Blazers

[Merganzer]

I would love to hear opinions about what the team still needs in order to get them over the top.

I'm not sure which player particularly, but I look at the Detroit Pistons. Last season they finished 14-68, this season, after getting the 5th pick, their record is going to improve by about 30 games.

Pistons aren't necessarily a great example from the standpoint that their 5th pick, Ron Holland isn't a huge contributor.

True about Holland. But they still got the great improvement without a seismic shift. It can happen. Golden State went from mediocre to dynasty through the draft.

[Phalanx]

Utah wins tonight for some reason and is now tied with Washington for #1 draft position. That was unexpected, and the loss keeps the Blazers tied with the Suns, who are losing every game down the stretch. A huge game for Portland's tanking efforts - not sure how they pulled it off when Utah had every reason to lose. Hopefully the Blazers can lose the last two games vs playoff teams, and the Suns play San Antonio Friday, so they might win. It turns out, the Suns are going to lose their pick in a swap with Houston anyway, so Phoenix must actually be that bad. It's sad that a team with no incentive to tank is still doing it better than the Blazers.

Speaking of Houston, that is my model for rising to contention. They drafted REALLY well over a three-year span and added a couple of very accessible free agents in VanVleet and Dillon. Their only All-Star was a 16th pick in 2021. BOOM, 2nd seed in the West. Rocket science.

[Merganzer]

Speaking of Houston, that is my model for rising to contention. They drafted REALLY well over a three-year span and added a couple of very accessible free agents in VanVleet and Dillon. Their only All-Star was a 16th pick in 2021. BOOM, 2nd seed in the West. Rocket science.

Great catch. Improvement can come through very good drafting, that's never really been the case with the Blazers however...

[pudgejeff]

Utah wins tonight for some reason and is now tied with Washington for #1 draft position. That was unexpected, and the loss keeps the Blazers tied with the Suns, who are losing every game down the stretch. A huge game for Portland's tanking efforts - not sure how they pulled it off when Utah had every reason to lose. Hopefully the Blazers can lose the last two games vs playoff teams, and the Suns play San Antonio Friday, so they might win. It turns out, the Suns are going to lose their pick in a swap with Houston anyway, so Phoenix must actually be that bad. It's sad that a team with no incentive to tank is still doing it better than the Blazers.

Speaking of Houston, that is my model for rising to contention. They drafted REALLY well over a three-year span and added a couple of very accessible free agents in VanVleet and Dillon. Their only All-Star was a 16th pick in 2021. BOOM, 2nd seed in the West. Rocket science.

Houston did what most here have been asking for, tanked themselves to consecutive top picks (2,3.4). Mixed in there they made a great trade/got lucky getting Sengun however it should be quantified, either way a great move. Then after all that they signed Brooks and VanVleet.

Portland tried to "thread the needle" as a lot would say too much, ended up with 7,3,7, but most importantly as you have pointed out they carried guys like Simons and Grant causing them to win more games than they should as well as prevent the acquiring of accessible free agents.

Hopefully they can get lucky in the lottery this year, shed those contracts and then after next year make a signing or two(Deni kinda counts as one already). You gotta get a little lucky with the signings too, neither Brooks nor VanVleet had a ton of interest. Lots of people thought the Brooks contract was bad(not saying they were correct).

The Harden and Lillard trades are a good parallel in this comparison as well. Houston is reaping the long awaited rewards in the midst of their push to allow them to make moves, the hopes is that will happen to Portland in a few years if they're able to get this thing going.

Patience is gonna be the name of the game though.

[alxtw]

Utah wins tonight for some reason and is now tied with Washington for #1 draft position. That was unexpected, and the loss keeps the Blazers tied with the Suns, who are losing every game down the stretch. A huge game for Portland's tanking efforts - not sure how they pulled it off when Utah had every reason to lose. Hopefully the Blazers can lose the last two games vs playoff teams, and the Suns play San Antonio Friday, so they might win. It turns out, the Suns are going to lose their pick in a swap with Houston anyway, so Phoenix must actually be that bad. It's sad that a team with no incentive to tank is still doing it better than the Blazers.

