Offseason

[d-train]

It's true the Blazers AGAIN exceeded expectations in the regular season, considering Stotts had to AGAIN deal with a multitude of injuries to his roster, but we AGAIN got bounced out of the playoffs early, and AGAIN looking awful in the process.

Yours truly,

The Treadmill

We had 1 bad game, that's not awful. We were awful at keeping our center in the game. We might have won the series if the only change was more of Nurkic. Our undersized forwards out played Nuggets bigger forwards, but not by as much as Suns undersized forwards did.

Suns won because Suns key players didn't foul out and CP3 managed Suns offense better than Lillard. How do the Blazers get playmaking that utilizes our talent as well as CP3 utilizes his teammates? As long as Lillard has the ball all the time, our game management is limited to what Lillard can do. It really isn't an option to get a PG and give him the ball, unless that player is better than Lillard. We don't get the advantages of Lillard having the ball all the time, without also taking the shortcomings. We need Lillard to improve his game management. The coach on the sidelines makes no difference, unless changing the messenger changes how the message is received.

[Norm2953]

That team really, really needs a vet backup pg.

Anfernee Simons CANNOT play that position on a winning team. Expecting that is seething him and everyone else up for failure.

It would be interesting to see what happens in Philly if they lose to the Hawks or lose to the bucks. Would Portland and
Philly complete the long argued over CJ +pick trade for Simmons?

[JRoy]

That team really, really needs a vet backup pg.

Anfernee Simons CANNOT play that position on a winning team. Expecting that is seething him and everyone else up for failure.

It would be interesting to see what happens in Philly if they lose to the Hawks or lose to the bucks. Would Portland and
Philly complete the long argued over CJ +pick trade for Simmons?

POR needs to swing for the fences and that qualifies.

[Epicurus]

That team really, really needs a vet backup pg.

Anfernee Simons CANNOT play that position on a winning team. Expecting that is seething him and everyone else up for failure.

It would be interesting to see what happens in Philly if they lose to the Hawks or lose to the bucks. Would Portland and
Philly complete the long argued over CJ +pick trade for Simmons?

POR needs to swing for the fences and that qualifies.

WIll these fences mean moving from a 48 (based on 82 games) record, with significant injuries, to a 60 win record, assuming comparatively normal injuries?

[JRoy]

It would be interesting to see what happens in Philly if they lose to the Hawks or lose to the bucks. Would Portland and
Philly complete the long argued over CJ +pick trade for Simmons?

POR needs to swing for the fences and that qualifies.

WIll these fences mean moving from a 48 (based on 82 games) record, with significant injuries, to a 60 win record, assuming comparatively normal injuries?

It’s possible but the west is tough.

[d-train]

How would Simmons make the Blazers better if the cost is CJ? Does Simmons play off Lillard as well as CJ? No! If you want value out of Simmons, you have to put the ball in his hands. So, you need to take the ball out of Lillard's hands. I don't see any improvement, it sounds worse. We would lose a lot of production out of Lillard and CJ's shooting.

I want to improve Lillard by improving how the rest of the team complements him. We need size, rebounding, and shooting. Simmons checks the size and rebounding boxes, but he makes Aminu and Harkless look like marksman. I would rather keep CJ and get size and rebounding from our forwards. I would be surprised if we can do better than adding Collins to this team. Collins starting or coming off the bench would add tremendous value to the great improvement we had last year.

I wonder if we have a role for Melo next year. It might be time for Little to have his chance. Melo can still play, but do we have a role for him. If we split minutes between Powell, RoCo, and Collins, where is the time for Melo? What about DJJ? I think we can fill Melo's offense off the bench with Powell. And, Powell gets to the basket.

[Epicurus]

If next season Little can not push Anthony out of minutes (or even off the team), then he can be considered a bust.

[GEE]

It's true the Blazers AGAIN exceeded expectations in the regular season, considering Stotts had to AGAIN deal with a multitude of injuries to his roster, but we AGAIN got bounced out of the playoffs early, and AGAIN looking awful in the process.

