2022 draft/prospects thread

[Norm2953]

There’s no reason we can’t put 2 athletic potential all star caliber wings next to Dame and not be successful next year. Everyone saying we should trade Dame should think about what that would be like, first.

Dame/Simons
Simons/ Ivey/ Johnson
Hart/Little/ Griffin
Winslow/Brown
Nurk/

That’s scary, especially in Billups system. We’d be number in transition points easily.

That team is in the play in at best IMO.

We should package one of the picks w/ the TPE or Bledsoe/Keon for a upper tier forward and use the other pick on BPA IMO.

I really like the idea of Nurk and Duren combo. Jalen is a work-in-progress but as a backup for a few years to Nurkic he could develop slowly and be given a simply role (Defend, rebound and roll on PNRs). Sign Nurkic to a 3 year deal and when that expires Duren will ideally be ready for the starting role and potentially an Ayton level guy IMO.

Duren however is supposed to be a top 5 pick. There are several backup centers Portland could draft at 14 but Portland should be able
to get a solid prospect at 9-10 with the pick from the Pelicans.

[BlazersBroncos]

There’s no reason we can’t put 2 athletic potential all star caliber wings next to Dame and not be successful next year. Everyone saying we should trade Dame should think about what that would be like, first.

Dame/Simons
Simons/ Ivey/ Johnson
Hart/Little/ Griffin
Winslow/Brown
Nurk/

That’s scary, especially in Billups system. We’d be number in transition points easily.

That team is in the play in at best IMO.

We should package one of the picks w/ the TPE or Bledsoe/Keon for a upper tier forward and use the other pick on BPA IMO.

I really like the idea of Nurk and Duren combo. Jalen is a work-in-progress but as a backup for a few years to Nurkic he could develop slowly and be given a simply role (Defend, rebound and roll on PNRs). Sign Nurkic to a 3 year deal and when that expires Duren will ideally be ready for the starting role and potentially an Ayton level guy IMO.

Duren however is supposed to be a top 5 pick. There are several backup centers Portland could draft at 14 but Portland should be able
to get a solid prospect at 9-10 with the pick from the Pelicans.

Duren is all over the place. Tankathon has him 11, NBADRAFT.net has him 17. I think he goes closer to 5-8 than 11 or 17, but 10 isnt crazy.

Bigs that cant shoot are not valued as highly these days, and Duren is very raw. But I take him as to compliment Nurkic all day if avaliable.

[The Sebastian Express]

Duren is like 6'11 with a 7'5 wingspan and is athletic to my understanding. If he's still there in the late lottery and we aren't in the top and have gotten one of the fours or one of the solid wings or none are left on the board, no big twos left on the board, I think we draft him. Rumors reported from some people covering the team talk about how Chauncy wants to get longer and more athletic at the five which, well, Duren would fit - even if raw.

[Wizenheimer]

If Portland keeps winning a lot of games, and they have the 2nd easiest strength-of-schedule left, they very well may not have their pick this year. Right now they have a better shot at the Pels pick then their own. And, there's a chance they have neither

in fact. if the Blazers are looking like they'll be in the play-in by mid-March, I would not be surprised if Dames comes back

[Norm2953]

Dwight Jaynes has speculated someone will come down with a nagging injury (Winslow has a history of
injury) and its likely after the ASB, teams after studying film will begin adjust to this Blazer team.

I would bet on Dame returning to the court towards the end of March. If he ultimately asks out, he's going
to have to show, he's the player he was in 20/21, at least physically.

[DusterBuster]

Dwight Jaynes has speculated someone will come down with a nagging injury (Winslow has a history of
injury) and its likely after the ASB, teams after studying film will begin adjust to this Blazer team.

I would bet on Dame returning to the court towards the end of March. If he ultimately asks out, he's going
to have to show, he's the player he was in 20/21, at least physically.

Jaynes can speculate all he wants - doesn't mean there's an ounce of truth to it.

[Dame Lizard]

If Portland keeps winning a lot of games, and they have the 2nd easiest strength-of-schedule left, they very well may not have their pick this year. Right now they have a better shot at the Pels pick then their own. And, there's a chance they have neither

in fact. if the Blazers are looking like they'll be in the play-in by mid-March, I would not be surprised if Dames comes back

We could have both picks, or neither.

In terms of tanking though, us winning games at least improves our chance of receiving New Orleans' pick. So it's both a mitigation as well as an anti-tanking outcome.

