Ben Simmons trades go here (and here only): Expect warnings if not following forum rules

[Roy The Natural]

There is a lot more than scoring, if we are looking only at scoring, sure - but CJ is a bad defender, and just an average playmaker at the 1/2. Simmons is elite at both, and an elite finisher. He had a down year by advance metric, but typically grades out better than CJ, and he'd be going somewhere that all his talents would be fully utilized and match the star player of the team perfectly. Disagree with everything else - you don't need your second best player 'to be a shooter', you need to put together a team where everyone's strengths and weaknesses balance out. Philadelphia is not that team, Portland with Lillard/Simmons would be (likewise, I think CJ/Embiid are also a nice fit).

Depends on what metrics you look at. Look at the last 3 years of RAPTOR and RPM. I think you'll be surprised at the results.

I don't buy RPM as a useful metric at all, but you are right about RAPTOR (which I mentioned in a subsequent post).

See... I feel the same way about BPM. BPM is just a slightly better version of PER. It's just weighted boxscore stats regularized across the league. Pretty much no value as an actual impact metric or analytical tool.

[doctor him]

Looks like Morey is going to call Klutch’s bluff.

For those who thought the Sixers were going to in essence “waive/release” Simmons for minimal compensation, it don’t look like it’ll go that way.

At least in the short term.


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[babyjax13]

Depends on what metrics you look at. Look at the last 3 years of RAPTOR and RPM. I think you'll be surprised at the results.

I don't buy RPM as a useful metric at all, but you are right about RAPTOR (which I mentioned in a subsequent post).

See... I feel the same way about BPM. BPM is just a slightly better version of PER. It's just weighted boxscore stats regularized across the league. Pretty much no value as an actual impact metric or analytical tool.

RAPTOR is my preferred metric, but I think bad coaching heavily influences what comes out b/c of the player tracking component. I know people rag on Stotts, but he was a million times better than Brown. The LEBRON system might be okay, I'm not sure, and historically Simmons has been much better than CJ there, as well.

[Roy The Natural]

I don't buy RPM as a useful metric at all, but you are right about RAPTOR (which I mentioned in a subsequent post).

See... I feel the same way about BPM. BPM is just a slightly better version of PER. It's just weighted boxscore stats regularized across the league. Pretty much no value as an actual impact metric or analytical tool.

RAPTOR is my preferred metric, but I think bad coaching heavily influences what comes out b/c of the player tracking component. I know people rag on Stotts, but he was a million times better than Brown. The LEBRON system might be okay, I'm not sure, and historically Simmons has been much better than CJ there, as well.

Much better is a stretch. Over the past 3 years LEBRON only has Simmons having a noticeably different impact than CJ once.

This last year it was
Ben = 2.17
CJ = 2.14

Year before
Ben = 2.17
CJ = .5

2 Years ago
Ben = 1.08
CJ = .96


They're basically even in 2 of the last 3 years, and only in 2019-20 does LEBRON show a significant difference.

I'm not even going to argue that they're the same caliber player or anything. It just gets pretty frustrating that there's this big narrative that Simmons has a bunch of hidden value that people aren't taking into account. Meanwhile, whenever you look into metrics that try to measure/value that impact you see the opposite of that narrative. You see a fringe all-star type guy who's impact is wildly overstated.

Furthermore, if you just look at the raw data of on/off over the past 3 seasons and give them an equal weighting you see that CJ has a +5.2 on/off on the Blazers offensive rating opposed to Ben's +0.1 rating. CJ's effect on the defense through traditional on/off is measured at -0.7 as opposed to Ben Simmons having -0.5.

There's obviously some degree of noise in regular on/off even over a 3 year sample-size. I DO THINK that Ben Simmons is a better player than CJ... However, where is all this Ben Simmons hidden impact? I just don't see it. It doesn't seem to be showing up in any metric. No metrics that I can find that are worth a damn show him as anything more than a fringe all-star type guy who should should be missing all-star appearances more than making them... as would likely happen in the West.

[Tomjas]

Big Simmons Trade:

UTA in: Covington.
UTA out: Bogdanovic, Azubuike, '26 1st (lottery protected).

Why? Gives them another excellent defender and a viable option to play small-ball center against certain matchups. Oneale/RoCo/Gobert is a nightmare for opposing offenses.

