Zombie The Next Siakam? Don't Sleep On Zach Collins.

Cronin traded away Dame, CJ, Nurk, Hart, Covington, Powell. Out of the top 14 people getting minutes when he took over, 9 of them got traded away. But yah, he doesn't have the balls to trade anybody.

 

I just looked at several links that seem to say otherwise

https://hoop-social.com/nba-team-market-size-rankings/

STOMP

 

You talking about population and city size? Or TV market size? That town is pretty small homie! There is nothing around it though at all. So maybe it’s a TV market size thing.

 

Thanks for so eloquently putting it together.

 

c'mon man. Dame demanded a trade; CJ had been a Blazer for 10 seasons, was 30 years old, and had absolutely no upside. Hart was going to leave as a free agent. Powell was a 6'3 SF in Portland with a 5-year contract. RoCo was a scrub. Nurk had worn out his welcome and was little use without Dame. Cronin was taking little risk in trading those guys. And with CJ, Powell, and RoCo (and Nance) Cronin almost certainly had cover from blowback because of the Vulcans and because he was dismantling Olshey's idiot roster

Sabonis was a 20 year old talented big man; Oladipo was 24 year old talented guard. Both of them had a ton of upside value. Meanwhile Paul George had an expiring contract and plainly said he was not going to commit to re-signing with any team.

none of the moves Cronin has made are equivalent to what Presti did or the risk he took

now, it's possible that Cronin just hasn't had the opportunity to trade Sharpe and Clingan for a star, and would do it if he could. I don't believe it, but it's possible

 

I guess in actual numbers it would be considered smaller but Texas supports San Antonio all over the state. It’s not really small. Same with Portland. The Blazers are in a small market but the actual numbers are pretty mid size.

 

Yes, if you have assets you can trade them for good players and picks.

We haven't had many assets for a long time.

 

most of what he posted had nothing to do with them being a contender today which is whats been discussed. The "2nd tank" period is the right time reference but was it really a tank (which implies losing on purpose)? They'd made the playoffs 6 straight years prior to the 2020-21 season. Their long time coach Billy Donovan left that offseason to be coach of the Bulls. Chris Paul also asked to be traded to a team with a contending shot. Their management appreciated what he'd done for them & moved him to his preferred destination (Phoenix) and basically handed the keys to the team to their young star SGA who tore his plantar fascia playing just 35 games of the Covid shortened 72 game season. The other big player movement going into that season was trading Steven Adams who was up for a big extension... that got little value back from that trade as they didn't have leverage and then the protected FRP they received never conveyed. They sucked yes, but it's more accurate to say things went against them rather then they were trying to... and besides all that sucking got them was Giddey/Curuso. The following offseason they resigned SGA for the rookie max but the following season he missed another huge chunk of due to a high ankle sprain, so they sucked again. They then lucked out in the lotto moving up from 5th to 2nd and drafted Chet.

STOMP

 

both Portland and San Antonio are longtime TV ratings losers for the league. Going back to my original point, given the lack of financial incentives I fail to see the league's motive for supposedly pulling the strings behind the scenes for the Spurs. In fact, them having important things happen for them give me good reason to think that the league isn't rigging things which gives me hope as a PTB fan following the awful Stern era

STOMP

 

I've never excluded the possibility of trades to improve the team.

 

It's not an either/or with building through trades or drafting or free agents. You better be good, and a little lucky, at all of them.
I think what makes small market teams break the popularity constraints and be more marketable and successful is not only winning, but putting an exciting team to watch on the court. Looking back on previous Spurs teams, they won a ton of games, but they were boring as hell to watch. Orlando was good in their early days, but they gained a huge following because they had Penny and Shack then went on to have TMac and Dwight Howard. Not a ton of success, but definitely marketable.
I think that goes a long way toward being a free agent destination. Win games and playoff series, put an exciting team on the floor and it becomes easier to attract the older role players that see an opportunity for a ring. I think Portland is on their way to being more of a FA destination then they have been in the past.
Also, one aspect I like about Chauncey is he's definitely a player's coach and guys like that.

 

But haven't you questioned the Blazers trading for Avdija a few times during the season, because you were against it giving us some extra wins because you rather us just tank and get a high lottery pick?

in the end Avijia was a good trade that improved the team, he is young and his contract is a steal.

before you say but Cooper Flagg or maybe even Harper would turn out to be better than Avdija, it turned out the teams that did the most tanking didn’t even get rewarded for it

Imagine how much more it would have sucked if we didn’t trade for Avijia, keep Brogdon and let him walk for nothing, while tanking and being one of the worse teams and STILL not getting in the top 3 of the draft like the bottom 4 teams (Jazz, Wizards, Hornets, Pelicans) that tanked didn’t get either…

 

My goal was never to draft a specific player in any specific draft.

If Cronin is able to stack assets with Avdija or if we are found to already have enough assets to compete for championships then they made the right decision with that trade.

If we have trouble adding enough assets to compete with the top teams then it might be one thing I point to as a misstep.

But I was never opposed to a trade. And I was never opposed to Avdija. He's exactly the kind of player I like.

I simply questioned the decision to make that kind of trade at that point in time.

 

Yes original point I agree with.
I did not know San Antonio was a ratings loser though. Thought they would pull better. Obviously Portland isn’t going to bring big numbers unless they become a dynasty with a player everyone loves.

 

Ok fair enough, in the end Aviija was a pretty solid trade for us and ended up probably being our best player this past season.

If he can improve even more next season, it could turn into a great trade for us.

 

I don't think that's exactly true, though.

To build the dynasty this way, you have to draft well, get a bit lucky and, finally, keep it all together (or be able to replace the parts that you lose along the way).

OKC's assembled a great team, but they haven't even won their first title yet. Then all these key players are going to come due for new contracts. I remember the last time that happened with OKC. They made the finals once. They contended for several years but didn't make it back until this year after completely rebuilding.

The Lakers, Warriors, Heat, Celtics and Spurs all have been much stronger contenders and actual dynasties. None of them took the path OKC is taking. There are a lot of examples of teams taking the OKC path, most notably the Sixers, who haven't been to the finals since, what, 2001?

 

Could be. And if we never have enough assets to make a championship run with him that will be one of deals that I may look back on and question.

It's okay. I was never upset with the trade. I loved it when it happened. It wasn't until later that I started questioning it.

But again, if Cronin and Schmidt are able to add enough talent around him for us to compete then I love it. He's exactly the kind of player I love to root for.

I think it'll be a tall order to add that kind of talent with the assets that we currently have.

 

Well at least we took a right step in the direction of adding more talent. Instead we could have kept Brogdon, like some people wanted to, and had him walk for nothing.

 

Agreed. Definitely should not have kept Brogdon.

 

Where did I say the Sonics/okc never tanked? Yeah, my memory is tanking, mostly short term though. My point was there have been many excellent players go through that organization some that will be HOF'ers no doubt. I agree that the Olshey did'nt have the balls to swing big. They've been close a few times, maybe this is there year to finally bring one to OKC. Still waiting to hear you like and think will be there at 11? Come on swing away...