Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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Phalanx
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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Merganzer wrote:
Oh, I'm with you on Lillard. Except, it isn't Lillard's exaggeration of his ability that is crippling the team, it's the team that believes Lillard is a player of which a championship team can be built around. The Blazers have deemed him, "untouchable". By staying, Lillard allows the team to keep their façade alive. The Blazers are a mediocre team, and Lillard is a mediocre All Star, together they let the Blazers continue to be The Show in Portland.
Hah! I finally found someone more cynical about the Blazers than I am. :lol:

I think Paul Allen really does want to win, he just doesn't have a good vision about how to make that happen.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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Phalanx wrote:
Merganzer wrote:
Oh, I'm with you on Lillard. Except, it isn't Lillard's exaggeration of his ability that is crippling the team, it's the team that believes Lillard is a player of which a championship team can be built around. The Blazers have deemed him, "untouchable". By staying, Lillard allows the team to keep their façade alive. The Blazers are a mediocre team, and Lillard is a mediocre All Star, together they let the Blazers continue to be The Show in Portland.
Hah! I finally found someone more cynical about the Blazers than I am. :lol:

I think Paul Allen really does want to win, he just doesn't have a good vision about how to make that happen.
That could be, but the big problem is, ironically, Allen can't see that. The parade of GM's points to Allen trying to find the right guy, but ever since Kevin Pritchard actually tried to do the job of a GM, the rest are nothing more than some guy for Allen to sit next to at home games.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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So, along with the Vonleh money saving move, the mad scientists in the Blazers' front office tried to make another deal happen which would have resulted in...adding another guard to the roster. Apparently it was down to the 76ers and Blazers, and Marco Belinelli signed with the 76ers. What a shame that didn't work out.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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Merganzer wrote:So, along with the Vonleh money saving move, the mad scientists in the Blazers' front office tried to make another deal happen which would have resulted in...adding another guard to the roster. Apparently it was down to the 76ers and Blazers, and Marco Belinelli signed with the 76ers. What a shame that didn't work out.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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this seems like a bit of a reach.

if you're referring to marco belinelli, he signed a deal through the remainder of the season w/ philly for, like, 800k. he would have been a nice reserve for the remainder of the season, better than pat connaughton, and insurance on the wing considering moe harkless has no-showed this season and evan turner is, well, evan turner.

in the annals of neil olshey misfires, this isn't one of them. he would have cost almost nothing, there is no future commitment, and he's better than some of our regular rotation players.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

Post by Duck24 »

I’ve just accepted that this team is stuck outside the lottery but first round exit purgatory for the next 3-5 years.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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Duck24 wrote:I’ve just accepted that this team is stuck outside the lottery but first round exit purgatory for the next 3-5 years.
Exactly. Also, that's where the team has been since Aldridge and Matthews and Batum left, and the best that Belinelli might have been able to do was to secure the 6th, "Purgatory" place yet again. This group is set on building a championship contender around a no D backcourt. It won't work, hasn't worked, but Oshea keeps spinning that it will. It won't because they keep drafting in the middle, can't get any FA's, and the only players on the roster that would get any quality players in return are, "untouchable".
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

Post by oregontrack »

for now. i see the front office giving this crop another go next year, but if things stay the same (spoiler: they will) i wouldn't at all be shocked if we break up the band around the trade deadline and then certainly dismantle things more that off-season (summer of '19). olshey has backed himself into a corner for now, but you'd be surprised how quickly anyone can go from untouchable to "on the market" once the GM starts feeling internal heat. either lillard finally breaks and demands a trade or they flick mccollum somewhere for a decent return, then they'll be able to flip a mountain's worth of expiring deals (turner, leonard, harkless) to cash-strapped teams for younger players or, preferably, picks. and since cap space has proven to both be A.) useless to portland, and B.) dangerous in olshey's hands, i would think using expirings to bring in talent would be a much more worthwhile situation than hording cash.

