Exclusive Playoffs or Lottery? (5 Viewers)

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After the Cleveland win is was still trying to get optimistic and believe this season will finaly start. But after each game my optimism disappear a little bit. Now? I just hope somthing drastic changes in this team.

And I hope that the 9th of February will not be an embarassement. Crossing Atlantic to see Boston blowing out Portland could end up being quite a dispointement.
 
Orion Bailey said:
Noel is worht $25 mill a year as an unproven? Too much IMO.
$20 mill a season.

Talk DMC into $27 a season. That gives us about $15 mill to fill the bench out. NO is a bargain hunter and can make it happen. But does he have the negotiating skills to sell Noel and DMC on taking less to be a perennial?
This is really the biggest question moving this team forward. With how money has been spent, NO better be a master negotiator at getting that third starter sign for less, or it wont happen.
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I very much doubt boogie would agree to less money, he has been around long enough and knows he might be the best big man in the league. Could maybe talk Noel down a bit, but even that might be iffy, typically players don't like to do that. and we have yet to see NO be able to talk someone down on price, all I have seen him do is throw money at the wall and hope it sticks.
 
The Pelicans are now just a 1/2 game behind the Blazers after crushing the Magic. The Kings are on the same 3-game losing streak as the Blazer so remain 1 game back after a long home stand and now Rudy Gay is likely out for the season. The Nuggest are now 3 ahead in the loss column on the Blazers but play the Spurs tonight.

Portland's next opponent just throttled the Raptors and are now 7-3 in their last 10 games. I just don't see the fight or tenacity from last season and no swagger or confidence at all. This team needs help in so many places which is why I'm starting to thing the CJ for Noel and multiple picks might be a good idea.
 
Keep CJ (for now), but trade the likes of Aminu/Davis/Plumlee/Crabbe/Vonleh/Meyers for picks or other young & unproven players. Fire Tater Totts this summer, and put together an entirely new team/system for next season built around Dame & CJ. If a new coach can't get better results from a Dame/CJ back court, then trade one of the two next season.
 
I refuse to root to lose. Fuck the draft. We're not even to the goddamned All-Star break yet.
 
BlazerWookee said:
I refuse to root to lose. Fuck the draft. We're not even to the goddamned All-Star break yet.
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I don't want to root for them to lose but the Draft is where they got Roy, Aldridge, Dame and CJ. This team needs a HUGE upgrade of talent and it's not coming here via Free Agency. You're right, we are not to the all-star break yet and could fairly easily make the #8 seed to be sacrificial lambs for the Warriors.

However, we are currently 4th in our own Division and only a couple of losses ahead of the Timberwolves. We are 9 1/2 games behind the Jazz whom almost every Blazer fan dismissed at the beginning of the season. We are 7 games back of the #7 seed and that's with OKC losing 2 games in a row.

Sure, there is time to go on a 20-10 stretch but that isn't likely to happen anytime soon and we are so far behind everyone that is over .500, they would have to go 13-17 over that same time period just for us to tie them. That doesn't seem likely either.

One really bad team is going to make the #8 seed in the West. If we were a good #8 seed like in many of the years past in the West where the #8 team had 45-50 wins, then I'd say that is just fine. To be so bad and still make the Playoffs, you are better served to get the help you need with a better selection in the Draft.....IMO.
 
TBpup said:
I don't want to root for them to lose but the Draft is where they got Roy, Aldridge, Dame and CJ. This team needs a HUGE upgrade of talent and it's not coming here via Free Agency. You're right, we are not to the all-star break yet and could fairly easily make the #8 seed to be sacrificial lambs for the Warriors.

However, we are currently 4th in our own Division and only a couple of losses ahead of the Timberwolves. We are 9 1/2 games behind the Jazz whom almost every Blazer fan dismissed at the beginning of the season. We are 7 games back of the #7 seed and that's with OKC losing 2 games in a row.

Sure, there is time to go on a 20-10 stretch but that isn't likely to happen anytime soon and we are so far behind everyone that is over .500, they would have to go 13-17 over that same time period just for us to tie them. That doesn't seem likely either.

One really bad team is going to make the #8 seed in the West. If we were a good #8 seed like in many of the years past in the West where the #8 team had 45-50 wins, then I'd say that is just fine. To be so bad and still make the Playoffs, you are better served to get the help you need with a better selection in the Draft.....IMO.
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Better served, better smerved. Play to win, period.
 
By the end of the day the pick be within two or three picks different so I say you still go for the playoff.
 
The way I see it is that our chances of sneaking into the Top 3 in the Draft Lottery will far surpass our chances of defeating either the Spurs or the Warriors in a 1/8 or 2/7 matchup.

Play the odds and root for losses.
 
What you root for has no effect, so there's no harm at all in rooting for wins, which is what I'm going to do. I still prefer cheering for them than against them.
 
