OFFICIAL AROUND THE NBA THREAD -April 2021

[tester551]

Yeah in practical terms it does. If the combination of the team and Bird rights are enough to keep him, then I'm wrong. However, it's a bigger gamble than holding onto Gary would have been because Powell might price himself out of what we want to offer him and be gone but he also might sign a contract that we would like to have him at and still be gone. Gary may have priced himself out too but if he didn't we had control.

I'd be willing to take the bigger gamble and get the MUCH better player.
I'm not an Olshey fan, but this was a very good trade for Portland.

 

[TBpup]

Denver hasn't lost since acquiring Aaron Gordon. It's not that he is putting up huge numbers....but he seems like a really good FIT for what makes them better.

 

[Pinwheel1]

The thing is, Powell is a much better player. Trent wouldn't fetch a "Powell" with value beyond this season.

I think people still have an image in their head of Trent being a really good, young three-and-D player. But he's a poor defensive player and doesn't have a lot to his game beyond shooting threes. It's a good skill to have, but not enough to be valuable without anything else.

All I needed to see, in order to agree with this, was last night when Powell went one one one with Kawhi on the baseline and had no problem getting around him and finishing at the rim. Trent could have tried that 100 times without success.

Gary can be a lights-out 3pt shooter, but everyone on this board bitches about not having two-way players.....Powell offers that.

 

[illmatic99]

All I needed to see, in order to agree with this, was last night when Powell went one one one with Kawhi on the baseline and had no problem getting around him and finishing at the rim. Trent could have tried that 100 times without success.

Gary can be a lights-out 3pt shooter, but everyone on this board bitches about not having two-way players.....Powell offers that.

and he got to the line 15 times! Powell is showing me everything we want in a SG next to Dame. I'm hoping and praying that Philly flames out in the playoffs and Morey trades us Simmons for CJ+ whatever else they want in the summer

 

[julius]

and he got to the line 15 times! Powell is showing me everything we want in a SG next to Dame. I'm hoping and praying that Philly flames out in the playoffs and Morey trades us Simmons for CJ+ whatever else they want in the summer

I think you need to lay off the drugs that make you think the 76ers are trading Simmons (NOT saying I wouldn't want him on the team. I'd do that trade yesterday).

 

[Minstrel]

Even if Simmons becomes available, I don't think CJ+ is going to win the bidding war, or even come close.

 

[illmatic99]

I think you need to lay off the drugs that make you think the 76ers are trading Simmons (NOT saying I wouldn't want him on the team. I'd do that trade yesterday).

I'd trade everything but Dame on our team for Simmons. Just hope for a Philly flameout in the playoffs. Could happen-- they were after Beal. CJ is a reasonable facsimile, and we can extract value from Nurk that we can also send to Philly in the process.

 

[julius]

Denver hasn't lost since acquiring Aaron Gordon. It's not that he is putting up huge numbers....but he seems like a really good FIT for what makes them better.

Coaching.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

I'd trade everything but Dame on our team for Simmons. Just hope for a Philly flameout in the playoffs. Could happen-- they were after Beal. CJ is a reasonable facsimile, and we can extract value from Nurk that we can also send to Philly in the process.

The only way they trade us Simmons is if the reason they flame out is because of a career ending injury to Simmons.

 

[handiman]

I'd trade everything but Dame on our team for Simmons. Just hope for a Philly flameout in the playoffs. Could happen-- they were after Beal. CJ is a reasonable facsimile, and we can extract value from Nurk that we can also send to Philly in the process.

Even if Philly went for it, what would that accomplish? Simmons and Dame in the back court together is more redundant than Dame and CJ. At least CJ is comfortable playing off the ball and can play the catch-and-shoot game. Dame doesn't seem to like playing off the ball, and Simmons would be borderline useless in that role (at least on offense).

I'd be more interested in the Simmons + CJ pairing -- Dame for Simmons would be more likely to get Philly's interest, also -- as you'd get a better mesh of offensive roles. And back court height would go from poor to pretty darn good, with CJ being the shorter comoponent instead of the current taller one.

 

[BlazerBeav]

Coaching.

Meh. Denver, which has primarily been healthy (certainly moreso than Portland) has barely had any more success than we've had. Not sure that's an argument in Malone's favor.

 

[wizenheimer]

I think you need to lay off the drugs.

said one blazer fan to another....ironically

 

[wizenheimer]

Meh. Denver, which has primarily been healthy (certainly moreso than Portland) has barely had any more success than we've had. Not sure that's an argument in Malone's favor.

might be apples to oranges though

if you set Portland and it's 30 wins as the floor, then against teams with 30 wins or more, the Blazers have a 3-10 record; and 2 of those wins were against Philly, while the other was more than 3 months ago against the Lakers. Meanwhile, Denver has a 9-6 record against teams with 30 wins or more

that's a pretty dramatic difference and there's no doubt which is a better indicator for the playoffs

 

[RR7]

might be apples to oranges though

if you set Portland and it's 30 wins as the floor, then against teams with 30 wins or more, the Blazers have a 3-10 record; and 2 of those wins were against Philly, while the other was more than 3 months ago against the Lakers. Meanwhile, Denver has a 9-6 record against teams with 30 wins or more

that's a pretty dramatic difference and there's no doubt which is a better indicator for the playoffs

I agree, for the most part. However, to play devil's advocate, I could say that this shows that Denver is able to "get up" for a big game, but then suffers let downs against lesser opponents. Yes, those lesser opponents won't be in the playoffs, but, will they be able to "flip that switch" for an entire series, versus a Thursday night TNT game?
Is it a coaching issue that they're losing to teams lesser than us? Is it a focus issue?