Conley/Butler
Mitchell/Clarkson
O'Neale/Ingles
Covington/Gay
Gobert/Whiteside

POR in: Simmons, Bogdanovic, Azubuike.
POR out: McCollum, Covington, '22 POR 1st (unprotected), '24 POR 1st (top-4 protected), '26 POR 1st (top-8 protected).

Why? They get the best player in the deal and a shooter to complement the rest of the roster.

Lillard/Simons
Powell/Snell
Bogdanovic/Little
Simmons/Nance Jr.
Nurkic/Zeller

PHI in: McCollum, Sexton, '24 POR 1st (top-4 protected), '26 POR 1st (top-8 protected).
PHI out: Simmons, Maxey.

Why? They get to ready to contribute players and stash some picks in their chest for when an opportunity occurs.

Sexton/Curry
McCollum/Korkmaz
Green/Thybulle
Harris/Niang
Embiid/Drummond

CLE in: Maxey, '22 POR 1st (unprotected), '26 UTA 1st (lottery protected).
CLE out: Sexton.

Why? They get two picks and a prospect for a guy that overlaps with Garland and is about to get paid.

Garland/Rubio
Okoro/Dotson
Osman/Windler
Mobley/Markkanen
Allen/Love

Just cut Cleveland out & Sixers keep picks

[jbk1234]

Looks like Morey is going to call Klutch’s bluff.

For those who thought the Sixers were going to in essence “waive/release” Simmons for minimal compensation, it don’t look like it’ll go that way.

At least in the short term.


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If Simmons ends up reporting, I'm not sure it's his bluff that's getting called.

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[stormi]

See... I feel the same way about BPM. BPM is just a slightly better version of PER. It's just weighted boxscore stats regularized across the league. Pretty much no value as an actual impact metric or analytical tool.

RAPTOR is my preferred metric, but I think bad coaching heavily influences what comes out b/c of the player tracking component. I know people rag on Stotts, but he was a million times better than Brown. The LEBRON system might be okay, I'm not sure, and historically Simmons has been much better than CJ there, as well.

Much better is a stretch. Over the past 3 years LEBRON only has Simmons having a noticeably different impact than CJ once.

This last year it was
Ben = 2.17
CJ = 2.14

Year before
Ben = 2.17
CJ = .5

2 Years ago
Ben = 1.08
CJ = .96


They're basically even in 2 of the last 3 years, and only in 2019-20 does LEBRON show a significant difference.

I'm not even going to argue that they're the same caliber player or anything. It just gets pretty frustrating that there's this big narrative that Simmons has a bunch of hidden value that people aren't taking into account. Meanwhile, whenever you look into metrics that try to measure/value that impact you see the opposite of that narrative. You see a fringe all-star type guy who's impact is wildly overstated.

Furthermore, if you just look at the raw data of on/off over the past 3 seasons and give them an equal weighting you see that CJ has a +5.2 on/off on the Blazers offensive rating opposed to Ben's +0.1 rating. CJ's effect on the defense through traditional on/off is measured at -0.7 as opposed to Ben Simmons having -0.5.

There's obviously some degree of noise in regular on/off even over a 3 year sample-size. I DO THINK that Ben Simmons is a better player than CJ... However, where is all this Ben Simmons hidden impact? I just don't see it. It doesn't seem to be showing up in any metric. No metrics that I can find that are worth a damn show him as anything more than a fringe all-star type guy who should should be missing all-star appearances more than making them... as would likely happen in the West.

Multi-year Playoff LEBRON is where the discrepancy lies.

Ben - '19-'21: 1.80

His 2016-2018 split scored a 1.53

McCollum's playoff impact has been rather abysmal.

His highest 3 year run was in between the years of 2015 & 2017 where he grades out barely positively with a 0.14

'19-'21: -0.32
'18-'20: -1.17
'17-'19: -0.50
'16-'18: -1.40

Him and Dame have been quite the underwhelming duo in terms of Lebron scores. I think the fact that they can't cover for each others weaknesses don't help, but I wouldn't be comfortable trading Ben for CJ without major compensation involved. He's more impactful and much younger.

[Slim Tubby]

Embiid takes real pride in being The Process. Like the whole experiment was a success only because of him(Simmons to a lessor extent, but mainly him). Doesn't make any sense to then convince him to be David Robinson for a year hoping for Tim Duncan. Especially since Tim Duncan isn't going to be in the draft and whoever is in the draft is unlikely to help Embiid much at all on the court only as a potential trade asset.