Trackjack said:
By the end of the day the pick be within two or three picks different so I say you still go for the playoff.
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This is my thought as well. Although there is a chance they drop below a few more teams like Lakers, Minnesota, Pelicans, Kings, Denver, Dallas.......so if it happens fine, we get a better pick. But as we have seen over and over as of late with these young draft picks who need a few years to develop, there is not a big difference between 1 and say.......14.
 
chzbrgr said:
I think his point is that they do play to win.... but still lose by 20+ on a regular basis to sub 500 teams.

So what's the point of striving to be mediocre?
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His point is that they should lose intentionally so they'll get a better draft pick.
 
BlazerWookee said:
His point is that they should lose intentionally so they'll get a better draft pick.
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Whose point? I'm not sure if you're referring to me. I never want to intentionally lose, but at this point I'm hoping for losses rather than wins. I'm more interested in/concerned with our team's future than their present. I do understand your perspective, even if I don't share it.
 
Nikolokolus said:
There's no need. They're doing a bang-up job unintentionally.
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Entirely beside the point. Advocating or rooting for the team to lose is reprehensible behavior for one who calls himself a fan. Better draft position is far-too-insufficient consolation for a losing season, not a goal towards which to strive.
 
BlazerWookee said:
Entirely beside the point. Advocating or rooting for the team to lose is reprehensible behavior for one who calls himself a fan. Better draft position is far-too-insufficient consolation for a losing season, not a goal towards which to strive.
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That only depends on whether or not you are capable of thinking in terms of longer time horizons.
 
Last night was a night full of upsets that moved the Blazers are at #11 in the Lottery but are are now only 1/2 a game out of the #8 spot. OKC beat Utah, Miami stunned Golden State, the Pelicans shocked the Cavs and SAC beat Detroit.

The 6 teams trailing the Blazers in the West are all now within 4 games of Portland while they are still 7.5 games behind the #6 seed if they want to avoid the Spurs and the Warriors. That needs to be the goal. Otherwise, a really shot at a high Lottery pick is just a couple more losses away.
 
I'm not thinking about tanking to get a better draft pick. I just think they need to give more minutes and responsibility to guys like Vonleh, Leonard, Harkless and Crabbe. The idea is to either establish that they can be better than average contributors to the team or to increase their trade value.
For this to happen, I think that for the rest of the season, minutes and responsibility should be cut for guys like Lillard, McCollum, Plumlee and Davis. We already know what we have in these guys. (Although I would probably give the green light to Plumlee to keep shooting midrange shots, just to see if he can attain this skill or not). I would probably keep Tuner's minutes and responsibility about the same, he needs to keep working on how he can fit in and help the team.
So I guess I am not for the playoffs, but not for the lottery either; just looking at it a little differently. Looking at it for the longer term; which I understand is difficult since we have been doing it for so long; but it seems to be the best choice right now.
 
I just can't bring myself to worrying about where we end up. How many times do we need to say that the draft is a crap shoot when you have so many young players who are drafted on potential and not performance.

According to Draft Express' Mock draft.....17 out of the first 20 are either freshman or international. And quite frankly from what I have seen from the 2oth pick (TJ Leaf) I would much rather have him over the 14th pick Ivan Rabb.

There is no doubt that we need to build through the draft....we need to keep our picks. But when SA can continue to grab guys like Dejounte Murray at 29.....why should I be concerned with where we pick? I am more concerned with WHO we pick.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
I just can't bring myself to worrying about where we end up. How many times do we need to say that the draft is a crap shoot
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Boy howdy, I just learned that! TWO first-round draft picks of mine died tragically before training camp.

Typical.
 
Pinwheel1 said:
I just can't bring myself to worrying about where we end up. How many times do we need to say that the draft is a crap shoot when you have so many young players who are drafted on potential and not performance.

According to Draft Express' Mock draft.....17 out of the first 20 are either freshman or international. And quite frankly from what I have seen from the 2oth pick (TJ Leaf) I would much rather have him over the 14th pick Ivan Rabb.

There is no doubt that we need to build through the draft....we need to keep our picks. But when SA can continue to grab guys like Dejounte Murray at 29.....why should I be concerned with where we pick? I am more concerned with WHO we pick.
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Had they been in the lottery they still could have picked him though. Better to have a lottery pick than a pick in the 20s
 
I watch NC ST and Duke play last night I got to see Giles and Tatum and Smith play each one look good at times and than you see them freshman mistake with inexperience at that level. All 3 going be pretty good NBA players.
 
Mediocre Man said:
Had they been in the lottery they still could have picked him though. Better to have a lottery pick than a pick in the 20s
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Better than winning 67 games AND drafting a good player?

Bottom line for me is that when the draft is dominated by freshmen, (and international) the separation between pick 15 and pick 5 gets smaller. And as for the top of the draft....is Fultz another D'Angelo Russell? I am not sure I want to turn my team over to him.
 
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