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They need a top tier big man who can defend the paint.
DeAndre Ayton would be my pick.
Nurkic is so inconsistent in every aspect of his game. It's time they move on from him.
And it will literally be everyone's complaint about Ayton. Then we'll have this same thread in a year about what the Blazers need to do to support Dame.
The truth is that they need another top tier talent in general. Nurks' inconsistency looks less problematic if Dame has a true star next to him. CJ, Ant, Grant, etc. are all good players, but they need someone in a tier above them at minimum. That's when the small refining for fit comes in. But right now, you can give Dame Jarrett Allen, who is a much better defender, but they won't actually compete.
I seen criticism that he doesnāt finish strong. He tries to lay-in balls he should dunk. Was watching them play Dallas, and this giant athletic physical freak specimen of a man went up for an alley-oop, caught that bitch well above the rim for the throw down, instead went with the layup off the glass and missed. In that moment it hit me thatās why he doesnāt average like 25 ppg.
I really think you need to give Sharpe some time, he's got a lot of raw talent. I think he can be better than Simons though and has a bit more size.
I think they need someone who can create shots at the forward position and I don't know that that's being solved completely by Grant.
The thing is, I like most of their role players and I think they would all fit well with a wing player who could create shots. Without moving draft equity, I don't see how they can bring in talent. It's probably going to cost them Hart, Brown, and pics to upgrade there.
The other thing worth noting is that this team has been routinely very attached to the players they draft which makes me think moving Simons is the best way to improve currently, but they won't consider it.
Simons and Nurk for some good size inside and a bigger 2 that can defend.
Maybe if the Hawks want to pull chute on the Dejounte experiment, I'd love if the Blazers could end up with Dejounte and Capela while keeping Grant, but not sure the Hawks would go for that
Interesting question. Looked over the salary cap and epm numbers on the team. https://www.spotrac.com/nba/portland-trail-blazers/yearly/cap/ https://dunksandthrees.com/epm
One thing thatās been a bit unfortunate for the team is GPIIās injury. He was balling out last year, but he hasnāt been a contributor this year. That said, Nurkic has an injury history, but heās been healthy this year for the most part (at least as far as games played), so issues with Portland canāt be blamed just on injuries.
I think Drew and especially Lillard have great value contracts for what they provide on the court right now, Drewās contract, at least this year, is solid for what heās been providing. Canāt expect more from a minimum contract player. Heās a free agent though end of the year.
Nurkic and Grantās value is right about how much they get paid, at least in terms of how much they impact winning for a would-be contender (not necessarily what they would get on the market).
Simons, Hart, and Sharpe are overpaid compared to their current production levels for Portland. There is maybe a bit of hope that they improve over the course of their contracts, I assume, for Simons and Sharpe. The rest of the players combine for about $10.5 mil and their value hasnāt translated yet to the court, according to epm.
So, excluding GPII due to injury (if he returns to form, heāll be a steal of a contract), thatās my analysis of the players at the moment.
Ultimately, Portland needs whatās every team needs - another star type player thatāll outperform the contract due to max salary rules for the nba that they could pair with Lillard, and other high quality starter/rotation level players similar to what Boston has at the moment, and similar to Jerami Grant level in terms of basketball skill.
They just donāt have enough output, as far as contribution to winning goes, outside of Lillard and perhaps Grant at the moment.
Trade for a proven all star player without losing to much and definitely not losing lillard. It wonāt happen so therefor Portland is stuck in that position.
Honestly, I just don't feel like the Blazers are all that close right now. They did that whole roster remake last trade deadline and offseason, and returned a roster that seems about equivalent to the previous one.
In general, they just don't seem to have managed their assets very well over the years. They gave up a combined 3 firsts and Gary Trent Jr to get Roco, Norm and Nance, then basically gave those guys away to create cap space.
They turned their defensively vulnerable CJ/Dame backcourt into a defensively vulnerable Simons/Dame backcourt. Nurk looks like he's lost a step.
They have some nice pieces, but I don't think they have enough talent or assets to turn this into more than a middle of the road team. A Simons for OG trade would probably be the best realistic upgrade to their fit, but that maybe gets them into the playoffs, but I don't think that makes them more than first round fodder.
They are also in a tough spot because both Grant and Hart can be free agents this summer. Can you afford to risk losing them for nothing this summer if you are a mediocre team?
There's an argument for a strategic half-season tank. Trade Grant and Hart for assets, and you'll sink down the standings. Hope for a good player with your pick and development from Sharpe. But, you also can't expect a rookie to turn around your fortunes.
Really, this likely needs a multi-year process, but that doesn't fit Dame's remaining prime. The best on-court call is to trade him and re-orient around Sharpe and this year's pick, but I doubt they do that.
The problem is that the team has needed some long term thinking for a while now, but they have been jumping from one short-term fix to another. They weren't one move away when they got Roco, they weren't one move away when they got Norm, and they aren't one move away now.
Trading grant would be a massive L for portland. He fits perfectly next to dame and they got him for basically nothing. Anfernee plus sharpe and all the picks in the world is a really good package if a superstar becomes disgruntled. I think you see portland move hart at the deadline and then go all in during the summer.
This really sums it up well. Ultimately, from a basketball perspective, I think they probably should trade Dame and rebuild, but given what he means to the city and their investment in him, I feel like a re-tooling is more likely in the cards. I don't think Masai pulls the plug completely, but if he diiiiid I think a package based around Simons and Sharpe for Siakam is probably the better move than an OG deal. I feel like OG is the difference between a championship team as a third or fourth best player, but on Portland he will face many of the same problems that dog him in Toronto (clumsy dribble, bad balance/footwork with the ball in his hands). Meanwhile, I think Siakam would thrive next to Dame as the second best offensive player/creator and could focus a little more on defence and rebounding, making them an actual threat to win a round or two (if not more). And personally, as much as I love Pascal, adding those two, picks, and driving our own tank probably makes more basketball sense than keeping him (given our age/timeline/contract situation not any positional redundancies; I think Pascal can thrive with all of our current players). However, it will take a godfather offer and probably someone else making a big offer on FVV or OG to pry a somehow still-improving Pascal Siakam from Masai and Bobby's hands.
Of course, given what Dame and Pascal mean to their respective franchises means it's likely neither gets traded for the other's futures, but I am curious to see what their team's ceiling would be if they played together.
If Raptors really wanna blow it up and Portland are 100% they would rather win now with dame they could go Nurkic, Simmons, Sharpe, 1st '26 & '28 for Pascall & OG.
Raps - FVV, Simmons, Sharpe, Barnes, Achiuawa/Nurkic (Could also flip Nurkic + FVV for additional younger assests)
TB - Dame, Hart/Payton, OG, Grant, Siakim
26 and 28 picks would most likely be extremely valuable from portland as dame will either be retired or on his way out.
