Game 74: Portland vs Sacramento 7 00pm Chargetv and KUNP

[Sinobas]

Trade the whole team or do whatever it takes to get a top tier player. This roster isn't good enough consistently to be more than a perennial play in team at peak.

I heard the Homers on 620 the other day say it's just as hard to fill a roster with 2nd tier/3rd tier players as a 1st tier player. Nevermind the fact we probably couldnt get 1 if we offered up our entire roster.. I wonder if they even believe the crap they're saying?

Then we get a "top tier" player surrounded by a bunch of g-leaguers. That team wouldn't win crap either. The top players in the NBA now, they have good supporting casts. This will be our 4th year in the lottery, and we tanked the last 3. It's also not always apparent that a guy will turn into a super star right away.

A lot comes down to luck of getting a top pick during the year when a unicorn comes out (which is super rare), or being very good with your selections.A lot of the top players in the NBA were drafted outside the top 10. Jokic, Giannis, Shai, Booker, Mitchell, Sabonis...

[PDXKnight]

Trade the whole team or do whatever it takes to get a top tier player. This roster isn't good enough consistently to be more than a perennial play in team at peak.

I heard the Homers on 620 the other day say it's just as hard to fill a roster with 2nd tier/3rd tier players as a 1st tier player. Nevermind the fact we probably couldnt get 1 if we offered up our entire roster.. I wonder if they even believe the crap they're saying?

Then we get a "top tier" player surrounded by a bunch of g-leaguers. That team wouldn't win crap either. The top players in the NBA now, they have good supporting casts. This will be our 4th year in the lottery, and we tanked the last 3. It's also not always apparent that a guy will turn into a super star right away.

A lot comes down to luck of getting a top pick during the year when a unicorn comes out (which is super rare), or being very good with your selections.A lot of the top players in the NBA were drafted outside the top 10. Jokic, Giannis, Shai, Booker, Mitchell, Sabonis...

Obviously you need more than one player, but its much easier to get those guys than a single superstar outside of the draft.

You're correct in saying not every one of those guys has been drafted high but generally your odds are higher if you have a high pick. It's like in college sports the 5 stars don't pan out 100 percent of the time but generally the teams with more 5 stars win more games than the ones with a bunch of 3's. And in a good draft that becomes all the more prevalent

[BlazersBroncos]

I cant knock the kids for the growth and decent play this year. And the team has exceeded expectations by a decent margin.

But man, after watching Flagg last night. Its just rough. We were like 1 number off on getting Wemby and now we overperform in a draft where a guy that basically looks like a white KG is going to change some lucky teams ENTIRE franchise legacy.

Thats how good Cooper is. He is going to be a absolute phenom.

Then again, ATL had a 3% chance to get #1. So your telling me theres a chance.

If we manage to get up to 8 - we are looking at a 26.3% chance at Top-4 and 6% chance at #1. I will say that there is a HUGE difference between the Top-2 and the 3/4 picks in this draft IMO. Cooper and to a much lesser extent Harper and guys that are special. I am not as sold on Ace, but think his skillset as a tall shot creator would be a good fit here. That 4th slot is up for grabs to me - probably Jeremiah Fears.

[Sinobas]

I think we'd have a fair shot at getting Zion. I don't think it's a good idea, but if it works out, it would totally change the team. The draft is a roll of the dice as well. It's probably our best change of getting a top player.

[JRoy]

That would be a catastrophe.

[zzaj]

I cant knock the kids for the growth and decent play this year. And the team has exceeded expectations by a decent margin.

But man, after watching Flagg last night. Its just rough. We were like 1 number off on getting Wemby and now we overperform in a draft where a guy that basically looks like a white KG is going to change some lucky teams ENTIRE franchise legacy.

Thats how good Cooper is. He is going to be a absolute phenom.

Then again, ATL had a 3% chance to get #1. So your telling me theres a chance.

If we manage to get up to 8 - we are looking at a 26.3% chance at Top-4 and 6% chance at #1. I will say that there is a HUGE difference between the Top-2 and the 3/4 picks in this draft IMO. Cooper and to a much lesser extent Harper and guys that are special. I am not as sold on Ace, but think his skillset as a tall shot creator would be a good fit here. That 4th slot is up for grabs to me - probably Jeremiah Fears.

It's 100% on Cronin, Jodi and Kolde for not offloading Simons, Ayton and Grant for whatever bag of chips they could get. They never properly tanked and this is the price you get.

The ownership of teams like Utah, the Wiz and Charlotte did it correctly.

[dckingsfan]

Back to the game for a second... Sabonis sure had his way with Clingan and Reath. Game was over right there.

LaVine destroyed Deni. Guessing Deni will be watching some film on this one.

Simons' matador D is beyond "interesting". Scoot reverting back to the mean?

And Deni with 24 on 11 shots and they didn't get him more shots? Probably a good thing for the tank!

[zzaj]

Back to the game for a second... Sabonis sure had his way with Clingan and Reath. Game was over right there.

LaVine destroyed Deni. Guessing Deni will be watching some film on this one.