It's wild that the same posters who think Simmons sucks and thus can return nothing in trade think that Philly can't compete without him and thus should tank. Just makes zero sense to me.

Sadly, The Process changed many in the fanbase. I say this as someone who is sometimes guilty of it myself. For many of us, The Process is the Sixers. I had checked out myself in the post-Iverson years because a team whose best player is Andre Igoudala is the definition of treadmill.

Then Hinkie traded Jrue on draft night and I was hooked. For better or worse this was at least going to be interesting. And the idea of championship or bust sort of gets ingrained in you where all you care about is having a starting lineup of nothing but 25 and under dudes all with all-star potential. And again, it's not like I don't somewhat agree with the mindset. Like when we talk about a CJ McCollum trade and you think about a team with McCollum and Harris as your 2nd and 3rd best players and yeah, I agree, what's the point?

That said, I'm definitely not as much of that mindset anymore.

Dirty Little Truth: I actually don't really care that much if the Sixers win or lose. My happiness in life isn't dependent on whether a team I root for wins a championship or not. I was able to watch the Eagles win a Superbowl with my father who was convinced he would never live to see the day. That is what was meaningful for me. Sports afterwards just aren't that important to me. It's entertainment. I like that the team I root for is good because that means more entertainment for me. But candidly, as we get to the later rounds of the playoffs, I'm almost ready to move on to other things in life.

Excellent post…really liked the story about your Dad. My parents are in their 70’s now and I want to share as many experiences with them as possible.


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[Slim Tubby]

That's not how I'm reading this post, I think Stormi is saying that the 76ers bungled up their roster construction and could have easily put together a nice supporting cast around Simmons-Embiid that maximized both of them, but didn't, so now they are in the unenviable situation of having to trade a dollar for three quarters.

well yea but CJ is better player overall i mean he can shoot well. He gives the 76ers what they need. Ben obviously couldn't do that. 76ers need move one while they can. Nobody wants player who hasn't played all season which this is turning out it might be. Ben isnt a worker he wont keep up with training at home. Hes proved that .

The idea that CJ is a better player strikes me as absurd. Might he be really good for Philly and lead them to more success because they have a better balanced roster? Maybe, but it certainly isn't a win on talent, age, contract, or trade value (absent the current situation). Simmons is a top 30 player, CJ is more like top 45 (at best?). Below I've listed the players who I think are certainly better, and then players who I think might be better next year, or who are around the same ballpark. I have 42 as definitely better and 16 as in the same ballpark.

ATL: Young
BOS: Tatum, Brown
BYK: Durant, Harden, Irving
CLE:
CHA: Hayward, (Ball)
CHI: Lavine, (DeRozan, Vucevic)
DAL: Luka, (Porzingis)
DEN: Jokic, Murray
DET: (Cunningham, Grant)
GSW: Curry, Thompson, Green
HOU: (Green)
IND: Sabonis, (Brogdon)
LAL: LeBron, AD, Westbrook
LAC: Leonard, George
MEM: Ja
MIA: Bam, Butler, Lowry
MIL: Giannis, Jrue, Middleton
MIN: Towns, (Edwards)
NOP: Zion, Ingram
NYK: Randle, (Barrett)
OKC: SGA
ORL: (Suggs)
POR: Lillard
PHI: Embiid, Simmons, (Harris)
PHX: Booker, Paul, (Ayton)
SAC: Fox
SAS: (White)
TOR: Siakam, (VanVleet, Anunoby)
UTA: Mitchell, Gobert
WAS: Beal

Good list. To me, CJ is equivalent value to Harris and not Simmons. Both players are productive yet still overpaid. When you break it down by team, it really does a great job of analyzing where a specific player rates amongst his peers. Nice job!


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[Ballerhogger]

Big Simmons Trade:

UTA in: Covington.
UTA out: Bogdanovic, Azubuike, '26 1st (lottery protected).

Why? Gives them another excellent defender and a viable option to play small-ball center against certain matchups. Oneale/RoCo/Gobert is a nightmare for opposing offenses.

Conley/Butler
Mitchell/Clarkson
O'Neale/Ingles
Covington/Gay
Gobert/Whiteside

POR in: Simmons, Bogdanovic, Azubuike.
POR out: McCollum, Covington, '22 POR 1st (unprotected), '24 POR 1st (top-4 protected), '26 POR 1st (top-8 protected).