[Norm2953]

I'm confident of at least one pick and likely two. Portland's pick might end up 13-14 but the draft
is supposed to be fairly solid from 6-14. I just hope we can add two players who will fit in nicely
in our rotation

[PDXKnight]

The pelicans really want to give us that pick! And game after game cj is proving he was the main reason opposing guards perpetually went off against us. Doncic at 45 points at the end of the 3rd!

[DusterBuster]

The pelicans really want to give us that pick! And game after game cj is proving he was the main reason opposing guards perpetually went off against us. Doncic at 45 points at the end of the 3rd!

Man the Pelicans are really bad. I'm almost worried they're too bad. I'm starting to think they may be the ones to get lucky in the draft and then the Blazers make the play-in.

Blazers have the 2nd easiest schedule to finish out the season.


SUPER HARD

vs GSW
vs DEN
@ PHX
@ MIN
@ MIN
@ UTA

SUPER EASY

vs WAS
@ ATL
@ NYK
@ BKL
@ IND
vs SAS
vs HOU
vs HOU
vs OKC
vs NOP
@ SAS
@ SAS
@ OKC
@ NOP

TOSS UPS (could be easy cause both teams resting guys for PO)
@ DAL
vs UTA

It's a really strange finishing schedule. A ton of back to back games against the same opponents in the same arena. 2 B2B in Minny against Wolves, 2 B2B against Houston at home, then 2 B2B in San Antonio.

But yeah, those first 6 out of the ASB are brutal - probably a 1-5 or 2-4 stretch there. But the next 14 are against just purely the worst of the worst of the NBA. All tanking teams aside from Brooklyn (maybe the Knicks and Hawks not tanking too I guess?). They could and probably should easily get 10 out of those 14 at min. Then like mentioned, the final 2 games could be anyones guess cause those teams may rest players.

[PDXKnight]

The pelicans really want to give us that pick! And game after game cj is proving he was the main reason opposing guards perpetually went off against us. Doncic at 45 points at the end of the 3rd!

Man the Pelicans are really bad. I'm almost worried they're too bad. I'm starting to think they may be the ones to get lucky in the draft and then the Blazers make the play-in.

Blazers have the 2nd easiest schedule to finish out the season.


SUPER HARD

vs GSW
vs DEN
@ PHX
@ MIN
@ MIN
@ UTA

SUPER EASY

vs WAS
@ ATL
@ NYK
@ BKL
@ IND
vs SAS
vs HOU
vs HOU
vs OKC
vs NOP
@ SAS
@ SAS
@ OKC
@ NOP

TOSS UPS (could be easy cause both teams resting guys for PO)
@ DAL
vs UTA

It's a really strange finishing schedule. A ton of back to back games against the same opponents in the same arena. 2 B2B in Minny against Wolves, 2 B2B against Houston at home, then 2 B2B in San Antonio.

But yeah, those first 6 out of the ASB are brutal - probably a 1-5 or 2-4 stretch there. But the next 14 are against just purely the worst of the worst of the NBA. All tanking teams aside from Brooklyn (maybe the Knicks and Hawks not tanking too I guess?). They could and probably should easily get 10 out of those 14 at min. Then like mentioned, the final 2 games could be anyones guess cause those teams may rest players.

We should finish out strong, lakers have a tough schedule too so pels may sneak in. Or the other possibility is portland has a coming to earth which wouldn’t shock me either. I kinda see the pels finishing at around 8th-12th worst. It’d be lame if they won the lotto and screwed us but that’s the risk we took here i suppose

[DusterBuster]

We should finish out strong, lakers have a tough schedule too so pels may sneak in. Or the other possibility is portland has a coming to earth which wouldn’t shock me either. I kinda see the pels finishing at around 8th-12th worst. It’d be lame if they won the lotto and screwed us but that’s the risk we took here i suppose

The Pelicans don't look particularly impressive so I'd be surprised to see them finish out super strong.

Who knows with the Lakers. AD is out another month, but LeBron is gonna hit that time where he's going to try and kick it back to gear - so I think they'll make it, but it'll be tough, they have a hard schedule.

But I wouldn't be shocked to see Portland winning more than 50% of their remaining games, maybe well over it.

[Dame Lizard]

The pelicans really want to give us that pick! And game after game cj is proving he was the main reason opposing guards perpetually went off against us. Doncic at 45 points at the end of the 3rd!

