Aren't you proving Neil's point then, that it's tough to get some of these dudes to come to the Rose City.
His biggest skill though is screaming at and berating the refs with impunity. We could use some of that.
We would be better than we are if we had Dray but he's nowhere close to as dynamic as Simmons is right now on offense... his shooting also is not good... his defense is nowhere close to Simmons and that's now. At 25 Simmons could become so much more... an actual superstar. Dray wouldn't even be as good of a pickup as Siakam. I do think that picking up Dray might keep Dame here for longer but it probably doesn't get us out of the second round and it definitely doesn't make us a contender. I've always thought that Dray is a great glue guy, a leader on defense, a very solid but not elite defender, an incredible secondary play maker and highly overrated overall. When successful he's been all of those things while playing third fiddle to Steph and Klay and most successful when they added KD making him the fourth best player on the team. Dude is a phenomenal fourth best player on a team but while being a better fit here is probably a worse second best player... all things considered, than CJ. So I wouldn't be cool with giving up CJ's great scoring and good passing abilities plus DJ and some picks for Dray's overrated but almost great defense and elite secondary offensive facilitating. So if CJ is going to the Sixers, Dray is coming here and Simmons is going to the Warriors... the Warriors better be ponying up the extra assets that make the trade work and what assets would those be that would be better than what we could just give Philly for Simmons. The Warriors draft picks have to be viewed as worse than ours and the players they'd give up aren't better than ours. I'd be cool with CJ for Dray, if that was the only trade to make. It would obviously be better than Neil sitting on his hands but Dray is not an ideal fit with this roster and really puts way too much weight on Dame and Norm to be the only two dynamic guys that can get their own shot and Norm doesn't do that at a high level.
id rather take back simmons and remove GS altogether. while i like draymond, i question his impact without a guy who can move without the ball like Steph.
I’d take Oubre. He’s fairly young, a dawg mentality on the court and decent defensively. Would hope he could replicate that year he had with Phoenix 2 years back. His jumper was dog water with the Warriors and he made lots of boneheaded plays. But ya gotta gamble when you’re Portland
I question his impact with a guy like Steph... did you see those two do anything special this last season? He needs Steph and Klay at least and then there's the fact that he made his reputation playing with those two and KD. So of course we should just take Simmons if possible.
Draymond is elite defensively still. He can bring the ball up, great passer, high IQ. One day age will hit him but as of now, he’s still very good.
do people not use their brains anymore? The interest is obviously there if they’re having discussions about a trade. The safe guess is Toronto is asking for more than just CJ and Olshey isn’t as interested in that right now. Could still be revisited later.
Media are in full on attack the Blazers mode, so obvious. Just twisted Jake's reporting. And Sean Highkin? Fuck that guy.
highkin is the biggest little bitch in Portland. Never mind the way he treated that whole Billups thing, I still laugh at his “report” that ownership wasn’t in line with olshey on the head coach search only for Billups to be hired like a day later. Absolute clown.
If it was Siakam straight across for CJ, that's a major fail by Neil. But I've got to believe that Toronto is asking for way more. I give Toronto a future 1st, who cares. This is about the now. Hopefully the full story isn't coming out in this. And there still are open channels. Trades are not always cut and dry, and sometimes take time to get all the details done.
Sorry, but I don't get the ease that people are throwing in the future first rounders in trade scenarios. When you can't get fa's to come here you have to build through the draft. If they were gonna add those picks like some suggest, they will end up in this same position in a year or two.