Why? They get the best player in the deal and a shooter to complement the rest of the roster.

Lillard/Simons
Powell/Snell
Bogdanovic/Little
Simmons/Nance Jr.
Nurkic/Zeller

PHI in: McCollum, Sexton, '24 POR 1st (top-4 protected), '26 POR 1st (top-8 protected).
PHI out: Simmons, Maxey.

Why? They get to ready to contribute players and stash some picks in their chest for when an opportunity occurs.

Sexton/Curry
McCollum/Korkmaz
Green/Thybulle
Harris/Niang
Embiid/Drummond

CLE in: Maxey, '22 POR 1st (unprotected), '26 UTA 1st (lottery protected).
CLE out: Sexton.

Why? They get two picks and a prospect for a guy that overlaps with Garland and is about to get paid.

Garland/Rubio
Okoro/Dotson
Osman/Windler
Mobley/Markkanen
Allen/Love

Just cut Cleveland out & Sixers keep picks

are picks really that important though

[Tomjas]

Big Simmons Trade:

UTA in: Covington.
UTA out: Bogdanovic, Azubuike, '26 1st (lottery protected).

Why? Gives them another excellent defender and a viable option to play small-ball center against certain matchups. Oneale/RoCo/Gobert is a nightmare for opposing offenses.

Conley/Butler
Mitchell/Clarkson
O'Neale/Ingles
Covington/Gay
Gobert/Whiteside

POR in: Simmons, Bogdanovic, Azubuike.
POR out: McCollum, Covington, '22 POR 1st (unprotected), '24 POR 1st (top-4 protected), '26 POR 1st (top-8 protected).

Why? They get the best player in the deal and a shooter to complement the rest of the roster.

Lillard/Simons
Powell/Snell
Bogdanovic/Little
Simmons/Nance Jr.
Nurkic/Zeller

PHI in: McCollum, Sexton, '24 POR 1st (top-4 protected), '26 POR 1st (top-8 protected).
PHI out: Simmons, Maxey.

Why? They get to ready to contribute players and stash some picks in their chest for when an opportunity occurs.

Sexton/Curry
McCollum/Korkmaz
Green/Thybulle
Harris/Niang
Embiid/Drummond

CLE in: Maxey, '22 POR 1st (unprotected), '26 UTA 1st (lottery protected).
CLE out: Sexton.

Why? They get two picks and a prospect for a guy that overlaps with Garland and is about to get paid.

Garland/Rubio
Okoro/Dotson
Osman/Windler
Mobley/Markkanen
Allen/Love

Just cut Cleveland out & Sixers keep picks

are picks really that important though

Not really but trading Maxey for, in effect, Sexton is just doing something for the sake of it

Maxey is on a rookie contract and his upside is equal to Sexton who wants to be paid next season

Sixers aren’t winning anything with either of them this season so might as well go with the cheaper option and develop him

[Ballerhogger]

Just cut Cleveland out & Sixers keep picks

are picks really that important though

Not really but trading Maxey for, in effect, Sexton is just doing something for the sake of it

Maxey is on a rookie contract and his upside is equal to Sexton who wants to be paid next season

Sixers aren’t winning anything with either of them this season so might as well go with the cheaper option and develop him

i feel like cj and sexton and Joel is lot fire power in the high offenisve east. BK will be healthy presumably, the hawks are only getting better i understand saving money part but i think it puts you close the nets,bucks,hawks.

[Tomjas]

are picks really that important though

Not really but trading Maxey for, in effect, Sexton is just doing something for the sake of it

Maxey is on a rookie contract and his upside is equal to Sexton who wants to be paid next season

Sixers aren’t winning anything with either of them this season so might as well go with the cheaper option and develop him

i feel like cj and sexton and Joel is lot fire power in the high offenisve east. BK will be healthy presumably, the hawks are only getting better i understand saving money part but i think it puts you close the nets,bucks,hawks.

No chance

A Sexton/CJ duo will get absolutely torched in defence which will put far more pressure on Joel

At least Maxey tries on that end

Then you have the fact that Sexton is one of the highest usage players in the league

Either he gives the ball up (with a corresponding drop in his numbers) or Joel does

Worst of both worlds

[babyjax13]

I think Fred VanVleet, Derrick White and Norm Powell are the two best fits for Philly in terms of what players they can bring back. All of them are two-way players who can be good third options.

