Game 69: Portland vs New York 7:00pm Root,Root+

[monopoman]

It’s rare for me…but I’m going in—EMBRACE THE TANK. There’s literally zero reason to try and bank wins at this point. Rest Lillard, and play Sharpe.

Blazers absolutely HAVE to get rid of Chauncey. A decent GM wouldn’t hurt, either. Probably won’t happen…

While we can make the playoffs at this point it's probably a play-in spot at 9th or 10th as the most likely. I'm sure Dame is still out there trying and might get the players to buy in, but Billups is proving to be a pretty damn bad coach so I have no desire to make the playoffs and get trounced as the 8th seed in 4 games.

I'd rather have a 6-10% chance at the #1 pick and and a 30ish-40ish% chance at a top 4 pick.

[HoopsFanAZ]

Losing to the Knicks was important for their pick. Go Knicks!
Boston then the Clippers next — Should be okay.
Then the real work starts with 4 tough-to-tank-well in a row.

Grant, Thybulle, and Eubanks should be back. The other FA’s? Meh.
13 more. Only 13 more.

[JRoy]

More likely we keep our pick, more likely we get the NYK pick. Great L.

[The Sebastian Express]

For me it's a fierable offense to see Shaedon getting seven minutes in this game.

[Case2012]

I'm not a fan of tanking and I bet on the blazers to win this one.

Chaucey needs to go. I've never seen a coach lose so many double digit Leads in my life, it's crazy.

The real hope is that Jody sells. This team will never be competitive with her at the helm. Cronin can go too, he's the exact same guy as Olshey but with a much better attitude.

I have a sneaky feeling we win the lottery if we don't actively try and tank, I'm also a conspiracy theory guy and I have a feeling the league might help us out a bit in the lottery. Silver should do Lillard a solid and reward his loyalty with the number one pick to give him a shot at a championship with Wemby before he retires.

This is the way.

[Norm2953]

There must be some friction between Chauncey and Shaedon or else Shaedon is nursing an injury.

[Norm2953]

I'm not a fan of tanking and I bet on the blazers to win this one.

Chaucey needs to go. I've never seen a coach lose so many double digit Leads in my life, it's crazy.

The real hope is that Jody sells. This team will never be competitive with her at the helm. Cronin can go too, he's the exact same guy as Olshey but with a much better attitude.

I have a sneaky feeling we win the lottery if we don't actively try and tank, I'm also a conspiracy theory guy and I have a feeling the league might help us out a bit in the lottery. Silver should do Lillard a solid and reward his loyalty with the number one pick to give him a shot at a championship with Wemby before he retires.

This is the way.

I'm hoping Victor ends up in SA for his own sake.

[Case2012]

A number one pick is a great selling point to perspective owners. I think Knight makes a serious offer this summer, my guess is 4 billion.

[PDXKnight]

Shaedon >cam

[HoopsFanAZ]

There’s no doubt IMHO Sharpe is as good as Reddish, now. That may be an overstatement and unfair to Reddish, but 7 minutes is ridiculous. There may be legit reasons behind the scenes, though, so I’m not with calling for Billups’ head over a rookie sitting.

I’ve seen enough of Thybulle to think he’s back next year. Good move bringing him in.
I also like seeing what Reddish can do, his size/athleticism, and his subpar defense. Good to know. He can make it in the NBA but he’s not making any money until he dramatically improves despite physical tools … and he’s on team #3.

Sharpe getting 7 is …
The new guys need time on court for next year’s roster decisions.
Knox is not looking like he’s back. Too bad. Hope he find a role on a team that matters.

[Capn'O]

Go Chauncey! Literally no coach better at ripping a loss from the grips of a win.

Y'all need to be giving more credit to Cam for his contributions Just not a winning player. Knicks started cold which wasn't going to last but subbing Cam for Thybulle was when the tide started to shift to NY. Thybulle was everywhere in the first quarter. I really like MT for the Blazers.

Hope the Blazers do something good with the two picks. Because of longstanding curses with bigs and all, I'm hoping the Blazers somehow end up with Miller in the draft. Just finally draft the wing. Then, there will be good depth in the 20s. A good chance for a contributor.

