Game Thread 2022-23 Game #49 - BLAZERS VS RAPTORS - JANUARY 28, 2023 - SATURDAY - 7:00 PM (PDT) ROOT

[Tince]

We sent out easily the best players in both deals and really got no draft capital or worthwhile prospects. That’s your opinion. But my opinion is that both trades were failures. Then we lost our cap flexibility by signing Payton

It sounds like you're not factoring in contract values and lengths, which I believe are things GMs consider in accepting trades. My opinion is that we can always say a GM could've got more or that the GM got the best deal available. There is equal proof that both/neither are true.

Also, if you believe all the Jerami Grant rumors from a year ago, he was basically part of the CJ trade. I don't think the difference talent wise between Grant and CJ is that great.

I didn't love the Payton move. Though the lack of cap flexibiltiy didn't seem like a big deal given our ownership.

 

[Natebishop3]

I can't wait until we have new ownership.

 

[KingSpeed]

Punting on this season the game after we saw our guy score the most efficient 60 in the history of the NBA is not an option. We need to strike while the iron is hot and act with urgency like Dame implored the team to do before he went and won a gold medal. We can't fucking wait. Joe has to do everything he can do right now and then in the off season we make even more moves.

You think we’re a move away from winning a title THIS year? All we have to do is punt one more time, make a good trade, get a better coach, make WCFs next year with more talent and win it all in 2025. Dame isn’t dying tomorrow. The fact that in his 11th year, he can still score 60, it means he’s gonna be great for awhile. Also- we don’t have to win during Dame’s “peak.” Look at Jason Kidd. He wasn’t an All Star in 2011 but he was very good and helped that Dallas team win a title.

 

[Bingo Bango]

A seasoned Sharpe and Wemby could win a title with Dame in 2027.

You’re a dreamer, I’ll give you that. However, your dream is based on some very risky bets:

That Lillard will still be great in four years
That Sharpe will turn into a complete NBA player
That we get Wemby in the lottery

I’d say we’ll be lucky if just one of the above turns out to be true.

 

[AldoTrapani]

The funny part was when the Blazers cut the lead down to 4 but within seconds the deficit extended to 15. Lol that’s how u know this season has been a joke

 

[Strenuus]

Were not getting wemby so stop bringing it up.

 

[KingSpeed]

The whole “tanking” strategy is stupid, in my opinion. Especially tanking two years in a row. There have been too many flops in the Top 10, and too many equally good players later in the first round, to make it a viable strategy for improving a team.

The draft is a very viable strategy. Curry, Klay, and Dray were all acquired through the draft. In 2018, Cuban got in trouble for telling his players to tank. Guess who they got out of that draft? Luka Doncic. Fuck we got Dame by cleaning house and trading a very good player for a pick in that year’s draft. Top free agents don’t sign with us. Stars don’t force their way to us. The best way to get meaningful talent around Dame is the draft. And if we make the fucking playoffs, Chicago gets our pick!!! I gave our team 49 games. They’re 23-26. They’re not good enough. Not even the fans can push them over the top. We’re mediocre to bad at home.

 

[KingSpeed]

Maybe not, but what’s your point? It’s just as stupid to talk about winning a title as it is to talk about getting Wemby.

IMO, if we properly tank, we have a much better shot at getting an NBA star in 2023 draft than we do of winning a title in the 2023 playoffs. So I vote tank.

I mean it doesn’t matter what I want. As you will see over the coming weeks, teams like the Clippers and Warriors will start to pull away from the crowded middle and our chance of making the playoffs will end without tanking. But a proper tank would increase our odds. Why not choose that option?

 

[AldoTrapani]

The draft is a very viable strategy. Curry, Klay, and Dray were all acquired through the draft. In 2018, Cuban got in trouble for telling his players to tank. Guess who they got out of that draft? Luka Doncic. Fuck we got Dame by cleaning house and trading a very good player for a pick in that year’s draft. Top free agents don’t sign with us. Stars don’t force their way to us. The best way to get meaningful talent around Dame is the draft. And if we make the fucking playoffs, Chicago gets our pick!!! I gave our team 49 games. They’re 23-26. They’re not good enough. Not even the fans can push them over the top. We’re mediocre to bad at home.

Wow I’m still shocked by this dude. You use to be the biggest Homer of all time…

Good for you man

 

[CJ_is_Gone]

we have our shortest guys guarding the rim.

this is by design.

Because the shortest guys can't guard a traffic cone.

 

[KingSpeed]

You’re a dreamer, I’ll give you that. However, your dream is based on some very risky bets:

That Lillard will still be great in four years
That Sharpe will turn into a complete NBA player
That we get Wemby in the lottery

I’d say we’ll be lucky if just one of the above turns out to be true.

But my dream has a CHANCE of happening and we can increase that chance by tanking. Your dream of trading for a star and winning a title has NO CHANCE in my opinion.

 

[KingSpeed]

Were not getting wemby so stop bringing it up.

Right now, we have a 4.5% chance of getting Wemby. If we properly tank, we can get that to 10.5%. Right now, I’d say we have 0% chance of winning a title. I prefer to focus on the greater odds of winning Wemby.

 

[KingSpeed]

Believe Harder.

 

[THE HCP]

yeah...the "Wemby" shit is ridiculous

Check the source bro.

 

[THE HCP]

Dude. We’re going nowhere this year. It’s not December anymore. I guess I’ll ask you again, what are your expectations? And when will this team start winning. We’ve lost a ton of games WITH Hart and Nurk.

