The Blazers better land James Harden in FA this summer or this makes 0 sense. What a disastrous trade after another disastrous trade with RoCo and Norm. Team looks lost, getting 25 cents on the dollar.
Let's see here...who are the 2022 FAs... LOL, this is not a good list. Your best option is Harden who likely has bigger plans than playing with Dame...and Kyrie? Beal is on this list but I thought he extended? Beal and Dame not going anywhere unless they can get another big time player to form a trio any way. Dame and CJ were always redundant. They kept that duo far too long and should have flipped CJ when he was younger and had more value. Dame should be packing his bags if he wants to win a ring...but honestly nothing wrong if he just wants to retire a Blazer either.
Really? Seems like the Blazers have converted a few quarters into a bunch of pennies, nickels, and dimes, without any future source of income. Not sure how they really get much better.
Which is why I'm all in on the Chet boat. Not to derail the thread.... just feel that he has the best potential to be that two-way guy at the top of the draft.
Dame isn't going anywhere. That guy has his name on a Toyota dealership in McMinnville. The second he leaves the PNW, that place will become a ghosttown. The Trail Blazers are so disappointing. They've had really nice pieces come through over the last five years...and were so dead-set on the Lillard and McCollum duo that they never thought about blowing that up to get better. Ownership doesn't care, though. No matter who they throw out there, the Moda Center will sell out and fans will still come in droves (sounds a lot like the pre-21/22 season Texans).
Well done to the Pelicans. This is the "anti Danny Ainge" kind of move that teams accumulating assets need to make. They have a couple of decent players in Ingram and Zion, and have added a 3rd wheel. They aren't a contender, but getting pick 9 or 10 in the draft wouldn't make them one either. CJ McCollum isn't too old, and is a genuine threat on the offensive end which will create more room for Ingram to keep growing and expanding his game.
Although it is sad to see the cost they paid for those guys, to NOT make a move and pay lux tax would be doubling down on their mistakes. Sunk cost fallacy. Yes, they should have kept the picks and split Dame and CJ... they didn't. What to do now? Not split them and pay tax and forfeit the chance of any return?? Nurkic needs to go next - if they can find a buyer of any kind..
Can Stone take anything from Blazer's fire sale? Any interest in our vets. What if we throw in a KPJ?
So their plan is to build around a 32 year old undersized guard after dumping everything, brilliant. McCollum sucks relative to his salary, empty one way stats. He should be a 25 MPG bench scorer on a good team, so the trade really isn't bad for Portland. They can reallocate McCollums money to a more useful player, but they going nowhere one way or the other. The Powell and Covingtn salary dump is still the inexcusable one for me.
I think the blazers trade Nurk and go hard after Ayton in the summer. Their problem has always been defense and Ayton is one of the better young centers in the league. Furthermore they would still have enough cap space to sign one other big FA (25 million or so). The question is will PHX match the max offer for Ayton.
look at the pelicans at that mediocrity(if only) threadmill forever.... no top pick ever will ever help a clueless franchise
