Exclusive Around The NBA: Memorable March edition

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Driew said:
Jesus all I'm saying is we weren't really in the best position to get the best value for our players when everyone knew we were trading these players to get below the tax. Teams took advantage of that and we got shit value back. Don't know what's so hard to understand about that lol.
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It's a false narrative. We only had to shed less than 3M to get under the tax. That isn't enough for teams to be able to hold us hostage to the point of giving away players that are all very capable starters in this league for next to nothing. If you don't think, even within the context of us needing to get under the tax, that the Norm/RoCo deal wasn't terrible, I don't think you know what you're talking about. As for the CJ/Larry deal, we were already under the tax... so how could the Pelicans have us over a barrel to the point that we would make such an uneven trade?

It doesn't matter how you spin it, the trades were terrible if we get the Pelicans pick and if the Pelicans make the playoffs the trades will have been an unparalleled disaster. We're talking about three guys that could be the fifth or sixth best player on a contender and a guy that could be the second or third best player on a title team for one guy that could be a fifth or sixth man on a championship team (Hart), a guy that would have a hard time cracking the rotation on a contender (Winslow), a pick that is so protected it was a terrible gamble and a few very meh prospects.

If we end up with the 7th-9th pick and that's it, I expect Joe to ship that pick and the Milwaukee 2025 FRP to the Pistons for Grant, re-sign Ant and Nurk, opt in on Hart, sign someone with whatever amount of the MLE that keeps us below the tax and call it a day. If Dame and Ant don't have the same issues as Dame and CJ then that will be a better team than we started this season with but there will also have been huge opportunities missed.
 
Id rather have Bey than Grant. Go after Bey with Simons or Naz and some.
 
wizenheimer said:
Dame didn't make a max offer to Roy Hibbert; that was Olshey. Dame also didn't make a max offer to Enes Kanter; or trade for Afflalo; or make a max offer to Greg Monroe; or make a max offer to Chandler Parsons; or match Crabbe's offer sheet; or pay Evan Turner 70M; or offer Meyers 15M/year; or sign Ezeli; or sign Hezonja and Tolliver; or trade two 1st's for RoCo. All that mismanagement was Olshey. And so was refusing to trade CJ while holding him untouchable in trade talks for PG13 and Butler. Do you think Olshey asked Dame's permission for any of that? Do you really think Olshey, and his ego, would have taken a back seat to Dame's desires?
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So I agree that Dame didn't offer max contracts but Dame very well could have been talking to Olshey during the offseasons going "I like Hibbert, Kanter, Afflalo, Monroe, Parsons, Crabbe, Turner, RoCo as players to go after for this team". It's known that Olshey picked Dame's brain about players he liked around the league. So Olshey tried to go out and get those players for Dame. And since we're Portland we got to overpay for even average players to sign with us.

Look I'm an Olshey hater too but I'm just trying to point out that generally GMs just don't go and sign players without at least picking the brain of the team's best player about who they think they'd play well with.
 
blazerkor said:
It's a false narrative. We only had to shed less than 3M to get under the tax. That isn't enough for teams to be able to hold us hostage to the point of giving away players that are all very capable starters in this league for next to nothing. If you don't think, even within the context of us needing to get under the tax, that the Norm/RoCo deal wasn't terrible, I don't think you know what you're talking about. As for the CJ/Larry deal, we were already under the tax... so how could the Pelicans have us over a barrel to the point that we would make such an uneven trade?

It doesn't matter how you spin it, the trades were terrible if we get the Pelicans pick and if the Pelicans make the playoffs the trades will have been an unparalleled disaster. We're talking about three guys that could be the fifth or sixth best player on a contender and a guy that could be the second or third best player on a title team for one guy that could be a fifth or sixth man on a championship team (Hart), a guy that would have a hard time cracking the rotation on a contender (Winslow), a pick that is so protected it was a terrible gamble and a few very meh prospects.

If we end up with the 7th-9th pick and that's it, I expect Joe to ship that pick and the Milwaukee 2025 FRP to the Pistons for Grant, re-sign Ant and Nurk, opt in on Hart, sign someone with whatever amount of the MLE that keeps us below the tax and call it a day. If Dame and Ant don't have the same issues as Dame and CJ then that will be a better team than we started this season with but there will also have been huge opportunities missed.
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Yes the trades were disasters in terms of talent coming back. In terms of tanking for the season it's perfect. We're guaranteed to have our pick and potentially another pick. Nine times out of ten when you trade a player to a team they want to go to you're not going to get very good value. CJ had been with us for 9 years or whatever and Cronin sent him to a team that CJ wanted to go to. We got shit value for the trade but made CJ and his agent happy. Who knows maybe CJ's agent has a good free agent this upcoming offseason and that agent is able to push that player to sign with us. Although looking at CJ's agent and their players that's not the case for this upcoming offseason really.

But look at CJ's agent, Jeff Schwartz, he's also Brandon Ingram's agent. Guess which team Ingram is on--you're right NOP. Guess what team CJ got traded to--you're right NOP. There's a lot of behind the scenes things that happen between GMs and agents that we just never see in the media.
 
