The ugly truth

[Bingo Bango]

All of these things are now obvious:

The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum
Lillard is on the downslope of his career
Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self
Billups is not a better coach than Stotts
Shaedon Sharp is a huge project
Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker
The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

 

[TBpup]

They do seem worse without CJ, even thought they added an actual forward. That said, they are just a worse version of mediocre than before.
Not good enough to be anywhere close to a contender.
Not bad enough to get a significant player in the Draft.

 

[DaLong]

What if we got Giannis at the deadline? Huh? Huh?

Oh, right, he'd get a microfracture injury in his foot shortly thereafter.

 

[C_note]

Too slow at the 5 position on both ends, period.
Don't ask me how to improve that, but that's the glaring weakness.

 

[Tince]

All of these things are now obvious:

The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum
Lillard is on the downslope of his career
Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self
Billups is not a better coach than Stotts
Shaedon Sharp is a huge project
Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker
The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

• I'm not sure CJ is the reason they're worse.
• Lillard just finished one of the best weeks of his career.
• Yes on Nurk
• Yes on Billups
• Yes on Sharp
• Depends what you define "difference-maker"
• They can make the playoff, but the roster was never good enough to make noise
• It's have to be a major (steal of a) trade to become a 2nd round playoff team.

 

[blazedanugz]

Dame is on the downslope? Jesus dude he was just averaging 40 a game in his last 5-6 games.

 

[Tince]

Dame is on the downslope? Jesus dude he was just averaging 40 a game in his last 5-6 games.

The beauty of these "Dame has reached his peak" predictions we've been reading for a few years is that the people making them will eventually be right. I look forward to hearing about it for another 5+ years.

 

[blazedanugz]

The beauty of these "Dame has reached his peak" predictions we've been reading for a few years is that the people making them will eventually be right. I look forward to hearing about it for another 5+ years.

just the worst take of the year so far

 

[Strenuus]

All of these things are now obvious:

The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum
Lillard is on the downslope of his career
Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self
Billups is not a better coach than Stotts
Shaedon Sharp is a huge project
Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker
The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

When #1 was false I stopped reading lol

 

[blazerkor]

All of these things are now obvious:

The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum
Lillard is on the downslope of his career
Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self
Billups is not a better coach than Stotts
Shaedon Sharp is a huge project
Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker
The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I'm sure Dame is further than halfway through his career but he is solidly in his prime. He's playing as good on offense as has been as an all nba player and he's playing the best defense I've seen out of him.
We aren't worse without CJ, we have the same problems because Ant is so similar in weaknesses.
Nurk needs a change of scenery and a coach that will stay on him about using the most massive body in the league in a way that makes sense on both ends... Chauncey obviously isn't that guy.
Chauncey doesn't seem like he's better than Stotts but Terry did have teams with a lot more length... Terry looked terrible when he had to coach undersized teams and his bench was never this lacking in size, he at least had two bigs on every roster and usually more.
Shae looks good but he also looks like he needs a lot more time before he is confident enough to be a difference maker on a winning team.
Gary needs to get healthy but he is a difference maker on defense and has been finishing when open inside and out.
The Blazers are literally a game and a half out of 6th in the West.
No trade is making us a contender but I'm sure there are a few moves that could make us four or five games better in relation to .500 than we are right now and that would put us in the fifth seed.

Not making a trade because it won't win us a championship this season is not an acceptable reason for a front office to neglect there duty to try and make the roster better. Sorry that's just the way I see it.

 

[blazerkor]

just the worst take of the year so far

Dame's offense plateaued seasons ago but it has not dropped off. His defense has never looked better. I think he'll look worse four seasons from now, I would almost guarantee that but I doubt he is going to have a huge dropoff next season or the season after... look at Steph. Both guys played four years of college ball, both guys took a year off to get healthy and both guys play similar styles of offense. Steph is still thriving, Dame will likely be thriving as far into his career as Steph is now and maybe further into his career then Steph does because Dame's frame is sturdier.

The fact is Dame hasn't shown any signs of falling off.

 

[THE HCP]

All of these things are now obvious:

The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum
Lillard is on the downslope of his career
Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self
Billups is not a better coach than Stotts
Shaedon Sharp is a huge project
Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker
The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

I would say that all those things should have been pretty apparent in September FAMS!

 

[THE HCP]

When #1 was false I stopped reading lol

You think we are BETTER than when we had CJ on this roster? WOuld LOVE to hear this argument.

 

[Strenuus]

You think we are BETTER than when we had CJ on this roster? WOuld LOVE to hear this argument.

We dont have CJ.

-thats- the argument lol. We are always going to be better without CJ.

 

[Tince]

You think we are BETTER than when we had CJ on this roster? WOuld LOVE to hear this argument.

I don't think the question is if we were better two years ago vs today, I think the question is why:

We were also better when TJ Leaf was on the roster than we are when Jerami Grant was. However, to imply losing Leaf or obtaining Grant is the reason for the slippage would seem inaccuate.

