Blazers

[pezsez1]

I'd love Ayton as a starter! Just not with such a massive contract. Like you said, it just doesn't translate to today's game.

Even this past season, Ayton was starting to pout/get lazy on the floor because he didn't feel he was getting the ball enough. The team started getting him the ball more often, and suddenly he improved and the team did better. He's fantastic when he's motivated, but he's still limited and a bit of a diva. Folks may say the same about Dame, but he never gave up on plays and fought to win every game. Max contract players must (at a minimum) have winning attitudes. Ayton isn't a headcase like he was in Phoenix, but he still hasn't shown he can pull himself through adversity, and that's a problem. (That and the issues with his game.)

[Boom]

Ayton and Simons will be expiring contracts next season. Hopefully both will be moved.

[squintsdd]

Ayton and Simons will be expiring contracts next season. Hopefully both will be moved.

I would prefer to keep Ayton if they can get him to agree to a team friendly contract, I would love to see Grant and Simons traded though

[pezsez1]

It's pretty encouraging to see how many Giannis trade predictions involve the Blazers. Huge opportunity here if Giannis does request a trade, and it's really difficult to imagine him wanting to stay in Milwaukee.

I hate feeding into Phalanx's glee over Lillard's situation, but if Dame were to demand a trade from one major rebuild only to end up in an even bigger major rebuild... yikes!

Folks need to learn to realize when the grass is damn green enough.

[StevensTechU]

Folks need to learn to realize when the grass is damn green enough.

Ex. Kevin Durant before and after Golden State.

[Phalanx]

I take no pleasure in Lillard's injury, but I do admit to a certain satisfaction in watching whatever disease the Blazers have been suffering from since LMA left that has led to an unprecedented drought in terms of playoff success now being purged and, oddly, there is now a similar disease destroying the Bucks. You mention a 'rebuild' in Milwaukee, but there will not be any rebuilding going on there for the next two years. They have no draft picks and no cap space (that situation sounds vaguely familiar). The Blazers are on an upward trajectory, the coach and GM are brimming with positivity and confidence, and there is a decided air of possibility when discussing the free agent/trade market for the first time in years. It is becoming fun to be a Blazer fan again. So maybe that is the 'glee' you are talking about.

I would be a huge Lillard fan if he had signed for significantly less money and made less demands of the team to work around him such that more talent had been brought in that contributed to greater success. Instead, he was able to control team leadership that was weakened significantly after LaMarcus left in free agency. The highest priority for a decade was to keep Lillard happy rather than to win, which led to larger and larger contracts for him, trading away valuable draft picks for extremely temporary players, and letting free agents like Norman Powell and Gary Trent go for lack of salary cap space, only to now be watching them performing in the playoffs for other teams. It's nice to see that control wrested from what I view to be a team cancer, and I look forward to making the playoffs next season and beyond with a new generation of players.

[pezsez1]

The biggest problem during Lillard's era was Neil Olshey, the guy refused to break up the Dame/CJ duo, refused to move Ant when opportunities arose, and basically just refused to take any big swings, instead content with simply making the playoffs. He repeatedly offered terrible contracts and his rosters were always completely unbalanced. Now that I'm older and wiser, Lillard's biggest sin was probably dragging us to the playoffs when we should have been in the lottery and growing more through the draft. (But it's the players' jobs to play and management's job to bench certain dudes if draft positioning is important.)

Milwaukee's situation is completely different than Portland's. They assembled a good team with Giannis and Dame leading the way. The problem wasn't either one's contract, the problem was that neither could stay healthy. If Dame had just sprained his ankle in this series, nobody would be talking about Giannis being traded this summer and the Bucks would be optimistic about next season. What changed was Dame suffering an injury that could knock him out of next season & probably hinder his effectiveness permanently. That's why the Bucks are in trouble now, not because Lillard is a "cancer." I mean the dude rushed back from a blood clot to try to help his team win (and then probably got hurt because of it).

Aldridge leaving was a major blow to the franchise, though. It's almost impossible for small-market teams to win after losing their prize draft assets. The Blazers knocked it out of the park by drafting LMA and then drafting Lillard, and we should have been able to watch that duo shine together for years, but LMA didn't want to share the spotlight so he bolted for San Antonio. The real kick in the pants is that our best lottery pick (CJ McCollum at #10) was the year after we picked Dame, and if we'd known LMA would bolt then maybe we could have taken a promising young forward. Our frontcourt was consistently undersized and lacked shooting after Aldridge bailed, and that never really changed until this rebuild. And the Blazers were never bad enough to get the help it needed via the lottery... it took nine more years (!!!) before we had another top 10 pick. The one time it looked like we'd found a budding star frontcourt player he broke his leg and was never the same afterward.

Anyway, it is what it is (was what it was).

