Blazers Play-in Thread (8 Viewers)

[Freshtown]

Right. Not practical to tank that long. Barring bad injuries, and after getting a good player from this year's really good draft, we should easily make the playoffs next year and give Chicago their pick in a poor draft.

The best move for us is lotto pick this year, then turn on the playoff team aspirations starting next year.

 

[crandc]

Playoffs are not just like regular season. Players talk about importance of playoff experience. Very few even top superstars won it all their first playoff appearance. Let's start getting the experience. If the draft is that great there will be good players mid first round.
Year after year of tanking. Where is the superstar with whom the Blazers should have been rewarded? The team is finally out of lottery because they accumulated good players and worked to develop them.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

The best move for us is lotto pick this year, then turn on the playoff team aspirations starting next year.

I swear I heard the exact same thing last year.

 

[wizenheimer]

I'm not sure why people are insisting on an arbitrary cut-off of only 4 years in the lottery

Minny spent their first 7 seasons in the lottery until they landed KG; then 8 years in the playoffs. Then 12 of 13 years in the lottery until they landed Edwards. Detroit spent 9 of 11 years in the lottery until they landed Cade Cunningham. Neither team would be where they are if they had exited the lottery sooner by going all in on a mediocre team.

Portland spent their first 6 seasons in the 'lottery' before they made the playoffs and won the finals. They spent 5 years in the lottery assembling the Roy/Aldridge team. They also spent 7 of 10 years in the lottery sandwiched around 3 first round exits

the goal of the lottery is to draft a franchise player and clearly their last 4 opportunities haven't landed one

in the last 23 years, Minny was in the lottery 17 times; Portland was in the lottery 11 times. But in those 23 seasons, Minny played in the conference finals 3 times and won 5 games. Meanwhile, Portland played in the CF once and got swept. Is the Portland template actually better than the Minny template?

 

[HailBlazers]

I'm not sure why people are insisting on an arbitrary cut-off of only 4 years in the lottery

Minny spent their first 7 seasons in the lottery until they landed KG; then 8 years in the playoffs. Then 12 of 13 years in the lottery until they landed Edwards. Detroit spent 9 of 11 years in the lottery until they landed Cade Cunningham. Neither team would be where they are if they had exited the lottery sooner by going all in on a mediocre team.

Portland spent their first 6 seasons in the 'lottery' before they made the playoffs and won the finals. They spent 5 years in the lottery assembling the Roy/Aldridge team. They also spent 7 of 10 years in the lottery sandwiched around 3 first round exits

the goal of the lottery is to draft a franchise player and clearly their last 4 opportunities haven't landed one

in the last 23 years, Minny was in the lottery 17 times; Portland was in the lottery 11 times. But in those 23 seasons, Minny played in the conference finals 3 times and won 5 games. Meanwhile, Portland played in the CF once and got swept. Is the Portland template actually better than the Minny template?

Cling Kong is a budding franchise cornerstone.

 

[Chris Craig]

Playoffs are not just like regular season. Players talk about importance of playoff experience. Very few even top superstars won it all their first playoff appearance. Let's start getting the experience. If the draft is that great there will be good players mid first round.
Year after year of tanking. Where is the superstar with whom the Blazers should have been rewarded? The team is finally out of lottery because they accumulated good players and worked to develop them.

We won't have our pick. But, if there was someone that good that we couldn't pass up, we could always trade in to the draft.

 

[KingSpeed]

it's really difficult to game the last 6-8 games of the season because it's kind of unpredictable what top-6 teams will be doing to close the season

* OKC has a 3 game lead over the Spurs and a 4.5 game lead over the Pistons for #1 seed. Once they secure that seed they will probably start resting players. But they won't do it too early because the Spurs own the tiebreaker against OKC

* The Spurs trail OKC by 3 games, but since they own the tiebreaker, it's only a 2 game lead for OKC. Portland plays at San Antonio in the 80th game of the season. Will the Spurs be mailing-it-in by that point in time? Or are they good enough to beat Portland while resting Wemby?

* the Lakers have the 3rd seed by 2 games over Denver & Minny; and 2.5 over Houston. But they own the tiebreakers over all 3 teams and their team health is iffy. When will they start shutting down starters?

* Denver is in a 3 team battle for 4th seed and HCA. They will probably have to fight thru game 82 and the Blazers have to visit Denver, again, in game 79

Blazers and Clippers are in a battle for 8th-9th seed. Clippers currently own the tiebreaker and may have an easier schedule than Portland. And there is still a home-and-home left between the 2 teams. If Clippers win one of those games they own the tiebreaker and that could be decisive. Besides those 2 games, Blazers have road games at Denver and San Antonio. Clippers have home games against San Antonio and OKC (game 80). Maybe the team that upsets the top teams in one of those games get 8th seed. So again, what will those top teams be doing at game time

If Spurs are 3 games behind the Thunder, they’re 3 games behind the Thunder, not 2. You still have to tie Thunder for tiebreaker to kick in.

