Fair enough. I think it's nit-picking and just as subjective as mine to say it's "totally false" when your point center around basically one pick -- LA's 2026. Technically, however, you'd be correct and I wrong. In my defense, though, despite the injuries and their ages, both of those players still averaged 23.8 ppg this season and their winning percentage playing together is 67.6%. That would have been first in the West had they played the entire schedule together. I don't think it's a stretch to think that a first rounder in three years would still have been a pretty late first-round pick.
Andre Miller - then for Olshey Ed Davis and Aminu were all great signings.... and thats it. Everything else was shit use of cap space. Maybe you can say getting a 1st round pick for Varajao was decent - although we wasted it on Swanigan. Of course Wes was a great signing too in 2010, but yeah that was the full MLE not cap space. Yeah just a lot of shit acquisitions with free agency. I remember Spencer Hawes being sent an offer - that might have been an offer for our MLE - but he choose to go play for Donald Sterling instead. I was critical of Dame/the Blazers not closing the deal with Chandler Parsons at the time. But its pretty crazy in an interview this year his agent told him Portland would void his contract during a physical so he agreed with the Grizzlies instead.
Its not one pick, they still owe additional picks sooner than that 2026 pick and they owe unprotected swaps - its basically 7 years of picks from the trade in 2019 - that goes all the way from 2021 to 2026. It wasn't a first rounder in 3 years - the trade was done in 2019 and they mortgaged their picks until the 2026 draft - long after Kawhi and Paul George were signed - as well as when they were likely to be top NBA players. This was just a horrible example of a trade where a star pressured his team to move him now. There was zero pressure put on OKC. OKC had Paul George locked up for years and received one of the biggest trade hauls in NBA history. This was actually the exact opposite - where Kawhi pressured the receiving team to do a trade. The equivalent would be if Dame were a free agent this summer and required the Blazers to trade for player x before he returns.
Fair enough. I think it requires reading into it to see it as coming out as slamming Dame instead of saying Dame needs to do this. Neither of us knows what he is or isn't doing, but to say what he should be doing is fair. Also, I think context could have been used. Bolding one line from a paragraph without any acknowledgment of the rest of the content makes it easier to look like "it's another guy blasting Dame" rather than an analysis that Dame can influence these guys to force trades, but, if that's how my post came off, it wasn't meant to. And nothing is stopping any players demanding to go to the Blazers just because of where they're located or where they are. I'm not sure why it would. It's like living in 1968 and saying something can't be done because no one's stepped on the moon. Any player can push for a trade, even those that don't have cache'.
Shit!!! When all of those max contract offers that we were lucky enough to not land get put together like that it just reinforces just how fucking terrible Neil was. We all remember the terrible contracts he did give out but the ones he tried to give out were even worse. We'll see what Joe does this off season but I trust his decision making a lot more than fucking Olshey's.
Travel time. Portland is very isolated. Long road trips are brutal on the psyche. So the GM is grabbing players trying to revitalize their careers with more PT and no pressure to win. Getting a team that's excited to play improves chemistry, and makes those week long excursions across the country a fun environment. Eubanks, rescued from the G-league. Knox, getting benched in Detroit has got to stink. Thybulle, from spot minutes to key player. Reddish, we believe in you Cam. Watford, undrafted, grinding out an NBA career. Winslow, happy to finally contribute. Fly to Utah, fly back to Portland Fly to Minnesota, fly back to Portland Fly to OKC, fly back to Portland The NW division is totally jacked travel wise since the Sonics and Grizzlies moved. The California teams can battle each other out without ridiculous flight hours. There's nobody right up the road for Portland to play.
Dame doesn't want to play with 19 year olds, and I agree that he shouldn't have to. Any 18-year olds in the draft? /end @SlyPokerDog impersonation
They were a 6 seed. Only one 6 seed ever has won the championship. We beat them in 5. Were WE a contender? I’ve never heard that.
Everyone knew SGA would be this good back then. I listen to all the podcasts and throughout his rookie year, everyone knew he was special.
They weren’t injury casualties right away. They had the whole team in the bubble and blew a 3-1 lead to the Nuggets in the 2nd round.
Grant on his final year when traded AND Friend of Dame is a good template of a player having more leverage and a place to go. Jaylen Brown with one year on contract and the next one is size larger. Unknown on F.O.D. status. Siakam with one year on contract, making the most on Toronto and soon to up that. F.O.D. unknown. OG with a player option in a year and oft-rumored in NBA talks associated with Blazers. DDR is UFA in a year, will be 34, and F.O.D. Bridges as F.O.D. but with 3 years of contract but also to be 27 and the Nets are far from competing in the East. Face of their franchise after a cup of coffee? Seriously? As 5 of the usual suspects for a BIG trade, the Blazers are better with ANY of them. Number 3 should not be traded to Chicago or for OG. The others make it an argument.
Sigh. https://okcthunderwire.usatoday.com/2020/01/16/sam-presti-stunned-paul-georges-request-traded/ https://thespun.com/more/top-stories/paul-george-thunder-trade-comments-clippers https://thunderousintentions.com/2020/07/06/okc-thunder-paul-george-regrade/ https://www.yahoo.com/video/oklahom...pers-kawhi-leonard-free-agency-080247877.html Before using hyperbole to characterize someone else's posts, maybe you ought to make sure you check your own, you know, so they aren't "horrible."