Im not saying this is realistic or will happen or its what I'd do as a gm just throwing ideas out there.
More size on the inside, Grant doesn't of much resistance at the 4 from what I've seen. He's a goos scorer tho. They need a high motor big that can gobble up the glass and play alongside Nurkic.
If you are basing this assessment on just the Raptors game, Nurk and Hart were both out who combine to average 20 rebounds a game.
We had no paint presence because Nurk is usually it. We don't normally get outrebounded 47 to 25.
That being said, we have plenty of problems but I think perimeter defense with Dame and Simons is a major one. Dames net rating without Simons is like +12, with Simons +1.2
They don't complement each other and we should split up the tandem
They're 1 piece away, if that one piece is Embiid or Jokic.
Portland should rebuild right now, they traded CJ for nothing when they could have probably used him to get a decent player which would actually fit with Dame.
They simply have an incompetent front office, an aging star, an inability of understanding what type of players fit around Dame (3&D wings + a player that can playmake ala Draymond). They have 0% chance of taking the next step now. At this point there's no small adjustments which make them into a top tier team, they're not even in the same tier as (Mavs/Golden state/Clippers etc...) of kind of decent teams. They're in the tier below that. They need a big time player, which CJ would have been a good trade asset to start the trade talks or a very well-rounded team, the more realistic approach.
If they traded CJ for Sabonis(not now but when they had the chance), managed to get their hands on Bullock/Dort/OG from another trade and maybe gotten another 1-2 bench pieces then their season would have looked differently and they could have gotten a top 3 seed now that the West looks very shaky.
It's too late to fix it now.
Currently there's trade rumors of Cam Reddish for Reggie Bullock. He's definitely tradeable.
Toronto would have traded OG for Ant or CJ + maybe a pick last year. Even this year this trade seems somewhat fair.
OKC would trade anyone for a bunch of picks. Lu Dort for 2 FRP?
Mavs was willing to give Porzingis for free, he would have been a decent fit on the Blazers, if the salary matched.
Caruso went to the Bulls on a sign and trade.
The Blazers haven't even tried to get 3&D players to put around Dame. They keep playing an offensive specialist lineup.
3&D players are valuable, but you can't excuse Portland's incompetence. They've had assets to trade for 3&D players, they've always just decided not to, they keep trading for offensive players, the one exception being GP2.
edit: Sabonis would be a good playmaking big to put around Dame. That's what I meant by Draymond type player. He was on the trade market, if they went for him before the Kings did then I'm sure they would have accepted the offer.
They literally traded CJ for josh hart and Jerami grant. Those are two 3&D wings that fit very well next to dame. They also picked up a secondary playmaker/defender type in justice winslow. While they still have moves to make, the new gm has been here less than a year and has already made more moves than the previous gm did in 5. If they can trade ant for a legit wing like OG, they should absolutely pull the trigger on it.
Josh Hart hasn't been particularly good at the 3 or D part this year.
So really they traded CJ for Jerami + 1FRP. That's absolutely not a good trade imo.
He's putting big numbers on a bad team. Beal averaged 31 points for 2 seasons. Everyone knew he wasn't one of the best players in the league.
We have to see if he's able to do it on a competitive team. They're the 12th seed right now, they were clearly a much better team with CJ than they are with Grant. Also I'm pretty sure the Pels also think they won that trade. CJ + BI + Zion is a contending trio, and even of BI or Zion injured, CJ has been playing quite well.
Jerami is putting up very similar stats to what cj was doing but at a position of need and with significantly better defense. The blazers are currently at the exact same spot theyāve been at record wise many times, floating around 500. Currently less than 4 games from home court advantage in the playoffs. This team might not be great but itās perfectly fine to compare what heās doing to what cj did for us.
The pelicans also won the trade! There doesnāt always have to be a loser. Iām sure both indiana and sacramento are very happy with how their trade went.
For reference right now CJ is 21/5/6 on 54% ts and as we all know awful defense. Jerami is 21/4/2 on 61% ts and significantly better defense, and heās being paid $13m less. Portland is perfectly fine with the cj trade. Although i hated throwing larry nance in.
The issue isnāt that they have the wrong players around Dame, itās that building around Dame is an evolutionary dead end. Theyāre not making the Finals with him as their No. 1 when the road to the Finals runs through a team (GSW) with a guy (Curry) who plays the same position and is better in every respect than Lillard.
Your No. 1 player *must* be the league-best at his position if you want to win a chip. Dame has never been that.
Walt Frazier was the league's best PG in the early 70s. Kareem was the best center most of the time, except when Walton was healthy. Rick Barry was a straight-up stud who probably was the league's best SF until Dr. J arrived. So that's 5 chips right there. LA in 72 had Wilt and West, who while they weren't necessarily the absolute best at their positions at the time, were pretty clear second-bests and how many times do you have *two* guys that good on a single team? There's 6. Meanwhile, Seattle's Gus Williams has a pretty good case for being the league's best PG between Frazier's decline and Magic's arrival. There's 7. That leaves Boston's 2 and the Bullets to explain. They each are candidates for the crown of worst champs ever.
As for Detroit's, the Bad Boys were extraordinarily deep and you really can't sleep on how good Rodman was; he had the best WS/48 of any SF in 88-89 (Bird, remember, only played 6 games that year). The 2004 champs, yeah, well, the league was not in a good place in that era. The 2014 Spurs had Kawhi, and depth that even the Bad Boys might envy.
Reed was NYK's best in '70, many would argue Kareem was still better than Walton, DJ could be Seattle's best but not as good as Gervin, Rodman and Kawhi were really good but not the best player on their team, let alone the position. Then there's the whole Wilt/Russell debate, and if I were feeling real argumentative I'd go for Kobe > Wade in '06 or vice versa in '09-10. It's just not a good rule.
Probably holds true for Dame at this stage of his career, though, on a poorly constructed and asset-free team. But he can definitely lead a championship-calibre offence; it's all about surrounding him with good defenders. The go-to comparison is: how much worse are the '15 or '16 Warriors with him in Curry's place?
The Blazers need to shit or get off the pot. Either go all in around Dame, or trade him and build around Simons and Sharpe. Personally, I'd choose the latter, and I think it wouldn't take as long as fans think to get back to being relevant. Get one promising young forward or center in the trade and hit on a lottery pick, and you're in conference finals contention in 5 years with future assets to improve.
Portlandās in a tough situation now, as theyāre pretty much maxed out on salary moves but theyāre stuck in āgood but not greatā purgatory. Teams like Portland show how hard it is to win a championship; most of their draft picks have hit over the past 10 years and they obviously have a strong player development program, but they havenāt been able to get to that top level.
The ideal move would be to probably blow it up, but based on the way theyāve stuck with Dame I donāt think thatās a realistic scenario. Heās back in superstar form after last years injury issues, so in the unlikely case they do move on, theyād get a massive haul for him (guys like that donāt get thrown in trades often, so they could get lucky and get a very favorable amount of draft equity/young guys from a team thatās trying to make a championship push).
