I think the reference to three is implying that using the third pick on Swanigan--whom some believe will not see a second contract--was essentially throwing that asset away.
In hindsight: Trade CJ for the 10th Pick. Draft Donovan Mitchell 10th Draft John Collins 15th Draft OG Anunoby 20th Draft Kyle Kuzma 26th Imagine that lineup: Lillard (36) / Mitchell (12) / Baldwin / Simons Mitchell (23) / Curry (25) / Trent Anunoby (30) / Harkless (18) / Turner J.Collins (12) / Kuzma (30) / Harkless (6) Nurkic (30) / J.Collins (18) / Leonard And then in 2020, we'd have apx. $50M in cap space. Damn.
Again, what playoff tested veteran was available in a deal that would have made us better? IE, closer to Houston than the rest of the conference? I've seen no evidence to suggest we missed an opportunity...
He said they were viewing it as an asset they could use. They obviously tried to use it, Neil has made offers seemingly all season by all accounts. Other teams offered more... Did you want to give up Dame to get a deal done? Because that's what it would have taken to get Kawhi. The Cavs said no to trading Love. He can't force other teams to deal. Losing Aldridge cost us a TON of assets. We've done awesome to remain competitive since then, and even made deeper runs without him. We've had more success since losing Aldridge than we ever had with him. That's not easy. Do you want Neil to piss Dame off by moving a ton of players in and out? Dame likes his team and wants to add to it. Not constantly blow it up. Neil is trying to maintain that consistency and add to it as the opportunities arise. As calvin natt asked above, do you think Paul Allen wants Neil to deal CJ? Because I don't.
Would you feel better if he got into a bidding war and offered Dame? Because that's what it would have taken...
I would’ve felt better if he offered CJ. Derozan is a lot closer to CJ as a player than he is to Dame. PERs of 17.7 and 17.2 and their offensive and defensive ratings were literally identical. And Collins would’ve been more attractive than Poeltl.
That would be awesome, but you could pretty much do this same exercise with any team. Everybody misses guys in the draft. But who does the draft consistently better than Olshey, and manages a roster better? And why would they want to come to Portland? I think he does pretty well for us, considering we're in Portland.
Yeah, I understood that completely. But again, that’s why I was poking fun at it. If we’d have drafted someone who came in an performed at #26, we’d look at it completely independently, no? We probably wouldn’t assign the success of dude drafted at #26 to Collins, no?
I don't think CJ would have gotten it done. So why offer him? I'd be surprised if Paul Allen wanted to send out CJ and Collins for a guy who may never play for us.
I don't think he was connecting the 26 to Collins. I think he was looking at the draft as a whole, saying the 3 picks were turned into Collins and nothing, and that the nothing wasn't worth mentioning.