Driew said:
Yes the trades were disasters in terms of talent coming back. In terms of tanking for the season it's perfect. We're guaranteed to have our pick and potentially another pick. Nine times out of ten when you trade a player to a team they want to go to you're not going to get very good value. CJ had been with us for 9 years or whatever and Cronin sent him to a team that CJ wanted to go to. We got shit value for the trade but made CJ and his agent happy. Who knows maybe CJ's agent has a good free agent this upcoming offseason and that agent is able to push that player to sign with us. Although looking at CJ's agent and their players that's not the case for this upcoming offseason really.

But look at CJ's agent, Jeff Schwartz, he's also Brandon Ingram's agent. Guess which team Ingram is on--you're right NOP. Guess what team CJ got traded to--you're right NOP. There's a lot of behind the scenes things that happen between GMs and agents that we just never see in the media.
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It would only be perfect if we got more draft compensation. I'm not saying we should have got better players but for sure we should have got another pick from NOLA and we just should have traded Norm and RoCo elsewhere... or at the very least got the Clippers 2028 first rounder. Anyway, what's done is done. I'll move on.
 
blazerkor said:
It would only be perfect if we got more draft compensation. I'm not saying we should have got better players but for sure we should have got another pick from NOLA and we just should have traded Norm and RoCo elsewhere... or at the very least got the Clippers 2028 first rounder. Anyway, what's done is done. I'll move on.
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Well I meant perfect in terms of us, personally, tanking for our pick. In terms of other teams picks it wasn't perfect at all haha.
 
Driew said:
So I agree that Dame didn't offer max contracts but Dame very well could have been talking to Olshey during the offseasons going "I like Hibbert, Kanter, Afflalo, Monroe, Parsons, Crabbe, Turner, RoCo as players to go after for this team". It's known that Olshey picked Dame's brain about players he liked around the league. So Olshey tried to go out and get those players for Dame. And since we're Portland we got to overpay for even average players to sign with us.

Look I'm an Olshey hater too but I'm just trying to point out that generally GMs just don't go and sign players without at least picking the brain of the team's best player about who they think they'd play well with.
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If Dame is who so many say he is and tries to play puppet master with this franchise and it's roster (for the record I think that's pure bullshit) then it was Olshey's job to convince Dame that the moves that were best for the team were in fact beneficial to Dame... then Olshey needed to make those moves. The fact is that ownership and management make personnel decisions and it's their job to make the team better if that means that you have to trade your superstar, so be it but I don't think it ever would have come to that with Dame if we were improving as a team.
 
blazerkor said:
If Dame is who so many say he is and tries to play puppet master with this franchise and it's roster (for the record I think that's pure bullshit) then it was Olshey's job to convince Dame that the moves that were best for the team were in fact beneficial to Dame... then Olshey needed to make those moves. The fact is that ownership and management make personnel decisions and it's their job to make the team better if that means that you have to trade your superstar, so be it but I don't think it ever would have come to that with Dame if we were improving as a team.
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I don't know why you keep saying that. No where have I said that Dame was playing puppet master. As I've said repeatedly here Olshey would ask Dame which players he valued around the league and when they'd be free agents Olshey made sure to target those players. Which resulted in overpaying for those players. No where was I suggesting that Dame went into Olshey's office and said "I absolutely need an Evan Turner on my team--get him at any cost".
 
Sacramento couldn't get it done. But they are playing hard and should win a few more.
 
seriously, the Kings are an embarrassment to sports.
 
Sacs next game is at home against New York. Prefer Sac to win but a Knicks win would be a good consolation since they are tied with the Blazers in wins (25).
 
The Spurs game isn't as important since the Blazers can lose to them three more times this season.
 
Gotta wonder if Harden is going to get some MVP attention given the impact he seems to have had on the Sixers since his acquisition. Held him out tonight and they barely broke 80.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Gotta wonder if Harden is going to get some MVP attention given the impact he seems to have had on the Sixers since his acquisition. Held him out tonight and they barely broke 80.
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It’s all going to Embiid. Next year, neither has a chance because they have each other. This is Embiid’s last chance. Like when KD and Curry never won MVPs together.
 
AldoTrapani said:
He’s never been all star starter
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Could this also have something to do with who was also in the conference playing well when he has been playing?
One other note. Ja is something very special. Why are you trying to diminish what he is doing? Did you ever think maybe Ja earned that spot?
 
KSF-ERIC said:
It’s all going to Embiid. Next year, neither has a chance because they have each other. This is Embiid’s last chance. Like when KD and Curry never won MVPs together.
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Last quarter of the season makes a big impact in voters' minds, and Embiid is being upstaged by Harden and (to a lesser extent) Maxey so far. If the rest of March continues this way, I think he's going to lose a lot of support.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
Last quarter of the season makes a big impact in voters' minds, and Embiid is being upstaged by Harden and (to a lesser extent) Maxey so far. If the rest of March continues this way, I think he's going to lose a lot of support.
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I tend to agree with this. The first third of the season puts you in the conversation but the last 20-25 games usually seals the deal.
 
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