Exclusive Playoffs or Lottery?

[TBpup]

Do you keep playing cousins at the 4 and Noel at the 5?

They are talented enough to be able to switch depending on matchups. Noel covers better out on the perimeter but is also a great shot-blocker from the weak side. Cousins has more bulk but it's not like he is a big stiff. Yes, CJ made him look silly on the perimeter but CJ should do that to opposing bigs. Cousins is an above average defender who can play inside/outside. Noel is a very versatile defender that is very limited on offense but did things in his first two years defensively that few before him have done.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I hate that people think of crabbe as a SF he can play there but its not his natural position and he's undersized when he plays there (which is all the fucking time with Terry running the show)

Yeah, if we can trade CJ for a DeMarcus then slide Crabbe to the SG, I'd be all for that. Then trade Aminu + Harkless for a defensive minded PF, it'd be great.

Tanking is just dumb though with this many tradeable assets + factoring in Lillard's age + the uncertainty of stacking draft picks.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

This is where we are going to disagree respectfully

Unless there is a franchise level Anthony Davis / LeBron James type, I don't know what the use is. If we're not the top 4 worst teams in the league we aren't going to win the lottery, and if a player is that good at the top they aren't going to trade those picks.

 

[Orion Bailey]

CJ for Noel straight up is about what you can expect. Maybe Philly tosses in a 1st rounder, but I doubt it considering how shitty their record is.

No way CJ is valued that little.
But whatever youre smoking ill take some.


So we are back to DMC and Noel.

I started a thread on it. It seems to be the overwhelming though for anyone who beleives we need ot make some changes.
I think we have the assets to make it happen on both sides, but it will take NO working up a sweat.

a roster of the following would be dangerous and still have an upside with young players still growing:

Dame/Napier
Crabbe/Turner
Harkless/Laymen
DMC/Davis
Noel/Plumlee.

 

[KeepOnRollin]

Evidence please. The Blazers are currently the worst defensive team in the league and the one doing the sliding and dropping. Short of a trade, what is going to drastically alter this team's fortunes and transform them into a .600+ team for the remaining 50~ games?

Oh I absolutely believe a trade is coming January 15th or shortly there after. So if it doesn't? Then, ya, I would re-evaluate.

This team didn't just forget how to play though. We aren't the same team that went 1 and 8 in our last 9. We may not be the team that went 7 and 4 in their first 11 right this minute either but closer to that imo and more than that at the deadline.

Getting healthy (having all the players available to play every game) would also help.

 

[TBpup]

Dame/Napier
Crabbe/Turner
Harkless/Laymen
DMC/Davis
Noel/Plumlee.

Not only is that team more balance and would play much better defense, imagine how fun and interesting that team could be.

 

[Orion Bailey]

its all about what Sac would want, but I would let them have their choice of
Leonard/Plums
Vonleh/Davis
Laymen/Connoughton

I would give all 6 if we keep our picks. we will make it up in the draft.

But a combination of the following players/draft picks should net us Noel/DMC

Leonard/Davis/Vonleh/Laymen/Plumlee/Crabbe/Turner/our 2 - 1st rounders


IMO to make this work, we can only get rid of Crabbe or Turner. Not both.

 

[riverman]

I've never been a lottery guy until really this season...it depends on whether we make a trade by the deadline to me...if we don't I don't see any advantage to getting crushed in the playoffs in the first round

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

No way CJ is valued that little.
But whatever youre smoking ill take some.


So we are back to DMC and Noel.

I started a thread on it. It seems to be the overwhelming though for anyone who beleives we need ot make some changes.
I think we have the assets to make it happen on both sides, but it will take NO working up a sweat.

a roster of the following would be dangerous and still have an upside with young players still growing:

Dame/Napier
Crabbe/Turner
Harkless/Laymen
DMC/Davis
Noel/Plumlee.

Tony Allen is on the block, I'd love him here.

 

[chzbrgr]

Yeah, if we can trade CJ for a DeMarcus then slide Crabbe to the SG, I'd be all for that. Then trade Aminu + Harkless for a defensive minded PF, it'd be great.

Tanking is just dumb though with this many tradeable assets + factoring in Lillard's age + the uncertainty of stacking draft picks.

