Game 79: Portland vs San Antonio 3:00pm Chargetv and KUNP

[Norm2953]

There has been some talk of the NBA repaying the Mavs for sending Luka to the Lakers by sending
Flagg to Dallas

[DaVoiceMaster]

I just don't get WTF the Blazers are doing. Sit Camara one game, then sit Avdija the next game. Are they trying to lose or not?!?!?

[Case2012]

Absolute clown show organization. Generational superstar in the draft and they decide to win as many games as possible to ensure they don't get him. Meaningless win after meaningless win. I actually hate them, they're so stupid. What did this do? When it's clear you're not gonna make it to the play in and every win puts you in a worse spot in the draft wtf are you doing? It says you don't have plan or you're just incompetent.


Honestly the only way this behavior makes sense is if they have a trade planned. If you have a chance at drafting a potential star that you can have on the cheap for 4 years, you do that. Why would you make trades to get good now? Why wouldn't you do that 5 years ago? 3 years ago? But now you're gonna do it? It hurts my brain.

[zzaj]

Absolute clown show organization. Generational superstar in the draft and they decide to win as many games as possible to ensure they don't get him. Meaningless win after meaningless win. I actually hate them, they're so stupid. What did this do? When it's clear you're not gonna make it to the play in and every win puts you in a worse spot in the draft wtf are you doing? It says you don't have plan or you're just incompetent.

To me it clearly signals that the organization isn't interested in building in a meaningful way through the draft.

And yes, that's idiotic for a team like the Blazers. It's building a future around other teams' castoffs, malcontents and prayers for recurring injuries to magically get healed by the Portland rain.

[Wizenheimer]

Portland had a shot at getting 8th seed by losing this game. Instead, they played both Camara and Sharpe over 34 minutes

because of that, the Blazers slipped to 9th seed but are tied with the Suns at 35 wins. And only 1/2 game ahead of Miami. And a game ahead of Chicago. In other words, it's possible that the Blazers could fall to 12th seed in the lottery.

lottery chances:

8th seed a 1-in-4 chance
9th seed a 1-in-5 chance
10th seed a 1-in-9 chance
11th seed a 1-in-9 chance
12th seed a 1-in-14 chance

cheer up folks, the Blazers still have a decent shot of ending up at the worst possible outcome for the season

[DusterBuster]

Portland had a shot at getting 8th seed by losing this game. Instead, they played both Camara and Sharpe over 34 minutes

because of that, the Blazers slipped to 9th seed but are tied with the Suns at 35 wins. And only 1/2 game ahead of Miami. And a game ahead of Chicago. In other words, it's possible that the Blazers could fall to 12th seed in the lottery.

lottery chances:

8th seed a 1-in-4 chance
9th seed a 1-in-5 chance
10th seed a 1-in-9 chance
11th seed a 1-in-9 chance
12th seed a 1-in-14 chance

cheer up folks, the Blazers still have a decent shot of ending up at the worst possible outcome for the season

Really just wild that this team went full-tilt, no shame tanking for last years really mediocre draft, but in a year thats arguably on par and maybe deeper than the 2023 Wemby draft, they decide to take a pass on that.

I give some credit that it's a delicate dance as GM where if you push your thumb on the scales too much, it can alienate the players and staff and just generally create a negative culture inside the organization... so that is something that I can give some sympathy to, especially for a team who has multiple players they want/hope to be part of the future vs a team like Utah or Washington who probably only have 1 or 2 players they expect to keep long-term (does Utah even have any?). You don't want to have some players lose faith in the franchise by the GM constantly sabotaging the team... THAT SAID.... It's still insane that they didn't do this year when it was becoming clear the play-in was not realistically in reach.

At this point, outside of shocking lottery luck, the Blazers only hope for getting a star is that Deni proves his last 2 months wasn't a fluke and he can be a near Luka-lite style triple double threat and next year he's a MIP candidate. Don't really see any other realistic path here (and yes, I'm aware hoping Deni becomes a All-Star level player is not even all that realistic).

[Wizenheimer]

Portland had a shot at getting 8th seed by losing this game. Instead, they played both Camara and Sharpe over 34 minutes

because of that, the Blazers slipped to 9th seed but are tied with the Suns at 35 wins. And only 1/2 game ahead of Miami. And a game ahead of Chicago. In other words, it's possible that the Blazers could fall to 12th seed in the lottery.

lottery chances:

8th seed a 1-in-4 chance
9th seed a 1-in-5 chance
10th seed a 1-in-9 chance
11th seed a 1-in-9 chance
12th seed a 1-in-14 chance

cheer up folks, the Blazers still have a decent shot of ending up at the worst possible outcome for the season

Really just wild that this team went full-tilt, no shame tanking for last years really mediocre draft, but in a year thats arguably on par and maybe deeper than the 2023 Wemby draft, they decide to take a pass on that.

