If you have the choice, do you prefer keeping the 2013 1st round pick or convey the pick to Charlotte in order to keep the 2014 1st round pick?
Keep going back and forth on this. Part of me wants to convey it and get it over with for future flexibility, but ultimately, I feel like rights to a lotto pick combined with 13-15 in acp space could be a decent chip for us this offseason.
Assume that the Blazers are working against a clock. This clock jut happens to perfectly coincide with the length and duration of LaMarcus' contract. So if the team is really serious about trying to surround him with talent and build a team with a shot to contend with Lillard and LaMarcus (and Batum) as the core, then they need to add as much talent as they can now, striking out in the draft this year and then trying to add a guy next year makes it less likely that the pieces are in place by the time it comes to extension talk. Some will say, "just go for it in trades or free agency." Great, but free agency hasn't typically been kind to small market teams and if you want to make trades without parting with players you like then maybe a lotto pick helps get something done. Get a lotto pick now and hopefully round out the roster over the summer and then maybe the pick we give to Charlotte next year is in the late teens or early twenties?
I'd rather have the pick in next years draft, but doubt we're in the lotto next year. So, I'd take lotto this year over mid-first pick next year.
I think the team is only going to improve, so having the pick next year would probably be well lower in the draft than this years. I was expecting this team to be in the lottery this year, but I would be very disappointed if they were in the next several years
We all seem to be forgetting how it works in the NBA today. The small market teams like Portland are really just a farm system for the glamour teams like the Lakers, Knicks, and Heat. We develop players like Lillard for a few years and then they're snapped up by some big market team as the final piece of their championship run. It's fun to pretend otherwise, but this is the way it actually works. We can have fun cheering on our Blazers, but to act like they're ever going to win a championship again is just wishful thinking.
lebron is gonna win another couple rings and then bounce back to the cavs, and the heat will be back to nothing