With the 7th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, The Portland Trailblazers select. . .

I keep hearing they want to get better now. Which makes sense they went out and got Brooks and Van Fleet.

 

Comes down to what our scouts and Cronin think. Whoever they think will be the most impactful, valuable NBA player is who we should pick, IMO.

 

I think it's tiers. If you have Holland at an 88, but have Shepherd at a 90, you go with Holland imo. I don't think you win by acquiring purely off talent. That was Olshey's mistake.

At some point you need to field a functional basketball team that doesn't have a mean height of 6-3.

 

Read one Mock this am that had Holland dropping out of the lottery.

 

Just because a player is more skilled doesn't mean he's more impactful. You have to be far more skilled as a 6-3 player to warrant being picked over someone 6-8.

There have been a lot of NBA players more skilled than Jordan and Wilt. But those guys were always better on the court. There are a lot of guys in the league right now more skilled than Giannis. But they aren't better.

 

I wish that we could count on that happening. If it did I would double up on the SF position. Holland can defend both SGs and SFs. That is where BPA would come into play for me.

 

Topic BECAUSE of those knees!

 

Hey, maybe we can trade them for Damian Lillard!

 

I definitely don't think that'll happen but individual workouts at the end of the day will determine how high certain players will go. Holland was rated as the #1 pick at some point earlier in the year, though the stench of the G-League might still be on him, I think he has one of the higher upsides in the draft.

 

That would be good. It would mean we hit on a pick in this year's draft.

Id much rather have that be the case and we do whatever moves later to balance positions - than we whiff on our pick and have uncrowded rotations again due to shit talent.

 

He can also guard point guards and some 4s. He has that dog in him and was elite defensively.

I'd be happy with Holland and one of Salaun, Ware, or Missi.

 

Oh I have “hope” every season we are going to be good. But then at some point you have to be real. I ”hope” we are going to win 55 games a season, trust me. Makes my life a lot easier. But at some point you REALize that ain’t happening.
Now FALSE “hope” is when you get yourself and your expectations into trouble.
Deep down true fans know this.

 

Are you including defensive skills in that analysis?

 

This most “certainly “ is NOT true!
We have drafted players the past few seasons that have 10 times the talent than anybody who we will be landing in this draft.
Honestly what made you think it was ok to just type that? We most “certainly “ will not.
And I love that because I am taking a realistic approach to this, I’m getting cracked on. Can’t wait for your win prediction for next season when we load up on all this talent…… that you won’t even see in the damn floor. But feel free to spread your optimism.

 

100%. That's why BPA is overrated in my opinion. The draft is such a crap shoot that you might as well shoot for the crap at a position of need.

 

Not to mention BPA now versus 5 years from now can vary greatly.

 

Who do you like in the draft at 7?

 

I should’ve extended on my concern. My concern that Reed will show to be a better ‘ready-now’ kind of player who can shoot and score. BUT I still think Scoot will be a better overall player and pure point guard down the line. So I would not want Reed overtaking Scoot as our starting PG because he needs all the minutes he can get, but I also don’t like playing him as SG and forcing Shae to SF.

If he’s there and he is the undisputed BPA, I’m all for it though. That’s kind of the beauty of this draft to me, I can be swayed into a bunch of different potential directions. You do have a point that we can rebalance positions when we find out what we have, so I’ll entertain the scenario.

Ant, Brogdon, and Thybulle, maybe Grant (deadline?) would have to be out of here.

Scoot/Reed/Black
Shae/Black/Reed/Rupert
Grant/Camara/Kris/Black/Rupert
Camara/Walker/Kris/Rupert
DA/Missi/Reath

- I’ll use Ant for Black and the ‘25 DEN 1st + 2nds as a bare minimum return. I’d combine that asset

- I’m going to pretend we draft Missi—I know there will probably be better choice (I’m assuming Salun is gone by #14), but he would be a seamless fit at backup C and allow us to try DA in certain lineups.

- Thybulle and RW, I’d take any good veteran presence that can shoot in return. 2nds haven’t have been used yet in this scenario either.

My own overall thought: while I could definitely root for this team all 82 games, this seems like high floor, low ceiling. But having a high lotto pick and grabbing a blue chip forward would suddenly change everything.

 

Absolutely