So like.... are we too good to tank now?

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Right now, with a clear goal of making a playoff run next year, there’s no reason to offload a valuable scorer like Ant. Should he transition into a sixth-man role? Absolutely, after the trade deadline.

As for the idea that a team must follow the Batman and Robin model to succeed, I say ride the Justice League, and see what happens. Okay, maybe that doesn't work, as they were all Batman. Wonder Twins, or maybe the Wonder Quintuplets?

Scoot makes Sharpe and Ayton better. Deni and Camara make everyone around them better. Who takes the last shot, which is really the only question, comes down to who's hot.
 
bemac said:
Right now, with a clear goal of making a playoff run next year, there’s no reason to offload a valuable scorer like Ant. Should he transition into a sixth-man role? Absolutely, after the trade deadline.

As for the idea that a team must follow the Batman and Robin model to succeed, I say ride the Justice League, and see what happens. Okay, maybe that doesn't work, as they were all Batman. Wonder Twins, or maybe the Wonder Quintuplets?

Scoot makes Sharpe and Ayton better. Deni and Camara make everyone around them better. Who takes the last shot, which is really the only question, comes down to who's hot.
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Who was the last team to win a title without a legit Batman?
 
Phatguysrule said:
Walton, Drexler, Dame, Roy... Have we ever had another "championship" caliber Batman?

Sheed? But he wasn't ever good enough without Sabas (or Billups and Big Ben in Detroit)... And even Sheed would probably tell you he was no Batman.
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Scoot might be. We'll see.
 
Natebishop3 said:
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bemac said:
Right now, with a clear goal of making a playoff run next year, there’s no reason to offload a valuable scorer like Ant. Should he transition into a sixth-man role? Absolutely, after the trade deadline.

As for the idea that a team must follow the Batman and Robin model to succeed, I say ride the Justice League, and see what happens. Okay, maybe that doesn't work, as they were all Batman. Wonder Twins, or maybe the Wonder Quintuplets?

Scoot makes Sharpe and Ayton better. Deni and Camara make everyone around them better. Who takes the last shot, which is really the only question, comes down to who's hot.
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Why wait to move him to the sixth-man role if the intent is to keep him anyway? Makes no sense.
 
KingSpeed said:
We’re playing our best basketball in years, esp on the defensive end. Scoot and Sharpe are emerging. They have been very fun to watch.
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And the guy that many love to hate had a 10-12 for 22 night with 3 steals and ran down the court on a couple fast breaks.

I've been saying since we got Ayton that you need to keep his feet moving in the offense. If you do that, he can play at a very high level.

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blazerfan11 said:
And the guy that many love to hate had a 10-12 for 22 night with 3 steals and ran down the court on a couple fast breaks.

I've been saying since we got Ayton that you need to keep his feet moving in the offense. If you do that, he can play at a very high level.

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I really have no problem with Ayton. I expect he'll play harder when we're actually playing for something.
 
The Blazers just kicked the crap out of the team with the 2023 Rookie-of-the-year/ 2023 All Rookie First Team / #1 pick who was an All Star in 2024. (Banchero)

That team also has a player who was on the 2022 All Rookie First Team. (Wagner, 8th pick 2021)

I would call that a Batman and Robin.
 
andalusian said:
Dude has been a top 10 player in the league for 3 years now.
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I agree but he's not a Lebron, Luka, Steph or Blazer era Dame etc type batman..he's a team guy as great as he is. I think they are a good example of a collectively good team that has a handful of captains. Holiday is as much of an alpha as Tatum on that team.
 
riverman said:
I agree but he's not a Lebron, Luka, Steph or Blazer era Dame etc type batman..he's a team guy as great as he is. I think they are a good example of a collectively good team that has a handful of captains. Holiday is as much of an alpha as Tatum on that team.
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Disagree. Tatum is Batman, for sure. And he has an incredibly talented supporting cast.

Boston probably wouldn't trade their backup PG for any single player on our team.
 
blazerfan11 said:
The Blazers just kicked the crap out of the team with the 2023 Rookie-of-the-year/ 2023 All Rookie First Team / #1 pick who was an All Star in 2024. (Banchero)

That team also has a player who was on the 2022 All Rookie First Team. (Wagner, 8th pick 2021)

I would call that a Batman and Robin.
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Yeah, we've always hung our hats on small insignificant victories here in Portland.
 
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I think we’re a Guershon Yabusele away from being a legit contender
 
Pinwheel1 said:
Yes

Of course, the price needs to be right.

But both are talented. I want Scoot to continue to improve and start, and I want Ant to provide scoring off the bench.
Ayton is a good compliment to either Clingan or Williams.
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Ant as a backup at 27M/year on a lottery/play-in level team is completely unrealistic. And expecting him to sign for less that that is unrealistic too.

