2023 NBA Draft (tonight's discussion on pg 58)

[King Ken]

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99% of twitter stats are pulled out the writers anus on the spot...

A better data point may be Boston's trade of aging KD and Pierce for a boatload of Net's picks that became Tatum, Brown and other assets.
This is the last best chance of getting value for Dame, and as much as it saddens me to let him go, that is the direction we should be heading. The chances of building a real contender around him at this point are slim.

Except Boston's aging core was in the late 36-37yr when they made that deal. Using the Boston analogy, Portland would be in the stage where the Celtics just lost out on the 1 or 2 pick in the 2006 draft (Oden or Durant) and had a mid-prime early 30's Piece and nothing else.

That means you trade 3 for KG type but that's Giannis or Embiid. No one is disagreeing with doing that trade. No one

[King Ken]

Honestly, I'll draft Scoot. Don't sign him and wait and see if Embiid or Giannis becomes available and trade him for one of them.

Nothing else makes sense. That way you give this thing time like Bron did with Wiggins draft rights.

Try to build around Sharpe, Lillard and one of Giannis or Embiid

[DusterBuster]

Honestly, I'll draft Scoot. Don't sign him and wait and see if Embiid or Giannis becomes available and trade him for one of them.

Nothing else makes sense. That way you give this thing time like Bron did with Wiggins draft rights.

Try to build around Sharpe, Lillard and one of Giannis or Embiid

This is where I'm leaning as best option as well. The worrisome problem is that it can create some animosity between Scoot and the franchise... if Embiid or Giannis don't become available and no trade makes sense, then you have to sign a player who knows full well they just spent 2mo shopping him post-draft. Maybe Scoot would understand and it wouldn't be a big deal, but...

[King Ken]

If I am Portland's GM, I am doing these five things.

1. Letting Grant know that we want to resign him. Even if we decide to rebuild, he's a trade asset.

2. I want everyone's best offer for all of our picks, and everyone on the roster not named Lillard, Sharpe, Nurk, and Simons.

3. I'll bring Dame in the room and let him know if we land Scoot, we are keeping the pick. That doesn't mean we won't trade him, we just need time to see if Embiid or Giannis hit the open market. We have the best trade asset in Henderson available to get us any player we covet. Because Henderson has 8-9 years of rights, he don't have as much say as Jaylen Brown or other players with one or two years left on their deal. Look to trade the second 1st for a vet big wing like Dorian Finney-Smith.

4. Be prepared to trade Dame to teams he fancies if you cannot land a difference maker with Scoot's draft rights.

5. Sell the world on Sharpe's potential as a potential #2 or #3 and future star in this league.

[DusterBuster]

If I am Portland's GM, I am doing these five things.

1. Letting Grant know that we want to resign him. Even if we decide to rebuild, he's a trade asset.

2. I want everyone's best offer for all of our picks, and everyone on the roster not named Lillard, Sharpe, Nurk, and Simons.

3. I'll bring Dame in the room and let him know if we land Scoot, we are keeping the pick. That doesn't mean we won't trade him, we just need time to see if Embiid or Giannis hit the open market. We have the best trade asset in Henderson available to get us any player we covet. Because Henderson has 8-9 years of rights, he don't have as much say as Jaylen Brown or other players with one or two years left on their deal. Look to trade the second 1st for a vet big wing like Dorian Finney-Smith.

4. Be prepared to trade Dame to teams he fancies if you cannot land a difference maker with Scoot's draft rights.

5. Sell the world on Sharpe's potential as a potential #2 or #3 and future star in this league.

Outside of a few splitting hair nitpicks, this is pretty much on-point what I would do too. Only difference is the list of "not named" players would be much smaller on #2. It would begin and end with Lillard, that's it.

[King Ken]

If I am Portland's GM, I am doing these five things.

1. Letting Grant know that we want to resign him. Even if we decide to rebuild, he's a trade asset.

2. I want everyone's best offer for all of our picks, and everyone on the roster not named Lillard, Sharpe, Nurk, and Simons.

3. I'll bring Dame in the room and let him know if we land Scoot, we are keeping the pick. That doesn't mean we won't trade him, we just need time to see if Embiid or Giannis hit the open market. We have the best trade asset in Henderson available to get us any player we covet. Because Henderson has 8-9 years of rights, he don't have as much say as Jaylen Brown or other players with one or two years left on their deal. Look to trade the second 1st for a vet big wing like Dorian Finney-Smith.

4. Be prepared to trade Dame to teams he fancies if you cannot land a difference maker with Scoot's draft rights.

5. Sell the world on Sharpe's potential as a potential #2 or #3 and future star in this league.

Outside of a few splitting hair nitpicks, this is pretty much on-point what I would do too. Only difference is the list of "not named" players would be much smaller on #2. It would begin and end with Lillard, that's it.

