At #43, Blazers select Rayan Rupert

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Mediocre Man said:
I feel really good about the draft with Cronin and his team in charge. They seem to have a plan…high basketball IQ, that have a defensive bone in their body. Drafting length as well
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we have polar opposite views of Dame...

but if Dame is traded, the presence of Cronin/Schmitz is why I almost desperately want Ant-Nurkic-Grant traded too. Trade all of them for as much draft capital as they can. Get shitty for 2-5 years and let Cronin/Schmitz have 3 or 4 more rolls of the dice for high lottery picks as well as more mid and late first round picks

the worst thing would be trading Dame for a couple of solid role players and then trotting out a team that will win enough games to be be locked in the painfully boring purgatory of late-lottery/play-in/1st-rond exits

get more top picks. Blazers won't get any from a Dame trade (unless it's 5 or 6 years from now). No more fucking 're-tool' especially around Simons....geeeezuzzz
 
wizenheimer said:
we have polar opposite views of Dame...

but if Dame is traded, the presence of Cronin/Schmitz is why I almost desperately want Ant-Nurkic-Grant traded too. Trade all of them for as much draft capital as they can. Get shitty for 2-5 years and let Cronin/Schmitz have 3 or 4 more rolls of the dice for high lottery picks as well as more mid and late first round picks

the worst thing would be trading Dame for a couple of solid role players and then trotting out a team that will win enough games to be be locked in the painfully boring purgatory of late-lottery/play-in/1st-rond exits

get more top picks. Blazers won't get any from a Dame trade (unless it's 5 or 6 years from now). No more fucking 're-tool' especially around Simons....geeeezuzzz
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If we want picks and I agree with you, then the Nets are a good choice to trade with - they have a boat load after Durant trade, forget Miami
 
Blazinaway said:
If we want picks and I agree with you, then the Nets are a good choice to trade with - they have a boat load after Durant trade, forget Miami
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but all of their picks, save the Phoenix 2025 pick, are at least 4-7 years from now

it seems kind of pointless to count on both Cronin and Schmitz to be on the job 4-7 years from now
 
wizenheimer said:
but all of their picks, save the Phoenix 2025 pick, are at least 4-7 years from now
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The Nets received unprotected 1sts from the Suns in 2023, 25, 27 & 29.

https://www.nj.com/sports/2023/02/nets-trade-kevin-durant-in-deadline-blockbuster.html

...I'm pretty sure the Nets have their own future 1sts to potentially trade as well.

it seems kind of pointless to count on both Cronin and Schmitz to be on the job 4-7 years from now
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I'll remind you of how the Blazers attained Grant. Future unprotected 1sts are trade gold

STOMP
 
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At minimum, thinking of past Trail Blazers, I think Rupert will be a significantly bigger version of Wesley Matthews, or Josh Hart. I like to think of those two guys because of their workaholic/gym rat ethic.
Rupert will be relentless point of attack defender.

As the ceiling, I can see the combination of Nic Batum and Wesley Matthews.
The measurements of Batum, with the mentality of Wesley Matthews.

In the interview with Matt Walsh, Matt said that at the end of Rupert's first season when he was 18 years old, the Breakers played their last game of the season on a Wednesday, flew back to New Zealand from Sydney on a Thursday, and when he went into the practice facility at 8am to review the season with the head coach on Friday, he saw Rupert had been there for about an hour working with an assistant coach. Matt didn't know what to make of it. He said to the head coach "is this a fraud?" (turns out it was no fraud.)

About halfway through his second season Rupert broke his wrist and certainly could have returned to France to keep his draft stock up. But he had no intention of going back to France. He wanted to stay with his guys and keep playing.
 
Like Batum, Rupert's father was a professional basketball player. And like Batum, his father, Thierry, died when Rayan was still young.

"Rupert has had to tackle the start of his basketball journey without his father, who suddenly died of a heart attack in 2013. “When I was eight my dad had a heart attack … it was very difficult for me and my family, [but] after we're more close (sic),” Rupert reflected."

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Thierry Rupert is the late father of Rayan Rupert. Thierry was a basketball champion who had “35 selections for the French national men’s basketball team from 2001-2004.”

He played his entire career (1993-2012) as a power forward in the French Ligue Nationale de Basket.

Thierry passed away on February 10, 2013, at age 35.


Richard Batum:
His father, Richard Batum, died of a ruptured aneurysm. “My father was a pro basketball player in France,” Batum said. “He passed away while playing in the game on the basketball court. I was 2 years old. I was in the crowd with my mom when it happened. “That’s a terrible memory. I think about it sometimes. I just remember he got fouled and went back to the free-throw line to shoot his free throws, and then he was falling down at the free-throw line. I can remember when my father went down, and I can remember later, when I wake up, all of the TV stations around and my mom crying and all the craziness going around. Here I was 2 years old, but I’ve got memories about it.”




 

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Hard to not get excited about this kid after listening to his coach talk about him.

 
He told Travis Demers that his nickname is “Oops. Not quite sure how to take that.
 
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STOMP said:
The Nets received unprotected 1sts from the Suns in 2023, 25, 27 & 29.

https://www.nj.com/sports/2023/02/nets-trade-kevin-durant-in-deadline-blockbuster.html

...I'm pretty sure the Nets have their own future 1sts to potentially trade as well.

STOMP
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Nets still owe unprotected first-round picks to Houston for the James Harden trade in 2024 and 2026 -- plus pick swaps in 2025 and 2027. That was on top of the the 2022 unproteced pick, and 2021 and 2023 pick swaps they've already gave up.

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id...ston-rockets-trade-james-harden-brooklyn-nets
 
wizenheimer said:
but all of their picks, save the Phoenix 2025 pick, are at least 4-7 years from now

it seems kind of pointless to count on both Cronin and Schmitz to be on the job 4-7 years from now
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Future picks are like cash - they can be traded for players today or the very next draft. We WANT them to be many years out because a team we send Dame to will likely be good the next few years then much worse after that. So the picks will have much more value the further out they are, regardless if they are held all those years or flipped for another asset much sooner.
 
200
 
Juvenile and sophomoric, I admit.

:cheers:
 
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