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Are there any ESPN Insiders that can tell us what the article says?

Is Gortat still available? Is there Nyone else the Blazers could sign?

Are blazers going to make biggest fire sale in NBA happen this summer?

I think they should at least.

After failing to attract anybody valuable this summer Lakers might think about trading Kuzma + Ball + few picks for Lillard and that could be a nice consolation prize for both sides

red_power wrote:After failing to attract anybody valuable this summer Lakers might think about trading Kuzma + Ball + few picks for Lillard and that could be a nice consolation prize for both sides

They might but we never would.

red_power wrote:After failing to attract anybody valuable this summer Lakers might think about trading Kuzma + Ball + few picks for Lillard and that could be a nice consolation prize for both sides

You don't help Lakers, if you are to trade with them, and if you are sending Lillard to them, atleast what you can ask with Kuzma and Ball is to give them ALL bad contracts you guys have...Make them pay if they want to go into the POs..

psimanic1 wrote:

red_power wrote:After failing to attract anybody valuable this summer Lakers might think about trading Kuzma + Ball + few picks for Lillard and that could be a nice consolation prize for both sides

You don't help Lakers, if you are to trade with them, and if you are sending Lillard to them, atleast what you can ask with Kuzma and Ball is to give them ALL bad contracts you guys have...Make them pay if they want to go into the POs..

Blazers won't be having bad deals in 2020 summer. Unless your understanding of the term "bad contract" matches with Nurk's and CJ's deals..

PDX MM wrote:

red_power wrote:After failing to attract anybody valuable this summer Lakers might think about trading Kuzma + Ball + few picks for Lillard and that could be a nice consolation prize for both sides

They might but we never would.

Keeping 29-years-old all star player who has 2 years left on his deal with mediocre treadmill team? I doubt that's a best idea.

red_power wrote:

PDX MM wrote:

red_power wrote:After failing to attract anybody valuable this summer Lakers might think about trading Kuzma + Ball + few picks for Lillard and that could be a nice consolation prize for both sides

They might but we never would.

Keeping 29-years-old all star player who has 2 years left on his deal with mediocre treadmill team? I doubt that's a best idea.

You dont give up your franchise pillar because Nurk gets injured. Worst case scenario, Nurk misses next year. The following year, all bad contracts are gone, Nurk is healthy and still only 26 years old, Simons and Collins have another year each under their belts, and Lillard has only just turned 30. There's plenty of time with Lillard. You don't trade him unless he demands it. Especially not for the crap heap you suggested

I'm not a doom and gloom guy. Maybe these injuries will make us better in the long-run.

The team has shown that they can win without CJ. Lillard has never looked better. So cool, calm and in total control. Without CJ's pounding we're seeing more touch passes and Harkless and Aminu are more involved.

Maybe now Collins gets his chance to shine in a bigger role. We know Kanter can't give us the defense Nurk does but Collins can at least come close. The pick-and-roll game will suffer for sure. Myers sets some bad ass screens and can hit the 3 and pass decently.

We do have a lot of flexibility this off-season. Turner, Leonard and Harkless is $40 million in ending deals. We have all of our picks. CJ has shown that he can excel when Damian is out. He should have very high trade value.

We've seen PG come back from an equally (presumably) ominous injury. Maybe we make some moves, develop guys and come out of this with a stronger and better conditioned Nurkic without all the ref aggravating antics.

The team has a rock solid culture that is the envy of the NBA. We have an alpha guy in Damian who is highly respected and not only wins but plays the right way.

The glass is way more than half full. Go Blazers!

This injury is almost a worst case scenario. The Blazers have sent signals that this was an evaluation season. It was time to put up or shut up and make changes. But with Nurkic out, not just for this postseason but probably next year too, it's impossible to give a honest evaluation. In other words the Blazers are going to have to guesstimate.

Damian is mid-prime right now. His trade value will be at its absolute peak this summer (unless they sign him to a super max extension). By the time Nurk is back and healthy and contributing at a high level (if that ever happens) Damian will be nearing the end of his prime.