Definitely. Much appreciated

I didn't say they were untouchable

Simons is needed for salary requirements in a Scoot trade.

Nurk is cheap and can be easily moved at anytime. No need to do it now when your not clear which direction you are going.

Sharpe is raising high and I would rather build with him than without him.

Lillard is the franchise face.

[The Sebastian Express]

That's actually not a bad idea. I know it's been mentioned a couple times, I think by DBR, about picking the talent if a deal doesn't materialize at the draft/FA and then go into the season with the talent and our collection of assets to see if something changes mid-season for teams like Philly, Bucks, etc.

[Norm2953]

I don't get the reason to wait on signing Scoot for his first season salary is set by the league.

I'm skeptical Grant will be much of a trade asset at $30+ million for what he does. If anything,
Portland might be forced to allow him to walk, if they somehow manage to get Emblid or Giannis.

Paying Emblid/Giannis, Dame and Grant would be $120 million for three players forcing Portland
to find more guys like Dame's cousin Blevins to play some minutes on a vet min deal. Portland
would be better off letting him walk and filling the rest of the roster with guys who belong in the
league.

Portland would know soon enough if their win now hopes will be answered.

[DusterBuster]

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This is less than ideal for the Blazers. Could either end up that this changes Charlottes' mind and they do go Scoot 2 and/or it devalues the #3 pick if Millers value is dropping.

[The Sebastian Express]

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This is less than ideal for the Blazers. Could either end up that this changes Charlottes' mind and they do go Scoot 2 and/or it devalues the #3 pick if Millers value is dropping.

Could also be someone trying to devalue the pick through the media to get it for cheaper. So many games going on during this time of year. But there has been some concerns about his decision making follow the murder incident.

But we should also remember this: last year around this time and leading up to the draft there was a lot of talk that Shaedon was not impressing in his interviews because he's a quiet and nonchalant kid. I think he's put a lot of that to rest this past year. I'd like to read or hear more in-depth about what the issues (murder incident aside) are here with Miller.

[The Sebastian Express]

And I do want to say I'm not being flippant about the young woman being murdered. That's terrible. Everything around that is terrible, his closeness to the situation is terrible. But I just don't have the energy to talk about and speculate about it in-depth right now, so for me it's just a way to summarize it as 'murder incident'.

[DusterBuster]

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This is less than ideal for the Blazers. Could either end up that this changes Charlottes' mind and they do go Scoot 2 and/or it devalues the #3 pick if Millers value is dropping.

Could also be someone trying to devalue the pick through the media to get it for cheaper. So many games going on during this time of year. But there has been some concerns about his decision making follow the murder incident.

But we should also remember this: last year around this time and leading up to the draft there was a lot of talk that Shaedon was not impressing in his interviews because he's a quiet and nonchalant kid. I think he's put a lot of that to rest this past year. I'd like to read or hear more in-depth about what the issues (murder incident aside) are here with Miller.

Marang was talking about the Miller murder situation. He said he heard from people in the know around the league that it was really just a wrong-place wrong-time situation and that Alabama really botched the handling of it by lying about it in the media saying they knew nothing about it when they did. That's why most franchises have moved past it as something they're worried about Miller for.

Agreed though, could definitely be some devaluing by a GM throwing smokescreens. Maybe a team looking at the #3 wants to convince Charlotte to pass on him at 2? Could also just be like you said, may just be his personality of being super quiet and that's not impressing players.

Regardless though, its definitely solidifying my opinion that Scoot is pretty clearly the 2nd best player in this draft and Williams is 3rd best prospect. Only reason Scoot will/may be at 2 is because of Charlotte going need over BPA.

[The Sebastian Express]

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This is less than ideal for the Blazers. Could either end up that this changes Charlottes' mind and they do go Scoot 2 and/or it devalues the #3 pick if Millers value is dropping.

Could also be someone trying to devalue the pick through the media to get it for cheaper. So many games going on during this time of year. But there has been some concerns about his decision making follow the murder incident.

But we should also remember this: last year around this time and leading up to the draft there was a lot of talk that Shaedon was not impressing in his interviews because he's a quiet and nonchalant kid. I think he's put a lot of that to rest this past year. I'd like to read or hear more in-depth about what the issues (murder incident aside) are here with Miller.

Marang was talking about the Miller murder situation. He said he heard from people in the know around the league that it was really just a wrong-place wrong-time situation and that Alabama really botched the handling of it by lying about it in the media saying they knew nothing about it when they did. That's why most franchises have moved past it as something they're worried about Miller for.