[Phalanx]

Milwaukee's situation is completely different than Portland's. They assembled a good team with Giannis and Dame leading the way. The problem wasn't either one's contract, the problem was that neither could stay healthy. If Dame had just sprained his ankle in this series, nobody would be talking about Giannis being traded this summer and the Bucks would be optimistic about next season. What changed was Dame suffering an injury that could knock him out of next season & probably hinder his effectiveness permanently. That's why the Bucks are in trouble now, not because Lillard is a "cancer." I mean the dude rushed back from a blood clot to try to help his team win (and then probably got hurt because of it).

It was always probable that Lillard would get injured; he's been injured at the end of each of the last four seasons. I expected him to be injured by year 3 of that contract - he was just a bit early. I said all of this when he was traded:

The only loser in this deal is Milwaukee, who just traded a proven winner for a high-maintenance, overpaid prima donna who might give them one or two decent years (if he can even stay healthy) before the salary cap bomb goes off. If they can keep Giannis in town, maybe it was worth it, but if they still lose him, they are going to be so far up a creek. Much like the Blazers have been the past several years, except maybe worse.

I think Cronin knew Lillard would drag that team down too, which is why he got swaps in the trade. The only problem is that Lillard might be injured too soon and the Bucks might have time to trade Giannis and rebuild by 2028, which would make the swaps less valuable. Since they don't have incentive to tank, they will likely be motivated to do a quick rebuild.

The Bucks made a desperation trade for a radioactive contract, and now they have cancer. At least they will get a trade package back for Giannis. Someone should write a step-by-step manual for how to proceed after you trade for Lillard and he blows up the team, since all the teams end up following the same pattern.

[Phalanx]

As I expected, Blazers get pick 11. So Dallas, who made the play-in, gets the first pick. Maybe a lesson for people who think endless tanking is the answer. Actually, I'm not sure the Blazers know what to do with a top five pick anyway. The last two were Scoot Henderson and Greg Oden, and before that, Sam Bowie. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was pick 11 seven years ago, but he was traded twice before he came into his own in OKC. I hope the Blazers hold on to the pick and can find a future starter on a rookie deal.

[alxtw]

As I expected, Blazers get pick 11. So Dallas, who made the play-in, gets the first pick. Maybe a lesson for people who think endless tanking is the answer. Actually, I'm not sure the Blazers know what to do with a top five pick anyway. The last two were Scoot Henderson and Greg Oden, and before that, Sam Bowie. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was pick 11 seven years ago, but he was traded twice before he came into his own in OKC. I hope the Blazers hold on to the pick and can find a future starter on a rookie deal.

Tanking still gives a team a statistically significant advantage to get a top 4 draft pick. Its just that the results of the past two draft's top 4 teams have been outliers.

I do agree that the current Blazers administration has been horrible at identifying and drafting prospects that pan out, regardless if we have a lottery pick.

[Phalanx]

There's a conspiracy theory that the league is engaged in some quid pro quo with Dallas for giving away Luka to the Lakers. The Mavericks had something like a 3% chance of winning the lottery. How come the Blazers never do deals like that? I would definitely have given Lillard away for a top draft pick.

[pezsez1]

Tanking absolutely results in better draft picks -- it just doesn't guarantee a top pick.

I'm also not surprised by where we ended up. With the record we played for, we had the biggest odds of the 10th or 11th pick. Of course, Cronin is already spinning this as "I feel great about this draft and #11 is great for us," but whatever. We'd already played ourselves out of capitalizing on this draft, so at this point we'd just better hope that Cronin has a trade up his sleave to bring us the talent we need to compete.

Biggest downside of this draft is Dallas & San Antonio getting the top 2 picks. Both will have squads that will likely jump us in the rankings this season (assuming their cores stay healthy). So even though the Blazers won't be tanking going forward, the odds of us making the playoffs actually just got longer. We'll need to hope that the bottom just falls out from two or three teams above us. It's unfortunate that Eastern Conf teams couldn't get those top two picks.

[squintsdd]

There's a conspiracy theory that the league is engaged in some quid pro quo with Dallas for giving away Luka to the Lakers. The Mavericks had something like a 3% chance of winning the lottery. How come the Blazers never do deals like that? I would definitely have given Lillard away for a top draft pick.

They had less than a 2% chance

[pezsez1]

BLAZERS ANNOUNCED THEY ARE STARTING THE SALES PROCESS!!!!!

Thank god, time for some real leadership with an actual plan!

[StevensTechU]

BLAZERS ANNOUNCED THEY ARE STARTING THE SALES PROCESS!!!!!

Thank god, time for some real leadership with an actual plan!

I'm holding my emotions back until I see who it is to. Don't want egg on my face when it turns out they're selling to a group based in Las Vegas/Seattle....