Pattycakes wrote:Walton1one wrote:Yeah, the problem is POR isn't the only team interested in being near the bottom of the NBA standings next year, and those mediocre vets (Ant\Grant\Thybulle\Williams (if healthy) could all work against "not wanting to win", thus the need to have them off the team BEFORE the season starts, optimal asset return be dammed.
Embrace the bigger picture (2025 top 3 pick), which should have more impact for POR moving forward than any other minor assets that Cronin can extract from other teams by holding onto any of those players.
I’m probably in the minority by far, but I think the “tank for 2025” is such a losing mentality. That’s Monday morning water cooler fanboy attitude.
I don’t think cronin will come out and say it, but I think he enjoys people assuming that’s the Blazers priority.
I think he truly is committed to our young core and development, but also wants to balance that core with young vets that know how to win too.
Anyone expecting us to dump any of Ant/Grant/rw3 or even Thybulle for anything short of an equal return of value for the sake of Cooper Flagg is far out of touch of how a team properly rebuilds for the sake of being a contender in a reasonable timespan.
Hypothetical, we take Ls on all 4 of those guys, intentionally stunt our best players growth to tank next year, miss out on Flagg due to… ya know lotto statistics and we get some random guy who may or may not even be better than the core we already have.
This is nba 2k attitude, not real life
Trading non-needle moving vets who are well paid, flawed and generally not within our timeframe is absolutley not a NBA 2K attitude.
We are not a very talented team and paying 55M combined for the likes of Grant / Simons isnt taking us anywhere.
Its not all about Flagg. Its about increasing our chances at a high draft pick regardless. Because small market teams are generally only getting needle moving talent in the draft.
Right now there isnt a guy on the squad that one can look at and cleary declare a future franchise player. Scoot was horrible his first season. Sharpe is wildly inconsistent. Clingon is a unknown until further notice. After them its a gaggle of 'hopefully this youngster can become a role player' and win-now role players paid well. We need more shots at needle movers. For example, OKC has 3 core guys (SGA / Jalen / Chet) that are all miles better than anyone we have on the roster. We are not even close to being an up-and-coming young team. We are years away from being in a position similar to a squad like them, or MEM with Morant / Bane / JJJ. Again, none of our youth comes close to those aformentioned guys.
The idea that we have a core in Scoot / Sharpe / Clingon that we can crown as the future and that we are in a position to walk away from continuing our luck in the high lotto is absurd. We are not in the 'surround them with vets and let them compete / grow' phase because we have no talents that have proven themselves as blue chip.
We have enough talent to maybe compete for a bubble spot, only to get whipped in the 1st round and end up picking in the 12-15 range. That is our championship with this roster. A 1st round whipping and the prize of missing out on the top draft talent.
And on top of that, does anyone REALLY want to watch Simons, Grant and Co. again this year? Its simply not fun basketball. Those 2 shot 34 times per game last season. I simply do not want to see that again.
I think this is all moot though, because I am not convinced there is a market for Simons OR Grant right now. I was hopeful on Grant but it appears LAL isnt biting and I dont see another team out there with matching salary and even a chance of interest.
