They are a middle of the road shooting team and have been unconscious from three this series. A lot of looks open, but quite a few of them have been heavily guarded too.
2021 NBA playoffs discussion thread
- Thread starter WeAreDePaul
- Start date
They can’t contain Doncic at all, on a scoring or playmaking level. They’ve put at least five or six different players on him, but he controls tempo. No one on LAC controls tempo really.
So bad. They’d be better off paying me $50 to take one shot per quarter and then use all the savings on players who can actually make an impact in the playoffs.
He’s been the other killer besides Luka. Clearly their second best player.
They do kind of get shafted by the refs a lot. Always will as long as Cuban owns the team I think.
Harden makes every around him better and he's very efficient. People forget the Nets were underachieving before the Harden trade and went on a major run after the trade. And they did much of that without KD. There's no doubt they would have been a better defensive team with Allen and LaVert but they are now so good offensively, I'm not sure it matters. Despite being a fan of Allen and LaVert, I think it's clear that the Nets are better off for 20-21 after the trade.
As for the Blazers, I think Dame is forcing ownership to make some changes. Stotts is out, Olshey will probably be out soon. Dame seems to want Jason Kidd but I think D'Antoni would be a better choice.
Blazers have two options IMO:
1) Shop CJ and Nurkic and see what you can get in return for him. Ideally you could offer some combo of CJ, Nurkic, and Collins for a guy like Siakam. Not sure the Raptors would go for that but that's the kind of players the Blazers should be looking for.
2) See what teams will offer for Dame. I know Blazer fans don't want to hear this but Dame obviously has more value than CJ or Nurkic. If teams wanted to add Lillard, I would be willing to see what they have to say. They have to be offering the Blazers a lot, however.
Good stuff. If I were running the blazers I’d move on from CJ, Nurkic, Collins, Little, and Simons. Gotta surround Dame with 4 plus defenders, and ideally one of them is an elite defender.
A CJ/Dame backcourt just isn’t ever gonna be an NBA finals backcourt.
I agree. The tricky part for the Blazers is you can't really rebuild right now unless you deal Lillard. I think most Blazers fans are ready to move on from those guys that you listed. The big issue is what they can get in return for them.
I'm not convinced the Blazers are going to get enough in return for those guys to really help the Blazers get to the next level. That's why I'm more willing to entertain trading Dame, you may get someone to overpay in order to get Dame.
Dame puts butts in the seats. Which is critical if you are gonna pay the luxury tax, especially in a small market.
They need to get picks. The draft pick situation is not good for Portland. Even getting a couple seconds that could be packaged to move into the first would be okay.
Dame is what, 30? Being a leader of an organization requires tough choices and multi-year vision. I don’t care if it’s the non-profit I work at or the New York Yankees. Gotta have multi-year visions and benchmarks along the way.
So you keep Dame and sacrifice the rest. You get some guys who have very specific roles. Like RoCo, that was a solid add. Give Powell one more year to build chemistry with Dame. Bring in someone like Jae Crowder. And then get picks. Honestly, missing the playoffs next year wouldn’t be bad. Imagine if Portland had been able to add a Devin Vassell or Tyrese Haliburton last year.
Get a lotto pick next year. Add a couple extra picks via trades. Allow Powell and RoCo to grow into roles. And get creative with some versatile veterans.
I’ll tell you one guy in the second round who would be a fantastic fit for Portland. RaiQuan Gray. Elite basketball IQ and multi-position defender. 6’8 and 260, so big enough to bang with guys like Draymond or JayMichael Green. But quick enough to defend someone like Michael Porter if he needed to on the perimeter for some possessions. And on top of that, he is a good playmaker who doesn’t need to dominate the ball to have an impact. He can’t shoot threes but with RoCo, Powell, and Dame you don’t need that.
Portland will never be a championship team in this current landscape of superstars joining forces to play in big city markets. They might make moves to get out of the first round but when 3 of the top 10 players in the world play for the nets and 2 play for the lakers etc irs gonna be tough sledding for a franchise like Portland imo.
hopefully Utah or Milwakee proves me wrong right off the bat, but im not bettin on it.
hopefully Utah or Milwakee proves me wrong right off the bat, but im not bettin on it.
