What the hell are you talking about? He's only countering the narative that the current roster + VW couldn't contend, not saying that they should tank. Lighten up Francis. STOMP
I enjoy rooting for them as I did with Steve Blake, John Crotty, and Stacey Augmon. In the terms of future playoff success they are irrelevant bench role players.
LOL; yeah, I'm not certain either way yet. But from what I've seen there are only 4 clearly worse teams in the west; Thunder/Rockets/Jazz/Spurs. We're right there with the Kings and Lakers trying to get up to the group of likely playoff teams starting with the Wolves and Pelicans. Grizzlies/Clippers/Warriors/Mavs/Suns/Nuggets are all a clear tier above the Blazers.
My big concern is that I don't want to get caught in no mans' land. An effective rebuild means trading some high-priced vets (eg Hart, Grant, Nurk) for either picks or younger, cheaper talent while giving the younger players a chance to really show what they can do. The probabilities are that most or all will crater - but that is an unavoidable pain in birthing a new team. There simply are no guarantees. Any path forward can fail, and we all just need to accept that. Sadly, this off-season leads me to doubt Cronin's willingness to pick a path and stick to it. Trading future assets for Grant and making a huge financial investment to keep a non-contending roster together while drafting a long-term project like Sharpie smacks of someone just making it up as he goes along.
We need to step it up to be clearly better than the Jazz and Spurs... I assume we will, but it doesn't look good right now.
Has a team ever gone into a season in tank mode before the season started, when a major injury to a significant player was not part of the equation? This threads blowing my mind!
It becomes a cultural thing. Losing breeds losing. If you tank once (Which they did) it becomes an acceptable notion. Evident by the very idea that it could help this team at this point. The fans have started to accept it and think it might work. Never Tank. Losers try to lose.
This might be more interesting as a poll; when should the Blazers pivot the season to tanking? Some would say now Some would say never I'd venture most would say if at x number of losses after y number of games. Just not sure what that is.
If this team was a move away from contending I'd be all for the lets try to win direction. I'd say that was the case during the majority of the DameCJ era. The team was never a contender; but they were always a key all star level wing away from being there IMO. Yes it might have been unlikely they were going to get that player; but it wasn't an extremely distant far fetched possibility. Over a decade many team draft players in the middle of the draft who bust out and fulfil that potential. But the problem is now the Blazers aren't just one move from contending. They are multiple unlikely moves from contending, as my list of 4 needed moves above showed. I'm all for trying to win if it can eventually lead to building something. But the current direction of this franchise is on a path to long term mediocrity at best with little realistic hope for improvement. I fear that won't change until we get new ownership. Dark times ahead.
The team will probably suck as is currently constructed. The team doesn't have assets to significantly improve in trade. The team doesn't have notable young talent to improve internally. The team appears to have mediocre if not outright poor management, when defining management as both the GM & Ownership. So the problem is even if the Blazers go forth and start tanking, and even hitting the miracle of drafting Wembanyama; it will likely not lead this franchise to contend. So what the hell should we want to have happen? It just seems like we have a horrible choice of trying to avoid the most shitty option. Thanks Jody!
It could happen but this is way early but when I consider this board it's no surprise, I'd prefer to shit can this thread to after the first 20 games or so, but yeah good luck with that! LOL
Are you trying to say adding a all star level player to Lillard, Simons, Nurk, Grant, Little, GP2, Hart won’t be a contender?
All but about 3 - 4 teams in the league are either in reload, rebuild mode. Thats the way the NBA wants it, as The NBA is Fantastic! Give the mediocre teams a chance to make the po's and hope for the improbable. Its drives the revenue that pays 18-21 year olds millions to develop their games so their teams can be excited for the next step. Its the biggest marketing ploy to hit sports by expanding playoffs and even in-season tourneys.
