Often in the last month; never this early. It will happen later, not yet. By "tanking" I mean a slight decrease in effort (like resting team stars) caused by acceptance of the inevitable.
Set the bar higher. Stotts has to get the very first pick or he's out. No more settling for #2. We deserve to be at the top!
Someone mentioned getting up to the #6 spot.... that it was there for the taking. To do that and equal the winning percentage the Jazz are currently on even after a very poor stretch of play for them, the Blazers would have to finish 37-22. That is a .627 winning percentage compared to their current .391 rate. They have 1 single win against a team with a winning record. Just don't see it.
They might not be trying to tank.... but the result is basically the same. If they were just at 6 wins instead of 9, they would be on track for a legit player/asset.
This is the most depressing team we have ever had. We're wasting Dame's prime. We're on this fucking treadmill that is the Terry Stotts era. I get why people love the Terry/Dame/CJ core, but this group will never win.
I think Terry, Dame, CJ can win. But they'll need legit help that we don't have right now. Olshey is on the clock.
Olshey has been on the clock. This team was horribly thin on the bench even before the injuries. Having guys get hurt just exposed how young/inexperienced/bad our bench was.
Don't worry Dame can't be traded this season anyway so it's like automatic protection from stupidity, lol.
We won't be tanking anyway. We are probably 2-3 weeks away from trading our first round pick for someone like Kevin Love, harming our future in pursuit of 4-5 playoff games against Lakers this year.
Except he cant this entire year. So no, you wouldnt. And thank god youre not the GM. Thatd be ridiculous.
a team with Lillard won't be able to successfully tank unless they lock him in the Moda basement for 4 months Portland could do a tank-lite by trading Whiteside and Bazemore for scrub players + picks on expiring contracts, then waive the scrubs. But neither Hassan or Kent has the value to bring back good picks. A future late 1st would be the best case scenario, but it might just be a handful of 2nd's. Then go with Skal and Moses as the big men....now that will pile up the losses of course, that disrespects Dame and wastes a year of his prime. But Olshey and Stotts have been doing that already, and if Dame remains obstinate about not trading away teammates, he'd just have to be satisfied with the 350M dollars he'll have made in salary by the time he turns 35....yeeeeesh! (and that doesn't include endorsement deals...so my god, a half billion dollars...for chrissakes, I'd have sold my prime for a tenth of that!). IMO. the only way to significantly alter the 'long-term' trajectory of this team upward is to trade CJ for an upgrade at one of the forward spots.
The team has Dame right and looks pretty capable of being really bad. -I agree with you for the most part just pointing out, they look like a 30ish win team right now. That may not be 1st pick type tanking but its still a mid level lottery team.
I completely agree with you here. My secret hope now that the season has gone to pot... It be nice for Dame to get a small injury (a broken bone in his left hand?) so that he HAS to sit out for a while. Trade Whiteside & Bazemore to contenders for scrub players to reduce salary & for cost-controlled players next year. For example Whiteside + Mario to Dallas for Courtney Lee (expiring) + Delon Wright ($9M for 3yrs) would save Portland ~$6.5M before tax (~$15M including tax). You let CJ go wild & show that he's a much better player when he has the keys to a team & then trade CJ in June/July around the draft for a better FIT with Dame/Nurk.