[Roy The Natural]

RAPTOR is my preferred metric, but I think bad coaching heavily influences what comes out b/c of the player tracking component. I know people rag on Stotts, but he was a million times better than Brown. The LEBRON system might be okay, I'm not sure, and historically Simmons has been much better than CJ there, as well.

Much better is a stretch. Over the past 3 years LEBRON only has Simmons having a noticeably different impact than CJ once.

This last year it was
Ben = 2.17
CJ = 2.14

Year before
Ben = 2.17
CJ = .5

2 Years ago
Ben = 1.08
CJ = .96


They're basically even in 2 of the last 3 years, and only in 2019-20 does LEBRON show a significant difference.

I'm not even going to argue that they're the same caliber player or anything. It just gets pretty frustrating that there's this big narrative that Simmons has a bunch of hidden value that people aren't taking into account. Meanwhile, whenever you look into metrics that try to measure/value that impact you see the opposite of that narrative. You see a fringe all-star type guy who's impact is wildly overstated.

Furthermore, if you just look at the raw data of on/off over the past 3 seasons and give them an equal weighting you see that CJ has a +5.2 on/off on the Blazers offensive rating opposed to Ben's +0.1 rating. CJ's effect on the defense through traditional on/off is measured at -0.7 as opposed to Ben Simmons having -0.5.

There's obviously some degree of noise in regular on/off even over a 3 year sample-size. I DO THINK that Ben Simmons is a better player than CJ... However, where is all this Ben Simmons hidden impact? I just don't see it. It doesn't seem to be showing up in any metric. No metrics that I can find that are worth a damn show him as anything more than a fringe all-star type guy who should should be missing all-star appearances more than making them... as would likely happen in the West.

Multi-year Playoff LEBRON is where the discrepancy lies.

Ben - '19-'21: 1.80

His 2016-2018 split scored a 1.53

McCollum's playoff impact has been rather abysmal.

His highest 3 year run was in between the years of 2015 & 2017 where he grades out barely positively with a 0.14

'19-'21: -0.32
'18-'20: -1.17
'17-'19: -0.50
'16-'18: -1.40

Him and Dame have been quite the underwhelming duo in terms of Lebron scores. I think the fact that they can't cover for each others weaknesses don't help, but I wouldn't be comfortable trading Ben for CJ without major compensation involved. He's more impactful and much younger.

Sure... I'll take the sample size that's 5-7x as large though. The Blazers haven't had the luxury of feeding on barely playoff teams like teams do in the East.

You're taking much of the Blazers playoff record and performance out of context. 3 of the last 6 years the Blazers faced off against the Warriors... 1 of the last 6 years the Blazers faced off against the Lakers when they won the Championship. Pretty much all of Ben Simmon's playoff impact is wrapped up in series against a Miami team who's best player was Goran Dragic. A Brooklyn team who's best player was D'Angelo Russel, and a Wizard's team last year that was sporting a semi-washed Westbrook and Beal that was below .500 on the season.

Simmons was abysmal and a clear negative on the court against Boston. He was mediocre at best against Toronto. You can view the Atlanta series however you'd like, but I think he put up a historically abysmal showing. Ben Simmons has played fine against borderline playoff teams in the Eastern Conference... However, those teams are where he's buoying all his impact. It's not apples to apples.

[Ballerhogger]

I think Fred VanVleet, Derrick White and Norm Powell are the two best fits for Philly in terms of what players they can bring back. All of them are two-way players who can be good third options.

yea but what would SAS do with ben? they need rebuild hes not rebuilding piece.

[babyjax13]

I think Fred VanVleet, Derrick White and Norm Powell are the two best fits for Philly in terms of what players they can bring back. All of them are two-way players who can be good third options.

yea but what would SAS do with ben? they need rebuild hes not rebuilding piece.

There are plenty of ways to make it work. One of the holdups seems to be that a lot of teams who may be interested want to offer picks rather than players, San Antonio could be the connective tissue that facilitates a Simmons trade.

[Van_Trump]

I think someone should point out that all these Kings trades that include Mitchell don't fit into the time frame of trading Simmons before the season starts.

You have to wait a few months before you can trade your newly signed rookies.

1st round rookies actually can be traded just 30 days after signing. It is what happened with Wiggins for instance.

