This topic contains 7 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by AvatarAvatar tblazer_NZ 7 years, 3 months ago.

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  • #65366
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    DolanCare
    Participant

    Portland’s magic of last year has not quite transfered to this season. Their record is 12-12, not the end of the world on paper, but they don’t look great on the court. Their only impressive win was against Chicago. 

    Blatant Issues: Crabbe and Turner have dissappointments. 

    Other Problems: Aminu and Davis have dropped off since last year, especially on offense. 

    Like I said, it’s not the end of the world. But I would make a trade if I was Olshey. CJ Mccollum seems like the best piece to move if they can accommodate his back loaded contract. CJ is a valued NBA player who essentially does the same things as Lillard.

    Thoughts? Should they stay with this group, or should they break up the band to fortify the frontcourt? 

     

     

     

     

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  • #1089320
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    Jr. ROXAS
    Participant

    Their front office made some very, very questionable moves this offseason. They paid Meyers Leonard who plays like 15 mins a game like 44 million for 4 years I think.

    Then they matched the massive offer sheet for Crabbe when they already signed Evan Turner. And then they paid Ezeli 16 mil for 2 years even if they have a stockpile of bigmen already.

    So that’s almost 200 million (!!) committed to Turner, Leonard, Crabbe and Ezeli. All bench players. I believe they also have like the 3rd highest payroll in the entire NBA because of that. Crazy.

     

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  • #1089323
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    BleedGreen808
    Participant

     I became a fan of Turner while watching him the last couple of years in Boston.  However I neve liked the deal he got from Portland.  They locked him into a huge 4yr/70mil contract along with big deals for Dame and CJ(which they are obviously worth).  Then you add on the Crabbe contract and ton of their cap space is taken up by those 4 players with Turner and Crabbe not living up the size of their contracts.  

    The Blazers talked about Turner being a good fit for them but I don’t see it.  In Boston he had a big role as the secondary ball handler.  Last season Brad Stevens needed IT or Turner to create or Boston’s offense would struggle.  Stevens trusted Turner and allowed him to do his thing letting him play through mistakes.  He did a lot of good with creating for himself and setting up others.  However in Portland it just doesn’t make sense to take the ball out of the hands of Lillard and CJ for long periods of time to let Turner play like he did in Boston.  Then there is the issue of his poor 3pt shot which makes it hard to have him off the ball from Lillard and CJ.  Teams should and do sag off of him reducing the spacing for driving lanes.  

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  • #1089325
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    Andv1 Waiting
    Participant

    The trail blazers were just to active in Free agency making them their own worst enemy.

    So this what the Trail blazers did right in the offseason:

    Re-up C.J -That is the biggest no brainer he is a key part or a valuable trade asset if you ever want to move  on from him.

    The maybe not so great moves: 

    75 mill for Allen Crabbe is a over pay but on the positive he is a two way player so I can sort of see why they did want to keep him. Just needs to be more consistent on the scoring end.. 

    Meyers leonard-44 mill for a young stretch 4 is not bad move considering Ryan Anderson is getting paid  80 mill. I kind of see Myers being like a Ryan Anderson type player but 44 mill for a guy who has just came off a significant injury is not the greatest move though…

    The Bad moves:

    Festus E: Has had an injury history(before he even signed new deal),hasn’t played a game yet Neil O signed this guy for 16 mill over 2 years..Heres hoping they can claim insurance on his deal :S

    Evan shouldn’t have ever been paid 75 million Turner.. There are two teams that have been able to maybe use him properly Philly with Brett brown(I think that is who coached them when he played ok) and Boston with Brad Stevens…Boston was the team that finally made full use of his skill set properly as a Player that is a team you sometimes should stay on.. But I guess money talks lol.

    The Last offseason for the Trailblazers should have gone more like this:

    Re up-C.J 

    Re up Crabbe on a cheaper deal-Maybe 50-65 mill price range. Before it even got to an offer from the nets.

    Re up Meyers for  35-40 mill.

    Not Sign Evan or Festus and save their cap for smarter moves this coming offseason.

    For example they could have gone after any of the following players this coming offseason instead of Evan and Festus:

    Paul millsap could maybe be alright beside Mason.

    Blake griffin(If opts out)

    Jrue holiday for reasonable price

    Gordan Hayward(if opts out)

    Danillo Gallinari(If opts out) 

    Otto P(rfa)

    Andrew Bogut for resonable price

    Serge Ibaka-maybe on reasonable a 2-3 year deal though. 

    They could re up Mason Plumlee

     

     

      

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  • #1089347
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    SeattleSuperChronics
    Participant

     The only way Portland can become a relevant title threat is to build through the draft. Not by being in 500 purgatory. 

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  • #1089349
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    Hitster
    Participant

    Portland after LMA left looked as if they were going to regroup and rebuild around Lillard and McCollum. Various players were traded or moved on and new guys were added. Last year they did much better than expected and suddenly were still a play off team. But don’t forget they were 44-38 last year so being 12-12 this season isn’t far off it although a lot of us hoped they would kick on more.

    Myers Leonard for a young skilled big is on a fairly decent deal IMO. But Crabbe and Turner taking up well over $30 million combined a year as bench guys are both overpaid. Turner was let go by Philly and didn’t really improve much at Boston so was lucky to get a deal that size but matching Crabbe’s deal too was salary cap suicide by Portland.

    If they wanted to keep Crabbe then they could have used Turner’s salary elsewhere in FA and if they were intending to match any offer for Crabbe then why sign Turner too.

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  • #1089355
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    Biggysmalls
    Participant

     Portland seemed like one of those teams that really surprised people last year, but it might’ve been a bit of a house of cards. They’ve got a few good players and then a lot of guys who had career years. That plus some injury misfortune for the Clippers put them in the conference semis and all of a sudden it went from a team that was rebuilding to a team in the final 8. 

    It seems like they bought into that success a little too much and locked themselves into this roster. I don’t believe they’ve got much flexibility in terms of adding outside help anymore because they’ve reupped all their guys – someone with better cap knowledge can either validate or rebut that – and some of those guys have now come back to the mean and they don’t look as good.

    Lillard is as good as it gets, so they won’t be awful. But I don’t think Portland was ever a top 3-5 team in the West. 

     

     

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  • #1089368
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    tblazer_NZ
    Participant

    Portland needed an inside presence and whiffed so badly on that. Paid 41m to Leonard coming off another injury shoulder (bad injury for a jump shooter). 

     

    I was happy for 5 minutes when I knew Memphis got Chandler but that changed when Portland got Turner and that terrible 70m/4 year deal. 

     

    They are like Phoenix from a few years back, accidentally too good in a rebuilding year and now are mediocre. I won’t judge the Festus deal yet. I wanted Portland to let Brooklyn have Crabbe and just get a lesser known guy. Should have kept Henderson as he was a good defender who was able to hit the corner 3 and post up from the 2 spot like Wes Matthews used to do.

     

     Had we got Hassan Whiteside this would be a fifth seed team. Would love to even have and older guy like Randolph as there is no toughness on this team. I wanted Portland to get Leandro Barbosa as a back up guard with Championship experience, now he is with Phoenix not earning much.

     

    Nikola Vucevic would be good here as he is good on the boards and has an offensive game. 

     

     

     

     

     

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