I guess that's true on Roy and Aldridge but man we were terrible before drafting them. Won 21 games the prior season. One draft really shot us out of that shithole. Why can't it happen again?
I don't really consider much of the WCF team because I don't think we had any shot. The last time I felt we could contend was the year Wes went down. I also don't really consider the last 3 years when I consider our future because we had Dame for two of those years. Even if we shut him down, we weren't close to competing for anything. We aren't close to competing right now either, but with plenty of young pieces and assets, there is hope to he had.
Portland wasn't close to competing with Dame because of years of idiot decisions by a stubborn ego-blind GM. The roster was a fucking mess, better suited for a 6'4 & under league than the NBA. More than that is the roster had way too much salary & usage invested in non-all-star role players: CJ-Powell-Nurkic-RoCo-Nance. Dame had about the best numbers in the 2021 playoffs: 34 & 10 on league leading efficiency, but that 5 man cadre of role-playing veterans couldn't do shit to support him
you asked why people were glooming about the Blazer future...well, one of the reasons I'm glooming is because I suspect that Cronin intends to build a
bargain-bin-fence-straddling version of a big-3 in the treadmill trio of Ant-Grant-Ayton. That has
play-in/late-lottery written all over it, the same as
CJ-Powell-Nurkic-RoCo-Nance, only the Blazers won't have a top-10 player to bail them out
but there are other reasons why I'm glooming. The main one being I'm convinced the Blazers have a '
don't-care-much-about-winning-just-keep-the-cash-flowing' owner. That just about guarantees Murphy's Law will apply. Paul Allen had his faults (
biggest was hiring and sticking with Olshey) but he was emotionally invested in the Blazers winning & competing. I don't believe Jody and the Vulcans are
I'm still hopeful about Sharpe & Scoot, but my expectations have tempered way down from a year ago. I question whether Sharpe has the needed alpha genes & durability. And Scoot has miles to go before he's even an average starting PG. Walker and Camara show plenty of signs of being decent role players, but the NBA is filled with those
Blazers have 4 draft picks in a draft that is widely panned as being terrible. That seems to be enough of a consensus that those picks likely have about as low value as a draft pick can have. Maybe the Blazers can hit a jackpot and find a hidden gem, but it probably means the best the Blazers can do is add another role-player or two, and they may be the typical '
2-years-away-from-being-2-years-away' players. And, speaking of picks, the potential upside picks from the Dame trade are still 6 & 7 drafts away
you mentioned Cooper Flagg, from next year's draft. Yeah, that would be great. But again, where are the indications that Cronin intends to tank again next season? Having Blazer Broadcasting constantly extol Ant's talent and feature him as Portland's star; trading for Ayton & Timelord; signing Grant for 160M; matching the offer for Thybulle. Those are not the moves of a GM intending to stake out a high slot in future lotteries. They are the moves of a GM intending to buy a home in Purgatory.