Game Thread GAME# 50: BLAZERS @ SUNS - JANUARY 24, 2019 - THURSDAY, 6:00 PM, NBCSNW

[CupWizier]

So about those overuse injuries. Oladipo had been battling sore knees all season, and it finally gave in in a non-contact blow out last night. Their whole season is now a waste. Just unfortunate that Nate/KP have to go through this again. Annnnd, how the hell did these dudes not learn their lessons from BRoy? Nate ran his knees into the ground by playing him even when he was hurt. Did the exact same with Victor.

Can we please monitor our guys? A meaningless win now is not worth a potential long term injury. I don't care if we have a ton of rest coming up. Regardless of what is happening two weeks from now, Dame/CJ/Nurk have been playing so many minutes.

Roy simply had bad knees and had a limited life span. Unfortunately it ended when it did, but playing 5 less minutes a game would't have changed anything. Why do so many posters always look to point the finger and pass blame with little to nothing to base it on.

 

[illmatic99]

Roy simply had bad knees and had a limited life span. Unfortunately it ended when it did, but playing 5 less minutes a game would't have changed anything. Why do so many posters always look to point the finger and pass blame with little to nothing to base it on.

Oladipo had been complaining about sore knees for over a month. There was even a report that if he did not shut it down for the year, he could possibly do irreparable damage to his knees. Maybe you choose to selectively forget the similar stories we heard about BRoy and his degenerative knees, but I'm not just talking about playing fewer minutes per game. I'm talking about returning from surgery a week after it happened just to play minutes in a playoff game. Or the multitude of times when he was overextended.

Why do you comment about how posters post in every fucking response? Just address the post. God damn, this gets so annoying. Get off your fucking high horse. We are just fans on a public forum. Obviously 99% of what we talk about is based on speculation. How the hell do you not get that?

 

[KingSpeed]

Oladipo had been complaining about sore knees for over a month. There was even a report that if he did not shut it down for the year, he could possibly do irreparable damage to his knees. Maybe you choose to selectively forget the similar stories we heard about BRoy and his degenerative knees, but I'm not just talking about playing fewer minutes per game. I'm talking about returning from surgery a week after it happened just to play minutes in a playoff game. Or the multitude of times when he was overextended.

Why do you comment about how posters post in every fucking response? Just address the post. God damn, this gets so annoying. Get off your fucking high horse. We are just fans on a public forum. Obviously 99% of what we talk about is based on speculation. How the hell do you not get that?

Sounds what is being said is that Roy would’ve broken down if he skipped the playoff series against the Suns.

 

[wizenheimer]

It’s a tradeable asset. A team struggling next year may wish to give up an attractive player to receive the expiring deal.

that's a great theory, but the thing is, expiring contracts have never had quite the value imagined, otherwise there would be tons more trades every off-season and deadline

and another thing, next season, the expiring contract markets is totally flooded:

Kyle Lowry $33,296,296
Paul Millsap $30,500,000
Al Horford $30,123,015
Hassan Whiteside $27,093,018
Marc Gasol $25,595,700
Chandler Parsons $25,102,511
Harrison Barnes $25,102,512
Serge Ibaka $23,271,604
Danilo Gallinari $22,615,559
Ryan Anderson $15,600,000
Tyler Johnson $19,245,370
George Hill $18,000,000
Jeff Teague $19,000,000
Allen Crabbe $18,500,000
Goran Dragic $19,217,900
Kent Bazemore $19,269,662
Evan Turner $18,606,557
Draymond Green $18,539,130
Tristan Thompson $18,539,130
Reggie Jackson $18,086,956
Bismack Biyombo $17,000,000
Derrick Favors $16,900,000
Pau Gasol $16,000,000
Jonas Valanciunas $17,617,977
Andre Iguodala $17,185,185
Timofey Mozgov $16,720,000
Ian Mahinmi $15,450,051
J.R. Smith $15,680,000
Brandon Knight $15,643,750
Marvin Williams $15,006,250
Eric Gordon $14,057,730
Michael Kidd-Gilchrist $13,000,000
Mason Plumlee $14,041,096
Jordan Clarkson $13,437,500
Miles Plumlee $12,500,000
Courtney Lee $12,759,670
Solomon Hill $13,258,781
Avery Bradley $12,960,000
John Henson $9,732,396
Maurice Harkless $11,511,234
Meyers Leonard $11,286,515
Jon Leuer $9,508,043
Andre Roberson $10,740,741
Matthew Dellavedova $9,607,500
E'Twaun Moore $8,664,928
Fred VanVleet $9,000,000
Joe Harris $7,670,000
C.J. Miles $8,730,158
Shaun Livingston $7,692,308
Kyle Korver $7,500,000
D.J. Augustin $7,250,000
Lance Thomas $7,583,975
Langston Galloway $7,333,333
Davis Bertans $7,000,000