Simons' matador D is beyond "interesting". Scoot reverting back to the mean?

And Deni with 24 on 11 shots and they didn't get him more shots? Probably a good thing for the tank!

Deni looks pretty well scouted at this point, and SAC did a great job defensively in this game all in all.

Clingan is what he is at this point in terms of drop coverage, and he actually plays pretty soft. A few times Sabonis was able to initiate contact, give him the 'bump' and get his shot off. Sabonis has probably been doing that move since he was 6 years old vs. his dad...
Val also played physical with Clingan. Clingan is getting by on being tall right now. I expect in a couple of years once he gains some experience and core strength he'll play more physically.

One thing I've noticed with Clingan is that he tends to track single players pretty well under the basket, but he gets lost and is slow to react on passes, handoffs and any kind of ball rotation. That will get better with time as well.

As for the Sac players, LaVine certainly has the ability to destroy just about anyone in the league when he's "on". I sure wish Simons was 6'5" or 6'6" around 210...

[dckingsfan]

Back to the game for a second... Sabonis sure had his way with Clingan and Reath. Game was over right there.

LaVine destroyed Deni. Guessing Deni will be watching some film on this one.

Simons' matador D is beyond "interesting". Scoot reverting back to the mean?

And Deni with 24 on 11 shots and they didn't get him more shots? Probably a good thing for the tank!

Deni looks pretty well scouted at this point, and SAC did a great job defensively in this game all in all.

Clingan is what he is at this point in terms of drop coverage, and he actually plays pretty soft. A few times Sabonis was able to initiate contact, give him the 'bump' and get his shot off. Sabonis has probably been doing that move since he was 6 years old vs. his dad...
Val also played physical with Clingan. Clingan is getting by on being tall right now. I expect in a couple of years once he gains some experience and core strength he'll play more physically.

One thing I've noticed with Clingan is that he tends to track single players pretty well under the basket, but he gets lost and is slow to react on passes, handoffs and any kind of ball rotation. That will get better with time as well.

As for the Sac players, LaVine certainly has the ability to destroy just about anyone in the league when he's "on". I sure wish Simons was 6'5" or 6'6" around 210...

Agreed with all of this.

They are trying to take the ball out of Deni's hands, smart. And... the Blazers still don't run when Deni runs... so the Blazers self-own on that one.

Yep, Clingan has the tools but he has a way to go on the defensive and offensive end. Still, I like the pick somewhat. It will be interesting to see if he or Edney ends up better in the end.

I have seen Deni do a really good job on LaVine before - but it wasn't happening this game for sure.

[zzaj]

Back to the game for a second... Sabonis sure had his way with Clingan and Reath. Game was over right there.

LaVine destroyed Deni. Guessing Deni will be watching some film on this one.

Simons' matador D is beyond "interesting". Scoot reverting back to the mean?

And Deni with 24 on 11 shots and they didn't get him more shots? Probably a good thing for the tank!

Deni looks pretty well scouted at this point, and SAC did a great job defensively in this game all in all.

Clingan is what he is at this point in terms of drop coverage, and he actually plays pretty soft. A few times Sabonis was able to initiate contact, give him the 'bump' and get his shot off. Sabonis has probably been doing that move since he was 6 years old vs. his dad...
Val also played physical with Clingan. Clingan is getting by on being tall right now. I expect in a couple of years once he gains some experience and core strength he'll play more physically.

One thing I've noticed with Clingan is that he tends to track single players pretty well under the basket, but he gets lost and is slow to react on passes, handoffs and any kind of ball rotation. That will get better with time as well.

As for the Sac players, LaVine certainly has the ability to destroy just about anyone in the league when he's "on". I sure wish Simons was 6'5" or 6'6" around 210...

Agreed with all of this.

They are trying to take the ball out of Deni's hands, smart. And... the Blazers still don't run when Deni runs... so the Blazers self-own on that one.

Yep, Clingan has the tools but he has a way to go on the defensive and offensive end. Still, I like the pick somewhat. It will be interesting to see if he or Edney ends up better in the end.

I am one of only a few posters who seems to want Edey to succeed...just because I think variety in Bigs is actually good for the league. That being said, the age of Clingan vs. Edey is key here...give Clingan two more years in the league to match Edey's current age and I can't imagine he'll be worse than Edey is currently.

I actually think some of the Blazer offense not pushing with Deni is by design.

1) The Blazers were getting KILLED on runouts earlier in the season--having everyone run the floor on offense leaves the opponent basket wide open. This was addressed at some point, but the Blazers still tend to "crash" a lot, which also leads to runouts...

2) It's better for spacing. 5 players running a break means 5 defenders back. In my playing days they always taught us that you want middle of the floor and 2 outlets on fast breaks, with 2 players playing safety for opposing runout passes--usually the C, and PF.

[BlazersBroncos]

Yep, Clingan has the tools but he has a way to go on the defensive and offensive end. Still, I like the pick somewhat. It will be interesting to see if he or Edney ends up better in the end.

