Game 40: Portland vs Brooklyn 7:00pm Root+

[Brandon-Clyde]

vs



Time: 7:00pm
Place: Moda Center
TV: Root+

GLB of the game Brookes Nader

Spoiler:

[Brandon-Clyde]

1st quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Brandon-Clyde]

2nd quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Brandon-Clyde]

3rd quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Brandon-Clyde]

4th quarter GLB pic

Spoiler:

[Norm2953]

Has everyone turned over to this game after the football game?

[Brandon-Clyde]

Victory GLB pic

Spoiler:

[The Sebastian Express]

I demand good karma for competing when it comes time for the Jabari Smith lotto ball bounce.

[monopoman]

I think Anfernee Simons has it in mind to kill our tank chances, this kid is a star in the making. It boggles the mind that he is only 22 and could get much better.

He also has the same type of game that Dame has, he steps up when the team needs him more. Dame is the type of player that really goes out there when the team needs him and try's to really take over a game, I see the same type of thing from Anfernee.

If he keeps up even 3/4ths of what he has shown over these past 5 games or so as the main starter, he is one of the biggest steals of his draft.

[DusterBuster]

Simons play is really making the interm-GM's job considerably more complicated. Simons is an RFA this summer if I'm not mistaken and he's in line to get PAID once the time comes. You can't afford to have 4 high-priced undersized guards... deals have to be made.

Can the Blazers dump CJ to pay Simons... will another team even offer an expiring for CJ knowing the Blazers predicament or will they make Portland pay a premium for salary dumps?

Do the Blazers just go to Dame and say it's time to split and hand the reigns off to Simons entirely?

Should they cash out on Simons while his value is sky-high to invest in the last few years of prime Dame?

[Wizenheimer]

Simons play is really making the interm-GM's job considerably more complicated. Simons is an RFA this summer if I'm not mistaken and he's in line to get PAID once the time comes. You can't afford to have 4 high-priced undersized guards... deals have to be made.

Can the Blazers dump CJ to pay Simons... will another team even offer an expiring for CJ knowing the Blazers predicament or will they make Portland pay a premium for salary dumps?

Do the Blazers just go to Dame and say it's time to split and hand the reigns off to Simons entirely?

Should they cash out on Simons while his value is sky-high to invest in the last few years of prime Dame?

well, it would be so like Portland to make premature reactionary moves based upon 4-5 good games from Simons. He's been impressive but it's almost certain he's not quite as good as the recent hot-streak, anymore than CJ was as good as that 12 game streak at the beginning of last year; or Dame was as good ast that 10 game 40 & 10 streak about 18 months ago; or Nurkic was as good as his Nurkic-fever streak. If you look at the defensive guards Simons has faced over the last few games there was only one and that was Kyle Lowry. And Simons did almost nothing in that Miami game until after Lowry was ejected. He's going to get scouted and he won't be playing all games at the Moda where he's much better. The road lurks

really, nothing has changed except for maybe Simons looking at a higher salary on his offer-sheet next summer. The Blazers still have the same issue: way too much usage and salary invested in 6'3 & under guards who play crappy defense. That really doesn't change much even if Portland trades CJ for a front-court player. That would still leave Dame, Powell, and Ant as the guard rotation; that's too much ball-dominance and too little length and defense. Imbalance. It might be workable but it would always be awkward. And if Ant gets a salary similar to Powell, then Portland is paying 90M/ year for those three small guards. That will be around 75% of the salary cap and over 60% of the entire cap thru the apron. That would just perpetuate the olshey-era mismanagement

I don't think there is any finessing this. There are only 2 doors. One with Dame and one without Dame. If Portland keeps Dame and attempts an honest effort at building a contender around him, then at least 2 of CJ-Powell-Simons should be shopped hard. The 'undersized-ball-dominant-no-defense-backcourt' experiment has to end ASAP. Dame needs a back court partner who is at minimum as good as Wesley Matthews was at defense before his injury. And one at least as big as Matthews, if not bigger. That's not Powell and it's not Simons

behind the other door is blowing up the roster and a total rebuild. Trade Dame and every other player over 24. get as many future picks, young players, and expiring contracts as possible. Get bad and tank the season, and maybe the next one. Add high lottery picks to the collection of other picks and pray that somehow, someway, the team gets as lucky as they did when they drafted Lillard, and gets lucky twice.