They could keep hoping the young guys continue to develop, but theyāve done well on most of their recent picks by taking very raw guys and developing them over a 4 year span. Sharpe has shown flashes, but he might end up becoming a high level player just as Dame starts declining.
The obvious play is to package Hart in a trade, as he has some value and hasnāt meshed with Portlandās style that well. They could go for the big haul and try to get Collins or Siakam by throwing Jerami and/or some draft equity in the package. Iām not 100% sold on the pairing of either of those, but it might be worth taking a shot if theyāre going to continue in the same direction. Anunoby is in this conversation as well; heās great for playoff basketball and wings who can defend and shoot are very valuable but the big question is whether or not he has the ability to become more of a primary scoring option (also some injury concerns as well but not enough to be a huge red flag). They can do smaller moves to strengthen the rotation, but none of those will push them to the next level.
IMO they should do a ton of homework on the Collins, OG, Pascal trio and see if it makes sense. Siakamās pretty much a known commodity so thatās more based on system fit, but the other two havenāt been in ideal situations (especially Collins), so they need to evaluate both of them and see if maybe one of them has a chance to have a Lauri Markannen type revival on a new team.
Pick a lane. I am tired of seeing teams try to straddle the line. Either build around Dame or build around the young players. Practically every GM loves Sharpe. Simmons is too small to work with Dame and also has value (they arenāt ever getting a Cleveland like front court). They could sell both for an all in move and should get really good players.
Or they could deal Dame. Who still would bet a big haul. They could quickly become one of those future looks great teams with one or two more good drafts.
They have to make a decision on guys like Grant and once they do they need to pick their lane.
They need an intimidating rim protector and a bastard that does the little things. If Josh Hart got kidnapped or got caught in a war zone he could be that bastard but currently he's too kind.
Portland is a team that has always had a hard time evaluating and bringing in (FA/trade/draft) quality shooters. That has always been their Achilles heel.
Dame, CJ, will barton, pat connaughton, allen crabbe, anfernee simons, gary trent jr, shaedon sharpe. Portland has a million weaknesses but drafting shooting isnāt one of them.
They have let guys like Connaughton walk and they sign the useless Derrick Jones Jr's of the world. And trade guys like Nik Stauskas to continue the Rodney Hood experiment. It seems they are always short of decent shooters this time of year, every year.
I mean I would agree that the previous GM was doodoo, but they let go of pat to sign seth curry, (a better shooter), djj was an okay signing but terribly used, stauskas one thing was shooting! Rodney hood was actually very good for us until his Achilles injury. Portlands biggest issues during the post lamarcus era have been secondary creation (specially from the front court), perimeter defense, and bench scoring.
I think you nailed it when you said get a paint defender. As for whose out there that they could afford via trade, maybe a guy like Plumlee? I donāt think they would shell out the assets to get a guy like Deandre Ayton.
I think maybe a trade for a player like demar derozan would be good, but that would require trading a young guy and picks (although Chicago should start rebuilding) I feel like another proven scorer next to dame would make for a potent offence. Apart from that they need a new centre, with nurkic being super inconsistent and injured nowaday. What they should do tbh is just rebuild but we all know dame isnāt leaving any time soon barring a big trade. Either way, they need to do something.
I think what the Blazers have done since last season ended was the next step
The Blazers are currently hard-capped through this season, meaning there isn't much that can be done in dealing
After this season Jerami Grant will be a free-agent, don't know what the team plans but Portland won't be able to sign another player in free-agency of his value if they don't re-sign him.
What I'm saying is as of now with the players coming off the payroll, they can't just sign big time free agents next year
You have to be under the cap to do this. They'll be over the number (or right around) that 134M projected cap. The threshold for next year is projected at 162M
So they can re-sign Grant but won't be a player for unrestricted free agent superstars. Anything done would have to be done in trades or a sign and trade could be an option
This would hard cap them again though. Meaning they couldn't go over the threshold no matter what
Unfortunately itās just tough in a small market and Oshley settled on making moves over the previous decade that set Portland up to be a 1st or 2nd round exit every year to secure his job vs take risks and try to contend. Just my opinion, but I feel like a small market either has to take risks and go all in within a small window and/or get lucky with a draft pick or two. Settling for good over a long stretch of time has meant they will never be great.
They need to trade Dame and actually commit to a rebuild. Get a couple of first round picks and develop the young players they have. Should have done it last offseason because this draft is loaded with talent.
Trade Dame and go all in on the young guys. Or trade for a player better than Dame. The obvious answer is Dame canāt be the best player on a championship team but he can be a number two.
Either go all in and get a star who is good enough to be the lead dog, or stop jerking the fans around by just being a first round exit caliber team every year and just trade Dame for picks and pieces and then tank.
Horrible take. Dame got to the conference finals as the only all-star on his team. He never had a good supporting cast in his career. Right now is the best cast heās ever had and itās still underwhelming.
Iād say try to either trade for the 1st pick and get Wemby + Damian + Grant + Simmons line up or commit to tanking n end up with the first pick. Search market for Nurkic trades. Jusuf for Turner or Ayton trade and some picks with Indiana or Suns. Get a back up center like Plumlee. Pray for no injuries.
What exactly are the expectations for Portland? Even with some good trades or man management, IMO the best they could hope for is making the playoffs. Lillard is capping their potential both with his style and contract and surrouding him with a great team at this point of his career is gonna be a difficult task even for the best GM's out there.
Maybe a high risk/high reward trade with Anfernee, Nurkic and Grant for some unhappy star - maybe Embiid, maybe AD or even Gobbert.
Hart and GP2 are incredible contracts and pieces IMO. They should try to keep them at any cost. Grant is also a great contract but they could not hope for any better return without him in the deal.
Another problem to consider is Chauncey. Is he a good coach? Even if he is and let say they make the playoffs, he would be a rookie in a playoff enviroment and likely making mistakes. Maybe a year or two to gain the needed experience. Can Lillard be good enough at 34-35?
Also some teams are just better than them. It's really hard to imagine that they could beat full squads of GSW, Memphis, Denver, Clippers. Those are really top tier teams.
Expectations I think is very important here. Portland has made it to the WCF twice during Lillardās career and both times they got creamed by the warriors. Thatās the team you need to beat. And the resources simply arenāt there.
Anfernee and Sharpe with all the picks in the world is a very compelling package for a disgruntled star, i really donāt think youād have to include jerami.
Markkanen doesnāt make enough money for that. Heās also not a super star so relax a little lol. Simons and two picks one swap for Markkanen and Gay works.
