With our success this year with the pieces that we were able to aquire. Where do you think we would be if we landed Roy Hibbert? GO.
Challenging for a title. I think we would be in even better position with selecting Drummond instead of Leonard (two picks ahead of him)... Drummond makes less money AND is younger.
Im not a big numbers guy, not sure what type of money and who we would have been able to put around him. Shooting off our bench has been huge for us this year and im just not sure if we would of had the money to get the type of guys we got
Obviously, but that wasnt possible unless we passed on lilliard. I like Drummond alot and I liked him at the time of the draft, but drafting big men and putting them in blazer uniforms is a very risky pick.
We would have the MLE and some small exceptions to go after other guys. The difference is, we'd be a good team last year with Hibbert. Good teams tend to attract good players, even if they can't pay as much. There's no way we couldn't sign guys like Mo Williams or Dorell Wright if we had Hibbert. The only thing we couldn't do is absorb contracts like Lopez and TRob.
Oh okay. So we would probably still have the worst bench in the league with the hands down best starting five. And bringing in future stars would be tough because of LMA's and Hibberts contracts.
Theoretically, we might have been able to package our 11th and some players to move up to the 7th pick to guarantee we got him as well as Dame. We really would be juggernauts with Drummond instead of Meyers.
We would definitely be legit contenders this season. Blowing our load like that, would enable us to get Hickson, since we had his Bird rights at that time; which would have had a front court rotation of Aldridge, Hibbert, Hickson and Freeland. We probably wouldn't have selected Leonard either and gone with a back-up PG; which would of helped us last season.
Lillard Wes Batum Aldridge Hibbert Hickson (possibly) EDIT: NOT Possible. Blazers had to renounce Hickson to offer Hibbert so he'd be gone for sure. Mid Level Exception (would have been enough for Mo and Dorell) No CJ cause the Blazers would have been too good to keep pick last year. Would have been pretty fuckin' good IMO.
I always wonder if we tried to trade up from #11 to get Drummond after we drafted Lillard, I wonder if Drummond was high on our list?
It would be worse than the bench we have now, yes. But who knows what free agents would be attracted to come to Port. It's still a small market.
How would it be worse? Could still get Mo and Dorrell last summer. JJ Hickson could have been resigned. Freeland would still be here. No Robinson but with JJ in the fold we'd be better off. Only real loss is CJ McCollum but since he isn't playing atm anyways we wouldn't have lost anything from what we've seen so far. The real loss would be Robin Lopez (never thought I'd say that before the season!) but Hibbert more than makes up for that
I really really love drummond. I was hoping Portland traded up to get him. I was hoping we used Felton + our pick to Toronto. They picked Ross because they needed a guard. Felton could have been that guard, and they probably could have gotten Ross or Lamb with our pick.
I liked him a lot too, would have been an incredible draft getting him and Lillard, wonder what the cost would have been to move up 2 or 3 spots? Drummond could easily end up being the best player in that draft, top 3 for sure
I think 90% of all here was hoping Drummand would fall to #11 that year, just wasn't happening. :MARIS61:
No we had Felton that we were able to trade. Toronto needed a PG back then, and Felton could have been their man.
Are you forgetting the disaster of a season he had just completed here? This is the haul we got for him: New York acquired guard Raymond Felton and forward Kurt Thomas from the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for forward Jared Jeffries, center Dan Gadzuric, a 2016 second-round pick, the rights to Georgios Printezis and Kostas Papanikolaou, plus cash considerations. How would he have moved us up 3 spots in the lottery in a good draft?