but I'm anticipating the path Portland will take will be the worst one. Cronin is one of those corporate survivors. he knows how to keep his head down. I have no confidence he'll make necessary moves. So what I'm expecting is the Blazers will make a minor move or two before the deadline, make the play-in, lose their draft pick, then get curb-stomped in the 1st round. That the Blazers will continue to straddle every fence in sight

I hope I'm wrong and Cronin surprises me. I guess I'm jaded from a decade of olshey-speak-and-olshey-do

[DusterBuster]

Simons play is really making the interm-GM's job considerably more complicated. Simons is an RFA this summer if I'm not mistaken and he's in line to get PAID once the time comes. You can't afford to have 4 high-priced undersized guards... deals have to be made.

Can the Blazers dump CJ to pay Simons... will another team even offer an expiring for CJ knowing the Blazers predicament or will they make Portland pay a premium for salary dumps?

Do the Blazers just go to Dame and say it's time to split and hand the reigns off to Simons entirely?

Should they cash out on Simons while his value is sky-high to invest in the last few years of prime Dame?

well, it would be so like Portland to make premature reactionary moves based upon 4-5 good games from Simons. He's been impressive but it's almost certain he's not quite as good as the recent hot-streak, anymore than CJ was as good as that 12 game streak at the beginning of last year; or Dame was as good ast that 10 game 40 & 10 streak about 18 months ago; or Nurkic was as good as his Nurkic-fever streak. If you look at the defensive guards Simons has faced over the last few games there was only one and that was Kyle Lowry. And Simons did almost nothing in that Miami game until after Lowry was ejected. He's going to get scouted and he won't be playing all games at the Moda where he's much better. The road lurks

really, nothing has changed except for maybe Simons looking at a higher salary on his offer-sheet next summer. The Blazers still have the same issue: way too much usage and salary invested in 6'3 & under guards who play crappy defense. That really doesn't change much even if Portland trades CJ for a front-court player. That would still leave Dame, Powell, and Ant as the guard rotation; that's too much ball-dominance and too little length and defense. Imbalance. It might be workable but it would always be awkward. And if Ant gets a salary similar to Powell, then Portland is paying 90M/ year for those three small guards. That will be around 75% of the salary cap and over 60% of the entire cap thru the apron. That would just perpetuate the olshey-era mismanagement

I don't think there is any finessing this. There are only 2 doors. One with Dame and one without Dame. If Portland keeps Dame and attempts an honest effort at building a contender around him, then at least 2 of CJ-Powell-Simons should be shopped hard. The 'undersized-ball-dominant-no-defense-backcourt' experiment has to end ASAP. Dame needs a back court partner who is at minimum as good as Wesley Matthews was at defense before his injury. And one at least as big as Matthews, if not bigger. That's not Powell and it's not Simons

behind the other door is blowing up the roster and a total rebuild. Trade Dame and every other player over 24. get as many future picks, young players, and expiring contracts as possible. Get bad and tank the season, and maybe the next one. Add high lottery picks to the collection of other picks and pray that somehow, someway, the team gets as lucky as they did when they drafted Lillard, and gets lucky twice.

but I'm anticipating the path Portland will take will be the worst one. Cronin is one of those corporate survivors. he knows how to keep his head down. I have no confidence he'll make necessary moves. So what I'm expecting is the Blazers will make a minor move or two before the deadline, make the play-in, lose their draft pick, then get curb-stomped in the 1st round. That the Blazers will continue to straddle every fence in sight

I hope I'm wrong and Cronin surprises me. I guess I'm jaded from a decade of olshey-speak-and-olshey-do

I don't necessarily disagree with anything said here, and I'm certainly not all rainbows and sunshine about the Blazers prospects at the moment, but I'm willing to give Cronin a chance. I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic on him for no good reason and with no evidence other than to be negative for the sake of being negative. I don't know what to expect from the guy, so I'm willing to give him a shot and a clean slate in terms of my opinion on him.