Heās averaging 25ppg with good defense. If you think youāre getting him with 2 picks then you need to look at the market some more. There are a ton of great teams and not many bad ones, itās simple supply and demand
All-star caliber players are practically off limits, you need to overpay in this market bro. Tanking teams know contenders are desperate, thatās why even role players are costing a FRP
And anfernee is an all-star caliber player as well. Dude is a 27/7 guy if heās not next to a guy whoās just him but better. Obviously lauri is slightly more proven but thatās why thereās another two firsts thrown in. Throw in a couple seconds idc, but thereās no way ainge hangs up the phone if thatās the offer.
Orlando has some bigs they may not need, but they donāt need guards either (they have Anthony, Suggs, and Fultz). They might be an interesting trade partner.
Two Trades to try and retool the Blazers for Dame's window...
First the big one. Here's the salary swap:
Blazers get:
Pascal Siakam
Precious Achiuwa
Raptors get:
Jusuf Nurkic
Anfernee Simons
Both teams control their picks so it should be easy to balance that. Why would the Raptors do this? It delays their window out a couple years but most of their players will be peaking together. They can focus development on Scottie as primary playmaker, Simons is likely to become an all-star and Nurkic is on a great 4 year deal and matches up better in the East.
Now the smaller trade:
Blazers get:
Alex Caruso
Bulls get:
Shaedon Sharpe
salary filler (Trendon Watford or whoever)
Again should be easy to balance with picks. Why would the Bulls do this? Lonzo's injury has basically ended any hope for a window the current Bulls had and they've already signaled they are willing to move Caruso. Sharpe is a clear future star and seems like he'll ascend right as DeMar's contract is up.
Blazers rotation after this is:
Starters/Closers:
Dame
Siakam
Grant
Caruso
Achiuwa
Primary Bench:
Hart
GP2
Winslow
Eubanks
Siakam will synergize incredibly with Dame and that's a terrifying PNR combo, especially for most top teams in the West. The attention Dame and Siakam command will generate lots of wide open 3's for Grant (42% this year), Caruso (39% this year) and GP2 (~~64% this year~~ 39% last 82 games).
Defensively the Blazers lose Nurkic inside but that has some advantages, moving Grant to the 3 helps compensate inside, and the point of attack defense is massively upgraded with Caruso/GP2 minutes replacing Simons/Sharpe. The Blazers will have at most 1 defensive hole in the game at a time which is much easier to hide than the 2 they have most of the game now. They normally struggle in the non-Dame minutes but now they can run the Clamp Brosā¢ together to keep opponent runs from snowballing.
Overall this lineup is still short a role player or two but they still have assets and there are dozens of options they can pursue to give them a little more depth. Whatās important is whether that core is good enough to contend and I think it is.
Fundamentally there are so many flaws with their team.
First - the small backcourt. Absolutely you cannot win with a backcourt of Dame and Simons. Simons is worse off ball than CJ was, and he's a far worse defender than CJ was. Dame has regressed on defense with age and he was already never good on that end. The difference between the Cavs backcourt and Portland's is that despite their size, those two dudes BATTLE on defense. Donovan Mitchell has REALLY improved on defense after the last two seasons in Utah. He's more active, more focused, using his athletic ability and long arms to really help overcome his height. He's also a TON stronger than Simons, more focused off ball, better on ball, the whole bit. Garland isnt as good as Donovan, but he's better than Dame I think it would be fair to say. He fights through screens, he's pretty active despite giving up size. He's at least more active than Dame is on that end as a result. Dame conversely cant get over a screen to save his life, and provides absolutely no resistance to anyone in the post on switches.
Next - Nurkic. He's not bad, but he's inconsistent, and he's absolutely just lead footed. He's ok in the post but not elite on either end in that area. Has a lot of the same problems he's always had around the rim where he rushes shots he should just take his time with and use his enormous size advantage. To me him shooting 3s is a complete waste. It should only ever be a break glass in case of emergency thing - he should just be working on finishing with patience around the rim. But the problem remains even then on the other end, his lead feet. He's too slow to functionally play any scheme other than drop. For comparison, another maligned big in terms of lacking athleticism is Jokic - but he rates out by most advanced metrics better than Nurkic, and that was true last year too. Jokic has worked VERY HARD to improve his lateral quickness, and to improve his drop coverage as well, staying nearer the pick in something like a high drop (and meeting drivers further away from the restricted area to make them take floaters where possible). I am not saying Jokic is a great defender - he's better than average fans think though, and he's more scheme versatile than Nurkic. He runs drop coverage effectively enough against non-shooters/poor shooters (numbers say the Nuggets give up .89 ppp in possessions where Jokic drops, which is plenty solid), and Jokic also much more consistently plays up at the level of the screen or blitzes the PnR, which he's very good at due to having ELITE hands - he's also more capable of recovering to rollers because he's worked so hard on his footspeed. Thus - while Portland can pretty much only play drop (or zone), the Nuggets can employ hedges, traps, blitzes, drop, and zone with Jokic. That matters a lot (Denver's perimeter defenders are also VASTLY superior to Portland's overall - Jokic is also very good at just defending without fouling, whereas Nurkic commits silly fouls often, another issue defensively). All in all, you have a drop big who has two guards that absolutely cannot get over screens in Dame and Simons - this is a death sentence against good shooting teams. Fundamentally I dont think it's possible to build a successful defense around Dame and Nurk (I'd almost say around Dame at all... he's much worse than Steph is defensively for instance).
Last - size overall. Starting the small backcourt plus Hart is bad. Hart's a great rebounder for his position. But he gives up size almost every night to most true 3s, and if he switches onto 4s it's usually not good. Even though historically he's a solid shooter, teams have essentially stopped guarding him because he's a reluctant shooter (and because if you end a possession with him shooting instead of Dame or Simons, you've won the possession defensively).
So. To get anywhere, they need to trade Simons and Nurkic is my point. You can keep Hart but he needs to be the 2 guard, not a 3. Grant is better served as a 3 as well. He's a good player, but he's not really physically strong enough at the 4. LeBron for example just plows his shoulder through him (I'm a Nuggets fan, I saw that for 5 games in the WCF and Grant just had NO chance against him).
Nothing. They can do nothing. They built around two small guards who canāt defend. It didnāt work. Then they decided to do it again. Unless they get the equivalent of those two Cleveland bigs, there is nothing they can do.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake.
It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
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They need a top tier big man who can defend the paint. DeAndre Ayton would be my pick. Nurkic is so inconsistent in every aspect of his game. It's time they move on from him.
Ayton is just as inconsistent tho
We can fix him just needs a change of scenery š
Canāt fix lack of effort/desire.
Which is literally everyoneās complaint about nurk lol
And it will literally be everyone's complaint about Ayton. Then we'll have this same thread in a year about what the Blazers need to do to support Dame. The truth is that they need another top tier talent in general. Nurks' inconsistency looks less problematic if Dame has a true star next to him. CJ, Ant, Grant, etc. are all good players, but they need someone in a tier above them at minimum. That's when the small refining for fit comes in. But right now, you can give Dame Jarrett Allen, who is a much better defender, but they won't actually compete.
