RealGM

Alright, let's have it!

I think it was solid

A for talent. F for fit.

Is Cronin allergic to acquiring centers or power forwards?

It was a solid draft but I would have liked to have added James Nnaji for the team has a desperate
need for size

A for talent. F for vet help.

Huh, maybe I'm grading on a curve following low expectations, but I have this as an easy A. There were some projects with size whom the Blazers passed on, yes, but I can't knock any of the picks. Most of all, they resisted the tremendous pressure to make a massive unforced error and didn't get lured into a lousy trade.

I gave a 'B' for Scoot and Rayan. I'm not a big fan of Kris. I'm agitated that Portland couldn't manage to trade into the upper 30s with future seconds to get one of Nnaji or Miller or late 30s to get Vukcevic. We desperately need young size.

A on all 3 really good picks at where they were taken I like Murray and the Frenchie as a fit and potential hedge.

Cronin’s post draft conference was the most depressing downbeat and defeated presser I’ve ever seen for a GM. Not a single thing he said felt like something he believed. At least Olshey lied to us convincingly.

All three players picked were FRP on Tankathon.

Portland went strictly BPA on all 3 picks but I'd agree with TSE that we could have swapped 2 future
SRP to add a young big . Not adding a big means we'll have to find a big in free agency or via trade

DusterBuster wrote:Cronin’s post draft conference was the most depressing downbeat and defeated presser I’ve ever seen for a GM. Not a single thing he said felt like something he believed. At least Olshey lied to us convincingly.

Who cares? he is a GM. Maybe he can put a team out who doesn't quit every April 1st.

Not using future SRP capital to get even more out of this draft is a fair concern. I can grant that. But I'm also trusting that the team just didn't hold the available bigs in high enough esteem to move for. A-, then?

Given there is still great potential for change, I’ll grade just draft night. I gave it a B. Love the Scoot pick. Not sure on Murray. Know nothing about Rupert. I wanted Portland to free up the Chicago draft pick to open up the possibility for trades, so that prevents me from giving an A.

Tim Lehrbach wrote:Not using future SRP capital to get even more out of this draft is a fair concern. I can grant that. But I'm also trusting that the team just didn't hold the available bigs in high enough esteem to move for. A-, then?

Nonono please don't GRANT that

Moonbeam wrote:I wanted Portland to free up the Chicago draft pick to open up the possibility for trades, so that prevents me from giving an A.

Also a fair point. I wonder what Chicago's disposition towards the often-floated 23-for-pick-release deal was/would have been if offered. There's no guarantee the Blazers had any power to do anything about it.

At some point the Blazers need to realize that if they want a Siakam or OG type player or a quality big the best way to get them is to draft them.
Not so fun fact- the last player taller than 6'8" Portland drafted and didn't immediately trade was Caleb Swanigan and the last center Portland drafted and didn't immediately trade was Meyers Leonard ( and before him it was Greg Oden). We aren't even taking chances in the second round. I understand the philosophy of BPA but at some point you also need to draft for need.

Blazers continued to stay small (one player taller than 6’9). Wish they would had traded 23 to the Bulls for flexibility in trades moving forward. Seems Mike Schmitz and Cronin did an average to below average job with 23rd and 2nd round picks but I could be wrong. Hopefully the Thompson Twins don’t haunt Portland in the future by becoming better than Scoot.

Cronin blew it by not going after KP just like his old boss didn’t get Lauri.

I think it was pretty average. Zero execution really required on our end, we basically just took the no-brainer pick that was projected higher and fell to us.

Scoot was a no-brainer, you don't get credit for him falling into our lap but its a fantastic value add thanks lottery gods for giving us the 3rd pick in a top 3 draft.

Murry was a solid, unspectacular pick. Not very creative but not a bad pick.

Rupert looks like another solid unspectacular/uninspired pick.

Not bad by any means, don't get me wrong. We didn't F it up. But we didn't really do anything commendable besides that.

We could have drafted bigs and we didn't. That drops the grade for me. GG Jackson was on the board and we took Rupert(ELITE DEFENDER ) so I feel like this was BPA the whole way. I agree with BPA so I can't go below a B