Lillard: I don't want to be a part of a rebuild.

[DusterBuster]

Portland needs a bigger, athletic back-up center than Drew — even though he has become an NBA hustle player with some nice moves.
Keeping him with Trendon, Matisse, and Walker makes 4 of a bench group that will play hard all the time. They could use more bench shooting and a guard with handles and passing.

That slow it down 2 step to the hoop of Trendon is nasty.

Portland literally needs any other backup that Drew. You can’t tell me he was a better choice than giving Boogie Cousins a 10-day or calling Dwight Howard a chance to get out of Taiwan. It would have literally cost the same amount.

[DaVoiceMaster]

I wish Eubanks had another 2-3 inches. Walker has disappointed during the tankathon. I thought he would do a bit better.

[Sinobas]

Path 1: Keep Dame
Likely result the same stuff we've seen, we'll be mediocre and not get far in the playoffs for a few more years. Then he becomes like a 36 year old Kobe Bryant, and holds back a rebuild.

Path 2: trade him
We'll be worse in the short term, we'll see him wracking up a lot of points and success with another team, but at least we'll have gotten something for him, and will probably be in a much better place 3-4 yeas down the road.

[DusterBuster]

None of this matters until after the lottery. For me, the NBA is over until May 16th.

[GEE]

Path 1: Keep Dame
Likely result the same stuff we've seen, we'll be mediocre and not get far in the playoffs for a few more years. Then he becomes like a 36 year old Kobe Bryant, and holds back a rebuild.

Path 2: trade him
We'll be worse in the short term, we'll see him wracking up a lot of points and success with another team, but at least we'll have gotten something for him, and will probably be in a much better place 3-4 yeas down the road.

I think this is basicly the case, and I think we will see Path 1. It also appears evident that Cronin and Chauncey are prepared to proceed with improvements to the team, regardless of the chosen path. With this, I think it's highly likely the path Dame choses, whether he stays or goes is totally up to Dame, and I doubt he wants to whether we win a chip or not.

Best case and most likely IMO is that Simons plays a 6th man role, whether starting or not (hopefully not) and in a couple more years as Dame's game begins to fade, Simons and Dame trade spots and play it that way for Dame's final years. Dame can then play 6th man for the Blazers til he's 42 if he wants to.

Point is, I think a championship with Dame is still possible, but it will depend mostly on Cronin's abilities this summer, along with improvement by both players and coaches. Or just dumb (lottery) luck!

[HoopsFanAZ]

29, 52, 58, 62, 63
Winslow, Nurkic, Lillard, Simons, Grant
Games played on a roster that is not finished. No chance the playoffs were happening with the injuries and holes in the line-up. And yet Dame showed no evidence of having lost a step … to the contrary.

Lillard, the best Blazer, with Grant and Sharpe. The lottery and then the off-season. I look forward to it.

[Norm2953]

Indeed, the results of this lottery will impact every lottery bound team for years to come for Victor is supposed to be the next generational player since Lebron.

I'm going to assume Portland will finish 6-7. This is a solid draft which will add another young player who eventually will help Portland. Not going to help Dame much but the return from a Dame trade will finally lead to a course of action instead of the band aid approaches.

[DusterBuster]

Indeed, the results of this lottery will impact every lottery bound team for years to come for Victor is supposed to be the next generational player since Lebron.

I'm going to assume Portland will finish 6-7. This is a solid draft which will add another young player who eventually will help Portland. Not going to help Dame much but the return from a Dame trade will finally lead to a course of action instead of the band aid approaches.

No will, should. It SHOULD impact every lottery bound team. Regardless of what national media says for some high end talent in the draft being generational, that’s not a thing until it’s a thing. Wemby could be a bust or have loads of injuries so that whatever team gets him is just another Oden story.

[GEE]

Just was thinking about Dame's potential value around the league, if he did decide to chase one. Looking at it from any other team's perspective in any trade makes for an interesting discusion as always, but I just can't believe Dame has half the suitors, that he had 2 years ago. If you add in the likeliness that Dame will also have a list of destinations to consider... I too think the "Haul" we would get back potentially, wouldn't be all that impressive, and quite hard to figure without bringing back another teams garbage in the process.