I give some credit that it's a delicate dance as GM where if you push your thumb on the scales too much, it can alienate the players and staff and just generally create a negative culture inside the organization... so that is something that I can give some sympathy to, especially for a team who has multiple players they want/hope to be part of the future vs a team like Utah or Washington who probably only have 1 or 2 players they expect to keep long-term (does Utah even have any?). You don't want to have some players lose faith in the franchise by the GM constantly sabotaging the team... THAT SAID.... It's still insane that they didn't do this year when it was becoming clear the play-in was not realistically in reach.

At this point, outside of shocking lottery luck, the Blazers only hope for getting a star is that Deni proves his last 2 months wasn't a fluke and he can be a near Luka-lite style triple double threat and next year he's a MIP candidate. Don't really see any other realistic path here (and yes, I'm aware hoping Deni becomes a All-Star level player is not even all that realistic).

I can see ways Deni making all-star game(s) is 'realistic'. Might not be probably, but could be entirely possible

but his scoring upsurge, and assist increase, and the pair of triple-doubles required Ayton, Grant, Timelord, and occasionally Simons to be in street-clothes. Deni won't be an all-star as long as those 3 vets are around dominating shots and usage. And speaking of realistic, a big part of Deni's surge was shooting 45% on three's....and that's simply unsustainable

it makes so much reasonable sense to turn the team over to Avdija-Sharpe-Camara-Scoot-Clingan by clearing the vets from the roster. But that's the kind of logic that Blazer management seems to discard.

[Walton1one]

Absolute clown show organization. Generational superstar in the draft and they decide to win as many games as possible to ensure they don't get him. Meaningless win after meaningless win. I actually hate them, they're so stupid. What did this do? When it's clear you're not gonna make it to the play in and every win puts you in a worse spot in the draft wtf are you doing? It says you don't have plan or you're just incompetent.

To me it clearly signals that the organization isn't interested in building in a meaningful way through the draft.

And yes, that's idiotic for a team like the Blazers. It's building a future around other teams' castoffs, malcontents and prayers for recurring injuries to magically get healed by the Portland rain.

It is idiotic, and you have Blazer compromised media members and some fans arguing that this team does not need any more young players and yet there are several teams far better than POR (and as young\younger than this team) who will be taking players in the draft, but somehow POR, who is not even a play in team think "they are good"...completely asinine

OKC could have 2 picks
HOU will be picking in the lottery, probably ahead of POR
SA will have (2) lottery picks.

A good team should be drafting players every year, having too many good players is a good thing not a bad one and it gives a team the flexibility to make consolidating moves. Let the cream rise to the top. From the roster 1-15, even down to the 2-way contracts.

Trying to justify having replacement level players at the end of your bench who "know their role" is better than having good players who are fighting for minutes and may be unhappy is completely counterproductive. I don't hear many complaints coming from OKC, and they have a roster way more talented 1-15 than POR does.

We will see what Cronin does, I cannot imagine (well, I can but don't want to) that he will roll back the same team next year, given the late season performance of Sharpe\Deni\Camara\Clingan\Scoot. They cannot start all of these guys if they still have Simons\Grant\Ayton.

[DusterBuster]

LMAO

Read on Twitter

[Walton1one]

Lol

I wonder if this explains the complete nonsensical way POR went about this season though? Sacrificing their draft pick odds, just so he could justify his job to Bert\Jody (show progress) and now that he has he can start and rebuild the roster by offloading Simons\Ayton\Grant and yes, Thybulle\Williams.

All of these guys are expiring next year and POR is not going to be able to meaningfully use that cap space to bring in true difference makers, so it would be in their best interest to use at least some of that space to acquire assets instead

Yeah I know, wishful thinking at this point....

[zzaj]

Absolute clown show organization. Generational superstar in the draft and they decide to win as many games as possible to ensure they don't get him. Meaningless win after meaningless win. I actually hate them, they're so stupid. What did this do? When it's clear you're not gonna make it to the play in and every win puts you in a worse spot in the draft wtf are you doing? It says you don't have plan or you're just incompetent.

To me it clearly signals that the organization isn't interested in building in a meaningful way through the draft.

And yes, that's idiotic for a team like the Blazers. It's building a future around other teams' castoffs, malcontents and prayers for recurring injuries to magically get healed by the Portland rain.

