Even if the team did decide to intentionally suck to get a franchise level talent odds are it won't result in a championship. Cleveland, Orlando, Denver, New Orleans all got franchise studs in the draft recently and never won titles. I hated the dark years when the Rose Garden was empty, I'd rather the team field competitive rosters and hope we get lucky like the '04 Pistons or current Pacers. Its highly unlikely we will have a contender in Portland in the next decade no matter what the roster building strategy so I'm all for taking the path with some good times along the way even if we don't hit the jackpot.
Yes we are a piece away from contending. But the problem is if we successfully tank and acquire a stud young talent we will be a piece away from contending. Cleveland, New Orleans, Orlando all had the same problem, they acquired a stud young guy but he made them too successful they wouldn't be able to easily draft another one. Those teams never were able to acquire another all-star player and their stud eventually left. So if we tore apart the team and successfully tanked, eventually we will be at the same place we are at now. The team needs to get lucky with a trade like the Clippers being able to acquire CP3 or they need to get lucky at the end of the draft like the Spurs and Pacers did. No matter the strategy the final step to build a contender is very difficult and will take some luck. For the ride along the way I'd enjoy it more if the team won some extra games.
How many teams, or how often, does a team go from the bottom 5-7 to the top 5-7 immediately, without an upward trend that includes a stop somewhere in the middle?
I believe the year before they made it to the finals, they were gifted that playoff spot out of pitty for such a shitty season.
Check the top four players from that team. http://www.basketballreference.com/teams/teamyear.htm?tm=POR&lg=n&yr=1988 First, Buck was the final piece. Does anyone think we're a Buck Williams-level player from competing for a championship? Second, we had a coaching change that year, from Schuler to Adelman. I wish a 20 game jump were realistic, but even if McCollum turns into another Lillard, that's unlikely to happen.
Lillard/McCollum backcourt should be quite interesting, also an improved bench and maybe not tanking should give us some more wins this year. Trading some pieces for Asik (we have too many 2s) could also improve our chances.
I'm not judging yea or nay on this, so i'm just going to post my thoughts out loud as I look: The PER of the starting five from 1988-89: 23.6, 17.7, 16.6, 14.6, and 13.9 The PER of the starting five from 2012-13: 20.4, 19.7, 16.4, 15.7, and 14.1 Buck Williams replaced the 14.6 (with a 14.3 in 1989-90); RoLo replaces the 19.7 (with a ??.? in 2013-14) 1989-90 Starting 5 PERs: 22.2 (heh, Clyde), 20.0, 15.7, 14.3, 13.3 2013-14 Starting 5 PERs: ???? LMA needs to get more efficient, Damian needs to get way more efficient, but everyone else can pretty much stay put in order for us to be on par with 1989-90. As an aside, Duck was righteously inefficient; RoLo doesn't have to do much to exceed Duck's impact on the game, or Buck's for that matter. I guess the point here is fit. Buck fit with the team much better than Kiki. RoLo might (??) fit with the team way better than Hickson. If Damian steps up his game a lot, either by opportunity because defenders will have a harder time or by sheer force of skill, everyone else's impact goes up too. Are we a "single piece" away? Who the hell knows. I can respect the opinion of "heck no" given how little we've improved in the past couple of years as a team. At the same time, maybe some players added to our mix that fit right are already on the roster, and we'll see that improvement that comes when the dice fall right, and the sum is greater than the parts.
To those proponents of tanking; would you trade the Blazers roster with the 6ers, Suns, Bobcats, Celtics, or Bucks? I think we are much closer to getting a championship than any of those teams. Even if a team like the Suns strikes gold and wins the lottery, drafts Wiggins, they aren't going to be close to contending.
The Blazers have a 45 win team currently. You think with the MLE the next two seasons as well as a roster full of contracts ending in two years, we have no chance of improving on that win total? It is hard to visualize the current group playing better since our bench was so bad last year. I personally look forward to a full complement of options coming off the bench this year as well as a second year of play under Stotts.
Whichever team drafts Wiggins, Parker or even Randall will be much closer to a title than us. Luckily for us we don't need to worry about the best draft in over a decade next summer
You know what? If we added a young Buck Williams to this roster I would feel pretty damn good about it. I'm still hoping that T-Rob can take on that role somewhat.
Maybe Thomas Robinson is our Buck Williams. No post game to think of, but can scrap fill the lane on the break and hit the boards. We'll see how he plays on the defensive end.
16/12 17.2 PER as a rookie (Rookie of the year) vs 5/4 10.9 PER as a rookie Traded twice as a rookie) The similarities are uncanny. I mean who is who, you really can't tell