The Blazers were 21-33 before trading CJ last year, so I'd say the downfall started prior to CJ being moved.

 

[HomerLovesKoolAid]

All of these things are now obvious:

The Blazers are worse without CJ McCollum
Lillard is on the downslope of his career
Nurkic is a shadow of his pre-injury self
Billups is not a better coach than Stotts
Shaedon Sharp is a huge project
Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker
The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

Sorry, but that’s the way I see it. This team is a mess. It’s going nowhere. Making a trade before the deadline would be like re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

The chairs weren't the problem on the Titanic.
It was the iceberg, and we'll call it Neil Fucking Olshey.

 

[Phatguysrule]

The Blazers are not a playoff team
A big mid-season trade won’t change that

The Blazers have had the 11 toughest strength of schedule so far.

https://www.teamrankings.com/nba/ranking/schedule-strength-by-other

Portland has the second easiest strength of schedule to finish the season... And several of the teams ahead of us have among the toughest schedules to finish. And we're a game or two from the 6th seed right now.

Barring major injury problems I'd be shocked if we miss the playoffs.

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba...r-nba-all-star-break/pydaqsigmc0kq7jxvbcnuzyr

 

[42N8Bounce]

I wouldn't argue against Dame being past his peak. But he's still damn good and I think he has many solid years ahead of him.

 

[MickZagger]

The beauty of these "Dame has reached his peak" predictions we've been reading for a few years is that the people making them will eventually be right. I look forward to hearing about it for another 5+ years.

I started saying it this summer when the $200 million extension came into play. It’s not that I don’t think Lillard is washed, it’s that his window is closing. 2, maybe 3 years of typical Lillard level ball is what I expect.

 

[blazedanugz]

You think we are BETTER than when we had CJ on this roster? WOuld LOVE to hear this argument.

we wouldn’t be any better if you put CJ in for Ant.

 

[KingSpeed]

I don’t know about a big trade but midseason moves can make a difference. We picked up Hood and Kanter in 2019 and they were a big reason we went to the WCF. Midseason moves can also deliver a title. See the 1995 Rockets getting Clyde and the 2004 Pistons getting Sheed. Instant title in both cases.

As for CJ, we don’t win Game 7 in Denver without him and Simons isn’t as good.

As for tonight, our defense and energy was great. We just couldn’t make open shots. It was maddening.

Next 5 are against sub 500 teams. Let’s win ‘em all. Should put us at 5th/6th.

 

[AldoTrapani]

When #1 was false I stopped reading lol

hello can u see this?? Hmm I can say whatever I want to u hehe

 

[Whyachi]

we wouldn’t be any better if you put CJ in for Ant.

Dame CJ and Grant ?? McCollum knows how to feed the bigs much better then a continuous barrage of Ant spasms

 

[Bingo Bango]

The Blazers have had the 11 toughest strength of schedule so far.

Yeah, that’s the ticket. It’s our schedule!

Good Lord. If the 11th-toughest schedule is what’s causing all these losses, we are truly pathetic.

 

[Predator]

This was pretty much what I expected when our stated off-season goal was to get “longer and more athletic”… then we went out and got smaller while hardcapping ourselves for GPII

 

[Phatguysrule]

Yeah, that’s the ticket. It’s our schedule!

Good Lord. If the 11th-toughest schedule is what’s causing all these losses, we are truly pathetic.

Playing tougher teams will result in more losses for all but the best teams in the league.

You claimed we're not a playoff team.

Point is that while we're not among the best few teams in the league we are very likely a playoff team. Just like we have been the last several years.

We're just about exactly as good as we were with CJ.

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Not bad enough to get a significant player in the Draft.

YET

 

[Rastapopoulos]

Gary Payton will not be a difference-maker

Hard to know when he NEVER FUCKING PLAYS

 

[TBpup]

Might win some or even most of the next 5 home games, but those won't be against teams (with maybe one exception) that they would face in the playoffs. Even if this team sneaks into the Play In round and even advances, they will just very likely be dismissed quite quickly and promptly hand over their pick to Chicago.

The only way I can see this changing direction with some size, is to trade Ant which I'm not saying they should do and I don't think Blazer management would do. So we are stuck rearranging deck chairs while having to pay Grant more money next year.

Just don't see a contender anytime soon unless Sharpe becomes the 2nd coming.

 

[Hoopguru]

The Real truth is Joe made it clear from the outset that this team won't be a contender right away, sorry if that doesn't meet your expectations.
We have assets and some good pieces, and as he said, the goal is to surround Dame with some players that can help get us to the point where we are contenders and it may take a couple years. At least we have a GM and owner that seem willing to give it a try for Dames sake.
Trade's are on the horizon so let's see if the mix of players that Joe brings in through the next off season will in fact help get us, there.