Grade the draft

[Fez Hammersticks]

I'm going to lump in all the moves that were made before the draft as well.

Out: Nicolas Batum | Steve Blake | Rondae Hollis-Jefferson | Cash

In: Noah Vonleh | Mason Plumlee | Gerald Henderson | Pat Connaughton | Daniel Diez

 

[santeesioux]

I gave it a B. I was pissed about trading away RJH, but I believe that position will get taken care of, and assuming this is our bench including Gerald Henderson, it's very solid.

 

[ThugginPaulyGAllen]

I voted incomplete. The draft wasn't all that spectacular, but freeing up additional cap space to sign proven NBA talent could pay MASSIVE dividends.

*You also forgot to add Gerald Henderson*

Now that I think about it, it was essentially Batum + RHJ for Henderson, Plumlee, Vonleh..

I'd give that an A, depending what happens in free agency. We could have a helluva bench next year or we could have a very, very young team.

 

[riverman]

I'm going to lump in all the moves that were made before the draft as well.

Out: Nicolas Batum | Steve Blake | Rondae Hollis-Jefferson | Cash

In: Noah Vonleh | Mason Plumlee | Pat Connaughton | Daniel Diez

Where's Gerald Henderson?

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Added

 

[riverman]

I gave it a B

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

The key acquisition was Vonleh.

He has the highest upside on the team. I think Lillard is near his peak, he just needs to improve his defense.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

A. Turned the 2015 23rd pick, an underperforming SF and a severely underperforming PG into last year's #9 pick, 2013's #22 pick, the 20th best player in the 2009 draft, two 2015 second rounders, and cap space.

 

[BonesJones]

A. Turned the 2015 23rd pick, an underperforming SF and a severely underperforming PG into last year's #9 pick, 2013's #22 pick, the 20th best player in the 2009 draft, two 2015 second rounders, and cap space.

Plumlee should've been a lotto pick

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Plumlee should've been a lotto pick

For the older picks I went by total Win Shares. Batum was 7th best in the 2008 class, and Blake 17th best in the 2003 class.

If we did that for 2013, Plumlee would be the second best player from that draft, just behind Gobert.

 

[Fez Hammersticks]

Yahoo:

WINNER: PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

It appears that Blazers free agent LaMarcus Aldridge has played his last game in Portland. The San Antonio Spurs and Los Angeles Lakers are the front-runners to land the All-Star, a source told Yahoo Sports. The Dallas native is also expected to have interest from the Dallas Mavericks.

That's not good news for the Blazers. But in preparation for the expected departure, they acquired two forwards in trades: Mason Plumlee from the Brooklyn Nets; and Noah Vonleh from the Charlotte Hornets.

The Blazers acquired Plumlee and the draft rights to Notre Dame guard Pat Connaughton for the draft rights of Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and guard Steve Blake. Plumlee averaged 11.8 points and 7.6 rebounds in 45 games as a starter last season. Vonleh, acquired on Wednesday, was the ninth pick of last year's draft and was limited to 25 games primarily because of injury. Plumlee and Vonleh don't combine to be Aldridge by any means, but at least Blazers general manager Neil Olshey is being proactive.

 

[illmatic99]

Too early to determine

 

[Rastapopoulos]

We traded exciting players for dull ones. We traded the chance to be enjoyable but get a high pick for the chance to be on the Charlotte Hornets dull mediocrity treadmill. Two lifeless and tedious franchises sucked the pizazz away from us. We look like the Washington Generals.

 

[Schilly]

Something that I hadn't really thought of, but just clicked... If we re-sign our big 3 free agents, this team is much better than last year's team. There are a couple voids for sure, starting SF, and backup PG, but out bench as a whole is better.