It is idiotic, and you have Blazer compromised media members and some fans arguing that this team does not need any more young players and yet there are several teams far better than POR (and as young\younger than this team) who will be taking players in the draft, but somehow POR, who is not even a play in team think "they are good"...completely asinine

OKC could have 2 picks
HOU will be picking in the lottery, probably ahead of POR
SA will have (2) lottery picks.

A good team should be drafting players every year, having too many good players is a good thing not a bad one and it gives a team the flexibility to make consolidating moves. Let the cream rise from the top. From the roster 1-15, even down to the 2-way contracts.

Trying to justify having replacement level players at the end of your bench who "know their role" is better than having good players who are fighting for minutes and may be unhappy is completely counterproductive. I don't hear many complaints coming from OKC, and they have a roster way more talented 1-15 than POR does.

We will see what Cronin does, I cannot imagine (well, I can but don't want to) that he will roll back the same team next year, given the late season performance of Sharpe\Deni\Camara\Clingan\Scoot. They cannot start all of these guys if they still have Simons\Grant\Ayton.

I was running errands after the game yesterday and turned on 620 while I was in the car...big mistake.

I get it that those guys have a job to do, but the level of "OMG can you imagine what this team is going to look like when they get Ayton and Grant back?!"...and "even adding a 10th pick and this team is set for the immediate future" garbage coming out of the radio made we want to put my head through the windshield. They even wrongly said that nobody can pass them in the draft standings at this point to make the draft pick worse, so the team may as well win out these remaining games...both PHX and MIA can pass Portland if they lose out and Portland finishes with only Ws.

Needless to say, the radio went off pretty quick...

[Walton1one]

To me it clearly signals that the organization isn't interested in building in a meaningful way through the draft.

And yes, that's idiotic for a team like the Blazers. It's building a future around other teams' castoffs, malcontents and prayers for recurring injuries to magically get healed by the Portland rain.

It is idiotic, and you have Blazer compromised media members and some fans arguing that this team does not need any more young players and yet there are several teams far better than POR (and as young\younger than this team) who will be taking players in the draft, but somehow POR, who is not even a play in team think "they are good"...completely asinine

OKC could have 2 picks
HOU will be picking in the lottery, probably ahead of POR
SA will have (2) lottery picks.

A good team should be drafting players every year, having too many good players is a good thing not a bad one and it gives a team the flexibility to make consolidating moves. Let the cream rise from the top. From the roster 1-15, even down to the 2-way contracts.

Trying to justify having replacement level players at the end of your bench who "know their role" is better than having good players who are fighting for minutes and may be unhappy is completely counterproductive. I don't hear many complaints coming from OKC, and they have a roster way more talented 1-15 than POR does.

We will see what Cronin does, I cannot imagine (well, I can but don't want to) that he will roll back the same team next year, given the late season performance of Sharpe\Deni\Camara\Clingan\Scoot. They cannot start all of these guys if they still have Simons\Grant\Ayton.

I was running errands after the game yesterday and turned on 620 while I was in the car...big mistake.

I get it that those guys have a job to do, but the level of "OMG can you imagine what this team is going to look like when they get Ayton and Grant back?!"...and "even adding a 10th pick and this team is set for the immediate future" garbage coming out of the radio made we want to put my head through the windshield. They even wrongly said that nobody can pass them in the draft standings at this point to make the draft pick worse, so the team may as well win out these remaining games...both PHX and MIA can pass Portland if they lose out and Portland finishes with only Ws.

Needless to say, the radio went off pretty quick...

Yeah, it is nauseating. Their job is to sunshine pump, I get it, but I miss the days of Snapper Jones or even Mike Rice on occasion telling it like it is, good or bad. Steve Jones was great at that, not afraid to call a boneheaded play\decision, be it player or coach related, that sort of candor is sorely missed, all we get now is the Blazer propaganda machine. Just shut up and cheer....

It was pointed out elsewhere and I agree, there are two sets of Blazer fans, those who are just happy when they win, even if it means they are going nowhere and those fans who want to see this team reach the pinnacle of the sport again, a championship, and then you add to this a team that really only cares about selling tickets, actually winning something meaningful is incidental.

[Case2012]

Ok so Cronin and Billups decided to put their contracts ahead of the long term success of the team, not shocking but also a testament to how much they really GAF about this team. Now things are much clearer. All of Cronin and CB's blunders are suddenly swept under the rug after a 14 game improvement in the win column. I hate it here.

The new contract might be a strong indication they have no intention of selling anytime soon (or ever) either. Even better. Can't wait for Billups new contract announcement, that should be fun too.