I agree, it would make sense not to overreact to 5 games, but that doesn't change the fact that decisions will have to be made on the future, and Simons in particular. You can certainly view it in the most basic and binary way possible of "with or without Dame", but it's silly to assume there are no additional layers of decisions that go beyond that. Whichever way they pick with that triggers a number of additional decisions where there is some finessing that will have to happen.

Simons is undoubtedly getting some boost right now from the lack of other teams' preparation/scouting on him, no question. That said, by Feb/March, this will change, especially if Dame is shut down for the whole season (which is looking fairly likely at this point). If his numbers start to come back to earth around then when teams actually prepare for him as the starter and main offensive threat on the Blazers, that will be telling. However, the kid has the skillset and athleticism to be really special, plus he's spent his entire career learning from Dame, so he has every possible thing going for him to be successful in this league. So even if his numbers dip a bit once he's scouted better, there are reasons to be optimistic for his chances to get past that.

At the end of the day, the Blazers are currently sitting in that spot where all teams with a superstar eventually end up at. The star player starts hitting that age where injuries take a longer toll on the player, the athleticism starts to dip a little bit, so on and so forth. A choice has to be made, stick it out until the bitter and inevitable end (the player just isn't what he used to be anymore) or be proactive in ripping the bandaid off and starting over. There's an argument to be made that maybe this year with Dame is like the gap-year Curry took... the Blazers have been riding Dame HARD over the past couple of seasons (especially since the year they went to the WCF), so maybe a year off to rest is just what the doctor ordered and he can come back next year fully refreshed and back to his old self just like Steph has. Of course, the opposite end of that can be true, this year may be a sign of things to come... the injury problems will persist, Dame continues to struggle with Billups' coaching style (which is another topic) plus the NBA rule changes, and he never truly gets back to where he used to be.

There's truly just no clear path forward here. I can see the pros and cons of both sides. Dame's loyalty to the franchise and city are unmatched with any player I can remember wearing a Blazers jersey, and that should matter for sticking with him. On the flip side, father time is still undefeated. If this is the beginning of the end of Dame's time as a Top 10 player in the NBA, maybe it would be best for everyone if he got to a team where he could spend his last few prime years competing for a title and the Blazers jumpstart the rebuild that is coming within the next 1-3 years anyway.

It still really bums me out how the Blazers don't have full access to their FRP this season right now to make a deadline deal. Being able to package that pick as only lightly protected (or fully unprotected for the right player) along with CJ and/or Simons with some filler contract could bring back some really strong value at this years deadline. But tying up that pick with the Nance deal completely killed any chance of making a trade with this years FRP before the draft... such a bad trade.

[Wizenheimer]

I don't necessarily disagree with anything said here, and I'm certainly not all rainbows and sunshine about the Blazers prospects at the moment, but I'm willing to give Cronin a chance. I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic on him for no good reason and with no evidence other than to be negative for the sake of being negative. I don't know what to expect from the guy, so I'm willing to give him a shot and a clean slate in terms of my opinion on him.

obviously I'll give him a chance. I'm just saying I'm pessimistic and it's not just because of the unknown Cronin, It's also because of the known Vulcan management. I'm pessimistic because I think there is little appetite is Seattle for Portland taking the necessary risks to be a contender. I'm not sure Portland contending even registers as a priority in the Vulcan flagship

It still really bums me out how the Blazers don't have full access to their FRP this season right now to make a deadline deal. Being able to package that pick as only lightly protected (or fully unprotected for the right player) along with CJ and/or Simons with some filler contract could bring back some really strong value at this years deadline. But tying up that pick with the Nance deal completely killed any chance of making a trade with this years FRP before the draft... such a bad trade.

there is one possibility: an early trade of RoCo to Chicago for their pick back, then adding that pick to a susequent trade. IIRC, the Bull have even been listed as a an interested party in RoCo. Trouble is there aren't any matchable contracts on the Bulls unless it's Derrick Jones and I'm not sure Portland can trade for him legally

[DusterBuster]