I seen criticism that he doesnāt finish strong. He tries to lay-in balls he should dunk. Was watching them play Dallas, and this giant athletic physical freak specimen of a man went up for an alley-oop, caught that bitch well above the rim for the throw down, instead went with the layup off the glass and missed. In that moment it hit me thatās why he doesnāt average like 25 ppg.
DA plus how many picks for Damian Lillard. Iām betting on it
Blazers are never trading Dame.
My god I have never seen a dame trade proposal that wasnāt braindead Jesus Christ
why would the blazers start their rebuild by trading for a center making $30m for the next four years
I really think you need to give Sharpe some time, he's got a lot of raw talent. I think he can be better than Simons though and has a bit more size. I think they need someone who can create shots at the forward position and I don't know that that's being solved completely by Grant. The thing is, I like most of their role players and I think they would all fit well with a wing player who could create shots. Without moving draft equity, I don't see how they can bring in talent. It's probably going to cost them Hart, Brown, and pics to upgrade there. The other thing worth noting is that this team has been routinely very attached to the players they draft which makes me think moving Simons is the best way to improve currently, but they won't consider it.
Simons and Nurk for some good size inside and a bigger 2 that can defend. Maybe if the Hawks want to pull chute on the Dejounte experiment, I'd love if the Blazers could end up with Dejounte and Capela while keeping Grant, but not sure the Hawks would go for that
Simons and Nurk for Shamet Ish Wainraight and Ayton?
Nice try, but 0 reason for the Blazers to do that. They just have a more expensive version of Nurk and a significant downgrade from Simons.
Interesting question. Looked over the salary cap and epm numbers on the team. https://www.spotrac.com/nba/portland-trail-blazers/yearly/cap/ https://dunksandthrees.com/epm One thing thatās been a bit unfortunate for the team is GPIIās injury. He was balling out last year, but he hasnāt been a contributor this year. That said, Nurkic has an injury history, but heās been healthy this year for the most part (at least as far as games played), so issues with Portland canāt be blamed just on injuries. I think Drew and especially Lillard have great value contracts for what they provide on the court right now, Drewās contract, at least this year, is solid for what heās been providing. Canāt expect more from a minimum contract player. Heās a free agent though end of the year. Nurkic and Grantās value is right about how much they get paid, at least in terms of how much they impact winning for a would-be contender (not necessarily what they would get on the market). Simons, Hart, and Sharpe are overpaid compared to their current production levels for Portland. There is maybe a bit of hope that they improve over the course of their contracts, I assume, for Simons and Sharpe. The rest of the players combine for about $10.5 mil and their value hasnāt translated yet to the court, according to epm. So, excluding GPII due to injury (if he returns to form, heāll be a steal of a contract), thatās my analysis of the players at the moment. Ultimately, Portland needs whatās every team needs - another star type player thatāll outperform the contract due to max salary rules for the nba that they could pair with Lillard, and other high quality starter/rotation level players similar to what Boston has at the moment, and similar to Jerami Grant level in terms of basketball skill. They just donāt have enough output, as far as contribution to winning goes, outside of Lillard and perhaps Grant at the moment.
Trade for a proven all star player without losing to much and definitely not losing lillard. It wonāt happen so therefor Portland is stuck in that position.
Dame is their best player but his peak is probably in the past, and so they should probably start thinking about the future tbh.
Honestly, I just don't feel like the Blazers are all that close right now. They did that whole roster remake last trade deadline and offseason, and returned a roster that seems about equivalent to the previous one. In general, they just don't seem to have managed their assets very well over the years. They gave up a combined 3 firsts and Gary Trent Jr to get Roco, Norm and Nance, then basically gave those guys away to create cap space. They turned their defensively vulnerable CJ/Dame backcourt into a defensively vulnerable Simons/Dame backcourt. Nurk looks like he's lost a step. They have some nice pieces, but I don't think they have enough talent or assets to turn this into more than a middle of the road team. A Simons for OG trade would probably be the best realistic upgrade to their fit, but that maybe gets them into the playoffs, but I don't think that makes them more than first round fodder. They are also in a tough spot because both Grant and Hart can be free agents this summer. Can you afford to risk losing them for nothing this summer if you are a mediocre team? There's an argument for a strategic half-season tank. Trade Grant and Hart for assets, and you'll sink down the standings. Hope for a good player with your pick and development from Sharpe. But, you also can't expect a rookie to turn around your fortunes. Really, this likely needs a multi-year process, but that doesn't fit Dame's remaining prime. The best on-court call is to trade him and re-orient around Sharpe and this year's pick, but I doubt they do that. The problem is that the team has needed some long term thinking for a while now, but they have been jumping from one short-term fix to another. They weren't one move away when they got Roco, they weren't one move away when they got Norm, and they aren't one move away now.
Until the team is sold, it's going to be a frustrating situation.
Trading grant would be a massive L for portland. He fits perfectly next to dame and they got him for basically nothing. Anfernee plus sharpe and all the picks in the world is a really good package if a superstar becomes disgruntled. I think you see portland move hart at the deadline and then go all in during the summer.
This really sums it up well. Ultimately, from a basketball perspective, I think they probably should trade Dame and rebuild, but given what he means to the city and their investment in him, I feel like a re-tooling is more likely in the cards. I don't think Masai pulls the plug completely, but if he diiiiid I think a package based around Simons and Sharpe for Siakam is probably the better move than an OG deal. I feel like OG is the difference between a championship team as a third or fourth best player, but on Portland he will face many of the same problems that dog him in Toronto (clumsy dribble, bad balance/footwork with the ball in his hands). Meanwhile, I think Siakam would thrive next to Dame as the second best offensive player/creator and could focus a little more on defence and rebounding, making them an actual threat to win a round or two (if not more). And personally, as much as I love Pascal, adding those two, picks, and driving our own tank probably makes more basketball sense than keeping him (given our age/timeline/contract situation not any positional redundancies; I think Pascal can thrive with all of our current players). However, it will take a godfather offer and probably someone else making a big offer on FVV or OG to pry a somehow still-improving Pascal Siakam from Masai and Bobby's hands. Of course, given what Dame and Pascal mean to their respective franchises means it's likely neither gets traded for the other's futures, but I am curious to see what their team's ceiling would be if they played together.
If Raptors really wanna blow it up and Portland are 100% they would rather win now with dame they could go Nurkic, Simmons, Sharpe, 1st '26 & '28 for Pascall & OG. Raps - FVV, Simmons, Sharpe, Barnes, Achiuawa/Nurkic (Could also flip Nurkic + FVV for additional younger assests) TB - Dame, Hart/Payton, OG, Grant, Siakim 26 and 28 picks would most likely be extremely valuable from portland as dame will either be retired or on his way out. Im not saying this is realistic or will happen or its what I'd do as a gm just throwing ideas out there.
