Game 11: Portland vs Memphis 6:00pm

[Wizenheimer]

as I said, Blazers are dumpster fires at every level

a game like this would get lots of coaches fired, but Portland is in a tar pit of inertia

[Case2012]

Marang is the comic book shop owner from the Simpsons but for the Blazers, i don't know how that guy looks himself in the mirror. I feel sorry for him in a way.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

This was definitely the most pathetic game so far. Has the coach lost the team? I see absolutely zero downside to giving Billups the boot tonight. Wont happen because this team has no competitive fire anywhere to be found outside of maybe just a few guys in the locker room.

[Wizenheimer]

This was definitely the most pathetic game so far. Has the coach lost the team? I see absolutely zero downside to giving Billups the boot tonight. Wont happen because this team has no competitive fire anywhere to be found outside of maybe just a few guys in the locker room.

I don't believe ownership cares, one way or the other. Besides that, who or what exactly owns the Blazers? A trust? Whatever the situation, it's becoming clear that the Blazers probably have the worst ownership situation in the NBA

as for the front office, as time drags on, the worse most of their decisions look. With Ant-Grant-Ayton-Timelord still on the team it's hard to even decipher what direction they are choosing

but my hunch is that Cronin wanted to see how his 2024 roster looked by the trade deadline, or at least by Christmas before diving head first into the tank. I think we have a pretty good handle on this roster by now; don't need to wait till the new year or the trade deadline

meaning, I guess, that Cronin may have already decided that Chauncey's incompetence is good for the tank. Problem is it isn't good for the development of the younger players. Rock-meet-hard-place

[PDXKnight]

This was definitely the most pathetic game so far. Has the coach lost the team? I see absolutely zero downside to giving Billups the boot tonight. Wont happen because this team has no competitive fire anywhere to be found outside of maybe just a few guys in the locker room.

I don't believe ownership cares, one way or the other. Besides that, who or what exactly owns the Blazers? A trust? Whatever the situation, it's becoming clear that the Blazers probably have the worst ownership situation in the NBA

as for the front office, as time drags on, the worse most of their decisions look. With Ant-Grant-Ayton-Timelord still on the team it's hard to even decipher what direction they are choosing

but my hunch is that Cronin wanted to see how his 2024 roster looked by the trade deadline, or at least by Christmas before diving head first into the tank. I think we have a pretty good handle on this roster by now; don't need to wait till the new year or the trade deadline

meaning, I guess, that Cronin may have already decided that Chauncey's incompetence is good for the tank. Problem is it isn't good for the development of the younger players. Rock-meet-hard-place

If we get a top 4 in this draft then fire Chauncey it's worth dealing with Chauncey for 1 more year. Otherwise it looks pretty bad.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

This was definitely the most pathetic game so far. Has the coach lost the team? I see absolutely zero downside to giving Billups the boot tonight. Wont happen because this team has no competitive fire anywhere to be found outside of maybe just a few guys in the locker room.

I don't believe ownership cares, one way or the other. Besides that, who or what exactly owns the Blazers? A trust? Whatever the situation, it's becoming clear that the Blazers probably have the worst ownership situation in the NBA

as for the front office, as time drags on, the worse most of their decisions look. With Ant-Grant-Ayton-Timelord still on the team it's hard to even decipher what direction they are choosing

but my hunch is that Cronin wanted to see how his 2024 roster looked by the trade deadline, or at least by Christmas before diving head first into the tank. I think we have a pretty good handle on this roster by now; don't need to wait till the new year or the trade deadline

meaning, I guess, that Cronin may have already decided that Chauncey's incompetence is good for the tank. Problem is it isn't good for the development of the younger players. Rock-meet-hard-place

If we get a top 4 in this draft then fire Chauncey it's worth dealing with Chauncey for 1 more year. Otherwise it looks pretty bad.

Said it before, will say it again, tanking via the coach is about the worst way to tank. Coaches can instill and encourage bad habits just as much as they can with good habits.

Sit players, trade away vets for scraps, play 2 way players. Tank any other way if you have to.

But get a coach who can motivate the team to play hard, develop young talent and put veterans in the best situation possible.

[PDXKnight]

I don't believe ownership cares, one way or the other. Besides that, who or what exactly owns the Blazers? A trust? Whatever the situation, it's becoming clear that the Blazers probably have the worst ownership situation in the NBA

as for the front office, as time drags on, the worse most of their decisions look. With Ant-Grant-Ayton-Timelord still on the team it's hard to even decipher what direction they are choosing

but my hunch is that Cronin wanted to see how his 2024 roster looked by the trade deadline, or at least by Christmas before diving head first into the tank. I think we have a pretty good handle on this roster by now; don't need to wait till the new year or the trade deadline

meaning, I guess, that Cronin may have already decided that Chauncey's incompetence is good for the tank. Problem is it isn't good for the development of the younger players. Rock-meet-hard-place

If we get a top 4 in this draft then fire Chauncey it's worth dealing with Chauncey for 1 more year. Otherwise it looks pretty bad.