i'm not saying olshey won't f*** up the rebuild process, i'm just saying we'll likely only have this same cast of characters around for another year, barring some sort of miraculous surge.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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The problem most teams have is that they're playing in a time where the most dominant team (Golden State) is built for a long run and they're left scrambling to compete with that or build for a longer-term plan.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

Post by oregontrack »

open question to the board: would you re-sign nurk this off-season?

he's been wildly inconsistent this season to the point he's all but taken himself out of max consideration. he's also a relatively skilled 23 (24?) year old big man, even though ultimately this is not the impact we all hoped he would have after last season's flurry of a finish.

do you take a chance and give him the 13-15 million he'll command on the open market?

do you pass, re-sign ed davis, sign a much cheaper vet, and go by-committee next year with davis, zach collins, and a vet-to-be-named later?

opting not to extend further opens up options for portland for the summer of 2019, but that also means trusting olshey to rebuild this thing.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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oregontrack wrote:open question to the board: would you re-sign nurk this off-season?

he's been wildly inconsistent this season to the point he's all but taken himself out of max consideration. he's also a relatively skilled 23 (24?) year old big man, even though ultimately this is not the impact we all hoped he would have after last season's flurry of a finish.

do you take a chance and give him the 13-15 million he'll command on the open market?

do you pass, re-sign ed davis, sign a much cheaper vet, and go by-committee next year with davis, zach collins, and a vet-to-be-named later?

opting not to extend further opens up options for portland for the summer of 2019, but that also means trusting olshey to rebuild this thing.
I think we can see part of the plan with the Vonleh trade as we're going to be in the luxury tax bill next season, so that move stalls the repeat offender start by a season. They will go over to resign players like Shabazz and Ed (as they should) but with Nurkic it's all going to come down to what he's willing to accept and what he may be forced to accept with the given market. The ideal move would be a sign and trade of the big guy but that seems like a pipe dream unless he goes off at the end of the regular season again. It seems like a long time to wait for some of our bad contracts like Evan and Meyers, but those will turn into valuable chips to trade eventually so not having more bad contracts in the form of an average starter at Center should be taken into account.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

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Perfect opportunity to test restricted free agency. I'm disappointed that Olshey couldn't flip him before the trade deadline, but I guess that strategy couldn't last forever. I have a terrible feeling they are going to let Napier go because they can't sign him and Nurk and stay under the tax. Next year's payroll is already around $112 million, with the luxury tax line this year being $119 million. So adding more than $7 to $10 million is going to put the Blazers into the tax, once again on a mediocre team that can barely make the playoffs.

Maybe they think Collins can take Nurk's place as well? If I were the Blazers, I would not pay Nurk $15 million. He just doesn't show up to enough games to justify paying the luxury tax on him.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

Post by Merganzer »

Phalanx wrote:Perfect opportunity to test restricted free agency. I'm disappointed that Olshey couldn't flip him before the trade deadline, but I guess that strategy couldn't last forever. I have a terrible feeling they are going to let Napier go because they can't sign him and Nurk and stay under the tax. Next year's payroll is already around $112 million, with the luxury tax line this year being $119 million. So adding more than $7 to $10 million is going to put the Blazers into the tax, once again on a mediocre team that can barely make the playoffs.

Maybe they think Collins can take Nurk's place as well? If I were the Blazers, I would not pay Nurk $15 million. He just doesn't show up to enough games to justify paying the luxury tax on him.
It could be that with the Vonleh move we see the awareness of the Luxury Tax and that could be a signal that maybe the Blazers will keep Napier and say so long to Nurcic. Collins was drafted with the promise of a big future and this could be the starting point.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

Post by thomas time »

Blazers with big vs GSW, Dame 44 and C.J. with 29 points. Durant had 50, it was a good game watching Dame and KD going back and forth.
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Re: Portland Trail Blazers 2017-18 Thread

Post by Phalanx »

Lillard was outstanding tonight. He made mincemeat out of Steph Curry, and he even played some defense. Dude always gets up for the Warriors for some reason. Do that in the playoffs, and I will take it all back. That's if they even make the playoffs. Currently, the Clippers are 9th in the standings, and only one game behind the Blazers.
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