Moderators: greenyellow, UOducksTK1
If Scoot is available at #3, that would make things interesting. I'm more bullish on him than miller, but so are most of the other teams.greenyellow wrote:Blazers move up two spots in the draft order but still miss out on the Victor Wenbanyama sweepstakes (sucks seeing the Spurs get it.) Now the decision becomes whether to trade it or keep the pick but trade Dame.
I'm ok with trading Lillard of scoot is available at 3. From what I've read, he's the clear cut second best player in the draftBoom wrote:I've had my fill of small guards. I would gladly take the 6-9 SG/SF.
Sharpe is already better defensively than Simons is, and he's shown more athleticism than anyone else on the team not named Lillard. Keeping him should be the number 1 priority.pezsez1 wrote:I'm all for either trading or keeping Lillard if the right deal presents itself.
Could we possibly build a contender and win now? Highly unlikely, but winning a title is always unlikely. A slew of the NBA's best players (who played on elite teams) never won rings. What I do know is that winning a title requires at least two all-star caliber players. It's hard enough for the Blazers to have one of those players. Right now, we could possibly get a second. If the chance is there, you go for it. And Lillard is the special kind of talent you happily build around -- no drama or baggage like the Embids, Hardens, Morants, etc. of the basketball world. It's easy to sit back and call Sharpe a future star, but we really don't know how he'll turn out. Maybe he won't have the work ethic to keep up his performance once he makes more scouting reports. Maybe he'll never learn to play defense. Maybe his ball skills -- which are already really good -- never rise to match his athleticism. Lots of people also said Ant looked like a future All-Star, but after a year of starting that assessment was a bit overblown. Maybe Scoot or Miller will be that good, or maybe they'll simply be good. We know we have an all-star right now, and that's not something to take lightly.
That said... if the goal of keeping Dame is winning a title, and if the goal of trading Dame is resetting the roster with intruiging young talent, then trading Dame is clearly the easier and more efficient move if the objective is simply reaching a goal. Trading Dame & Ant (no value in keeping Ant if we get Scoot) could bring in a HAUL of assets including a slew of future first-round picks. And hopefully we'd set ourselves up for at least a couple more years of development while having more shots at the lottery. By the time Scoot & Sharpe have had 2-3 years together, we'd have the assets get some bigs and -- possibly under the ownership of Phil Knight -- start making some playoff runs with an all-new window.
I look at this and see two really good paths, both of which will lead to a lot of wins and also at least a couple years of missing the playoffs. Do we want to win now or later? Do we want to miss the playoffs for 2-3 more years now or later? It's a wash for me. Just make the best available move and don't pussyfoot around trying to "thread the needle."
100%dthomas=ddixon wrote:Unless they can get a Giannis type player, trading the pick will just keep the team stuck in middling purgatory. Getting a top 3 pick in a draft this good, where the 2nd best player is likely to fall to 3, isn’t likely to happen again soon.
Trade Dame for young talent/picks, take Scoot, and rebuild through the draft.
I couldn't agree more. The Blazers can jumpstart an exciting rebuild around 23-year-old Simons, 19-year-old Sharpe, and an exciting rookie in either Scoot or Miller, plus a haul of prospects and draft capital that the Dame trade would net them. Or they can keep pretending they can turn this mediocre roster into a championship contender while burning young assets that will delay the inevitable by what, 3 years? 5? I love Dame, he's truly great, but this team was never built right around him and it's too late to change that. Use Dame to get the team's future started and let him have a real shot at a title with a roster who can realistically give him that.dthomas=ddixon wrote:Unless they can get a Giannis type player, trading the pick will just keep the team stuck in middling purgatory. Getting a top 3 pick in a draft this good, where the 2nd best player is likely to fall to 3, isn’t likely to happen again soon.
Trade Dame for young talent/picks, take Scoot, and rebuild through the draft.
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Totally agree. Sharpe is our starting SG going forward whether Dame stays or goes. The one exception I'd make might be Jaylen Brown simply because of position redundancy... but if one person on the team had to be labeled untouchable, it would be Sharpe.Sharpe is already better defensively than Simons is, and he's shown more athleticism than anyone else on the team not named Lillard. Keeping him should be the number 1 priority.
From Zach Lowe https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/inside ... awing-roomdthomas=ddixon wrote:Unless they can get a Giannis type player, trading the pick will just keep the team stuck in middling purgatory. Getting a top 3 pick in a draft this good, where the 2nd best player is likely to fall to 3, isn’t likely to happen again soon.
Trade Dame for young talent/picks, take Scoot, and rebuild through the draft.
Rival Execs aren't expecting them to deal Dame is another way of reading that too.The Blazers moving up from No. 5 to No. 3 raised eyebrows all over the league right away. The Blazers could of course keep that pick, but rival executives expect them to explore the kind of veteran help that pick -- plus other players -- might fetch for Damian Lillard. (Executives also expect the Blazers to re-sign Jerami Grant.) The No. 3 pick by itself won't net a game-changing veteran. What might the combination of that pick and Anfernee Simons get Portland? If they do try to load up around Lillard -- which requires Lillard indicating he'd like to stay in Portland -- expect the Blazers to go after wings and big men, sources said.
Portland also has Shaedon Sharpe, but his strong finish to the season would make the Blazers even queasier about including him in any kind of win-now trade.
• I'd also expect at some point for the Blazers to try to renegotiate the protections on the first-round pick they owe the Bulls from the 2021 three-team trade in which they acquired Larry Nance Jr. The pick is lottery-protected every year through 2028 -- restricting the Blazers ability to deal picks in trades. Such renegotiations are always tricky. The Bulls will want something.