Putting Dame on a championship level team, while also getting a quality return seems hard when you really think about it, especially from all the other teams' perspective.

[JasonStern]

Portland needs a bigger, athletic back-up center than Drew — even though he has become an NBA hustle player with some nice moves.
Keeping him with Trendon, Matisse, and Walker makes 4 of a bench group that will play hard all the time. They could use more bench shooting and a guard with handles and passing.

That slow it down 2 step to the hoop of Trendon is nasty.

Portland literally needs any other backup that Drew. You can’t tell me he was a better choice than giving Boogie Cousins a 10-day or calling Dwight Howard a chance to get out of Taiwan. It would have literally cost the same amount.

There will be no slander of The Shaq of Troutdale here. Drew has actually been one of the few positives this season.

That said, he's an 11-15 bench player. Not his fault he's been playing starter minutes.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Portland needs a bigger, athletic back-up center than Drew — even though he has become an NBA hustle player with some nice moves.
Keeping him with Trendon, Matisse, and Walker makes 4 of a bench group that will play hard all the time. They could use more bench shooting and a guard with handles and passing.

That slow it down 2 step to the hoop of Trendon is nasty.

Portland literally needs any other backup that Drew. You can’t tell me he was a better choice than giving Boogie Cousins a 10-day or calling Dwight Howard a chance to get out of Taiwan. It would have literally cost the same amount.

There will be no slander of The Shaq of Troutdale here. Drew has actually been one of the few positives this season.

That said, he's an 11-15 bench player. Not his fault he's been playing starter minutes.

Yeah, a shot blocker with the foot speed to step out on the perimeter is like the ideal backup big these days. You do not want a plodding paint-bound 7-footer as your backup, that doesn't work in todays game except for very specific situations (ie going against Jokic or Embiid) that you might keep a 3rd string beefy-boy center around for.

I also don't understand this "lets get washed up old men that no other team in the league is thinking about" mentality. Look to the future folks! I swear some people are stuck living in 2010 and thinking about has-been big names. Cousins and Howard are "stick a fork in them" done for several years now,.

[BlazersBroncos]

Portland literally needs any other backup that Drew. You can’t tell me he was a better choice than giving Boogie Cousins a 10-day or calling Dwight Howard a chance to get out of Taiwan. It would have literally cost the same amount.

There will be no slander of The Shaq of Troutdale here. Drew has actually been one of the few positives this season.

That said, he's an 11-15 bench player. Not his fault he's been playing starter minutes.

Yeah, a shot blocker with the foot speed to step out on the perimeter is like the ideal backup big these days. You do not want a plodding paint-bound 7-footer as your backup, that doesn't work in todays game except for very specific situations (ie going against Jokic or Embiid) that you might keep a 3rd string beefy-boy center around for.

I also don't understand this "lets get washed up old men that no other team in the league is thinking about" mentality. Look to the future folks! I swear some people are stuck living in 2010 and thinking about has-been big names. Cousins and Howard are "stick a fork in them" done for several years now,.

Exactly. And the days of paying for a full MLE backup C are coming to a close, outside a few unique guys.

As for Eubanks, the guy is just fine for a backup C. And when looking deeper, he was one of the most productive, positive impact guys on the team this year.

Eubanks is 2nd among rotation players in WS/48 (After Dame)
Eubanks has a higher OBPM than Sharpe, Little, Watford, Thybulle, Reddish, Winslow, Walker and Keon.
Eubanks is 2nd among rotation players in DBPM (After Thybulle)
Eubanks is tied for 3rd among rotation players in VORP (After Dame & Grant)
Eubanks has the highest ORB% and 2nd highest DRB% (After Nurkic)

You aim to improve on Nurkic, not Eubanks. Drew is an ideal 15-18mpg backup big. The one thing he needs to work on is turnovers (15.4% is too high, albeit still lower than Jusuf). A better backup C than Eubanks is low on my list of hopes for this team, we have plenty of other pressing needs (That isnt to say I wouldnt love to get Lively w/ the NYK pick as a developmental guy, but you still keep Drew - Lively isnt Kessler IMO, dude will need development time)

[HoopsFanAZ]

None of this matters until after the lottery. For me, the NBA is over until May 16th.

