This team is not "much more talented" than what Joe got. The hardest thing to get as a small market team is marquee talent, perennial all nba players. Joe had one in Dame and there were role players around him. So yes we have potential high end star talent but until that potential is realized it's a hope not a reality. Also none of them even look as high end as Dame and we're going to need two guys that good to really contend and not just pretend like we're contending like we did under Olshey during Dame's prime.
The definition of talent is:
Talent - a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude
Unrealized talent is still talent. The problem with NBA talent is that it is only "cheap" to acquire when it's unrealized which is what rebuilding teams do. I still maintain that the current team is more talented than the team Joe inherited when he became a GM. A lot of is unrealized and might never realize - but that's the situation for rebuilding teams.
There's just a lot of work to do and retaining Jerami and Ant as long as Joe has, has been a one foot in and one foot out approach to the rebuild. The same should be said about not flipping Rob immediately because of his health risks. I'm just saying if Joe has a vision for this team he is either not executing it or it's terribly flawed. Getting a dude who refuses to use his talent and size in Ayton and picking a guy who in today's NBA can easily be played off the court in Clingan, definitely is getting bigger but I don't know how much functional size that is.
The Blazers can not get talent without draft and trade capital - so extending Ant and Grant was reasonable, you can't lose talent for nothing. Getting Ayton was again a necessity to get off Nurkic's contract and enable the Dame trade, so he is/was a good swing. You can't say he is too conservative and yet complain that he takes some swings that do not pan out.
All I am saying is that being consistent in JoeCro's assessment is paramount, otherwise, it's really hard to take it seriously.
Tou and Deni look like brilliant acquisitions, that fit what Joe said he wanted to do. I still have a lot of hope for Scoot and Shaedon at some point in their careers (if kept together) being in the conversation for best back court in the league... but again that's just hope. We still need a sure fire all nba guy. I really think this draft has three of those but we're not committing to having the best odds of getting them and instead we're having Ant lead us to victories and Jerami doing the same here and there and sorry but that makes this rebuild feel directionless.
Look, no one, including JoeCro himself in whatever heard from him publicly said that this is a done deal, but I think that the assessment you made is honestly, incorrect and unfair. The vision is clear and the willingness to take some swings is apparent. At some point, you can come and say, sure, you tried and you failed. My opinion is that rebuilding a team from one that is bereft of assets as the one he inherited takes time - and not every step on the way is going to be great. My judgement is that he is trying to acquire talent and get size - and that he is willing to take some swings. Some of them are bad (GP2, but it was really before the rebuild phase when Dame was still committed), some are sub-par (DA and his inconsistent play, Scoot and Shae so far), some are meh so far (Jabri, Kris), so are too early to judge but are promising (Clingan, Rupert) and some are wins (Deni, Camara).
