Mike Tokito makes the case for the Blazers standing pat in an article in Forbes. Not sure I buy it completely, but he makes some good points. http://www.forbes.com/sites/miketok...for-trail-blazers-in-off-season-standing-pat/
I read it, I'm still trying to find these "good points" you say he makes. To me, losing 3 big rotation players off our playoff roster and replacing them with our draft pick and two minimum signings isn't standing pat. It would make more sense if we found a way to keep one or two of Kanter, Hood, or Curry.
The point that I give him credit for is that the Blazers coming up short against the Warriors has to be considered in light of the injuries to Nurk, Kanter, Dame and others. There’s room for improvement just from health and internal development. But I agree, I don’t think that is enough. Re-signing Hood and Kanter would make me a lot more inclined to buy the thought that the Blazers can compete at the highest levels without needing a major trade.
Injuries are part of the game. Even if we were fully healthy with all 3 guys, were not a true contender. We'll mever be a true comtender with Harkless and Aminu as our forwards. We need an Otto Porter Jr.
Really interesting. Apparently, "Mike Tokito" is one of the aliases for Neil Olshey, who's trying to get us ready to be shut out of trades and free agency....
I love what Nurkic does for the Blazers but I dont think he alone is the key to a championship. Maybe its ok to “stand pat” if GS is beat up or they break up, but if they have to beat GS to get to a championship, I am completely against standing pat, because injuries or not Portland looked pretty broken mentally, and I think thats much harder to get right then recovering from an injury.
I don’t think that we on the outside can know much about the mental state of the Blazers. We thought they looked broken last year after being swept by the Pelicans. Instead, it lit their fire. I think this year, playing in the WCF against the Warriors was another eye opener regarding the sheer effort it takes to win at that level. I expect more growth next season. That said, I would feel much more excited if Olshey can resign Hood and/or Kanter, and even more enthused if he could bring in Porter Jr.
But look at how they acted last year, you could tell they were pissed off at how things transpired. This year they acted like getting swept was a major accomplishment... I mean to me you could tell right away that the Pelican series bothered them, this year its well we made it to the wcf so thats cool. The mental part to me is literally just GS, the way GS made it look so easy to comeback on them and the way Portland seemed to fall apart that stuff scares me.
It’s pretty much the standard progression that younger teams have to lose before they ultimately win. The Blazers didn’t have the Warriors’ mental toughness and let them come back and win 3 times when the Blazers should have won. Next year, if the Blazers have championship DNA, that shouldn’t happen. The injury to Dame, I think was critical. The team relies on him at the end of games and he just couldn’t make it happen.
Fair enough, I hope you’re right but my confidence in them beating the warriors in the playoffs is not very high. That said I think they could give any body else a series.
Lets be honest, Lillard was average at best against Denver and even in game 1 against GSW (without the injury) he still was just average while Curry dominated him. It is nothing new that Lillard struggles in the Playoffs against good Defenders
Chief is from Atlanta and has strong connections to Africa and the new up coming African league..I can see his agent getting him a gig with a salary bump on the east coast. He spends a lot of his off seasons in Atlanta and Africa
Dame would dominate Curry if he was on GS surrounded by 3 other all stars. Dame gets the entire attention of defenses in the playoffs and we have no one right now (other than CJ) that can make teams pay for that.
The ages of our starting lineup - 28, 27. 26, 28, 27. 27.2 average. Our 5 most important bench players - 26, 28, 30, 21, 26. 26.2 average. We're not young. Most of those guys had playoff experience.
Look at the way he's guarded. Steph didn't do shit against that same type of defense. People need to open their eyes.