So long as the Blazers go into the Lottery at 5, good to go.
I expect Milwaukee to come out of the East which means the 76ers, Celtics, Raptors, Nets, and Heat will be disappointed … with 3 of them out after the first round. And likely the 76ers or Boston to the ECF.

It’s not like Portland will be the only team going after high quality forwards. It’s just that Cronin said [paraphrasing him] he wants to push the chips in, and there will be people who will see it as an overpay. The moves at the deadline didn’t help this season, but the off-season is set up. I see every reason for optimism and a real shot to win with Dame.

[NYG]

Would you trade down with Orlando and split each pick into veterans?

Magic get:
5th Overall

Trail Blazers get:
Myles Turner
OG Anunoby
Otto Porter Jr.

Pacers get:
Jusuf Nurkic
7th Overall Draft Pick

Raptors get:
Anfernee Simons
12th Overall Draft Pick

Turner/Grant/OG/Sharpe/Lillard

[The Sebastian Express]

Yes, if this deal could be assured. I don't know if those other teams would do it, though.

[DaVoiceMaster]

Maybe Orlando does that if there is a player they want at #5 who won't be there at #7. Hmm

Don't see Toronto doing this. Rumors were they wanted 3 picks earlier this season. Has that changed?

[Jsun947]

Read on Twitter

Interesting. I’ve seen other people in the basketball world confirming there is mutual interest between those players.

I’d guess a list may consist of

Jaylen Brown
Mikal Bridges
OG
Siakam
Turner
LaVine
Derozan
Draymond
Butler
Middleton
Towns
Ingram
Embiid
Ayton
Beal

[PDXKnight]

Read on Twitter

Interesting. I’ve seen other people in the basketball world confirming there is mutual interest between those players.

I’d guess a list may consist of

Jaylen Brown
Mikal Bridges
OG
Siakam
Turner
LaVine
Derozan
Draymond
Butler
Middleton
Towns
Ingram
Embiid
Ayton
Beal

My deep fear is they're gonna want shaedon for many of these games and I'm unwilling to part with him at this point for the vast majority of these names

[Jsun947]

Read on Twitter

Interesting. I’ve seen other people in the basketball world confirming there is mutual interest between those players.

I’d guess a list may consist of

Jaylen Brown
Mikal Bridges
OG
Siakam
Turner
LaVine
Derozan
Draymond
Butler
Middleton
Towns
Ingram
Embiid
Ayton
Beal

My deep fear is they're gonna want shaedon for many of these games and I'm unwilling to part with him at this point for the vast majority of these names

I hear you. Embiid is the one name where I would but it would also take a lot more than Sharpe. We’d probably be talking something like Nurkic, Sharpe, and Simons plus our lottery pick, and probably more. I don’t see why what we’re left with would be significantly better than the current 76ers roster.

I suppose the caveat to this would be if Harden leaves, Embiid demands a trade, we win the lottery and are ok trading Wemby to get him. Even then though the money matching is so difficult given our roster set up

[Wizenheimer]

Read on Twitter

Interesting. I’ve seen other people in the basketball world confirming there is mutual interest between those players.

I’d guess a list may consist of

Jaylen Brown
Mikal Bridges
OG
Siakam
Turner
LaVine
Derozan
Draymond
Butler
Middleton
Towns
Ingram
Embiid
Ayton
Beal

My deep fear is they're gonna want shaedon for many of these games and I'm unwilling to part with him at this point for the vast majority of these names

Dame has been very complementary of Sharpe and has made a point of saying that Sharpe is not the kind of 19 year old project that he doesn't want to see. In fact, Sharpe is planing on working out with Dame this summer down in Arizona. Booker will be there as well IIRC. Those will be two good guys for Sharpe to study

I don't think there's any chance at all that Cronin trades Sharpe