Speaking of Houston, that is my model for rising to contention. They drafted REALLY well over a three-year span and added a couple of very accessible free agents in VanVleet and Dillon. Their only All-Star was a 16th pick in 2021. BOOM, 2nd seed in the West. Rocket science.

Houston did what most here have been asking for, tanked themselves to consecutive top picks (2,3.4). Mixed in there they made a great trade/got lucky getting Sengun however it should be quantified, either way a great move. Then after all that they signed Brooks and VanVleet.

Portland tried to "thread the needle" as a lot would say too much, ended up with 7,3,7, but most importantly as you have pointed out they carried guys like Simons and Grant causing them to win more games than they should as well as prevent the acquiring of accessible free agents.

Hopefully they can get lucky in the lottery this year, shed those contracts and then after next year make a signing or two(Deni kinda counts as one already). You gotta get a little lucky with the signings too, neither Brooks nor VanVleet had a ton of interest. Lots of people thought the Brooks contract was bad(not saying they were correct).

The Harden and Lillard trades are a good parallel in this comparison as well. Houston is reaping the long awaited rewards in the midst of their push to allow them to make moves, the hopes is that will happen to Portland in a few years if they're able to get this thing going.

Patience is gonna be the name of the game though.

Houston also has a much better owner than we currently have...

[squintsdd]

Utah wins tonight for some reason and is now tied with Washington for #1 draft position. That was unexpected, and the loss keeps the Blazers tied with the Suns, who are losing every game down the stretch. A huge game for Portland's tanking efforts - not sure how they pulled it off when Utah had every reason to lose. Hopefully the Blazers can lose the last two games vs playoff teams, and the Suns play San Antonio Friday, so they might win. It turns out, the Suns are going to lose their pick in a swap with Houston anyway, so Phoenix must actually be that bad. It's sad that a team with no incentive to tank is still doing it better than the Blazers.

Speaking of Houston, that is my model for rising to contention. They drafted REALLY well over a three-year span and added a couple of very accessible free agents in VanVleet and Dillon. Their only All-Star was a 16th pick in 2021. BOOM, 2nd seed in the West. Rocket science.

Houston did what most here have been asking for, tanked themselves to consecutive top picks (2,3.4). Mixed in there they made a great trade/got lucky getting Sengun however it should be quantified, either way a great move. Then after all that they signed Brooks and VanVleet.

Portland tried to "thread the needle" as a lot would say too much, ended up with 7,3,7, but most importantly as you have pointed out they carried guys like Simons and Grant causing them to win more games than they should as well as prevent the acquiring of accessible free agents.

Hopefully they can get lucky in the lottery this year, shed those contracts and then after next year make a signing or two(Deni kinda counts as one already). You gotta get a little lucky with the signings too, neither Brooks nor VanVleet had a ton of interest. Lots of people thought the Brooks contract was bad(not saying they were correct).

The Harden and Lillard trades are a good parallel in this comparison as well. Houston is reaping the long awaited rewards in the midst of their push to allow them to make moves, the hopes is that will happen to Portland in a few years if they're able to get this thing going.

Patience is gonna be the name of the game though.

Houston also has a much better owner than we currently have...

And this is the difference maker. An owner that wants to win instead of an owner that's just milking the team for money

[pezsez1]

I actually wonder if we might see Portland being in the lottery for another year or two. I think it all depends on whether Cronin is able to unload Grant & Ayton and what he wants to get in return.

Looking around the loaded west our saving grace (from a rebuild perspective) is that other teams got better even if it's not showing up in the stats. And some of these really bad teams are far more likely than we are to get a franchise-altering player in this draft, so they could potentially leapfrog us at some point. The downside is that if Portland refused to commit to draft positioning this year then I definitely don't see them doing it next year, so I'd imagine we'd probably finish similarly to where we are now -- out of the playoffs but not great odds at getting a needle-moving draft pick. Also next year's draft won't have the depth of this year's draft.

