Portland, I think the Blazers win that total exchange pretty easily which is why I've said, in a previous post, that Portland would need to be able to talk to Cousins first. And while losing the team's only real starting-caliber small forward and shooting guard definitely unbalances the roster in terms of positions, it re-balances the roster in terms of being manageable to build a real defense in addition to offense. The Blazers are almost certainly never building a strong defense around two terrible guards--that's simply punting too much perimeter defense in a league full of attacking guards. Having Lillard and Cousins as the foundational pieces brings into the mix a center who's capable of being a good defender in addition to being a great offensive player. Obviously the team would need to make further trades to divest themselves of bigs and acquire new wings, but that's a far easier task than putting into place a star tandem that you can build a champion around. If the star tandem is Lillard and McCollum, I personally don't think Portland ever gets past the stage of "fun, awesome offense that loses too many shoot-outs to challenge for a title." I think people in general undervalue defense on the individual level. If a player is a great scorer, that player's defense becomes an afterthought, even if that lack of defense erodes a lot of value.
A - Our defensive problems won't be fixed until we get a coach who understands defense. B - DMC isn't that great of a defender. Sure, he's better than anyone we have, but that's not saying much. Actually, he's overrated both offensively and defensively - and this is coming from someone who wants DMC. C - The league has very few good wings - the chances of turning Davis/Meyers/Vonleh/Plumlee into a starting SG and a starting SF are slim (at best). We're very lucky to have a good SG and SF on long-term, friendly contracts. D - I do agree that Dame/DMC would provide a more balanced duo than Dame/CJ, but that does not mean that DMC is better than, or worth more than, CJ. It's possible that a simple CJ/DMC swap would be a win for both teams, but if both teams don't win it's the Blazers that lose.
Would much rather get Okafor. Noels defense is nice, but we need a low post scorer, and I believe Okafor can improve more defensively than Noel can improve offensively.
I'm just going to say.... A 26-year old Sheed would solve everything. He could fit in this lineup from inside-out, play some D, be the guy that fires this team up and calls bullshit when the refs are homering us. He'd fit Stotts system a little too well. And he'd be surrounded by some guys, like Dame, that would probably have kept him reasonably in line (better than back in the day, anyway).
id like us to get Sabonis somehow, then persuade him to get his dad to join as a Big Man coach or anything else he wants to do tbh..
Not necessarily a 3rd PG but a 3rd guard. Could be a SG or a combo-guard. Turner and Crabbe are both SFs and are being forced to play out of position
It's not really an ignorant comment. Maybe could be worded different. Stotts understands defense because his offense is designed to take advantage of defenses. But to think this teams defense wouldn't improve dramatically if someone like Thibs, who preaches defense over everything else, was our coach is ignorant as well.
Lmao. This is such a bad argument. They're wing players, ala 2 or 3. The positions don't even matter. It's like youre saying there's a difference between little and small, or large and big. They don't regularly bring the ball up the court, so they're not PGs, but they play on the perimeter. One can dribble, one can shoot, which can both be looked at as guard skills. You need to stop pedaling this idea you have. And the idea that we need a "SG" over a big because you think Crabbe and Turner can only be played in one of the two off-ball perimiter positions makes no sense.
They're playing too big. If you play with just one of them, as a SF, with both Dame and CJ, it's different than playing CJ, Crabbe and Turner (or Dame instead of CJ) and the first lineup would be more effective. Not just because Dame and CJ are better players, IMO even Napier, CJ and one of Crabbe or Turner would be a better lineup. At the very least if you play just one of CJ or Dame with Crabbe and Turner you need Harkless or at least Meyers as small ball/stretch 4, otherwise you're playing too big and the numbers don't lie, Crabbe and Turner both have terrible +/- numbers, probably the worst in their careers, this lineup simply doesn't work
Jay Allen said just now on radio that he heard that Noel's agent has talked to all but 3 NBA teams about his client this week.
Sorry, but I just don't see how this teams defensive ceiling is anything more than average with the personnel they have. Three centers, but really none of them are centers. Also, Aminu's absence makes a huge difference because now you got Plumlee/Davis switching onto ball handlers instead of someone like Aminu. That's a big difference there. Stotts has also mentioned the difficulty in changing up schemes in the middle of the season with limited practice time. I think we'll see massive improvement once Aminu returns and we find a rim protector.
I agree with you about Aminu although it varies with the opposition. Yes Aminu is much more effective against certain teams, but moving Plumlee over to PF looks to have possibilities. At least against bigger teams where Aminu was too small. Ezeli would seem to fix the rim protection issue.....
Jalen Rose said on his podcast he's heard from his sources that he wants to play in his hometown Boston. Jalen is usually spot on when he says this stuff.
To be fair though, who wouldn't want to play for their hometown team? All things equal, I think Philly would prefer to trade him to the western conference
