Free agency

[BlazersBroncos]

Sign and trade Hart for Bamba?

Looking at the type of players that Chauncey and Cronin are targeting, Bamba certainly doesnt fit the mold.

Bamba plays with the urgency of me off 6 bong rips and a few tall boys.

[Case2012]

Cronin seems like Olshey 2.0 defense edition.

[Norm2953]

I'm surprised everyone is surprised Portland seems to be striking out in free agency.

It's what most of us thought would happen for in the tough western conference, the GSW,
Dallas, LAC, Minn, etc, the Blazers seem destined for eighth place unless they trade Dame
and tank again after the AS break.

[elias808]

I'm surprised everyone is surprised Portland seems to be striking out in free agency.

It's what most of us thought would happen for in the tough western conference, the GSW,
Dallas, LAC, Minn, etc, the Blazers seem destined for eighth place unless they trade Dame
and tank again after the AS break.

8th if we are lucky. This all seems par for the course for the Blazers. I’ve been a fan for far too long to expect otherwise.

[PDXKnight]

I'm surprised everyone is surprised Portland seems to be striking out in free agency.

It's what most of us thought would happen for in the tough western conference, the GSW,
Dallas, LAC, Minn, etc, the Blazers seem destined for eighth place unless they trade Dame
and tank again after the AS break.

8th if we are lucky. This all seems par for the course for the Blazers. I’ve been a fan for far too long to expect otherwise.

Would be nice to just deal Dame and stink for a good player

[PDXKnight]

Cronin seems like Olshey 2.0 defense edition.

I Like that we are at least trying to play d

[Roy The Natural]

I'm surprised everyone is surprised Portland seems to be striking out in free agency.

It's what most of us thought would happen for in the tough western conference, the GSW,
Dallas, LAC, Minn, etc, the Blazers seem destined for eighth place unless they trade Dame
and tank again after the AS break.

Uhhh.. it's not about FAs perse... GP2 is fine. It's about not taking risks through trades for real impact players, which the Blazers seem completely unwilling to do. We all know we're not bringing an elite FA in. We're looking to trade for a balanced roster. Unlike others here, I don't buy the idea that Hart, Little, and GP2 are going to cut it at the 3... though I'd love to be wrong.

[Roy The Natural]

I'm surprised everyone is surprised Portland seems to be striking out in free agency.

It's what most of us thought would happen for in the tough western conference, the GSW,
Dallas, LAC, Minn, etc, the Blazers seem destined for eighth place unless they trade Dame
and tank again after the AS break.

8th if we are lucky. This all seems par for the course for the Blazers. I’ve been a fan for far too long to expect otherwise.

Would be nice to just deal Dame and stink for a good player

I love Dame soooo much. Him and Brandon Roy are easily my favorite Blazers all-time... but I'm with you, I'm ready to go another route. This organization just doesn't have the ball to go for it, hit or miss.

[elias808]

8th if we are lucky. This all seems par for the course for the Blazers. I’ve been a fan for far too long to expect otherwise.

Would be nice to just deal Dame and stink for a good player

I love Dame soooo much. Him and Brandon Roy are easily my favorite Blazers all-time... but I'm with you, I'm ready to go another route. This organization just doesn't have the ball to go for it, hit or miss.

No one remembers who comes in second place. The goal is to win championships. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the Blazers truly have tried to win it all. We pick around the edges. We make inconsequential roster moves. And ultimately are happy with a first round playoff exit. While everyone else pushes their chips into middle and goes for it all or aggressively rebuilds, we continue to do the same old song and dance.

In other words “Time is a flat circle. Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again“

[Roy The Natural]

Would be nice to just deal Dame and stink for a good player

I love Dame soooo much. Him and Brandon Roy are easily my favorite Blazers all-time... but I'm with you, I'm ready to go another route. This organization just doesn't have the ball to go for it, hit or miss.

No one remembers who comes in second place. The goal is to win championships. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the Blazers truly have tried to win it all. We pick around the edges. We make inconsequential roster moves. And ultimately are happy with a first round playoff exit. While everyone else pushes their chips into middle and goes for it all or aggressively rebuilds, we continue to do the same old song and dance.

In other words “Time is a flat circle. Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again“

I disagree to an extent. Maybe casuals and the national media doesn't remember, but local and hardcore fans 100000% remember the good teams that fell just short. I'll be okay coming in 2nd to 4th place a few times... I'm not championship or bust. Life's too short to not enjoy that level of success. The problem is that we aren't even in that top half of the playoffs area as constructed IMO, and that means were not even some breaks away from having a shot.

If the Blazers I was confidant that you could project the Blazers as a most likely top 4 seed in the West, I'd be willing to put up with things. Especially with the young players with potential upside still on the roster. I just don't think we're there. However, I also understand waiting to trade Dame until the deadline or next offseason. Let him recoup value. And let's see if an unexpected breakout happens with someone like Little, or if Simons takes another big leap, or if Keon or Sharpe look really good.

I do however think that the Blazers frontcourt is razor thin and a disaster in waiting, which is why I would move Hart for some more players there.

[Norm2953]

Yes, the last really big move Portland can make is Hart + Bledsoe for XXX.

I think all things are equal, Portland needs a PF. If they had drafted Daniels we'd probably be okay
up front but we're one major Nurk injury away from the lottery for the team is still counting on
Trendon Watford and Drew Eubanks to play rotation minutes.

[red_power]

lol most of our money is our guards lol

Luckily the list of our top-3 highest paid players no longer composed exclusively of guys under 6'3" in height.