Agreed though, could definitely be some devaluing by a GM throwing smokescreens. Maybe a team looking at the #3 wants to convince Charlotte to pass on him at 2? Could also just be like you said, may just be his personality of being super quiet and that's not impressing players.

Regardless though, its definitely solidifying my opinion that Scoot is pretty clearly the 2nd best player in this draft and Williams is 3rd best prospect. Only reason Scoot will/may be at 2 is because of Charlotte going need over BPA.

Is Portland talk radio better these days for sports? I stopped listening a long, long time ago. I stopped reading most the local media too. I just couldn't take anymore of Canzano and Quick being so dominant in terms of media availability.

[DusterBuster]

Could also be someone trying to devalue the pick through the media to get it for cheaper. So many games going on during this time of year. But there has been some concerns about his decision making follow the murder incident.

But we should also remember this: last year around this time and leading up to the draft there was a lot of talk that Shaedon was not impressing in his interviews because he's a quiet and nonchalant kid. I think he's put a lot of that to rest this past year. I'd like to read or hear more in-depth about what the issues (murder incident aside) are here with Miller.

Marang was talking about the Miller murder situation. He said he heard from people in the know around the league that it was really just a wrong-place wrong-time situation and that Alabama really botched the handling of it by lying about it in the media saying they knew nothing about it when they did. That's why most franchises have moved past it as something they're worried about Miller for.

Agreed though, could definitely be some devaluing by a GM throwing smokescreens. Maybe a team looking at the #3 wants to convince Charlotte to pass on him at 2? Could also just be like you said, may just be his personality of being super quiet and that's not impressing players.

Regardless though, its definitely solidifying my opinion that Scoot is pretty clearly the 2nd best player in this draft and Williams is 3rd best prospect. Only reason Scoot will/may be at 2 is because of Charlotte going need over BPA.

Is Portland talk radio better these days for sports? I stopped listening a long, long time ago. I stopped reading most the local media too. I just couldn't take anymore of Canzano and Quick being so dominant in terms of media availability.

I only listen to 1080 the fan. I actually like them quite a bit these days. The morning and afternoon shows are pretty Blazer centric and prime time is still prime time, I’ve always liked ropp and suke

[Norm2953]

Most teams do their own investigation and teams in the top 3 are very thorough in their
investigations.

Unless a player just has a tremendous workout and interviews well (Dame 2012) if everything
is equal, they pick the guy who fills their needs. Portland very famously passed on Durant
after he had the best workout they had ever seen because Greg Oden filled their needs.

[The Sebastian Express]

Well Oden was also considered a better prospect than Durant and had shown elite ability in college. No one could've predicted he would need microfracture surgery, so that's sort of reinventing history there.

[DusterBuster]

Well Oden was also considered a better prospect than Durant and had shown elite ability in college. No one could've predicted he would need microfracture surgery, so that's sort of reinventing history there.

Side note, what happened to microfacture surgery? Why was that everywhere in the late 00's and early 10's, and it's been nowhere ever since. I cant remember the last player having that surgery since ... Amare?

[JasonStern]

Most teams do their own investigation and teams in the top 3 are very thorough in their
investigations.

Ooh. Olshey knows a good private investigator.

side note, what happened to microfacture surgery? Why was that everywhere in the late 00's and early 10's, and it's been nowhere ever since. I cant remember the last player having that surgery since ... Amare?

Continued medical research. The cartilage that regrew was a different kind of cartilage, which wasn't as strong. And drilling a bunch of holes in a knee - especially a professional athlete's knee - is just going to make it weaker. If you're rich enough, I think they just replace the cartilage with cartilage from cadavers now.

[The Sebastian Express]

Well Oden was also considered a better prospect than Durant and had shown elite ability in college. No one could've predicted he would need microfracture surgery, so that's sort of reinventing history there.

Side note, what happened to microfacture surgery? Why was that everywhere in the late 00's and early 10's, and it's been nowhere ever since. I cant remember the last player having that surgery since ... Amare?

https://medium.com/@daygamedestruction/last-days-of-microfracture-611e5d439b32

https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/bulls/ct-spt-nba-microfracture-surgery-amare-stoudemire-20180706-story.html

That's last article is also called 'The Rise and Fall of Microfracture'. From the articles it sounds like they try to do OAT now, which is using cartilage from cadavers it appears.

[DusterBuster]

Is Zach Lowe back on the sauce?

"Lowe doubts No. 3 and Anfernee Simons would be enough for the Blazers to acquire either Mikal Bridges or OG Anuonby."

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/271623/Blazers-Comfortable-Keeping-No-3-Pick

Bridges, maybe... but **** OG Anuonby??? #3 and Simons is not enough for OG Anuonby?! gtfohwts