To me its not between Clingan and Edey. Zach is never going to be the defender that Donovan is - and thats what you want from the C spot unless your talking a generational offensive talent like Joker. Given the age as well and its pretty easy to see DC has much more potential as a 2-way guy IMO.

DC is averaging more BPG and APG while being close in RPG despite less minutes. Zach is shooting the 3 better but I actually am quite optimistic on DC here due to his form.

For me the real 'wait and see' is whether we messed up passing on Matas.

[dckingsfan]

Deni looks pretty well scouted at this point, and SAC did a great job defensively in this game all in all.

Clingan is what he is at this point in terms of drop coverage, and he actually plays pretty soft. A few times Sabonis was able to initiate contact, give him the 'bump' and get his shot off. Sabonis has probably been doing that move since he was 6 years old vs. his dad...
Val also played physical with Clingan. Clingan is getting by on being tall right now. I expect in a couple of years once he gains some experience and core strength he'll play more physically.

One thing I've noticed with Clingan is that he tends to track single players pretty well under the basket, but he gets lost and is slow to react on passes, handoffs and any kind of ball rotation. That will get better with time as well.

As for the Sac players, LaVine certainly has the ability to destroy just about anyone in the league when he's "on". I sure wish Simons was 6'5" or 6'6" around 210...

Agreed with all of this.

They are trying to take the ball out of Deni's hands, smart. And... the Blazers still don't run when Deni runs... so the Blazers self-own on that one.

Yep, Clingan has the tools but he has a way to go on the defensive and offensive end. Still, I like the pick somewhat. It will be interesting to see if he or Edney ends up better in the end.

I am one of only a few posters who seems to want Edey to succeed...just because I think variety in Bigs is actually good for the league. That being said, the age of Clingan vs. Edey is key here...give Clingan two more years in the league to match Edey's current age and I can't imagine he'll be worse than Edey is currently.

I actually think some of the Blazer offense not pushing with Deni is by design.

1) The Blazers were getting KILLED on runouts earlier in the season--having everyone run the floor on offense leaves the opponent basket wide open. This was addressed at some point, but the Blazers still tend to "crash" a lot, which also leads to runouts...

2) It's better for spacing. 5 players running a break means 5 defenders back. In my playing days they always taught us that you want middle of the floor and 2 outlets on fast breaks, with 2 players playing safety for opposing runout passes--usually the C, and PF.

Can't disagree with any of that. Just when Deni runs the break, just that the 2 outlets aren't there

[dckingsfan]

Yep, Clingan has the tools but he has a way to go on the defensive and offensive end. Still, I like the pick somewhat. It will be interesting to see if he or Edney ends up better in the end.

To me its not between Clingan and Edey. Zach is never going to be the defender that Donovan is - and thats what you want from the C spot unless your talking a generational offensive talent like Joker. Given the age as well and its pretty easy to see DC has much more potential as a 2-way guy IMO.

DC is averaging more BPG and APG while being close in RPG despite less minutes. Zach is shooting the 3 better but I actually am quite optimistic on DC here due to his form.

For me the real 'wait and see' is whether we messed up passing on Matas.

The only thing that scares me about Clingan is his FT % and what that means in terms of his long-term ability to him mid-range and 3-point shots.

And if you were going to take a flyer, trade down and get either Ware or Missi and another player.

[Case2012]

Watching film of Nique Clifford and i was blown away. I can't think of who he reminds me of but man, the guy has very little weakness to his game, he actually reminded me of a less athletic Flagg. Really, watch film on both back to back and tell me they aren't very similar. He's 5 years older, but man that guy could be a number one option day one. Shot creation, playmaking, defense. Yes he's 23 but so is Camara. Deni is 24. Forget age, who is a more NBA ready player in this draft outside Flagg and Harper? If he was 19 he would be top 3.

I really like Fears as well and think he could be a star. If we dont luck out and get into the top 4 we need to figure out how to draft both Fears and Clifford and i think we could be done tanking. If Philly loses their pick to OKC, trading Deni for the 7th pick, Topic and another 1st or 2 might be the move. Or maybe just Shaedon straight up to Philly for their pick at 6 or something and take Fears and then Clifford with our pick. Yes Deni is really good and could be an all star BUT trading him with this kind of value could set the clock back on contracts while not losing much if anything in terms of talent. Every year there's an older guy that ends up being pretty good and people regret passing on them because of their age and a lot of people are gonna be sad they passed on Clifford.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=NoCeilingsNBA

[Pattycakes]

Yep, Clingan has the tools but he has a way to go on the defensive and offensive end. Still, I like the pick somewhat. It will be interesting to see if he or Edney ends up better in the end.

To me its not between Clingan and Edey. Zach is never going to be the defender that Donovan is - and thats what you want from the C spot unless your talking a generational offensive talent like Joker. Given the age as well and its pretty easy to see DC has much more potential as a 2-way guy IMO.

DC is averaging more BPG and APG while being close in RPG despite less minutes. Zach is shooting the 3 better but I actually am quite optimistic on DC here due to his form.

For me the real 'wait and see' is whether we messed up passing on Matas.

I don’t really see that even as a potential scenario. Buzelis ceiling isn’t *that* nice