So in my opinion, barring some lopsided trade this summer (like trading Nurk and picks for AD) this injury marks the end of the Lillard and CJ experiment/run. Who knows how management views things though.

I think there are probably two tracks, one is short term and the other is long term

* for the short term, I wrote this in the other thread:

I guess there's opportunity for a feel-good conclusion to this season if the Blazers pull together and still secure HCA...and win a 1st round series. It's possible

what can't happen is CJ coming back before he should just because of the Blazers being short-handed. Now's the time for the Kanter-Zach-Meyers-Skal foursome to step up. None can do what Nurkic does, especially on defense, but they are capable, as a group, of providing some decent offense. And it's time for Curry, Hood, and Layman to step up as well

another thing that can't happen is Stotts playing Dame 40 minutes a game. In the last 5 games, he's played 38, 40, 30, 37, & 48. That's a lot of minutes this late in the season, too many in my view. I'd much rather the Blazers go 4-5 in their last 9 games if going 7-2 means Dame is worn out right before the playoffs

Portland needs to play for Nurk now, and themselves. Don't roll over...but be smart about it

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for the long term, and this is just my opinion (duh)...knock all the crap off about trading Dame. He has said he wants to be in Portland and by god it's hard to imagine the Blazers ever getting a better leader, either on court or off court. Sure, Portland has to consider what it means if they give Dame a super-max deal. But if any Blazer since Clyde has deserved a giant thank-you-for-your-excellence-and-loyalty contract, it's Dame...and probably he evens deserves it more.

I know there will be a lot of advocates for tearing the team down to nothing and starting over, but I'm not one of them

next, while I really would like a new GM, whoever it is has to be able to look at the roster in an objective fashion. It's unclear now how long to will be, if ever, that Nurkic returns to form. Without him, Portland is likely back to the boring, frustrating, Dame/CJ hero-ball...you just know it's coming. It's not going to elevate the Blazers to anything other than a semi-fast pace on a treadmill. Dame is the only player that should be anywhere close to untouchable, and yeah, I'm talking about Olshey's irrational man-love for CJ. The way the Blazers and Dame have been playing without CJ has been extremely instructive, even if the sample size is so small.

IMO it's well past time to end the current back court experiment, especially if CJ has the kind of trade value that his supporters claim he has. And yeah, I'm not saying much different then I repeatedly have....

mainly, it's don't over-react; short-term or long-term. But be mindful of the situation that Portland's status as an underdog contender for the Western Conference finals was tenuous with a healthy Nurkic, and gone without him

Wizenheimer wrote:knock all the crap off about trading Dame.

No. And stop telling me what to do.

Why? Because of the below

Wizenheimer wrote:Portland's status as an underdog contender for the Western Conference finals was tenuous with a healthy Nurkic, and gone without him

I think there’s room in Portland’s fan base for all kinds of fans. Fans like me that think working toward a championship should ALWAYS be the goal. And for fans that put loyalty to special players above that goal. We can disagree, but we should never tell the other fan to shut up.

Masterfully wrote:

Wizenheimer wrote:knock all the crap off about trading Dame.

No. And stop telling me what to do.

Why? Because of the below

Wizenheimer wrote:Portland's status as an underdog contender for the Western Conference finals was tenuous with a healthy Nurkic, and gone without him

I think there’s room in Portland’s fan base for all kinds of fans. Fans like me that think working toward a championship should ALWAYS be the goal. And for fans that put loyalty to special players above that goal. We can disagree, but we should never tell the other fan to shut up.

Because Nurk is down for 12 months, doesn't mean that Dame is done. He's 28 years old. He has plenty of years left, and he's going to have those years in Portland. To think that Dame is going anywhere is laughable. He's the cornerstone of this franchise, and he'll continue to be built around.