Yours truly,

The Treadmill

Awful???? Nearly the same offensive rating (and hence defensive rating) and 2-4 with one an overtime and two others very close. Disappointing? Yes. Below expectatons? Yes. Awful? Not remotely. So unawful that Nurk staying on the floor with the other 4 starters just 10% longer would have meant winning the series. Now, of course, many things can be attributed to losing a very close series, in that everything is magnified; yet Nurk not staying long enough on the floor ( added relatedly to Kanter just being terrible this series) is a giant factor.

So Olshey throwing Stotts under the bus (which all GMs in his position would have done) was in poor taste, but you do the same thing here to Nurkic. Also, Dame and CJ were getting outplayed by guards off the scrap heap, so yeah... Awful.

[Epicurus]

It's true the Blazers AGAIN exceeded expectations in the regular season, considering Stotts had to AGAIN deal with a multitude of injuries to his roster, but we AGAIN got bounced out of the playoffs early, and AGAIN looking awful in the process.

Yours truly,

The Treadmill

Awful???? Nearly the same offensive rating (and hence defensive rating) and 2-4 with one an overtime and two others very close. Disappointing? Yes. Below expectatons? Yes. Awful? Not remotely. So unawful that Nurk staying on the floor with the other 4 starters just 10% longer would have meant winning the series. Now, of course, many things can be attributed to losing a very close series, in that everything is magnified; yet Nurk not staying long enough on the floor ( added relatedly to Kanter just being terrible this series) is a giant factor.

So Olshey throwing Stotts under the bus (which all GMs in his position would have done) was in poor taste, but you do the same thing here to Nurkic. Also, Dame and CJ were getting outplayed by guards off the scrap heap, so yeah... Awful.

What? Nurk did not stay on the floor long enough. That is a factual claim which seems very warranted. Actually Lillard had a good series on the whole, even on defense. Yes, CJ had a poor series. I really have trouble following your thought process. It is so scattered.

[Norm2953]

Simmons would be an interesting player in Portland for he would be the point forward and being an
all nba first team defender, in conjunction with Roco, Nurk and hopefully Powell, Portland would
be solid defensively even with Dame.

The challenge would be if Nurk can stay healthy and become the Bosnian beast once again. Portland
would move Nurk back under the basket for Simmons is there to initiate the offense.

[soobias]

there's no way i would want Ben Simmons(specially) if mike d'antoni is the coach. Simmons is afraid to shoot the ball and looks like a liability on offense.
i would rather try and get a much cheaper taller 2 way player for CJ.

[DusterBuster]

Simmons and Dame make for an interesting duo. I think they complement each other better than Dame and CJ or Ben and Embiid do currently.

That said, I agree that coaching will play a big role in that, as would style of play. I think a lineup of…

Dame
Powell
Simmons
RoCo
Nurk

Is super interesting, with Simmons playing the point forward role. Maybe if you could get Love on a buyout as the backup stretch 4 as well…. It would definitely be a whole new look for Portland with a better defensive/offense balance.

That said, I ain’t offering anything more than CJ for Ben. I don’t think extra picks or assets are warranted leaving Portland beyond just CJ for Simmons.

[Norm2953]

It really makes too much sense to not get a deal done for Simmons. As I wrote earlier, the key to the
deal for Portland would be to challenge Nurk to both stay on the court and be the Bosnian Beast
again if placed on the low box. Portland would still need a shooter on the wing but I like the idea
of Love in a buy out, ending up in Portland (eventually) much like Batum.

It'd be interesting if the trade is CJ + FRP for Simmons or CJ + Roco for Simmons and Thybulle.

[PDXKnight]

Simmons and Dame make for an interesting duo. I think they complement each other better than Dame and CJ or Ben and Embiid do currently.

That said, I agree that coaching will play a big role in that, as would style of play. I think a lineup of…

Dame
Powell
Simmons
RoCo
Nurk

Is super interesting, with Simmons playing the point forward role. Maybe if you could get Love on a buyout as the backup stretch 4 as well…. It would definitely be a whole new look for Portland with a better defensive/offense balance.

That said, I ain’t offering anything more than CJ for Ben. I don’t think extra picks or assets are warranted leaving Portland beyond just CJ for Simmons.

Supposedly simmons’s value is lower lately but given that they wouldn’t trade him for harden in skeptical cj catches their interest even after the playoff loss

[d-train]

Supposedly simmons’s value is lower lately but given that they wouldn’t trade him for harden in skeptical cj catches their interest even after the playoff loss

This is correct, but who cares. Blazers don't need to make a bad deal and I don't care what Sixers need or want.