Williams is a much better complement to Clingan than Ayton is. Of course, he an injury time bomb. Personally, I don't think Ayton is worth 20M/year; too many flaws he has no interest in correcting. But he'll walk (please!) if the Blazers offer him 20M or less

e_blazer said:
They aren’t free agents until 2026 so why is that an immediate concern?
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because if you don't want them re-signed then there is no compelling reason to keep them past this trade deadline. All the wishful thinking about their value jumping up as expiring contracts is kind of loopy, IMO
 
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blazerfan11 said:
The Blazers just kicked the crap out of the team with the 2023 Rookie-of-the-year/ 2023 All Rookie First Team / #1 pick who was an All Star in 2024. (Banchero)

That team also has a player who was on the 2022 All Rookie First Team. (Wagner, 8th pick 2021)

I would call that a Batman and Robin.
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Word. Spittin' straight facts. I hate this idea that we have to get better players, we have to get more top draft picks or well suck!!! It's so untrue. Any NBA player can become an all-star/even superstar, especially players that show skills and talent like our current players. You just have to stop the stupid fucking tanking. Stop trying to be greedy and go for more or better picks. That holds your current players back and is stifling to them and most importantly (or egregiously), it tells them you don't have the confidence in them to ascend and you don't believe they can. You want someone else, someone new, shinier, "better". Fuck that.

Just stop trying manipulate things and play hard and with heart every game. Develop who you have. For God's sake, Anfernee FRICKIN Simons has scored something like high 20's in one quarter multiple times. If that isn't a "Batman", what the Hell is???? And people want to trade him away. People don't believe in him. The dude could be Dame 3.0 given the right coaching and support and opportunity. We have Deni and Tou now to provide the guards with that killer wing support. Let's fucking GOOOOO!

Even Jabari Walker has plenty of skill and talent to be a great wing, but there is the matter of opportunity; he has to sit to give minutes to his superiors. It is good to have the depth in case of injury, though. I think coaches should play deeper into the bench and bring out fresh legs more often and mix things up. Banton and Walker are perfect examples of this. It also throws a wrench into the opposing team's strategies. Murray and even Rupert (who was playing like a Camara protege) are also capable.

Anyway, you don't need a number one.

Look at fucking Banchero. Numero Uno Banchero. Absolutely right, we fucked him up TWICE and manhandled him like Shaq playing against a 12 year old kid.

We are ready now. Tanking is the worst thing about the NBA. On so many levels. The current draft system rewarding losing teams is braindead, but until they change it, you don't have to embrace it.
 
Phatguysrule said:
Yeah, we've always hung our hats in small insignificant victories here in Portland.
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You missed his point completely. He was talking about the high draft picks, especially Banchero who got completely shut down by much lower draft picks. Point being, that you don't need the number one pick to have great players playing great and winning. It's all about attitude and culture. Play hard to win. Remember a few years back when the Blazers were trying to get a more favorable matchup in the playoffs at the end of the season and they put in all their deep bench players and those young kids ended up stomping all over another team? Perfect example. I think Ant was one of them and scored like 39 points as a rookie and had 11 threes or something ridiculous like that.

Fuuuuck. Ant is easily capable of eclipsing Dame. He's significantly taller, he's got better reach, he shoots better. Come on. Give him some credit and build him up and watch him fly.

The kid is just coming into his "I'm ready to rock" phase. He was drafted out of highschool. Dame had 4 years of college to develop. Well, Ant has had 6 years of NBA experience and I would say that is better experience, but could have been a lot better had it been spent really playing hard and in a better culture and less taking years. God, did I mention I hate tanking?!?!??
 
Domihatin said:
You missed his point completely. He was talking about the high draft picks, especially Banchero who got completely shut down by much lower draft picks. Point being, that you don't need the number one pick to have great players playing great and winning. It's all about attitude and culture. Play hard to win. Remember a few years back when the Blazers were trying to get a more favorable matchup in the playoffs at the end of the season and they put in all their deep bench players and those young kids ended up stomping all over another team? Perfect example. I think Ant was one of them and scored like 39 points as a rookie and had 11 threes or something ridiculous like that.

Fuuuuck. Ant is easily capable of eclipsing Dame. He's significantly taller, he's got better reach, he shoots better. Come on. Give him some credit and build him up and watch him fly.

The kid is just coming into his "I'm ready to rock" phase. He was drafted out of highschool. Dame had 4 years of college to develop. Well, Ant has had 6 years of NBA experience and I would say that is better experience, but could have been a lot better had it been spent really playing hard and in a better culture and less taking years. God, did I mention I hate tanking?!?!??
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We don't need the #1 pick. It would be nice, but the odds are better than average that we'll get a player better than anybody on our team in the top 5.

We still don't have enough talent to trade for a missing piece, even if all of our picks live up to their potential.

Unfortunately in places like Portland, with the trade limitations and salary cap, tanking hard is the only way to rebuild with any legitimate hope of success.

And I don't think Ant is anywhere close to Dame. There was never a time in Dame's career that we would have had trouble trading him for a good first round pick.
 
POR is not too good to tank but a few good games has convinced the organization they are. POR is beating nobody but the WIZ in a 7 game series. Simple as that.
 
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