[Jsun947]

Yes, the last really big move Portland can make is Hart + Bledsoe for XXX.

I think all things are equal, Portland needs a PF. If they had drafted Daniels we'd probably be okay
up front but we're one major Nurk injury away from the lottery for the team is still counting on
Trendon Watford and Drew Eubanks to play rotation minutes.

Thanks to the GP signing we can’t go over the apron though cuz we’re a hard capped team. We can’t trade Bledsoe and take back much more than around 5 mil in salary. Unless we find a way to pure dump him for cap space Bledsoe is getting waived and stretched.

This also makes it more difficult to for trade other players like KD because the salary needs to be very, very close (excluding Bledsoe)

[wco81]

8th if we are lucky. This all seems par for the course for the Blazers. I’ve been a fan for far too long to expect otherwise.

Would be nice to just deal Dame and stink for a good player

I love Dame soooo much. Him and Brandon Roy are easily my favorite Blazers all-time... but I'm with you, I'm ready to go another route. This organization just doesn't have the ball to go for it, hit or miss.

Wembanyama is suppose to be this generational player, though he may not be right away until he puts on some muscle.

If there were another generational prospect in the same draft class, I think teams would be tanking much harder.

As it is, looks like Spurs may be angling to win the Wembanyama lottery.

[Blazers98]

We really need a decent backup center who can also start when Nurk gets injured.
I'd like to sign a guy like Whiteside who can provide that.
Wish we went after Jalen Smith.
LOL...Aldridge?

[Norm2953]

It does look like headed for a repeat of 2022 season for the west is going to be really tough for just
look at the money being spent and the players being moved.

Things could go as well as planned for Portland with no major injuries and it may not matter for other
than Dame, we lack the top end talent to really compete with the big boys. Team however is setup
fairly well for the inevitable rebuild for they can trade Dame for XX draft picks/swaps and let Grant
walk if he isn't what the team needs moving forward. Build around Simons/Sharpe and whoever is
picked with their next lottery pick.

[PDXKnight]

We really need a decent backup center who can also start when Nurk gets injured.
I'd like to sign a guy like Whiteside who can provide that.
Wish we went after Jalen Smith.
LOL...Aldridge?

Shouldn't be hard to add a decent low budget backup center imo

[elias808]

I love Dame soooo much. Him and Brandon Roy are easily my favorite Blazers all-time... but I'm with you, I'm ready to go another route. This organization just doesn't have the ball to go for it, hit or miss.

No one remembers who comes in second place. The goal is to win championships. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt the Blazers truly have tried to win it all. We pick around the edges. We make inconsequential roster moves. And ultimately are happy with a first round playoff exit. While everyone else pushes their chips into middle and goes for it all or aggressively rebuilds, we continue to do the same old song and dance.

In other words “Time is a flat circle. Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again“

I disagree to an extent. Maybe casuals and the national media doesn't remember, but local and hardcore fans 100000% remember the good teams that fell just short. I'll be okay coming in 2nd to 4th place a few times... I'm not championship or bust. Life's too short to not enjoy that level of success. The problem is that we aren't even in that top half of the playoffs area as constructed IMO, and that means were not even some breaks away from having a shot.

If the Blazers I was confidant that you could project the Blazers as a most likely top 4 seed in the West, I'd be willing to put up with things. Especially with the young players with potential upside still on the roster. I just don't think we're there. However, I also understand waiting to trade Dame until the deadline or next offseason. Let him recoup value. And let's see if an unexpected breakout happens with someone like Little, or if Simons takes another big leap, or if Keon or Sharpe look really good.

I do however think that the Blazers frontcourt is razor thin and a disaster in waiting, which is why I would move Hart for some more players there.

We’ve made the conference finals ONCE in the last 22 years. In that time we’ve had 11 first round exits and 8 seasons where we didn’t make the playoffs. I’m having a hard time identifying the times where we “just fell short”.

I do agree trading Dame without him rehabbing his value is a terrible business decision. But so is extending his contract with no clear vision other than “hey we MIGHT get two extra games to watch! Eh!?”

[GEE]

I'm slightly bothered by K.D. possibly holding up some potential moves. I sure hope his issue doesn't drag on, and he finds a new team very soon.

Wonder if Portland quietly has some form of Dame/EBEC for K.D. with and without Kyrie. Or perhaps Cronin can also help Kyrie get to the Lakers instead. Be part of some blockbuster 3-4 team trade. I would be happy taking a shot at snatching up Ben Simmons too, if we could somehow. Regardless though, I really just want K.D. to get done already. A Dame package surely would be far from the worst that could be offered.

Happy overall with the contracts given to Simons and Nurkic. We took care of both of them nicely IMO. I will remain hopeful Dame gets moved sooner rather than later, because I'm 100% confident a Dame/Simons pairing ain't working any better than a the CJ version. IMO, Hart at SF is equally insane.

Not sure who to target for Dame, but I think Durrant is the obvious starting point. A top tier PF that fits with Nurkic is what we seem to need most: Siakam, A.D., or some lesser version would be ideal. Jalen Smith would have even been nice. I just feel this team could get really, good really fast, with the right deal for Dame.

A legit starting 4. That's all we are really missing IMO, and a 3rd C maybe.

Simons / GP2 / Williams
Hart / Little / Keon
Grant / Winslow / Sharpe
??? / Watford / GB3
Nurkic / Eubanks

[BlazersBroncos]

Durant would have no interest in playing for a Dame’less Portland team