This has been the saddest year I can remember as a Blazer fan (born in 89 so I dont go that far back). First we had the very sad passing of our owner Paul Allen. It looked like with the season winding down and our playoff push alive and well, that maybe we could have made some noise this year, but then all of a sudden we lose CJ and Nurk, 2 of our 3 best players. Luckily CJ should be back at the very least for next season, but unsure on Nurk and that makes next season a question mark as far as how will do. I just fill like our franchise is in limbo in more ways than 1 both with how to keep being competitive while Dame is still here and with management and who ultimately buys us and do they try to move us. Im just super depressed with this season.

Now for the Blazers is that Leonard puts together for the rest of this season, including playoffs, complete games which he has shown occasionally in the past. Leonard is a very efficient shooter; good defensive rebounder; and a decent passer with lower than average for a big turnovers. unfortunately, these capacities are coupled with comparatively slow reaction times both offensively and defensively. That reaction time deficiency is not related to effort, more likely DNA. But maybe, a Just God, remorseful for His destruction of Nurkic, grant Meyers a period of sustained awareness and reaction. Amen!

Masterfully wrote:

Wizenheimer wrote:knock all the crap off about trading Dame.

No. And stop telling me what to do.

Why? Because of the below

Wizenheimer wrote:Portland's status as an underdog contender for the Western Conference finals was tenuous with a healthy Nurkic, and gone without him

I think there’s room in Portland’s fan base for all kinds of fans. Fans like me that think working toward a championship should ALWAYS be the goal. And for fans that put loyalty to special players above that goal. We can disagree, but we should never tell the other fan to shut up.

fair enough, but you took what I said way too literal

but I'll say again that the idea of trading Dame makes absolutely no sense to me...none. You don't dump a guy who has meant so much to the franchise, and has displayed so much loyalty, just because somebody else got injured

What now? Draft Bol Bol if he slides far enough in the draft. Every promising center can’t suffer career ending injuries or be a bust, can they?

Short term, there isn’t really much that can be done. Start Kanter knowing he’s playing for a contract, increase Collins and Leonard’s minutes, and hope that upcoming games against Eastern Conference bottom-dwellers in the Bulls and the Hawks allows Portland a chance to build some cohesiveness on the court. Then come playoff time, keep expectations in check.

While I’m sure this was an evaluation year prior to Paul Allen’s death, who knows what the plan is at the Vulcan level now. I suspect, or at least hope, Bert Kolde is running things in the same spirit that Paul would. I also think that the Blazers selloff concerns are a bit overblown. Now, that’s not to say that they wouldn’t sell if a fair offer was made. But Paul Allen was involved in a lot of ventures, so as long as the Blazers are at least revenue neutral and appreciating as an asset, the Vulcans probably have more important areas to focus on.

But that revenue neutral part, that’s what puts Portland in a potentially precarious situation. The Blazers have $57.3 million tied up in Lillard and McCollum. Nurkic is effectively $12 million in dead weight next season. Turner is overpaid at $18.6M, same with Leonard at $11.3M. Harkless eats up another $11.5M. So that’s $110.7M for 6 players, 1 of which will be out for the year. Then you have Aminu, Hood, Curry, Layman, and Kanter all as free agents with no space to retain them. You can’t blow up the team – trade Dame, McCollum, etc. – without negatively impacting ticket sales and other revenue sources. So I imagine the team just regresses a bit, makes some moves to try to avoid luxury tax, makes some Olshey-style redemption project and cheap veteran signings in free agency, then hopes Lillard can carry them to the 8th seed.

Yep, barring a ridiculous offer there is no way we trade Damian, this offer would have to be a slam dunk or something. This is a Portland team that gave Brandon Roy a maximum offer when his health was already generating question marks because he deserved it. We should match Damians loyalty with loyalty of our own and not commit to a full rebuild just because of one major injury. ****, who knows maybe Nurkic comes back from this one in a season or so.

I also am excited to see how Leonard+Collins+Kanter handle this and having Leonard out there does make our team much more of a threat from 3 point. Obviously we lose valuable defense that Nurkic provided but other guys will be trying to step up to fill the void that Nurkic left.

If the Blazers can't sign Gortat, I'd start Leonard and keep the rotation the way it is.