I don't necessarily disagree with anything said here, and I'm certainly not all rainbows and sunshine about the Blazers prospects at the moment, but I'm willing to give Cronin a chance. I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic on him for no good reason and with no evidence other than to be negative for the sake of being negative. I don't know what to expect from the guy, so I'm willing to give him a shot and a clean slate in terms of my opinion on him.

obviously I'll give him a chance. I'm just saying I'm pessimistic and it's not just because of the unknown Cronin, It's also because of the known Vulcan management. I'm pessimistic because I think there is little appetite is Seattle for Portland taking the necessary risks to be a contender. I'm not sure Portland contending even registers as a priority in the Vulcan flagship

It still really bums me out how the Blazers don't have full access to their FRP this season right now to make a deadline deal. Being able to package that pick as only lightly protected (or fully unprotected for the right player) along with CJ and/or Simons with some filler contract could bring back some really strong value at this years deadline. But tying up that pick with the Nance deal completely killed any chance of making a trade with this years FRP before the draft... such a bad trade.

there is one possibility: an early trade of RoCo to Chicago for their pick back, then adding that pick to a susequent trade. IIRC, the Bull have even been listed as a an interested party in RoCo. Trouble is there aren't any matchable contracts on the Bulls unless it's Derrick Jones and I'm not sure Portland can trade for him legally

From the Vulcan perspective, sure. You’ll find no argument for me on that end. So far they’ve been willing to spend when asked, but hard to say where their heads are at with that… though I’ve got a good idea of where their heads are usually placed…

Yeah, I would love for Portland to get that pick back somehow so it can be used before the deadline, but just not sure that’s very likely.

[Pattycakes]

This team actually looks decent without the two chuckers. I mean the team itself. What is this chemistry and defense I see? That can’t be us, can it?

[monopoman]

I don't necessarily disagree with anything said here, and I'm certainly not all rainbows and sunshine about the Blazers prospects at the moment, but I'm willing to give Cronin a chance. I think you're being unnecessarily pessimistic on him for no good reason and with no evidence other than to be negative for the sake of being negative. I don't know what to expect from the guy, so I'm willing to give him a shot and a clean slate in terms of my opinion on him.

obviously I'll give him a chance. I'm just saying I'm pessimistic and it's not just because of the unknown Cronin, It's also because of the known Vulcan management. I'm pessimistic because I think there is little appetite is Seattle for Portland taking the necessary risks to be a contender. I'm not sure Portland contending even registers as a priority in the Vulcan flagship

It still really bums me out how the Blazers don't have full access to their FRP this season right now to make a deadline deal. Being able to package that pick as only lightly protected (or fully unprotected for the right player) along with CJ and/or Simons with some filler contract could bring back some really strong value at this years deadline. But tying up that pick with the Nance deal completely killed any chance of making a trade with this years FRP before the draft... such a bad trade.

there is one possibility: an early trade of RoCo to Chicago for their pick back, then adding that pick to a susequent trade. IIRC, the Bull have even been listed as a an interested party in RoCo. Trouble is there aren't any matchable contracts on the Bulls unless it's Derrick Jones and I'm not sure Portland can trade for him legally

From the Vulcan perspective, sure. You’ll find no argument for me on that end. So far they’ve been willing to spend when asked, but hard to say where their heads are at with that… though I’ve got a good idea of where their heads are usually placed…

Yeah, I would love for Portland to get that pick back somehow so it can be used before the deadline, but just not sure that’s very likely.

If Anfernee plays himself anywhere near a max contract I have a sneaking suspicion they look to move CJ no matter what. The fanbase would react very poorly to dumping Simons if he does indeed start looking more and more like an all-star, he might also be the best defender between the three major guards on this team.

Even in a world where would keep CJ+Dame+Simons I have a feeling Simons would soon grow tired of being a glorified 6th man. In recent interviews he was asked if he views himself as a starter and he said yes.

[GEE]

Wiretap HL says Morey now wants to trade Harris, along with Simmons. OK...
Simmons / Harris / Drummond (for) Dame / CJ / Zeller

IMHO, I like it better without CJ and Harris, but both work in the trade checker.