DusterBuster wrote:Wizenheimer wrote:DusterBuster wrote:
I was a bit concerned tbh what the turnout might be for this. Concerned maybe being too strong of a word, but you get my drift.
This whole offseason and into this season just seems like it's going to be... weird. So you have kind of a weird limbo season for the Blazers with the sale, the Dame signing buzz is almost 3mo past its due date, NFL season in full swing and NBA news pretty much non-existent (outside of the Clippers drama), plus Dame not playing this season ... the whole thing felt a little awkwardly timed. Then seeing the crowed when the event started and was like 15-20min it, PCS looked pretty sparse.
But by the time Dame actually got on stage, seeing how packed it was was awesome. Really happy to see how much the fans turned out to welcome him back, still such a great story imo.
It'll be interesting to see how Dame's relationship with the franchises evolves with the new ownership group. There's a non-zero chance the new ownership group won't be very sentimental about Dame. I think they'll stick with him into next season to see what he's like post-injury. If he's a 20+ppg scorer like he was pre-injury and on a MLE contract, that's a deal any owner would be stupid to get rid of. But if Dame's struggling... I question if Dundon is going to be local to Dame the way the Allen ownership group was. I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a Clyde Drexler 2.0 situation...
calling it a "weird" off-season may actually be a bit of an understatement
it wasn't weird in a bad way, at least not mostly. I mean, personally, the two players I was sick of seeing in Blazer uniforms were Simons and Ayton. And I was concerned that they were going to be re-signed. Instead they were moved, and their absence will be much appreciated by me and I'd say a majority of Blazer fans.
and of course, the announcement of the pending sale. And as usual, we have Adam Silver's comments about a new arena and "preference" spicing up the sale news
* making it weirder is that the Blazers now have a pair of 35 year old PG's standing in front of, or maybe alongside, a 3rd pick PG who has been pretty disappointing gauged against his massive pre-draft hype. And one of those aging PG's won't even play this season
* and the Blazers using two straight drafts to add two redundant slow-footed 7+ foot C's incapable of switching to perimeter on D
* and the very real possibility that a 7th pick in his 4th season, and a 3rd pick in his 3rd season, will both be backups this year
and looking at this team and realizing that the ceiling for this season may very well be a play-in berth; and that the 'apparent' options moving forward don't really offer a path to anything higher than pretender, and that's in a best case scenario. Well, while I'll be interested and watching with more enthusiasm than I have for a few seasons, my hopes for the future are more tied to what Dundon might do than to the ceiling of the current roster
I've made similar posts echoing these same thoughts. I've called this a "weird" offseason a lot since June/July, but not in a bad way... just a lot of moves that make you go... huh.
I get the pessimism of this roster as currently constructed, I'm still waiting to see what kind of player development we see from the young guys this year before putting any artificial cap on what I think they can do. Play in would seemingly be that cap, I agree, but also ... weird **** happens in the NBA. There are unexpected developments that could really change the landscape of the West. I'm more bullish on Camara's game really coming around offensively this year than most. I don't put the glass ceiling on him others do here. We've also simply haven't seen a Blazers team built around a forward like Deni in a long long long time, certainly not in the last 10+ years.
So if things click, I think they could give teams more trouble than we're giving them credit for with their mix of size and defense. Offense is the thing we're all holding our breath about right now. It's certainly one of the most intriguing Blazer rosters we've seen in awhile now because of the unknown, which will definitely keep me invested to start the year, but I'm holding off on "hoping" for any moves from Dundon until I get actual eyes on what this team is. I just want more proven evidence of what this iteration of the team is, how it works, whats good / whats bad, than take a look at possible moves.
I mean, I'm almost as concerned with the "new owner syndrome" as I am anything else. I would be concerned if he wants to go out and make an immediate splash trade instead of taking a patient approach to the roster. The track record from nearly every new owner on this is truly awful.
I'm assuming no 'breakout' season for either Sharpe or Scoot, just some stead improvement. I'm also not assuming that either will start
Jrue is better than Simons, so that's an overall upgrade. But the big Blazer weakness was shooting. Blazers were 26th in FG%; 24th in 2ptFG%; 26th in 3ptFG%; 26th in FT%; 25th in eFG%; 23rd in TS%. That's pretty bad. Jrue won't help that as a shooter; he might as a facilitator. But finding shooting touch, as a team, when there are several mediocre shooters will be a challenge
so yeah, without changes, I don't see any ceiling above the play-in. Right now I'd say the cap would be 8th-9th seed
you bring up a good point about a new owner. I'm hoping he isn't eager to spend future draft assets for a debatable splash trade