Do we change our strategy? Time to get some help?

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HCP said:
Good points King, but that doesn't change how our upcoming schedule is crazy tough!
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I'm looking at the schedule between now and the all-star break. Assuming we win tonight, we SHOULD probably lose the next 4 games (home games against Miami and OKC, road games @ GSW & Denver). Then 4 games we should win (home games v CLE, MIL, WAS & IND). So, I'd expect us to be 23-19.

The next 5 game stretch after that will, I think, tell us a ton about this team. That would be home/road back-to-backs against the Clippers and the Jazz, with a home game v Dallas sandwiched inbetween. I personally would be thrilled with 3-2 in those 5.

Last, a 6 game roadie heading into the break, with only 2 games against teams currently above .500. I'd say we should be able to go 3-3 on that trip.

So let's say my predictions are accurate--that would put us at 29-24 heading into the All-star break. IMO, it's not unreasonable to think that this is a playoff-caliber team, and that the FO should make moves accordingly. Nobody thinks we're going to contend for a title this year, but there's really no reason not to try to make the team better.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
I'm looking at the schedule between now and the all-star break. Assuming we win tonight, we SHOULD probably lose the next 4 games (home games against Miami and OKC, road games @ GSW & Denver). Then 4 games we should win (home games v CLE, MIL, WAS & IND). So, I'd expect us to be 23-19.

The next 5 game stretch after that will, I think, tell us a ton about this team. That would be home/road back-to-backs against the Clippers and the Jazz, with a home game v Dallas sandwiched inbetween. I personally would be thrilled with 3-2 in those 5.

Last, a 6 game roadie heading into the break, with only 2 games against teams currently above .500. I'd say we should be able to go 3-3 on that trip.

So let's say my predictions are accurate--that would put us at 29-24 heading into the All-star break. IMO, it's not unreasonable to think that this is a playoff-caliber team, and that the FO should make moves accordingly. Nobody thinks we're going to contend for a title this year, but there's really no reason not to try to make the team better.
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Better how? Better for a run to the 8th seed, or better as a sustainable playoff team that can contend for years to come?
 
What about something smaller,Nolan for bayless? Memphis does it to save 3.5 million this year, instead of something much bigger like rumored gay trades that totally alter their team. We do it for a scoring punch off the bench. Not needle moving, sure, but maybe something to look at. Or something similar.
 
I don't really know. I'd like to see us trade/sign bench players, obviously, but it's pretty tough. Leonard is our only valuable bench guy, and I hate giving him up. I also hate giving up any financial flexibility we could have this summer.

Lots of times with this team there's a glaringly obvious problem and there's an equally obvious solution. Not the case here. Our bench sucks, we need to fix it, and I have no idea how. Other than to take a time machine and redo all the picks squandered on Smith/Williams/Babbitt/Freeland/Claver/Barton, and pick better FA's than Jeffries/Price/Pavlovic.

Christ, that's nine guys on our roster who would be the 10th man or worse on a good team. Hickson is really the one bright spot our team has had in the past few years in terms of plucking a gem out of a trash heap. Mostly we just buy the trash heap.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Great. What trade makes us better this year while not crippling us or hurting our chances to make deep playoff runs for many years
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Any deal for a low-paid, non-cringe-worthy backup guard that can help reduce the strain on Lillard. Jimmer, Bayless, KryptoNate, Bledsoe, Mills, Neal, Barea, Douglas, Meeks, Pargo...I don't know if any of those guys are available, but any one of them would be a great pickup, IMO.
 
I'm willing to give a pass on Babbitt...when you thought that it was still going to be Roy/LMA (and maybe Oden) getting a premium standstill shooter was a slight luxury, but understandable. However, everyone and their toddler daughter knew that taking Smith over Faried was beyond dumb. Everyone knew that giving up Tyshawn Taylor for some cash (really, PA?) was just tossing away a pick. Everyone knew that Armon Johnson (especially paying 2M or so for the right to draft Armon Johnson) was a biiiiig stretch. Freeland was an overseas project that we got for the 30th pick for a couple of million, so it's not like we wasted our own pick or something. Claver's one of those late firsts that just came over and you're not sure if he's going to pan out yet or not. Sure, we passed on DeJuan Blair and Taj Gibson for him, but that's water under the bridge.

I don't quite understand why we aren't bringing up guys from the D-League. Maybe we're waiting until Friday and then start offering 10-days to people. But I'm pretty certain that there's at least one PG in the FA pile, in the D-League or in Europe who is better than Ronnie Price and/or Nolan Smith.
 
I don't know you guys don't understand that teams with a tighter rotation actually win in the post season. Our team actually has an identity and the go to guys are pretty clear. Contention is now finding the role players that fill certain voids. The obvious choice is a pg that can play d and give you a good solid 10-15 minutes per game.

A player like Heinrich or west would be a perfect fit. Claver seems like he could play out augman role. We don't need scoring. We need intangibles.
 
We get intangibles from price, victor, Sasha and jeffries. What we don't get is scoring. from any of them.
 
And west is a jack ass that brings the wrong intangibles. If be happy with hinrich,
 
RR7 said:
And west is a jack ass that brings the wrong intangibles. If be happy with hinrich,
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I am more on board with hinrich. I just used west as the type of player we need coming off the bench.
 
For the "perspective" guys bringing up SoS (and I submit that there is merit in that...), here's what Stein said today:

Mark Stein said:
Portland is the only team in the West's current top eight sporting a negative nightly average point margin (-2.2). Which suggests that the rebuilding Blazers are in a false position ... until you remember they've won six straight home games and are 9-6 against .500-or-better opposition.
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#13 in his Power Rankings
 
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