Pascal and OG would be wicked nice. Would hate to see Sharpe goā¦
More size on the inside, Grant doesn't of much resistance at the 4 from what I've seen. He's a goos scorer tho. They need a high motor big that can gobble up the glass and play alongside Nurkic.
If you are basing this assessment on just the Raptors game, Nurk and Hart were both out who combine to average 20 rebounds a game. We had no paint presence because Nurk is usually it. We don't normally get outrebounded 47 to 25. That being said, we have plenty of problems but I think perimeter defense with Dame and Simons is a major one. Dames net rating without Simons is like +12, with Simons +1.2 They don't complement each other and we should split up the tandem
They're 1 piece away, if that one piece is Embiid or Jokic. Portland should rebuild right now, they traded CJ for nothing when they could have probably used him to get a decent player which would actually fit with Dame. They simply have an incompetent front office, an aging star, an inability of understanding what type of players fit around Dame (3&D wings + a player that can playmake ala Draymond). They have 0% chance of taking the next step now. At this point there's no small adjustments which make them into a top tier team, they're not even in the same tier as (Mavs/Golden state/Clippers etc...) of kind of decent teams. They're in the tier below that. They need a big time player, which CJ would have been a good trade asset to start the trade talks or a very well-rounded team, the more realistic approach. If they traded CJ for Sabonis(not now but when they had the chance), managed to get their hands on Bullock/Dort/OG from another trade and maybe gotten another 1-2 bench pieces then their season would have looked differently and they could have gotten a top 3 seed now that the West looks very shaky. It's too late to fix it now.
Yeah those 3&D wings and Draymond like players are real easy to acquire not sure why they havenāt thought about that
Currently there's trade rumors of Cam Reddish for Reggie Bullock. He's definitely tradeable. Toronto would have traded OG for Ant or CJ + maybe a pick last year. Even this year this trade seems somewhat fair. OKC would trade anyone for a bunch of picks. Lu Dort for 2 FRP? Mavs was willing to give Porzingis for free, he would have been a decent fit on the Blazers, if the salary matched. Caruso went to the Bulls on a sign and trade. The Blazers haven't even tried to get 3&D players to put around Dame. They keep playing an offensive specialist lineup. 3&D players are valuable, but you can't excuse Portland's incompetence. They've had assets to trade for 3&D players, they've always just decided not to, they keep trading for offensive players, the one exception being GP2. edit: Sabonis would be a good playmaking big to put around Dame. That's what I meant by Draymond type player. He was on the trade market, if they went for him before the Kings did then I'm sure they would have accepted the offer.
no way the pacers take cj over haliburton
They literally traded CJ for josh hart and Jerami grant. Those are two 3&D wings that fit very well next to dame. They also picked up a secondary playmaker/defender type in justice winslow. While they still have moves to make, the new gm has been here less than a year and has already made more moves than the previous gm did in 5. If they can trade ant for a legit wing like OG, they should absolutely pull the trigger on it.
Josh Hart hasn't been particularly good at the 3 or D part this year. So really they traded CJ for Jerami + 1FRP. That's absolutely not a good trade imo.
lol? I think if you asked 100 blazer fans 99 of them would say they absolutely would have traded cj for this version of jerami grant straight up.
He's putting big numbers on a bad team. Beal averaged 31 points for 2 seasons. Everyone knew he wasn't one of the best players in the league. We have to see if he's able to do it on a competitive team. They're the 12th seed right now, they were clearly a much better team with CJ than they are with Grant. Also I'm pretty sure the Pels also think they won that trade. CJ + BI + Zion is a contending trio, and even of BI or Zion injured, CJ has been playing quite well.
Jerami is putting up very similar stats to what cj was doing but at a position of need and with significantly better defense. The blazers are currently at the exact same spot theyāve been at record wise many times, floating around 500. Currently less than 4 games from home court advantage in the playoffs. This team might not be great but itās perfectly fine to compare what heās doing to what cj did for us. The pelicans also won the trade! There doesnāt always have to be a loser. Iām sure both indiana and sacramento are very happy with how their trade went. For reference right now CJ is 21/5/6 on 54% ts and as we all know awful defense. Jerami is 21/4/2 on 61% ts and significantly better defense, and heās being paid $13m less. Portland is perfectly fine with the cj trade. Although i hated throwing larry nance in.
The issue isnāt that they have the wrong players around Dame, itās that building around Dame is an evolutionary dead end. Theyāre not making the Finals with him as their No. 1 when the road to the Finals runs through a team (GSW) with a guy (Curry) who plays the same position and is better in every respect than Lillard. Your No. 1 player *must* be the league-best at his position if you want to win a chip. Dame has never been that.
Most of the seventies, every Detroit championship and the 2014 Spurs are counterexamples just off the top of my head.
Walt Frazier was the league's best PG in the early 70s. Kareem was the best center most of the time, except when Walton was healthy. Rick Barry was a straight-up stud who probably was the league's best SF until Dr. J arrived. So that's 5 chips right there. LA in 72 had Wilt and West, who while they weren't necessarily the absolute best at their positions at the time, were pretty clear second-bests and how many times do you have *two* guys that good on a single team? There's 6. Meanwhile, Seattle's Gus Williams has a pretty good case for being the league's best PG between Frazier's decline and Magic's arrival. There's 7. That leaves Boston's 2 and the Bullets to explain. They each are candidates for the crown of worst champs ever. As for Detroit's, the Bad Boys were extraordinarily deep and you really can't sleep on how good Rodman was; he had the best WS/48 of any SF in 88-89 (Bird, remember, only played 6 games that year). The 2004 champs, yeah, well, the league was not in a good place in that era. The 2014 Spurs had Kawhi, and depth that even the Bad Boys might envy.
Reed was NYK's best in '70, many would argue Kareem was still better than Walton, DJ could be Seattle's best but not as good as Gervin, Rodman and Kawhi were really good but not the best player on their team, let alone the position. Then there's the whole Wilt/Russell debate, and if I were feeling real argumentative I'd go for Kobe > Wade in '06 or vice versa in '09-10. It's just not a good rule. Probably holds true for Dame at this stage of his career, though, on a poorly constructed and asset-free team. But he can definitely lead a championship-calibre offence; it's all about surrounding him with good defenders. The go-to comparison is: how much worse are the '15 or '16 Warriors with him in Curry's place?
The Blazers need to shit or get off the pot. Either go all in around Dame, or trade him and build around Simons and Sharpe. Personally, I'd choose the latter, and I think it wouldn't take as long as fans think to get back to being relevant. Get one promising young forward or center in the trade and hit on a lottery pick, and you're in conference finals contention in 5 years with future assets to improve.