it will be the exact opposite of a seller's market, and that doesn't count the expirings less than 7M, nor does it count all the 1 years deals that will be signed this summer. Portland may have been the dumbest team in 2016, but they had plenty of dumb company. Blazer fans have been fantasizing for 2 years about how their albatross contracts will have some magical value as expirings, but the fact is, the league will be drowning in an ocean of expiring contracts next season, and for sure, a whole bunch of those players on the list will be shopped hard. I don't think anything will really change....the Blazers will still probably have to attach incentive to move one of their bad contracts

 

[wizenheimer]

Turner is one of our most important players, he could make twice the money as far as I'm concerned, it's not like we're getting under the cap anyway.
I hope you try and watch him more closely and realise what an asset he is for us. He runs the offense for the 2nd unit and many times for the starters, he allows our shooters to play off the ball, he has maybe the highest basketball IQ of anyone on the team and even though he is a terrible shooter (who once buzzer-beat us with Boston) he has a good all around talent

do you write for the Onion or Mad Magazine?

 

[e_blazer]

Have you been to a game in Phoenix yet?

No, can’t say that I have.

 

[tykendo]

If we don't beat the Suns we should blow the team up. The good news is, we will beat the Suns. Our guys will be rested and pissed about OKC. I would not want to be the Suns; they will experience the full wrath of the Portland Trailblazers.

This is a tough game. Suns are playing better of late. Booker can get red hot. If the Blazers bench doesn't show up again like in OKC, this will be tougher than it looks. If Dame (hand), doesn't go, this will be a nail biter. Remember, last year it took a superman effort from Dame to bring the Blazers back from the abyss in the Valley of the Sun.

 

[hoopsjock]

No, can’t say that I have.

If I had the opportunity to go to a Blazers game in another city I'd for sure go. It's fun to see other arenas. The Phoenix one is pretty crappy though. I would still go. The tickets have to be dirt cheap.

 

[hoopsjock]

This is a tough game. Suns are playing better of late. Booker can get red hot. If the Blazers bench doesn't show up again like in OKC, this will be tougher than it looks. If Dame (hand), doesn't go, this will be a nail biter. Remember, last year it took a superman effort from Dame to bring the Blazers back from the abyss in the Valley of the Sun.

The Suns have lost 5 in a row and are 2-8 in their last 10 games.

 

[CupWizier]

Oladipo had been complaining about sore knees for over a month. There was even a report that if he did not shut it down for the year, he could possibly do irreparable damage to his knees. Maybe you choose to selectively forget the similar stories we heard about BRoy and his degenerative knees, but I'm not just talking about playing fewer minutes per game. I'm talking about returning from surgery a week after it happened just to play minutes in a playoff game. Or the multitude of times when he was overextended.

Why do you comment about how posters post in every fucking response? Just address the post. God damn, this gets so annoying. Get off your fucking high horse. We are just fans on a public forum. Obviously 99% of what we talk about is based on speculation. How the hell do you not get that?

Does that make you feel like a tough guy by using the fuck word on a forum Wow, I am really impressed. Bring it on boy.

 

[CupWizier]

do you write for the Onion or Mad Magazine?

Do you?

 

[THE HCP]

The fact that Turner got so many votes in the poll, Stauskas got only 1 and Swanigan got only 2 shows me what a worthless place this forum has become

Yet YOU return daily.

 

[tykendo]

The Suns have lost 5 in a row and are 2-8 in their last 10 games.

True! But those wins were against Denver and Sactown, and they had close losses to Tor, Philly, and Minny.

 

[tlongII]

Except that ONCE AGAIN, the Blazers are worse when Turner is on the court and better when he is on the bench. This is a fact, not an opinion.

You're making the mistake of thinking that we couldn't replace Turner. We could still make trades. For example, dump Turner and trade Harkless with a future 1st for Jeremy Lin and Taurean Prince. Lin would be better than Turner running the 2nd unit and Prince would potentially be our SF moving forward or at worse a capable backup if Layman continues to progress. This summer we'd be $10 million under the cap which correct me if I'm wrong but that's way better than fighting the luxury tax all next year too?

The +/- stat is meaningless in this instance. They are worse when he's on the court because he's playing with backups.

 

[hoopsjock]

The +/- stat is meaningless in this instance. They are worse when he's on the court because he's playing with backups.

It's not +/-, it's advanced stats.