Blazers looked good at times over the second half of the year but we also feasted on bad teams (some of which were trying to lose) while mostly losing to teams with winning records. (And the two good teams we beat were playing without their best players.)

I do wish Jody would sell, but extending Cronin could be a sign that she isn't going anywhere anytime soon. And that's not a shot at Cronin, just an observation that I doubt she'd be locking him down as a GM if she intended on selling the team soon.

At least we've got the Ducks!

[Duck07]

Vulcan isn't selling until a court forces them to sell and good luck with that.

I think IF there's a saving grace, it's that this current core of Scoot/Shae/Deni/Tou/Cling will have a few years under their belts by the time the Old Stars out West retire and that alone could propel the team higher in the standings at the same time those future picks are usable.

I think the #1 priority could be to settle the Chicago trade so Cronin can trade future 1sts

[Phalanx]

Tank update: With the Blazers headed for a loss, Miami having won, and Phoenix in the driver's seat vs the Spurs, Portland will finish the day alone in 9th lottery position. The Lakers will likely sit their starters in Sunday's game, so no guarantees Portland can lose that one. If they stay in ninth position, the odds are over 50% they will end up with the ninth pick, and almost 97% to get a top 10 pick. Interestingly, Deni Avdija was a ninth pick in 2020. Getting another player of that caliber would be great.

[droop10]

Tank update: With the Blazers headed for a loss, Miami having won, and Phoenix in the driver's seat vs the Spurs, Portland will finish the day alone in 9th lottery position. The Lakers will likely sit their starters in Sunday's game, so no guarantees Portland can lose that one. If they stay in ninth position, the odds are over 50% they will end up with the ninth pick, and almost 97% to get a top 10 pick. Interestingly, Deni Avdija was a ninth pick in 2020. Getting another player of that caliber would be great.

Have the Lakers wrapped up the 3 seed? Haven’t looked into the tiebreakers, just see they’re only up 1 game on a few teams. Securing the 3 seed will be huge to avoid OKC until the conference finals. The opposite side of the bracket from OKC will likely be a much easier path, so the depending on tiebreakers, the Lakers could be all in Sunday.

Edit: just got my answer that they did lock it up. Yeah, they’ll be sitting everybody.

[pezsez1]

Billups extended... not exactly a surprise.

I'm very conflicted about this. On one hand, Billups was dealt a terrible hand with this job and had virtually no chance to succeed. He inherited an unbalanced roster with an injured superstar, then endured two years of tanking, and then this season which started off with tanking, then some winning, and then more tanking. The Blazers looked good while they were playing to win in the second half of this season, but even then they were feasting on bad teams and the offense was never exactly dynamic. So, I don't know. I love that he's kept the squad focused throughout these rebuilding years, but I can't help but feel there are better coaches available.

If I'm being cynical, I'm going to guess the Blazers got him on a good deal and saved themselves some money by not having to do a job search.

[Phalanx]

Bad news all around today as the Blazers win and Phoenix loses, so they end up in a tie. Even if the Blazers win the coin toss, their lottery chance is less than if they had achieved 9th position outright. The way they do the lottery ball thing for ties, they almost evenly split the difference between the two positions.

I don't think Billups is a great coach, but in fairness, they have asked him to tank all four years he has been here, so they kind of owed him a chance to swing away for a full season before they turn him loose. I do think they can make the playoffs next year barring major injuries. So hopefully Billups takes the chance and runs with it. Hopefully Cronin can improve the roster this summer via the draft/trades/free agency. Find a team not as deep as the Blazers and make a bold consolidation trade, or dump Grant's salary and find a solid free agent or two.