SIGH

 

[Whyachi]

Cronin's dream team got completely bullied twice by a bigger, stronger Raptors team this season. I don't think the Blazers interim GM has any concept of basketball other then reducing payroll and avoiding tax penalties.

 

[Whyachi]

The funny part was when the Blazers cut the lead down to 4 but within seconds the deficit extended to 15. Lol that’s how u know this season has been a joke

Blazers missed 7 three pointers in a row after finally making the game respectable. Shooting from distance was off all night, but it still didn't stop the Blazers from going right back to busting out the 3 ball.

 

[Driew]

Cronin's dream team got completely bullied twice by a bigger, stronger Raptors team this season. I don't think the Blazers interim GM has any concept of basketball other then reducing payroll and avoiding tax penalties.

What this isn't Cronin's dream team lol. He knows the roster isn't where it needs to be.

 

[SIeepwalker]

Eubanks was a special kind of bad this game

 

[SIeepwalker]

Shae a +5 in an 18 points loss. Played only 19 minutes, just saying.
Walker could have gotten more than 5min with how shit Eubanks and Watford were on defense

 

[Bingo Bango]

IMO, if we properly tank, we have a much better shot at getting an NBA star in 2023 draft than we do of winning a title in the 2023 playoffs. So I vote tank.

I mean it doesn’t matter what I want. As you will see over the coming weeks, teams like the Clippers and Warriors will start to pull away from the crowded middle and our chance of making the playoffs will end without tanking. But a proper tank would increase our odds. Why not choose that option?

So you want to tank two years in a row? Why not just tank right from the start of the season and lose every game? I’m sure all Blazer fans would be delighted.

 

[Bingo Bango]

But my dream has a CHANCE of happening and we can increase that chance by tanking. Your dream of trading for a star and winning a title has NO CHANCE in my opinion.

That’s not my dream. You must not be reading my posts on that topic. But on the subject of “chances,” you yourself admit we only have a 10% chance of getting Wemby, so that’s a total shot in the dark.

 

[HomerLovesKoolAid]

Shae a +5 in an 18 points loss. Played only 19 minutes, just saying.
Walker could have gotten more than 5min with how shit Eubanks and Watford were on defense

Maybe we're naive, but I don't get it. Sharpe does not look like any kind of a liability on either end of the floor. We need length and D right? Play the guy more FFS.
And, it was glaringly obvious we need front court length with the Bosnian Baby out, so why not play Badji or Starvin' Marvin? (and way more Jabari) It's not like this game looked like anything but a loss half way through the 1st Q anyway. This refusal to coach with imagination is so fucking frustrating.

 

[stampedehero]

Raptors vs. Trail Blazers - NBA Box Score - January 28, 2023 | ESPN

 

[Fairly-Hard]

Portland hasn't been close to being a contender since the Pippen/Rasheed team choked away the 4th Q in LA 23 years ago

Man. Just throw some salt in the wound.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

I agree... The Roy/LMA/Oden roster was good enough to turn into one, but we know what happened there. The Dame/Wes/Batum/LMA team was probably good enough to make the WCF.

Depends on the year. If you have that talent this year you are probably a contender for sure.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

Portland wasn't ready to play at the start and the overall length of the Raptors kept the Blazers down all night.

Scottie Barnes 6-9
OG Anunoby 6-7
Chris Boucher 6-9
Pascal Siakam 6-9
Christian Koloko 7-1
Thaddeus Young 6-8
Juancho Hernangómez 6-9
Precious Achiuwa 6-8

lol at the midget ball the Blazers have been playing since 2015

Happens all the time with Billups. He’s never ready to start a game. Never.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

When a team occasionally comes out flat and not ready to play, that’s on the players.

When it continually happens and starts to become a pattern, that’s on the coaching.

When it continues to persist without any change at all, that’s on the players again because they’ve either tuned out the coach or simply not listening.

We are at stage 2 right now.

Half at 2 and half the team is at 3.

 

[beast blazer]

We need to trade Simons for a legit starting forward. That alone would do so much to change this team. We. Dont. Need.two.chuckers.

 

[wizenheimer]

Cronin's dream team got completely bullied twice by a bigger, stronger Raptors team this season. I don't think the Blazers interim GM has any concept of basketball other then reducing payroll and avoiding tax penalties.

yeah, sure...Cronin should be able to dismantle a shitty, unbalanced roster and rebuild it into a contender in 11 months....which seems to be what many expected. He started out in a deep deep hole that took the previous GM 7 years to dig; he really needed to put on a cape and leap out of the hole in a single bound. Massive failure that he wasn't superGMan, right?

and I'm not letting Cronin completely off the hook either. He knew that the biggest issue the Blazers had, other than a talent deficit, was lack of size and length. And he had a draft pick, the 10.5M MLE and the 4.1M BAE to address those issues. With that in mind he spent 8.2M of the 10.5M for a 6'2 guard who has ended up missing half the season. How much help was that 6'2 last night against the mob of 6'8-6'10 guys Toronto throws on the floor?

as for payroll costs and tax avoidance, yeah there's that. But I think it's abundantly clear that from the moment he got the interim GM label he's been operating under instructions from Seattle. I'd say that Olshey sold Jody & the Vulcans (pop band?) on his ability to build a contender if just given time. And that after Seattle saw the disaster that the roster last year was without a healthy Dame, they decided to pull the plug (thankfully) on Olshey and dismantle his losing roster. And that there was no reason to pay further tax for a mediocre team. It may be a cart before the horse thing now. Prior to Cronin there was willingness to speculate in tax with the possibility of making a contender. Now it's probably no tax until there is a contender