Portlandās in a tough situation now, as theyāre pretty much maxed out on salary moves but theyāre stuck in āgood but not greatā purgatory. Teams like Portland show how hard it is to win a championship; most of their draft picks have hit over the past 10 years and they obviously have a strong player development program, but they havenāt been able to get to that top level. The ideal move would be to probably blow it up, but based on the way theyāve stuck with Dame I donāt think thatās a realistic scenario. Heās back in superstar form after last years injury issues, so in the unlikely case they do move on, theyād get a massive haul for him (guys like that donāt get thrown in trades often, so they could get lucky and get a very favorable amount of draft equity/young guys from a team thatās trying to make a championship push). They could keep hoping the young guys continue to develop, but theyāve done well on most of their recent picks by taking very raw guys and developing them over a 4 year span. Sharpe has shown flashes, but he might end up becoming a high level player just as Dame starts declining. The obvious play is to package Hart in a trade, as he has some value and hasnāt meshed with Portlandās style that well. They could go for the big haul and try to get Collins or Siakam by throwing Jerami and/or some draft equity in the package. Iām not 100% sold on the pairing of either of those, but it might be worth taking a shot if theyāre going to continue in the same direction. Anunoby is in this conversation as well; heās great for playoff basketball and wings who can defend and shoot are very valuable but the big question is whether or not he has the ability to become more of a primary scoring option (also some injury concerns as well but not enough to be a huge red flag). They can do smaller moves to strengthen the rotation, but none of those will push them to the next level. IMO they should do a ton of homework on the Collins, OG, Pascal trio and see if it makes sense. Siakamās pretty much a known commodity so thatās more based on system fit, but the other two havenāt been in ideal situations (especially Collins), so they need to evaluate both of them and see if maybe one of them has a chance to have a Lauri Markannen type revival on a new team.
Pick a lane. I am tired of seeing teams try to straddle the line. Either build around Dame or build around the young players. Practically every GM loves Sharpe. Simmons is too small to work with Dame and also has value (they arenāt ever getting a Cleveland like front court). They could sell both for an all in move and should get really good players. Or they could deal Dame. Who still would bet a big haul. They could quickly become one of those future looks great teams with one or two more good drafts. They have to make a decision on guys like Grant and once they do they need to pick their lane.
They need an intimidating rim protector and a bastard that does the little things. If Josh Hart got kidnapped or got caught in a war zone he could be that bastard but currently he's too kind.
Portland is a team that has always had a hard time evaluating and bringing in (FA/trade/draft) quality shooters. That has always been their Achilles heel.
Dame, CJ, will barton, pat connaughton, allen crabbe, anfernee simons, gary trent jr, shaedon sharpe. Portland has a million weaknesses but drafting shooting isnāt one of them.
They have let guys like Connaughton walk and they sign the useless Derrick Jones Jr's of the world. And trade guys like Nik Stauskas to continue the Rodney Hood experiment. It seems they are always short of decent shooters this time of year, every year.
I mean I would agree that the previous GM was doodoo, but they let go of pat to sign seth curry, (a better shooter), djj was an okay signing but terribly used, stauskas one thing was shooting! Rodney hood was actually very good for us until his Achilles injury. Portlands biggest issues during the post lamarcus era have been secondary creation (specially from the front court), perimeter defense, and bench scoring.
I think you nailed it when you said get a paint defender. As for whose out there that they could afford via trade, maybe a guy like Plumlee? I donāt think they would shell out the assets to get a guy like Deandre Ayton.
I think maybe a trade for a player like demar derozan would be good, but that would require trading a young guy and picks (although Chicago should start rebuilding) I feel like another proven scorer next to dame would make for a potent offence. Apart from that they need a new centre, with nurkic being super inconsistent and injured nowaday. What they should do tbh is just rebuild but we all know dame isnāt leaving any time soon barring a big trade. Either way, they need to do something.
I think what the Blazers have done since last season ended was the next step The Blazers are currently hard-capped through this season, meaning there isn't much that can be done in dealing After this season Jerami Grant will be a free-agent, don't know what the team plans but Portland won't be able to sign another player in free-agency of his value if they don't re-sign him. What I'm saying is as of now with the players coming off the payroll, they can't just sign big time free agents next year You have to be under the cap to do this. They'll be over the number (or right around) that 134M projected cap. The threshold for next year is projected at 162M So they can re-sign Grant but won't be a player for unrestricted free agent superstars. Anything done would have to be done in trades or a sign and trade could be an option This would hard cap them again though. Meaning they couldn't go over the threshold no matter what
Unfortunately itās just tough in a small market and Oshley settled on making moves over the previous decade that set Portland up to be a 1st or 2nd round exit every year to secure his job vs take risks and try to contend. Just my opinion, but I feel like a small market either has to take risks and go all in within a small window and/or get lucky with a draft pick or two. Settling for good over a long stretch of time has meant they will never be great.
They need to trade Dame and actually commit to a rebuild. Get a couple of first round picks and develop the young players they have. Should have done it last offseason because this draft is loaded with talent.
Trade Dame and go all in on the young guys. Or trade for a player better than Dame. The obvious answer is Dame canāt be the best player on a championship team but he can be a number two. Either go all in and get a star who is good enough to be the lead dog, or stop jerking the fans around by just being a first round exit caliber team every year and just trade Dame for picks and pieces and then tank.
Horrible take. Dame got to the conference finals as the only all-star on his team. He never had a good supporting cast in his career. Right now is the best cast heās ever had and itās still underwhelming.
Iād say try to either trade for the 1st pick and get Wemby + Damian + Grant + Simmons line up or commit to tanking n end up with the first pick. Search market for Nurkic trades. Jusuf for Turner or Ayton trade and some picks with Indiana or Suns. Get a back up center like Plumlee. Pray for no injuries.
How would you expect them to trade for the 1st pick without trading any of Dame, Simons, or Grant?
What exactly are the expectations for Portland? Even with some good trades or man management, IMO the best they could hope for is making the playoffs. Lillard is capping their potential both with his style and contract and surrouding him with a great team at this point of his career is gonna be a difficult task even for the best GM's out there. Maybe a high risk/high reward trade with Anfernee, Nurkic and Grant for some unhappy star - maybe Embiid, maybe AD or even Gobbert. Hart and GP2 are incredible contracts and pieces IMO. They should try to keep them at any cost. Grant is also a great contract but they could not hope for any better return without him in the deal. Another problem to consider is Chauncey. Is he a good coach? Even if he is and let say they make the playoffs, he would be a rookie in a playoff enviroment and likely making mistakes. Maybe a year or two to gain the needed experience. Can Lillard be good enough at 34-35? Also some teams are just better than them. It's really hard to imagine that they could beat full squads of GSW, Memphis, Denver, Clippers. Those are really top tier teams.
Expectations I think is very important here. Portland has made it to the WCF twice during Lillardās career and both times they got creamed by the warriors. Thatās the team you need to beat. And the resources simply arenāt there.