Said it before, will say it again, tanking via the coach is about the worst way to tank. Coaches can instill and encourage bad habits just as much as they can with good habits.

Sit players, trade away vets for scraps, play 2 way players. Tank any other way if you have to.

But get a coach who can motivate the team to play hard, develop young talent and put veterans in the best situation possible.

Are you saying the primary problem is coming from Cronin and/or Jody for not blowing this team up faster? If so I'd agree

[DeBlazerRiddem]

If we get a top 4 in this draft then fire Chauncey it's worth dealing with Chauncey for 1 more year. Otherwise it looks pretty bad.

Said it before, will say it again, tanking via the coach is about the worst way to tank. Coaches can instill and encourage bad habits just as much as they can with good habits.

Sit players, trade away vets for scraps, play 2 way players. Tank any other way if you have to.

But get a coach who can motivate the team to play hard, develop young talent and put veterans in the best situation possible.

Are you saying the primary problem is coming from Cronin and/or Jody for not blowing this team up faster? If so I'd agree

I personally think both Jody and Cronin almost certainly and entirely defer to Kolde and the Vulcan management team for any relevant decisions. Jody is not a sports person and has many other demands from running the estate and Cronin is a yes-man who kissed the right asses to rise through the ranks to get his job. I haven't seen a backbone or spine or independent vision from him at any point.

We keep hiring GMs with little to no experience and it makes me wonder if good candidates stay away from the cesspool we have here and we intentionally go after folks that are more easily steered by the man behind the curtain.

We aren't the most talented team by a long shot but last night we didn't even live up to what meager talent we do have, that is on the coach. If we want to move the vets without having to pay to get off their contracts it would be very helpful if they were playing up to their actual abilities.

As Wiz keeps saying; dumpster fire from top to bottom.

[Case2012]

You need a coach that can develop talent, period. Trade away the vets, let the youngsters sink or swim so you can have a better idea of where to improve via the draft. Although, I think our talent evaluators are trash and need to go to as well. Every trade has been terrible, every draft pick has been underwhelming to say the least, what it comes down to is these people just aren't very good at their jobs and ownership doesn't care as long as their yes men don't step out of line and the money keeps flowing in.

Billups sucks but they want to tank, so ownership isn't going to waste money, which is all they care about. They even went after Olshey for cause so Jody could save a few million, when have you heard of anyone doing that? Even the local media are all sycophants and don't dare to criticize the team so they don't face retaliation and lose access. What happened to Quick? Then you have that goober Marang as the so called insider slobbering all over managements basketballs while aggressively ripping anyone that dares to have a differing opinion, pretending he's some kind of savant but never been right about anything and his attitude and takes are kind of representational of the entire organization.

I at least appreciate Billups calling his players out, but he's lost that team and needs to go, but we all know he won't.

It's so embarrassing to be a blazers fan, I honestly don't know why people attend games.

[Wizenheimer]

It's so embarrassing to be a blazers fan, I honestly don't know why people attend games.

get yourself one of these:

[Walton1one]

You know all of what has been posted here is majorly correct. The vets, Billups, roster composition, Cronin's questionable (to be as nice as I can) trades\drafts. It all blends together into just a horrible product, but what sets me off the most is effort.

I think most of us came into this season as fans with eyes wide open, we expected losses, we expected lopsided losses, we expected incompetent coaching, we expect platitudes from Billups\Cronin & all of that can be frustrating. But what is absolutely inexcusable is effort. For a team of professionals, to play like that, where the lack of effort was crystal clear for everyone to see is infuriating and quite frankly insulting to your paying fans.

[DusterBuster]

Why is chauncey bringing advija off the bench after what we gave up for him? Seems like he's a useful player who he is somehow finding a way to misuse

I'm unfortunately starting to feel justified with my initial reaction to the Advija trade. Would have rather had the picks. Should have just taken Knecht at 13 and then kept that extra 2029 pick. I know that's still a ways out - but god, what a way to throw away draft capital. The Blazers FO - regardless of who's running the show - just seems absolutely f'ing allergic to farming 1st round picks.

[DusterBuster]

It's so embarrassing to be a blazers fan, I honestly don't know why people attend games.

get yourself one of these:

In this economy?!

[Wizenheimer]

Why is chauncey bringing advija off the bench after what we gave up for him? Seems like he's a useful player who he is somehow finding a way to misuse

I'm unfortunately starting to feel justified with my initial reaction to the Advija trade. Would have rather had the picks. Should have just taken Knecht at 13 and then kept that extra 2029 pick. I know that's still a ways out - but god, what a way to throw away draft capital. The Blazers FO - regardless of who's running the show - just seems absolutely f'ing allergic to farming 1st round picks.