Lillards age is irrelevant at this point IMO he's going to be 30+ by the time we are competitive anyways why worry about him? This team lacks talent at almost every position except pg obviously which is why we play 2 of em. We tore our team down to the studs two years ago and wasted last season with guys over performing for contracts. I just dont see why his timeline makes any sense in our rebuild.

 

[Nikolokolus]

its all about what Sac would want, but I would let them have their choice of
Leonard/Plums
Vonleh/Davis
Laymen/Connoughton

I would give all 6 if we keep our picks. we will make it up in the draft.

But a combination of the following players/draft picks should net us Noel/DMC

Leonard/Davis/Vonleh/Laymen/Plumlee/Crabbe/Turner/our 2 - 1st rounders


IMO to make this work, we can only get rid of Crabbe or Turner. Not both.

CJ is strictly a one-way player at this point. How in-demand do you really think he is around the league? Small(ish) 2-guards who don't defend aren't that hard to find. The one thing CJ does is very, very well is create his own shoot and shoot the long-ball.

 

[TBpup]

its all about what Sac would want, but I would let them have their choice of
Leonard/Plums
Vonleh/Davis
Laymen/Connoughton

That would be great but I don't think there is any way they trade Cousins to Portland without CJ being involved. Despite his antics, he is still possibly the best big man in the NBA. CJ, while good, is not quite at that level although much more of a positive in the community/personal actions department.

Let the rest of the roster provide the community love and PR and let Boogie bring some much needed attitude.

 

[BlazerWookee]

Rooting for the lottery?

Not just no, not just hell no, but hell fucking no.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I've never been a lottery guy until really this season...it depends on whether we make a trade by the deadline to me...if we don't I don't see any advantage to getting crushed in the playoffs in the first round

Who is your target in the lottery? Unless you have a target you are just throwing darts at board blindfolded.

 

[TBpup]

Rooting for the lottery?

Not just no, not just hell no, but hell fucking no.

I don't know that anyone is vigorously rooting for the Lottery but rather accepting that they are what their record says they are and making the best of a bad situation rather than scraping into the last Playoff spot with a sub .500 record and getting absolutely trounced in the Playoffs.

 

[riverman]

Who is your target in the lottery? Unless you have a target you are just throwing darts at board blindfolded.

Haven't followed it closely enough to know but I do like the way Olshey scouts the draft. Wouldn't be surprised if he tried to trade up this season if this draft is as good as some think it will be

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Lillards age is irrelevant at this point IMO he's going to be 30+ by the time we are competitive anyways why worry about him? This team lacks talent at almost every position except pg obviously which is why we play 2 of em. We tore our team down to the studs two years ago and wasted last season with guys over performing for contracts. I just dont see why his timeline makes any sense in our rebuild.

Because he's in his prime right now. If we are tanking, we might as well trade Lillard and CJs for 20 year old lottery picks from the past two years.

We have the assets to make trades to fix our deficiencies. We don't lack talent at every position. We are too stacked at the 3, have no 4 and pretty weak at the 5. Its easily fixable with a few trades and there's no need to tank.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Haven't followed it closely enough to know but I do like the way Olshey scouts the draft. Wouldn't be surprised if he tried to trade up this season if this draft is as good as some think it will be

So that's a no.

 

[riverman]

Rooting for the lottery?

Not just no, not just hell no, but hell fucking no.

I've been saying that forever...this season I'm not so sure it's the best...our keepers have been to the second round...if we're playing like we have been it's just an injury risk to me at this point....if we're above the 8th seed...that's different

 

[Orion Bailey]

CJ is strictly a one-way player at this point. How in-demand do you really think he is around the league? Small(ish) 2-guards who don't defend aren't that hard to find. The one thing CJ does is very, very well is create his own shoot and shoot the long-ball.

And Noel is strictly a one way player at this point that has not done much overall because of injuries. His upside is huge, but he is vastly unproven compared to CJ and SG are obviously in high demand.
Hell there are several people on this board that don't think it will even take Crabbe, and you don't think CJ is enough???????

That would be great but I don't think there is any way they trade Cousins to Portland without CJ being involved. Despite his antics, he is still possibly the best big man in the NBA. CJ, while good, is not quite at that level although much more of a positive in the community/personal actions department.