I 100% agree that it is problematic that we just aren't showing up for big games. Absolutely. At the same time, I feel like if we were mediocre against lesser teams, a lot in here would use THAT as evidence of Stotts not being able to...keep us focused, get us up each night, etc.

 

[illmatic99]

Denver hasn't lost since acquiring Aaron Gordon. It's not that he is putting up huge numbers....but he seems like a really good FIT for what makes them better.

Yet another predictable scenario

 

[wizenheimer]

I agree, for the most part. However, to play devil's advocate, I could say that this shows that Denver is able to "get up" for a big game, but then suffers let downs against lesser opponents. Yes, those lesser opponents won't be in the playoffs, but, will they be able to "flip that switch" for an entire series, versus a Thursday night TNT game?
Is it a coaching issue that they're losing to teams lesser than us? Is it a focus issue?

I 100% agree that it is problematic that we just aren't showing up for big games. Absolutely. At the same time, I feel like if we were mediocre against lesser teams, a lot in here would use THAT as evidence of Stotts not being able to...keep us focused, get us up each night, etc.

I want to disagree with you because that's what I do. But I can't fault what you're saying. The Nuggets appear to have more variance, and it floats between stink and great. They play to the level of the competition at a wider scale than Portland. Lower floor, higher ceiling. Denver seems capable of putting together elite games against elite competition. Portland, not so much

I'm not sure if it's because the pieces fit together in better in Denver than in Portland, or if the Nuggets are simply more talented; maybe some of both. It might also be something as simple as Denver being capable of playing well for a longer time in a game than Portland is.

but this has pretty much been Blazer DNA in the Dame/CJ era (and the dame/Aldridge era too). Consistently work over the lesser teams and fall short against top-4 seeds. They kind of rose above that some in the 2018-19 season. At least that's how I'm remembering the seasons

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Guys. Durant’s back. Harden is out maybe a month. They’re up 32. Durant made all his shots. Aldridge scored 22. Fuck.

 

[Jayblaze]

Brooklyn your 2021 nba champions. Fuck the lakers!!!!

 

[JDC]

Denver's interesting.

Think their first unit fits great together offensively. They are really hard to switch against and Malone is really good at using his guards as screeners. Gordon blends in right in with what they like to run. I'll be interested to see that it looks like if in the playoffs teams choose to ignore him to muck things up although I think with their personnel, he could easily just become and screener/hand off guy and be effective, especially when all 4 of the other guys are threats to handle and shoot. Also can just put him the dunker spot and let him be finisher and still be ok.

Defensively I still have a lot of concerns. Their respectable ranking is largely coming from their bench units (Compazzo, Dozier, Green, Millsap and Morris are all above average defenders for their position) and although Gordon gives them a better option against LeBron and Kawhi, still not sure they have a great option against the Lakers vs AD at center lineups and their scheme vs the Jazz and Clippers opens them up to get lit up from 3. Less so against the Clippers though as they are more of an iso team rather than heavy pnr / drive and kick.

 

[BlazerBeav]

Dallas loses to Houston.

 

[Jayblaze]

We should be better than the suns but our shit coach is letting us down

 

[JDC]

We should be better than the suns but our shit coach is letting us down

I think health and bench play has been a much larger factor.

Do like that Monty has gotten more creative offensively. Was an issue with him during his days New Orleans. His ATO's are some of the best now and they'll run stack pnr (when a 3rd player sets a backscreen on the big/roller defender in pnr) with Booker as the screener from all different locations on the floor and in a bunch of different ways either as the initial action or they'll flow into it after something else. They run it so much that they'll even use it as a decoy to set something else up.

Been fun to watch.

They are a lot slower and much more of a half court execution/ late clock team with Paul than they were with Rubio--miss some of the fast break and half court chemistry Booker had with Rubio--but CP's shooting and pnr scoring definitely makes them a better team. Still one of the best guard defenders in the league as well.

 

[tlongII]

Phoenix looks good.

 

[KSF-ERIC]

Don’t look now but the Grizzlies are rollin and they don’t even have JJJ back. They could be trouble in the West.

 

[Jayblaze]

Phoenix looks good.

Suns and blazers will be first round exits and the playoff. Hope i'm wrong with the blazers though

 

[Pinwheel1]

The NBA is full of flopping, but the Phoenix -Utah game seems to have even more. CP3 and Booker are both annoying.
And of course, the Jazz always has a lot.

 

[Jayblaze]

How the fuck is cp3 the President of players union he is the biggest flopper. Suns have the 2 biggest whiners in the nba booker and cp3

 

[DDolla]

Watching the Suns and Jazz. The Blazers are no where near this teams. Just sad

 

[BigGameDamian]

Suns and blazers will be first round exits and the playoff. Hope i'm wrong with the blazers though

Phoenix will not be an easy first round exit. They look really good and they have good coaching. Something the Blazers lack.

 

[Jayblaze]

Watching the Suns and Jazz. The Blazers are no where near this teams. Just sad

Coaching is the deference between us and those 2 teams. We have the talent to better