Focusing on what makes Blazers better, Lillard is substantially better with the ball than he is without the ball. Without the ball, Lillard might not be better than CJ. The difference between Lillard and CJ are their effectiveness with the ball. They are both good with or without the ball, but Lillard's effectiveness with the ball sets him apart. I don't see how adding a point-forward or PG makes Blazers better, unless the addition is a better player than Lillard. Simmons is not better than Lillard. Simmons would be a nice addition as a complement to Lillard, but we don't improve by accommodating Simmons. Simmons would be a defender/rebounder who can't shoot or make a FT. We would be a worse team by adding Simmons and subtracting CJ.

Like Olshey says, Blazers will trade any player for a better player. This isn't easy to do because everyone wants a better player. CJ is one of the better players all teams want, but where is the deal that meets Blazers conditions for a deal.

Powell for GTJ was a special circumstance because of the value that GTJ's lower cap-hold has for Raptors. Nurkic for Plumlee, was a special circumstance because Nuggets got hosed. It's not easy to find a team that wants to get hosed.

[Epicurus]

I don't know that the Nuggets got hosed in that trade. They wanted Nurkic gone and were willing to throw in a first rounder to make it happen. It was a trade that worked pretty well for both teams, with Nurk when healthy giving the Blazers a better defensive anchor and giving the Nuggets a better fitting backup center.

[DusterBuster]

Simmons and Dame make for an interesting duo. I think they complement each other better than Dame and CJ or Ben and Embiid do currently.

That said, I agree that coaching will play a big role in that, as would style of play. I think a lineup of…

Dame
Powell
Simmons
RoCo
Nurk

Is super interesting, with Simmons playing the point forward role. Maybe if you could get Love on a buyout as the backup stretch 4 as well…. It would definitely be a whole new look for Portland with a better defensive/offense balance.

That said, I ain’t offering anything more than CJ for Ben. I don’t think extra picks or assets are warranted leaving Portland beyond just CJ for Simmons.

Supposedly simmons’s value is lower lately but given that they wouldn’t trade him for harden in skeptical cj catches their interest even after the playoff loss

Trade value is a fluid metric. What BSs value was 3mo ago and what it is now is not the same (true for a lot of players). Also, we don’t know that Philly was the one to turn down the Rockets. Possible the rockets didn’t view BS that highly and wanted too much more from philly.

[d-train]

Simmons and Dame make for an interesting duo. I think they complement each other better than Dame and CJ or Ben and Embiid do currently.

That said, I agree that coaching will play a big role in that, as would style of play. I think a lineup of…

Dame
Powell
Simmons
RoCo
Nurk

Is super interesting, with Simmons playing the point forward role. Maybe if you could get Love on a buyout as the backup stretch 4 as well…. It would definitely be a whole new look for Portland with a better defensive/offense balance.

That said, I ain’t offering anything more than CJ for Ben. I don’t think extra picks or assets are warranted leaving Portland beyond just CJ for Simmons.

Supposedly simmons’s value is lower lately but given that they wouldn’t trade him for harden in skeptical cj catches their interest even after the playoff loss

Trade value is a fluid metric. What BSs value was 3mo ago and what it is now is not the same (true for a lot of players). Also, we don’t know that Philly was the one to turn down the Rockets. Possible the rockets didn’t view BS that highly and wanted too much more from philly.

There is actual player value and there is player value on fan chat forums. Actual player value is very stable and not fluid at all. Actual player value can change, but it follows a stable trend line. Trade value can be disconnected from actual value because it adds a variable for bargaining position or leverage. The volatile fan value of players isn't connected to anything, not even reality.

[Waynearchetype]

The volatile fan value of players isn't connected to anything, not even reality.

I think we're close to a major breakthrough for you, D-Train

[PDXKnight]

I don't know that the Nuggets got hosed in that trade. They wanted Nurkic gone and were willing to throw in a first rounder to make it happen. It was a trade that worked pretty well for both teams, with Nurk when healthy giving the Blazers a better defensive anchor and giving the Nuggets a better fitting backup center.

I think “fair value” would’ve been a straight swap. Denver throwing in a first is what gave us the edge slightly