Let the rest of the roster provide the community love and PR and let Boogie bring some much needed attitude.

Oops. Yeah. I was going on my old thoughts of trying to create a big three with Dame, CJ and DMC.

Yeah, CJ will make it so we dont need to give up near as much...

Crabbe ( if we must also a pick) for Noel

CJ/Vonleh/Leonard/Pick for DMC


Dame/Napier
Turner/MLE
Harkless/Turner
DMC/Davis
Noel/Plumlee


That is still pretty solid and would leave us with money maneuverability (as long as Plums signs reasonably).

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

People bitching about the lottery are like butthurt anti-Trumpers. Things aren't going their way so they are sulking without a real plan to do anything. Get a grip, bros.

:MARIS61:

 

[riverman]

Because he's in his prime right now

I'm not so sure he's there yet

 

[chzbrgr]

Unless there is a franchise level Anthony Davis / LeBron James type, I don't know what the use is. If we're not the top 4 worst teams in the league we aren't going to win the lottery, and if a player is that good at the top they aren't going to trade those picks.

First if we get picks from Philly we COULD win the lotto or be in the top 5 without actually being the worst. Second off it doesnt even need to be that high to get a stud. We may not get the next lebron but that doesnt mean the draft is useless, Paul George was like 15 and there are many other examples of this. Third this draft class is stacked apparently and if we could get a couple picks in the lottery this year we could set us up for the end of Lillards contract and we get to watch him be the good stats bad team guy he is until then.

 

[santeesioux]

Trade CJ for a good young big man and use our lotto pick on a larger, more defensive oriented sg/sf like Jayson Tatum or Josh Jackson, who is being compared to Kawhi.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

First if we get picks from Philly we COULD win the lotto or be in the top 5 without actually being the worst. Second off it doesnt even need to be that high to get a stud. We may not get the next lebron but that doesnt mean the draft is useless, Paul George was like 15 and there are many other examples of this. Third this draft class is stacked apparently and if we could get a couple picks in the lottery this year we could set us up for the end of Lillards contract and we get to watch him be the good stats bad team guy he is until then.

I doubt they unprotect their draft picks. No one does that.

So your argument is that Paul George was drafted at 15th? Yeah, its a total crapshoot. How many 5th picks in the draft ended up being shit? A lot of them.

 

[Orion Bailey]

Who is your target in the lottery? Unless you have a target you are just throwing darts at board blindfolded.

Two options there. You either find a player of need and that would fit our culture/roster or you take the best player available and then use him in a trade for what we need. Or we pre-plan the trade and draft the player the other team wants.

Many options to use this draft to our advantage even IF we make the playoffs.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Two options there. You either find a player of need and that would fit our culture/roster or you take the best player available and then use him in a trade for what we need. Or we pre-plan the trade and draft the player the other team wants.

Many options to use this draft to our advantage even IF we make the playoffs.

We wouldn't even know our lottery position. What if we get the 10th pick in the draft, trade CJ for the next Noah Vonleh, then what? Its a total crapshoot. Got to construct the team smarter. Not the first sign of trouble, throw everything on the floor, kick the desk over and hope to lose every game.

 

[riverman]

I doubt they unprotect their draft picks. No one does that.

So your argument is that Paul George was drafted at 15th? Yeah, its a total crapshoot. How many 5th picks in the draft ended up being shit? A lot of them.

Thomas Robinson or Harrison Barnes were 5 and 7? Not sure but I also think ....Meyers Leonard was 11

 

[chzbrgr]

I doubt they unprotect their draft picks. No one does that.

So your argument is that Paul George was drafted at 15th? Yeah, its a total crapshoot. How many 5th picks in the draft ended up being shit? A lot of them.

because the alternative is to wait on mythical internal improvement Ill take the fucking dartboard thank you very much

 

[BigGameDamian]

Lillards age is irrelevant at this point IMO he's going to be 30+ by the time we are competitive anyways why worry about him? This team lacks talent at almost every position except pg obviously which is why we play 2 of em. We tore our team down to the studs two years ago and wasted last season with guys over performing for contracts. I just dont see why his timeline makes any sense in our rebuild.

Agree. The age limit thing is forgettable.