[Phalanx]

After losing to the Bulls (tanking) tonight, the number of teams who can pass the Blazers for the 9th lottery position is down to three, and of those three, only Phoenix seems to be actively tanking - the other two (Chicago and Miami) are in the play-in. All three are two ahead in the loss column. The Blazers need to keep that margin with them all so that there aren't any coin flips at the end of the season that Portland always seems to lose. Next up is San Antonio in a contest to see who can tank the hardest.

.....aaaaaand the Blazers lose the coin toss to Phoenix.

The major Blazer fan site has an article up right now suggesting a trade to get Lillard back. The guy who will be 35 this summer and is getting paid $113 million over the next two seasons and has won a grand total of four playoff series in his 12-year career and is halfway to losing in the first round yet again. We're talking about trading for that guy. Unbelievable.

[pezsez1]

The major Blazer fan site has an article up right now suggesting a trade to get Lillard back.

This one?

https://www.blazersedge.com/2025/4/23/2 ... -contracts

This isn't really "suggesting" we trade for him, just throwing out the scenario for people to talk about.

I don't think we should trade for him. The Dame ship has sailed, he's increasingly injury prone, and his massive salary wouldn't be good for a team that's rebuilding.

That said... I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't love to see him plugged into this roster. Dame was always cursed with unbalanced rosters that were especially light on length, shooting, and defense. This roster addresses those issues in spades.

The article "suggests" trading Ant, RWIII, and either Sharpe or Scoot for Dame. I'll entertain this and say throw Scoot into the mix, keeping Sharpe. That would give us a lineup of:

Dame
Sharpe
Deni
Camara
Ayton

With bench rotation players being:

Grant
Thybulle
Banton
Murray
Clingan

That starting five would be lit!!!! Tons of scoring and the potential to be pretty good defensively (although Dame will always be a defensive liability). It still kills me a bit that we never got to see Dame & Sharpe playing side by side, could have been so much better than Dame & CJ. I'd also love to see Dame playing alongside such a passionate and skilled player as Deni. That would be special!

But the trade isn't worth the problems. There's no quality backup PG, no real bench scoring, and Grant would still be somewhat useless even if put into the starting lineup. Also, the west is really good. Any team that finishes as a 7th or 8th seed right now is almost guaranteed to get a first-round ass kicking, and asking an injury-prone 37-year-old Dame to lead an inexperienced team to the fifth or sixth seed (while basically pausing/ending our rebuild) is nonsensical.

Summary is this roster is pretty good, but the rebuild isn't finished, and at this point the Blazers should be focusing on the rebuild and not pushing for playoff progression. Making a move for an aging superstar wouldn't make sense no matter who it is.

[Phalanx]

Summary is this roster is pretty good, but the rebuild isn't finished, and at this point the Blazers should be focusing on the rebuild and not pushing for playoff progression. Making a move for an aging superstar wouldn't make sense no matter who it is.

I don't think you and Cronin are on the same timetable. If he was planning further tanking beyond this year, he would not have traded all those picks for Avdija. Deni is a 'get used to Portland this year and start winning next year' kind of player. With Sharpe on the final year of his rookie deal and Ayton also in a contract year, the time to swing away and see what kind of team we have is now. Cronin has Simons and this year's pick (probably #11 with the Blazers' luck) to dangle in trade, and he also has around $17 million in cap space under the tax (if I am reading it right). So he has the option to try for a trade that brings a borderline All-Star back. For instance, rumor has it the Hawks are looking for a deal for Trae Young. I don't know what Portland would have to part with to make that happen - Simons, RW3 and a pick maybe, but my point is there are likely some consolidation deals out there that would solidify the Blazers as a playoff team.

Young, Scoot
Sharpe, Thybulle
Avdija
Grant, Camara
Ayton, Clingan

Again, this is just an example and maybe Atlanta doesn't do that deal, but you see how one position upgrade turns the Blazers into a solid playoff team. This summer is huge for Cronin and the Blazers.

This article has the Blazers doing a similar deal for Lauri Markkanen (wildly overpaid IMO)

https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/phi ... 7a3f34d8de

I think there is a deal out there and hopefully Cronin finds it.