 

[wizenheimer]

The +/- stat is meaningless in this instance. They are worse when he's on the court because he's playing with backups.

except it isn't just plus/minus

winshares/48:

Damian Lillard .189
Jusuf Nurkic .182
Meyers Leonard .156
Jake Layman .123
Al-Farouq Aminu .120
Zach Collins .107
CJ McCollum .093
Maurice Harkless .093
Evan Turner .056
Nik Stauskas .055

box plus/minus:

Jusuf Nurkic 5.5
Damian Lillard 5.0
Meyers Leonard 1.5
Al-Farouq Aminu 1.0
Maurice Harkless 0.9
Zach Collins 0.3
Jake Layman 0.0
CJ McCollum -0.7
Evan Turner -1.5
Nik Stauskas -2.6

value over replacement:

Damian Lillard 3.0
Jusuf Nurkic 2.5
Al-Farouq Aminu 1.1
Meyers Leonard 0.6
Maurice Harkless 0.5
Zach Collins 0.5
CJ McCollum 0.5
Jake Layman 0.3
Evan Turner 0.1
Nik Stauskas -0.1

one final number is Real Plus/Minus. 477 NBA players are tracked; out of 477, Turner ranks 442nd

when several different metrics are telling you the same thing, it's almost impossible to convince anyone to not believe their lying eyes

 

[BlazerBeav]

Dame, however, went from questionable to playing.

 

[wizenheimer]

looks like the Suns really know how to drive that tank

 

[hoopsjock]

looks like the Suns really know how to drive that tank

Tanking isn't their problem, the execution of the picks is the problem.

 

[kjironman1]

Turner is only averaging 1.8 turnovers per game and has an assist to turnover ratio of 2.2 which is second on the team.

Well if you want to start pulling stats to make this guy look good then have at it. I can agree his assist numbers are indeed up due to players actually hitting some shots but his TO numbers are also up this year with less minutes played. Lillard plays 10 more minutes a game and always has the toughest defender on him and only averages one more TO a game. It's all about the way he effects the game and as the question stated what player plus contract would be best to shed. IMO that would be Evan Turner.

 

[tlongII]

It's not +/-, it's advanced stats.

Doesn't matter. He's still playing with backups.

 

[tlongII]

It's not that he's good. He isn't. But he's our best bet at the position currently.

 

[hoopsjock]

It's not that he's good. He isn't. But he's our best bet at the position currently.

So you know for a fact that Baldwin wouldn't be better or just letting Curry handle the ball more? For like the 10th time you are ignoring that we could still use his roster spot to trade for someone too.

 

[DDolla]

No Ayton... feed the Beast!

 

[Wizard Mentor]

except it isn't just plus/minus

winshares/48:

Damian Lillard .189
Jusuf Nurkic .182
Meyers Leonard .156
Jake Layman .123
Al-Farouq Aminu .120
Zach Collins .107
CJ McCollum .093
Maurice Harkless .093
Evan Turner .056
Nik Stauskas .055

box plus/minus:

Jusuf Nurkic 5.5
Damian Lillard 5.0
Meyers Leonard 1.5
Al-Farouq Aminu 1.0
Maurice Harkless 0.9
Zach Collins 0.3
Jake Layman 0.0
CJ McCollum -0.7
Evan Turner -1.5
Nik Stauskas -2.6

value over replacement:

Damian Lillard 3.0
Jusuf Nurkic 2.5
Al-Farouq Aminu 1.1
Meyers Leonard 0.6
Maurice Harkless 0.5
Zach Collins 0.5
CJ McCollum 0.5
Jake Layman 0.3
Evan Turner 0.1
Nik Stauskas -0.1

one final number is Real Plus/Minus. 477 NBA players are tracked; out of 477, Turner ranks 442nd

when several different metrics are telling you the same thing, it's almost impossible to convince anyone to not believe their lying eyes

So, #Biebs4Realz

 

[tlongII]

So you know for a fact that Baldwin wouldn't be better or just letting Curry handle the ball more? For like the 10th time you are ignoring that we could still use his roster spot to trade for someone too.

Yes. Yes I do.

 

[tlongII]

So you know for a fact that Baldwin wouldn't be better or just letting Curry handle the ball more? For like the 10th time you are ignoring that we could still use his roster spot to trade for someone too.

And we ain't trading him for someone prior to next season. GuranDamnSheed.

 

[Jade Falcon]

Ayton don't want no Nurk. That means Beast is going to murder anyone who's out there.

Now.....does anyone have a wildebeest that I can borrow? Some lady kindly donated her panties, now I just need a wildebeest.

 

[hoopsjock]

And we ain't trading him for someone prior to next season. GuranDamnSheed.

What?

 

[tlongII]

What?

We are not trading Evan Turner prior to next season. We're not cutting him either (as if that would ever be on the table).