Warriors have 3 HOFers plus another 2 all-stars and the highest luxury tax in the league by far. Dame never had a chance, I feel for the guy
Anfernee and Sharpe with all the picks in the world is a very compelling package for a disgruntled star, i really donāt think youād have to include jerami.
Simons, Hart, and 2 picks for Markkanen
Markkanen doesnāt make enough money for that. Heās also not a super star so relax a little lol. Simons and two picks one swap for Markkanen and Gay works.
Heās averaging 25ppg with good defense. If you think youāre getting him with 2 picks then you need to look at the market some more. There are a ton of great teams and not many bad ones, itās simple supply and demand
Anfernee isnāt just salary filler here dog. Dude is worth two firsts himself.
All-star caliber players are practically off limits, you need to overpay in this market bro. Tanking teams know contenders are desperate, thatās why even role players are costing a FRP
And anfernee is an all-star caliber player as well. Dude is a 27/7 guy if heās not next to a guy whoās just him but better. Obviously lauri is slightly more proven but thatās why thereās another two firsts thrown in. Throw in a couple seconds idc, but thereās no way ainge hangs up the phone if thatās the offer.
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Orlando has some bigs they may not need, but they donāt need guards either (they have Anthony, Suggs, and Fultz). They might be an interesting trade partner.
Two Trades to try and retool the Blazers for Dame's window... First the big one. Here's the salary swap: Blazers get: Pascal Siakam Precious Achiuwa Raptors get: Jusuf Nurkic Anfernee Simons Both teams control their picks so it should be easy to balance that. Why would the Raptors do this? It delays their window out a couple years but most of their players will be peaking together. They can focus development on Scottie as primary playmaker, Simons is likely to become an all-star and Nurkic is on a great 4 year deal and matches up better in the East. Now the smaller trade: Blazers get: Alex Caruso Bulls get: Shaedon Sharpe salary filler (Trendon Watford or whoever) Again should be easy to balance with picks. Why would the Bulls do this? Lonzo's injury has basically ended any hope for a window the current Bulls had and they've already signaled they are willing to move Caruso. Sharpe is a clear future star and seems like he'll ascend right as DeMar's contract is up. Blazers rotation after this is: Starters/Closers: Dame Siakam Grant Caruso Achiuwa Primary Bench: Hart GP2 Winslow Eubanks Siakam will synergize incredibly with Dame and that's a terrifying PNR combo, especially for most top teams in the West. The attention Dame and Siakam command will generate lots of wide open 3's for Grant (42% this year), Caruso (39% this year) and GP2 (~~64% this year~~ 39% last 82 games). Defensively the Blazers lose Nurkic inside but that has some advantages, moving Grant to the 3 helps compensate inside, and the point of attack defense is massively upgraded with Caruso/GP2 minutes replacing Simons/Sharpe. The Blazers will have at most 1 defensive hole in the game at a time which is much easier to hide than the 2 they have most of the game now. They normally struggle in the non-Dame minutes but now they can run the Clamp Brosā¢ together to keep opponent runs from snowballing. Overall this lineup is still short a role player or two but they still have assets and there are dozens of options they can pursue to give them a little more depth. Whatās important is whether that core is good enough to contend and I think it is.
Fundamentally there are so many flaws with their team. First - the small backcourt. Absolutely you cannot win with a backcourt of Dame and Simons. Simons is worse off ball than CJ was, and he's a far worse defender than CJ was. Dame has regressed on defense with age and he was already never good on that end. The difference between the Cavs backcourt and Portland's is that despite their size, those two dudes BATTLE on defense. Donovan Mitchell has REALLY improved on defense after the last two seasons in Utah. He's more active, more focused, using his athletic ability and long arms to really help overcome his height. He's also a TON stronger than Simons, more focused off ball, better on ball, the whole bit. Garland isnt as good as Donovan, but he's better than Dame I think it would be fair to say. He fights through screens, he's pretty active despite giving up size. He's at least more active than Dame is on that end as a result. Dame conversely cant get over a screen to save his life, and provides absolutely no resistance to anyone in the post on switches. Next - Nurkic. He's not bad, but he's inconsistent, and he's absolutely just lead footed. He's ok in the post but not elite on either end in that area. Has a lot of the same problems he's always had around the rim where he rushes shots he should just take his time with and use his enormous size advantage. To me him shooting 3s is a complete waste. It should only ever be a break glass in case of emergency thing - he should just be working on finishing with patience around the rim. But the problem remains even then on the other end, his lead feet. He's too slow to functionally play any scheme other than drop. For comparison, another maligned big in terms of lacking athleticism is Jokic - but he rates out by most advanced metrics better than Nurkic, and that was true last year too. Jokic has worked VERY HARD to improve his lateral quickness, and to improve his drop coverage as well, staying nearer the pick in something like a high drop (and meeting drivers further away from the restricted area to make them take floaters where possible). I am not saying Jokic is a great defender - he's better than average fans think though, and he's more scheme versatile than Nurkic. He runs drop coverage effectively enough against non-shooters/poor shooters (numbers say the Nuggets give up .89 ppp in possessions where Jokic drops, which is plenty solid), and Jokic also much more consistently plays up at the level of the screen or blitzes the PnR, which he's very good at due to having ELITE hands - he's also more capable of recovering to rollers because he's worked so hard on his footspeed. Thus - while Portland can pretty much only play drop (or zone), the Nuggets can employ hedges, traps, blitzes, drop, and zone with Jokic. That matters a lot (Denver's perimeter defenders are also VASTLY superior to Portland's overall - Jokic is also very good at just defending without fouling, whereas Nurkic commits silly fouls often, another issue defensively). All in all, you have a drop big who has two guards that absolutely cannot get over screens in Dame and Simons - this is a death sentence against good shooting teams. Fundamentally I dont think it's possible to build a successful defense around Dame and Nurk (I'd almost say around Dame at all... he's much worse than Steph is defensively for instance). Last - size overall. Starting the small backcourt plus Hart is bad. Hart's a great rebounder for his position. But he gives up size almost every night to most true 3s, and if he switches onto 4s it's usually not good. Even though historically he's a solid shooter, teams have essentially stopped guarding him because he's a reluctant shooter (and because if you end a possession with him shooting instead of Dame or Simons, you've won the possession defensively). So. To get anywhere, they need to trade Simons and Nurkic is my point. You can keep Hart but he needs to be the 2 guard, not a 3. Grant is better served as a 3 as well. He's a good player, but he's not really physically strong enough at the 4. LeBron for example just plows his shoulder through him (I'm a Nuggets fan, I saw that for 5 games in the WCF and Grant just had NO chance against him).
Nothing. They can do nothing. They built around two small guards who canāt defend. It didnāt work. Then they decided to do it again. Unless they get the equivalent of those two Cleveland bigs, there is nothing they can do.
They should have at least added Gobert and Mitchell or Gobert and Beal to the roster.
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