Yay or Nay?

[BrianFromWA]

Isn't that what great teams do that are on the brink of a championship a lot of the time?

I can think of only one team in the last decade that did, and it didn't work out for them.

2012-13 Finalists: Heat didn't make any trades, Spurs didn't make any trades.
2011-12 Finalists: Heat didn't make any trades. Thunder traded Green, Krstic and a 1st for Perkins and Krypto-Nate.
2010-11 Finalists: Heat didn't make midseason trade. DAL traded in the summer for Tyson Chandler, giving up Carroll, Najera and Dampier. Seems like a buy-low scenario.
2009-10 Finalists: L*kers didn't make any trade. BOS didn't make a trade.
2008-09 Finalists: L*kers didn't make any trade. ORL needed a PG after Nelson went down, and traded Brian Cook and a protected 1st for Rafer Alston. Hardly buying high.
2007-08 Finalists: BOS made their "Big 3" trade, but I don't know that they "Bought high". LAL made the Gasol trade for peanuts.
2006-07 Finalists: SAS didn't make a trade. CLE didn't make a trade.
2005-06 Finalists: MIA had already traded for Shaq the year before and signed FA vets. DAL didn't make any trades.
2004-05 Finalists: SAS didn't make a trade. DET didn't make a trade.
2003-04 Finalists: LAL didn't make a trade (just FA signings). DET's trade for Sheed sent out Bobby Sura, Zelco Rebrajca and a protected 1st. I don't see that as "buying high".

To your point, I think that history shows that unless you're getting a star for pennies on the dollar, contenders generally roll with what they have starting out the season.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Portland could well be a player away from a legit run.

That being said, that player ain't Prince. We are set in the backcourt, for the most part. I think if you could get a guy like Asik or, even better for this team IMO, Hawes, to buy in to what we're doing and come off the bench, this team would have no limits to where it could go. We need another quality big that offers some above-average talents in a few facets of the game. Prince deepens an area I feel we've got pretty well covered and takes away a decent deep threat and weakens our bench at the 4/5 (I don't care what MM says about Meyers, he does contribute).

 

[Pinwheel1]

We should not repeat one of the worst all time trades in franchise history:
http://www.blazersedge.com/2011/10/...s-all-time-most-disappointing-acquisitions-11

basically, we traded a future allstar for a player who didn't help us at all. This trade shortened our window.

This was the first thing I thought of as well. Sure Drazen was better than Leonard and Wright, but the goal was to get a seasoned vet to come off the bench. And we basically wasted a good trade asset on the wrong vet.