Uhmm. Kings signed Davion Mitchell Aug 5

[giberish]

I think Fred VanVleet, Derrick White and Norm Powell are the two best fits for Philly in terms of what players they can bring back. All of them are two-way players who can be good third options.

yea but what would SAS do with ben? they need rebuild hes not rebuilding piece.

There are plenty of ways to make it work. One of the holdups seems to be that a lot of teams who may be interested want to offer picks rather than players, San Antonio could be the connective tissue that facilitates a Simmons trade.

The catch with White is his health, and his current status as the Spurs best player. The Spurs (at least from comments on this board, and probably in real life due to his best player on the team status) want a haul back in a White trade. Yet Philly may be skeptical of taking him on as the main value in a Simmons deal if they don't trust him to stay healthy.

[stormi]

Much better is a stretch. Over the past 3 years LEBRON only has Simmons having a noticeably different impact than CJ once.

This last year it was
Ben = 2.17
CJ = 2.14

Year before
Ben = 2.17
CJ = .5

2 Years ago
Ben = 1.08
CJ = .96


They're basically even in 2 of the last 3 years, and only in 2019-20 does LEBRON show a significant difference.

I'm not even going to argue that they're the same caliber player or anything. It just gets pretty frustrating that there's this big narrative that Simmons has a bunch of hidden value that people aren't taking into account. Meanwhile, whenever you look into metrics that try to measure/value that impact you see the opposite of that narrative. You see a fringe all-star type guy who's impact is wildly overstated.

Furthermore, if you just look at the raw data of on/off over the past 3 seasons and give them an equal weighting you see that CJ has a +5.2 on/off on the Blazers offensive rating opposed to Ben's +0.1 rating. CJ's effect on the defense through traditional on/off is measured at -0.7 as opposed to Ben Simmons having -0.5.

There's obviously some degree of noise in regular on/off even over a 3 year sample-size. I DO THINK that Ben Simmons is a better player than CJ... However, where is all this Ben Simmons hidden impact? I just don't see it. It doesn't seem to be showing up in any metric. No metrics that I can find that are worth a damn show him as anything more than a fringe all-star type guy who should should be missing all-star appearances more than making them... as would likely happen in the West.

Multi-year Playoff LEBRON is where the discrepancy lies.

Ben - '19-'21: 1.80

His 2016-2018 split scored a 1.53

McCollum's playoff impact has been rather abysmal.

His highest 3 year run was in between the years of 2015 & 2017 where he grades out barely positively with a 0.14

'19-'21: -0.32
'18-'20: -1.17
'17-'19: -0.50
'16-'18: -1.40

Him and Dame have been quite the underwhelming duo in terms of Lebron scores. I think the fact that they can't cover for each others weaknesses don't help, but I wouldn't be comfortable trading Ben for CJ without major compensation involved. He's more impactful and much younger.

Sure... I'll take the sample size that's 5-7x as large though. The Blazers haven't had the luxury of feeding on barely playoff teams like teams do in the East.

You're taking much of the Blazers playoff record and performance out of context. 3 of the last 6 years the Blazers faced off against the Warriors... 1 of the last 6 years the Blazers faced off against the Lakers when they won the Championship. Pretty much all of Ben Simmon's playoff impact is wrapped up in series against a Miami team who's best player was Goran Dragic. A Brooklyn team who's best player was D'Angelo Russel, and a Wizard's team last year that was sporting a semi-washed Westbrook and Beal that was below .500 on the season.

Simmons was abysmal and a clear negative on the court against Boston. He was mediocre at best against Toronto. You can view the Atlanta series however you'd like, but I think he put up a historically abysmal showing. Ben Simmons has played fine against borderline playoff teams in the Eastern Conference... However, those teams are where he's buoying all his impact. It's not apples to apples.

You can use hard-hitting passionate words, but the numbers don't lie. The Boston series and the Raptors series are encompassed in those numbers, and truth be told he was just fine in both of them.

Dame and CJ haven't been able to do much of note when they have gotten lesser opposition. It took them 7 to scrape by a mediocre Spurs side. They got thrashed and emasculated by Jrue, Rondo and a non contender Pels team. They weren't the Houston Rockets led by Harden here who were unluckily peaking alongside one of the greatest teams in NBA history. The Blazers inability to have gimme series' is because they've never had a true contender in the Damian Lillard era.