There’s no doubt IMHO Sharpe is as good as Reddish, now. That may be an overstatement and unfair to Reddish, but 7 minutes is ridiculous. There may be legit reasons behind the scenes, though, so I’m not with calling for Billups’ head over a rookie sitting.

I’ve seen enough of Thybulle to think he’s back next year. Good move bringing him in.
I also like seeing what Reddish can do, his size/athleticism, and his subpar defense. Good to know. He can make it in the NBA but he’s not making any money until he dramatically improves despite physical tools … and he’s on team #3.

Sharpe getting 7 is …
The new guys need time on court for next year’s roster decisions.
Knox is not looking like he’s back. Too bad. Hope he find a role on a team that matters.

Sharpe is probably better right now. Blazers have to give Cam a tryout as an expiring and they're finding out what everyone else did. He's a player with great 3/D potential who thinks he's a star. It is what it is. I wouldn't be surprised if y'all kept Knox. He's settled into a role in the league - sparkplug when he gets hot - and provides some value at it.

[Case2012]

Sportrac is estimating that Cam wold be worth around 3 years 25 million, and that’s crazy to me. Maybe 2 years 12 million?

[PDXKnight]

Sportrac is estimating that Cam wold be worth around 3 years 25 million, and that’s crazy to me. Maybe 2 years 12 million?

Yeah that seems about right to me but I'd prefer if it wasn't with portland

[BlazersBroncos]

I think both Cam and MT are about 6M AV guys. Maybe 7 for MT.

[red_power]

As long as he keeps knocking 40% of 3PT shots Thybulle is just a perfect role player. He knocks open buckets, he moves the ball, he controls passing lines and he plays hard.
I suspect offering him much less than a full MLE will fall short of a deal he could reasonably expect, simply because there are a lot of teams in the NBA that would like to see him on their roster.

Cam is a bit different story. Kid definitely got some talent, he can ball and he can control passing lines thanks to his length. He doesn't like to play hard and seems to have durability issues though.
Overall that screams of a Dorell-Wright caliber player. He's a soft and inefficient chucker but anyway could be a decent rotation player in the right situation.

[Norm2953]

Blazers could let all their free agents walk if their best choices in the draft were SF's

I'm still hoping Grant walks for I'd hate for Portland to be paying him $30+ million for another
guy who doesn't rebound

[zzaj]

The "we pay our players" era needs to be over. It needed to be over a long time ago...like 7 years ago. Unless a player has proven themselves, there is no need to pay average players overmarket value.

I don't see keeping Grant for what he's going to want. He weirdly reminds me sometimes of Whiteside--somebody who can often fill up a stat sheet, but it amounts to not a whole lot. His rebounding issues aren't going to solve themselves. He's not the future of the Franchise, no point in paying him like he is.

I like Thybulle...he's exactly the dirty-work player every team needs and seems to be excelling in that role here. I'd bring him back as long as the price is reasonable. Cam can go. As others have said, despite having most of the tools, he seems to lack the "it" factor for success in the NBA.

Again, I do worry about Sharpe. I recognize that management may want to get an extended look at what they have in MT/Cam, but my spidey sense is that there may be a between the ears aspect to him not getting extended PT. Surely it's not all on Chauncey. I can't imagine Cronin not at least talking to Chauncey about playing the kid.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Such a disappointing game in so many ways. You're down 18 with 4-5 minutes left. Pull the damn starters. Why are we seeing less and less of Sharpe? I'm ready to wrap up this season. Sit Lillard, Nurkic, and Grant. Just play the young guys and give them some experience. Let's get that number 6 spot and see if we cant jump into the top 4 in the draft.

Let's hope they sell the team to Phil Knight this summer, hire a new head coach, and make a monster trade (or two).

[BlazersBroncos]

Cam to Dorrell Wright is a brilliant comparison.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I've not seen Derrick Rose play in a while, but he looked like he was suited up last night. Does he just have nothing left to even get backup minutes?