It really comes down to Dame's vision. Is he willing to stick with the Blazers, even if that means trading some guys for draft picks? My gut tells me no. He's in his prime and wants to win now. I don't think there are any obvious moves that help the Blazers win now.
I don't buy that. Portland's problems are 100% self inflicted. They've made a lot of bad decisions. Utah had the best record in the NBA and I believe that's the smallest NBA market.
Best regular season record doesnt put rings on your fingers though. Id love to be wrong, bc the jazz are my squad. They also got super lucky that Mitchell turned out to be a stud in the middle of the first round. The nba draft is such a crap shoot outside the top few “cant miss” guys, who also sometimes bust out.
what did portland do self inflicted? Jist who they drafted? They got dame who was a steal and since then theyve been just good enough to get a mediocre draft pick every year, not good enough to make serious noise in the playoffs, but not bad wnough to get a high pick. They are kinda stuck, and unless they can somehow get another legit superstar to portland to play with dame, i dont see that changing anytime soon.
but dont get me wrong i have no problem with portland, and love Dame, im just not seeing any easy solution that would make them contenders.
Over the last 5 years Portland has given out a lot of bad contracts and has let undervalued guys walk
I think he would be good with it if a true vision was laid out. Not sure that’s been done. They’ve just been treading water for so long.
Ehh. 2 of the 3 Nets stars can’t even play 50 games. Every year that goes by, guys like Durant and Kyrie get less and less durable, and less and less impactful. Also, Kyrie isn’t a top 10 player. Let’s be realistic. He’s somewhere between 15 and 25.
Same for Lakers. That window is closing rapidly.
I’m not sure how patient Dame would be with that. Especially if they take a step back next season
Despite all that the Lakers won the title last year and the Nets are the favorites in Vegas to win this year
Sure. But the post I was responding to was saying those teams are gonna rule the roost for years to come. I just don’t believe that.
Luka is gonna be the best player in the world within 36 months. Maybe 24-30 months. And the best players in the world typically end up with at least one title.
And OKC is gonna be real interesting to follow with all their draft picks.
I get that. But most championship teams do it by getting 2/3 star players on one team and they almost never drafted all those players. The successful teams are the ones who have the assets when a star player wants to be traded IMO
Lakers had them when they traded for Davis. Nets had them when they traded for Harden
I can see what you’re saying. The Warriors won one with 3 star players they drafted, and I think Dallas with Dirk was at least sort of a drafted team. But yes you’re right.
But the counter point is that the assets used to bring in a guy like Harden or Kawhi (for Toronto) or Chris Paul for the Suns (if they win the title) were drafted. So even if the players were not drafted, it was the draft assets that brought in the title piece.
I agree with your counter point. I probably wasn’t clear but hitting on your draft picks is the first step. They give you the assets you need to trade for a big time star.
I think the winner of this series is a sizable favorite to win the NBA championship. Absolutely huge series.
Well if you are right about the Nets, they won't be able to defeat the Bucks. I guess we'll find out in the next few weeks.
Rooting for a Hawks-Mavs final-Battle of the 18 draft picks (Luka & Trae), plus Hawks have Hueter and Bruno on the team..
I guess you can count Bruno as being on the team. But, there's a reason he is known as Bruno Fvcking Fernando in my house and it ain't because he has an active sex life.
Sans toronto whens the last time a team won with just one star? I get that we are nitpicking top 10-15-20 they are all stars. Does curry with only klay and draymond count? Maybe?
Besides those 2, the last decade has been dominated by teams with multiple superstars, ever since Lebrons decision to go jump on wades team.
i would love to be wrong but thats just how ive seen the nba for a while now. There was a 3-4 year period where you knew who was gonna be in the finals before the season ever started.
Toronto as you mentioned. Curry pre-Durant. Dallas with Dirk. Arguably the last Lakers title.
Going back further, the Pistons for sure.
was dirk this decade. They would def count. So 3/10? And the other 7 years you pretty mich knew who was gonna be in the finals before the season started. Esp from the east, cleveland with lebron or heat with lebron. Then there was the what 3-4 straight years of gsw in the west.
I just like parity and an even playing field. And the way it is now the big markets have a seemingly insurmountable advantage.
I just like parity and an even playing field. And the way it is now the big markets have a seemingly insurmountable advantage.
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