How many games have SGA and Wemby missed? They might have to play to be eligible for MVP, DPOY, All NBA, etc.

 

[KingSpeed]

By the way, is Curry coming back for postseason? Porzingis is back and playing well. If Curry’s back, they’re could be a tough out. Then again, Curry has lost in play-in three times.

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Playoffs are not just like regular season. Players talk about importance of playoff experience. Very few even top superstars won it all their first playoff appearance. Let's start getting the experience. If the draft is that great there will be good players mid first round.
Year after year of tanking. Where is the superstar with whom the Blazers should have been rewarded? The team is finally out of lottery because they accumulated good players and worked to develop them.

I agree playoff experience is good but are we good enough to play competitively yet? And just to make it clear, if we finish out of the lottery we will not have a draft pick at all in the first round.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

I'm not sure why people are insisting on an arbitrary cut-off of only 4 years in the lottery

Minny spent their first 7 seasons in the lottery until they landed KG; then 8 years in the playoffs. Then 12 of 13 years in the lottery until they landed Edwards. Detroit spent 9 of 11 years in the lottery until they landed Cade Cunningham. Neither team would be where they are if they had exited the lottery sooner by going all in on a mediocre team.

Portland spent their first 6 seasons in the 'lottery' before they made the playoffs and won the finals. They spent 5 years in the lottery assembling the Roy/Aldridge team. They also spent 7 of 10 years in the lottery sandwiched around 3 first round exits

the goal of the lottery is to draft a franchise player and clearly their last 4 opportunities haven't landed one

in the last 23 years, Minny was in the lottery 17 times; Portland was in the lottery 11 times. But in those 23 seasons, Minny played in the conference finals 3 times and won 5 games. Meanwhile, Portland played in the CF once and got swept. Is the Portland template actually better than the Minny template?

If we were in a position to get a top lottery pick this year I'd be all for tanking. That was certainly the case in Cronin first two seasons and I was pushing hard for tanking those years and loved the Sharpe/Scoot picks. Funny enough those were the two years with Dame playing.

But at this point we don't have any way to get a top10 pick - plus we have this Chicago pick debt interfering with an unprotected Bucks swap. We also have promising young players in Deni, Clingan, Camara - that have led this team to a .500 record and could greatly benefit from playoff experience. I'd rather see us push for the playoff this season and if we end up in the lottery consider it a consolidation prize.

I just find it beyond bizzare that some fans are rooting for a late lottery pick this year that won't be even as good as the Yang pick - and would be the 5th lottery year in a row. If anyone is rooting for that I can't see why they wouldn't just ultimately root for a full 7 straight years of lottery picks. Thats less than the 13 years of lottery you mention for Edwards, and it would guarantee the Blazers would never send Chicago any draft pick. But whenever I suggest that people come up with this bizarre idea that THIS year is for some reason the final year of them wishing the Blazers lose. It seems like an arbitrary cutoff to say 2021-2026 should be a lottery picks but 2027 should instead have a playoff push.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

I agree playoff experience is good but are we good enough to play competitively yet? And just to make it clear, if we finish out of the lottery we will not have a draft pick at all in the first round.

Teams aren't good enough to be truly competitive their first year in the playoffs. Normally teams go from a lottery season, to a playin season, to a quality playoff season, then become a contender. Its a multi year journey. Young teams basically always lose for at least two years in the playoffs if not longer. Look at OKC a couple years ago - or before them Denver in the 2nd round against us. They both had .500 seasons, then quality winning seasons but with playoff losses, then years later eventually won titles.

The sooner the Blazers take the first step in getting playin/playoff experience the sooner they can take that last step to become a contender.

 

[tlongII]

If we were in a position to get a top lottery pick this year I'd be all for tanking. That was certainly the case in Cronin first two seasons and I was pushing hard for tanking those years and loved the Sharpe/Scoot picks. Funny enough those were the two years with Dame playing.

But at this point we don't have any way to get a top10 pick - plus we have this Chicago pick debt interfering with an unprotected Bucks swap. We also have promising young players in Deni, Clingan, Camara - that have led this team to a .500 record and could greatly benefit from playoff experience. I'd rather see us push for the playoff this season and if we end up in the lottery consider it a consolidation prize.

I just find it beyond bizzare that some fans are rooting for a late lottery pick this year that won't be even as good as the Yang pick - and would be the 5th lottery year in a row. If anyone is rooting for that I can't see why they wouldn't just ultimately root for a full 7 straight years of lottery picks. Thats less than the 13 years of lottery you mention for Edwards, and it would guarantee the Blazers would never send Chicago any draft pick. But whenever I suggest that people come up with this bizarre idea that THIS year is for some reason the final year of them wishing the Blazers lose. It seems like an arbitrary cutoff to say 2021-2026 should be a lottery picks but 2027 should instead have a playoff push.

Agreed. I want to make the playoffs.