I was hopeful about the trade when it was announced; but I did think the price was really steep: two 1st's + two 2nd's....ouch!

I guess I'm still sheltering a tiny bit of hope, but the early returns have been really discouraging. Avdija is kind of looking like a slightly richer man's Hezonja. I think he's better than that, but the reality is he only had one good season out of the 4 he played. What if that season was an aberration?

he seems to be best in the open floor, but of course the Blazers don't run much, and when they do it's mostly chaos, and not a good kind of chaos

and of course, we have the memory of Avdija being benched last night. So, Portland paid 4 draft picks for a backup. Wasn't Cronin paying attention when Olshey sent out two 1st's for RoCo and what a disaster that was?

at this point, is there any obvious good decision Cronin has made?

[DusterBuster]

at this point, is there any obvious good decision Cronin has made?

The only things that really are potentially standing out to me...

Clingan, he seems like he's going to be a long-term solution imo. That said, picking Clingan at 7 when he started falling was a pretty hard move to f up. That was a no brainer.

The other I'm still willing to give him credit for is holding out on moving Dame. I think in the long-run, the Bucks picks will be more valuable than the Heat picks. Heat are looking OLD (as are the Bucks), so I think both teams would be struggling similarly with Dame this year and their picks could be valuable as far out as they are. What I like about the Bucks pick is that Milwaukee is not a destination team like Miami. Miami will have an easier time reloading talent than the Bucks will, they have to rely on internal development of young guys to have a contender.

But he has already Olshey'd away an asset in the war chest from the Dame trade... so... yeah... #sadface.

I'm with you too, I've not completely lost hope in Deni, I'm hoping to see him under another HC as incompetent at running an offense like Chauncey.

[PDXKnight]

at this point, is there any obvious good decision Cronin has made?

The only things that really are potentially standing out to me...

Clingan, he seems like he's going to be a long-term solution imo. That said, picking Clingan at 7 when he started falling was a pretty hard move to f up. That was a no brainer.

The other I'm still willing to give him credit for is holding out on moving Dame. I think in the long-run, the Bucks picks will be more valuable than the Heat picks. Heat are looking OLD (as are the Bucks), so I think both teams would be struggling similarly with Dame this year and their picks could be valuable as far out as they are. What I like about the Bucks pick is that Milwaukee is not a destination team like Miami. Miami will have an easier time reloading talent than the Bucks will, they have to rely on internal development of young guys to have a contender.

But he has already Olshey'd away an asset in the war chest from the Dame trade... so... yeah... #sadface.

I'm with you too, I've not completely lost hope in Deni, I'm hoping to see him under another HC as incompetent at running an offense like Chauncey.

I'm pretty certain he's being misused. The verdict may be out on advija until another coach comes along but the move for the Blazers certainly does look questionable currently as we gave up a couple firsts to essentially stay a basement dweller.

I'd add the cj for hart trade along with the Dame trade as acceptable deals. Unfortuantely we already dealt away hart and a lot of the Dame trade. Maybe the only consolation here is the moves we have made have made us bad enough to tank in a good draft but our moves scream a team with zero direction. A lot is dependent on 2029 and 2030 working out well in regards to the draft but in the interim we have a pretty bottom dweller roster

[BlazersBroncos]

I am more than willing to give Deni a ton more time. He is far from the issue. At least he is playing hard and going downhill a ton (Something Simons and Grant dont do well). But, he is also a guy that excels in a system where guys are moving. We stand around and ISO after a horrible top of the 3 Ayton pick 90% of the time. Deni is being wasted here.

[mighty_duck]

While Deni has not looked great, and change is needed, I did not love starting Sharpe over him.
Sharpe has decent potential, but his lack of effort on both sides of the court is a HUGE red flag. Do not let him start unless he fights for every minute he's on the court.
OTOH, say what you want about Scoot's production, but his heart is in the right place.

[DusterBuster]

While Deni has not looked great, and change is needed, I did not love starting Sharpe over him.
Sharpe has decent potential, but his lack of effort on both sides of the court is a HUGE red flag. Do not let him start unless he fights for every minute he's on the court.
OTOH, say what you want about Scoot's production, but his heart is in the right place.

The change to be made is getting Grant out of town asap. None of this seems like rocket science but Cronin is slow as hell to do anything. I'm all down for being patient, but if you're patient and the end result is a bit bucket of "meh"... that's when I get annoyed with a GM.

If they can just get rid of Grant, Simons and Ayton, the Blazers can have a roster that makes sense and is ACTUALLY a developmental roster with a starting core of:

Scoot
Sharpe
Deni
Camara
Clingan

That should be the team right now. Not the hodgepodge of developmental players and vets who can help good teams.