Man the Pelicans are really bad. I'm almost worried they're too bad. I'm starting to think they may be the ones to get lucky in the draft and then the Blazers make the play-in.

Blazers have the 2nd easiest schedule to finish out the season.


SUPER HARD

vs GSW
vs DEN
@ PHX
@ MIN
@ MIN
@ UTA

SUPER EASY

vs WAS
@ ATL
@ NYK
@ BKL
@ IND
vs SAS
vs HOU
vs HOU
vs OKC
vs NOP
@ SAS
@ SAS
@ OKC
@ NOP

TOSS UPS (could be easy cause both teams resting guys for PO)
@ DAL
vs UTA

It's a really strange finishing schedule. A ton of back to back games against the same opponents in the same arena. 2 B2B in Minny against Wolves, 2 B2B against Houston at home, then 2 B2B in San Antonio.

But yeah, those first 6 out of the ASB are brutal - probably a 1-5 or 2-4 stretch there. But the next 14 are against just purely the worst of the worst of the NBA. All tanking teams aside from Brooklyn (maybe the Knicks and Hawks not tanking too I guess?). They could and probably should easily get 10 out of those 14 at min. Then like mentioned, the final 2 games could be anyones guess cause those teams may rest players.

The beauty is that the Pelicans draft pick is somewhat of a hedge. As it Portland makes the play-in, there's a good chance that the Pelicans don't.

[Wizenheimer]

The beauty is that the Pelicans draft pick is somewhat of a hedge. As it Portland makes the play-in, there's a good chance that the Pelicans don't.

it's definitely like a game of bop-a-mole. Chances get better in one direction, get worse in another

there is some added "beauty" to the situation. IF, Portland actually makes the play-in, and then makes the playoffs, while they also land the Pels pick in the 7-10 range (time to sacrifice a chicken of something), then, the silver lining, and it's a big one, is that immediately after the draft, Portland would have all their future 1st round picks as trade leverage. They'd be out from under the idiot protections on that Chicago 1st olshey committed the Blazers to. That's big IMO

I think there's another big question: if it looks like Portland has a legitimate shot at the play-in (and right now they have a 2 game lead on the 11th seed), will Dame come back this season? I'm kind of thinking he will. Get an early start on meshing Dame with the Ant & the new look Blazers. A secondary part of that question is if Dame comes back, will the Blazers activate Bledsoe?

[Norm2953]

I'd really like to see Dame as the trailer in the more fast break oriented Blazer team moving forward. This group of players seems to want to push the ball..

[Jsun947]

Let's say we are able to keep both of our picks and they end up somewhere in the realm of 8 & 10, and we are willing to trade both of them in conjunction with our TPE & Bledsoe to win now around Dame as well as retain Nurkic & Simons. How much are we thinking Simons & Nurk will cost us to retain them?

Dame
Simons/Johnson
Hart/Little/Louzada
Winslow/Brown
Nurkic

Realistically what are the best players we could trade for given our current roster? Or are there certain players expected to be available within that range that would be more beneficial to winning now more than the existing market?

[DusterBuster]

Let's say we are able to keep both of our picks and they end up somewhere in the realm of 8 & 10, and we are willing to trade both of them in conjunction with our TPE & Bledsoe to win now around Dame as well as retain Nurkic & Simons. How much are we thinking Simons & Nurk will cost us to retain them?

Dame
Simons/Johnson
Hart/Little/Louzada
Winslow/Brown
Nurkic

Realistically what are the best players we could trade for given our current roster? Or are there certain players expected to be available within that range that would be more beneficial to winning now more than the existing market?

You can’t combine TPE and Bledsoe. You could renounce TPE and do lopsided trade with Bledsoe I think. So let’s just assume portland could take on a 30mil player (just ballparking here)…

Realistically… with only a 8 & 10 pick… it’s probably a lot less than you think/hope. Blazers are still probably looking at a Jeremi Grant. I would hope maybe Blazers could only trade one of those two picks, but not hopeful they wouldn’t just move both to get him.

[Norm2953]

One would hope Portland invests some asset to add another big body to next year's roster for they
don't have anyone behind Nurk. Who that player is unknown for Duren who is liked by so many is
still a raw 19 year old player but at least we're not restricted to the vet minimum players.

[sisibilio]

If we are talking centers i really like Orlando Robinson, not the greatest athhlete but a well rounded player.

[Goldbum]

I think we will end up with Duren and Keegan Murray. That's a nice haul if we don't key in on someone specific that they love.