I guess at this point I'm in the boat of you have to ride this out, for better or worse. However, if it were my team, I would have tanked like shit this year, which is what I answered.
Agreed. I think we've moved on from tanking. There's so much hit and miss in the lottery anyway. We've got a great core, time to let them jell and experience some playoff success. Finding the right pieces and chemistry is what wins. We put together a solid season, maybe get to the second round, might see a nice FA piece interested in joining in the offseason to put us over the top. Seems like the blend of characters is great on this squad. My Giants won 2 of the last 4 WS and they had no where near the top talent but a great group of guys that all got behind each other got them hardware.
You quoted me but apparently skipped over my concluding paragraph. I'm not talking about guarantees, just (slightly?) increasing your odds. Anyway, it doesn't matter, the time for a firesale and "tanking" has passed. We have zero shot at the transcendent talents in this draft and are committed to a completely different tack. That's why I said it's an old argument, it's not its age, the argument is irrelevant (for now).
No, I get what you're saying, but I'm not sure that the title or bust mode is the best way for a sports franchise to be run. Because there are no guaranteed paths to success, I think that a GM has to keep an eye on building incrementally and keeping options open to shift course if things don't look like they're going to work out. Olshey has done that by bringing in guys who complement the existing talent very well, letting us have a chance at some playoff basketball, while still having the option to pull the plug and reboot after next season. I like what he's done.
I think this ties into the thread Chris started. The most fun part of winning a title is the journey along the way. Once a title is won its over, celebrate for two days then its only history. All the fun is in the struggles to get there, the doubt, the challenges, the possible losses or the possible wins. Having a team lose intentionally for 5-10+ years is a very shitty journey. It would take away from the fun of winning a title.
Fact is that no one taken in the top twenty of that 2007 draft has won a championship...other than Corey Brewer (deep bench on the Championship Dallas team)
Understand please, your response was in the present tense, as in, we should be tanking right now. Which solicited my equally ridiculous response to hush. "I guess at this point I'm in the boat of you have to ride this out, for better or worse", would not have solicited my original response. The question was "right now", and your reply was "absolutely". Which is the opposite of "at this point I'm in the boat [if] you have to ride this out." You WOULD HAVE set the team up to tank a 2nd year in a row. I think that WOULD HAVE been a bad idea, but we can agree to disagree. That we should tank RIGHT NOW? Crap.
To get Wiggins or Parker I would tank right now. They're going to be that good. Unfortunately (?) 12 wins puts us too far "behind" the teams that have a realistic shot.
While all matter, I don't think it's ancillary at all. This signifies that these threes, even the huge number of them, are taken in the offense as designed, and not just heaved up bad shots that happen to be falling. Theses are from LMA passing back out or from Lillard or Williams driving and kicking back our, then a pass or two around the perimeter to the open man. The high assist rate (shockingly high) is also evidence that the Blazers are truly playing as an unselfish unit, taking the extra pass to make sure the shot is open. This stat is much more telling than you give credit for. It shows design and execution, and I don't see reasoning why these issues will drop significantly.
There is NO FREAKING WAY we should be tanking. There is no guarantee that any of those players will be franchise altering. We are doing something different. I like it. I don't know if it will work or not, but it's entertaining right now.
That rush of wind you hear was the last or your credibility getting sucked out an airlock. You need to learn patience. Portland didn't even make the playoffs last year, and now your concern is that if they make the playoffs, they won't go far enough, so therefore they should give up, throw away any improvements they've made, and hope to hell they can turn their 12-2 start into a top two draft pick? We've got a team playing hard and together and so far winning. A lot of great peices. Why not at least try? As a Blazer fan, you of all people should know it could be worse...
What is happening now is that the guys are building PDX into one of THE destinations. Rather than getting Wiggins or Parker as a rookie and letting them grow, we'll get them after they've matured and they want to come to the ultimate winning destination. It could happen. Gramps...
This is a good point. As I understand it, Olshey has created a Plan B in two years if things don't work out by having nearly our entire team expire at the same time.
This might be the first time in history a team has a 10 game winning streak and there's people that are mad because we should be tanking. Eh.
And I always thought blazer fans were smarter than most other fans, but I'm starting to think I was wrong. Everyone wants a LeBron, even he had to desert his team and form a super team because he couldn't get it done alone. We have an incredible core right now and half of them are still improving. Portland has never been a more desirable place for a high talent free agent than right now. If a player is willing to sacrifice the stage and beach parties, this is the place to win jewelry.
I seem to recall stotts having a championship under his belt? Yeah you're right, he simply can't win.
the best opportunity we had to tank would have been trading LMA for the #1 pick last summer and getting Oladipo. Could still make the Lopez and Robinson moves and be building around Dame/Oladipo/Batum/Robinson with a fair amount of cap space and some nice trade pieces still on the roster. That team would still win some games but still be bad enough for a top 10 pick this year. As it stands now it looks like we'll make the playoffs and get bounced when teams rotations shorten up and they take advantage of our lack of inside scoring. But enjoy the win streak while it lasts, it is certainly fun and the regular season should be an enjoyable ride. The playoffs will bring a rude awakening though. idk if making the playoffs for a couple years will be enough for LMA. He's done that before, he's ready to win a ring.
