This guy gets it. Also, losing does not equate to somehow winning “cooper Flagg” either. If people would chill on that mentality period, and realize that even just trying to win is the best case for our young guys either way, we could talk about “not being sad over a high lottery pick again”
If we acquired a 2030 pick it can be used much sooner, maybe even this summer, to bring in immediate veteran help. The Blazers acquired 5x first round picks in recent years (2025 Milwaukee, 2023 Knicks, 2024 Warriors, 2029 Bucks, 2029 Celtics). 4 of those 5 picks were used in less than a year.
Mostly to chagrin from folks around here. I believe you are on record for not liking the Deni trade right? But that is basically what you are saying we would be doing again. Using those picks to bring in more talent like Deni? Those picks arent getting us Giannis.
My point was the Blazers should look to add assets to improve this roster. Draft picks are one of the best way to do that. Often acquired picks are used in a subsequent trade for a different veteran. Old geezer Blazer fans that totally dismiss that because the picks are in future seasons have a short-sighted view of improving the team.
Oh i agree those picks still have real value in the moment, but unless I'm mistaken, most of the returns are not of positive opinion around here and considered a waste of pick/picks. Kind of an oximoron.
It depends on where we're at when we trade them. If we add enough talent trading picks to fill holes could make sense. I doubt we'd be in that position in a year, but it's not impossible.
Yeah, like if multiple unlikely things all happen: -We win the lotto and get Flagg -Multiple youth finish this season on a tear and look like starters next year (Clingan/Sharpe/etc) -Trade one of our vets for a great 6th man -Sign a great vet with the full MLE or a sign and trade Yeah maybe if something like that all happens we could be close to a playoff roster and then trading two future FRP for one more starter makes sense. That's the value of getting future picks like a 2030 FRP right now. We can use it as early as the summer to get win now help, or we can hold it for future seasons if we're not able to make some of those other improvements as quick as we'd like. It's basically money in the bank to improve the roster - while holding onto Grant Ant etc will be worth nothing in the future. But I've seen many posters here discount the idea of adding a distant 2030 pick or such since they're older fans - which would be a stupid way for the Blazers to go about building assets for this team.
especially when the team is losing, fans tend to bag on whatever moves are made... well, some fans. Some follow sports just because it's an acceptable outlet where they can get their anger on STOMP
Suns announcers were saying there'd be a lot of teams that would like Timelord at the trade deadline. We need to keep good players like him, not jettison them. I'm worried that we're just going to become a revolving door that keeps trading good players for assets that we hope will become better players and we'll be treading water forever.
Understand what you’re saying, but Rob’s health is a ticking time bomb, he’s not someone to build a young team with. If you can trade him for good value while he’s healthy, you have to do it.
I’m really curious if Rob has been held out this long due to health reasons or trade reasons. Kinda like when Brogdon sat out the rest of the year last year as soon as the deadline passed and he wasn’t dealt. Not sure what the hold up would be now that it’s the 15th.
Brogdon has missed a ton of time to injuries throughout his career & so has RWIII. Both have played sparingly this year too. What do I know but it seems this is more who they are then some strategy on Portland's part STOMP
Just holding onto Timelord types of players isn't going to get us anywhere either though. Probably better to just have this ship we're on sink and then work to build a new one. That said I draw the line at a FRP - if we can get one for Timelord do the deal - if not he's exactly the type of vet you want to keep and I'll be happy to keep him in Portland.
Having a 6 game losing streak sure helps the tank - we now clearly got spot #7 and are only one win from #4. Those three teams all being in the east should help as they certainly will get some wins in that conference. There are so many dreadful east teams. The West only bad teams are us and Utah. The Pelicans are losing at the moment but thats just injuries. Looking at our next 10 games - we should be heavy underdogs the next three but then it might be more difficult to lose in Utah. If we are able to lose to Utah again and Philly starts playing a bit better we might be able to get to 14 losses straight. At Detroit and at New Orleans could be more difficult to lose though; We do play in Dallas Jan9 to complete that 5 game road trip.
Since that 3 game win streak we've been able to get a ton of losses over our last 12 games with a 2-10 record. I've been a bit surprised we've been able to lose against the Spurs and earlier against Dallas as both games we had red hot shooting. So perhaps we don't need to trade Ant or Grant to continue with a full on tank.
Its interesting but I wonder what New Orleans most valuable players are? Might be Troy Murphy and Herb Jones - both on reasonable contracts and can be a very good role player on a contender. Zion/CJ/Dejonte/Ingram aren't good enough to lead a team anywhere and are paid too much to fit on contenders rosters.
