2021-22 NBA "REGULAR" SEASON THREAD

Knicks fans got to watch the mvp cook, that’s a fine afternoon

4 of charlotte’s 9 main rotation players are in health and safety protocols for awhile, seems bad

love to feel healthy and safe

what is a protocol anyway

if this, then this, until this

Oof

Chauncey Billups: "I've never seen a team that needs its bench to inspire our starters. That shit is crazy to me. It's supposed to be the other way around."

— Sean Highkin (@highkin) December 5, 2021

that whole team getting traded, chauncey getting fired, oregon antifa needs to occupy ths team imo

otm

srsly, what is the best case scenario for this team? dame regresses to his mean and they claw their way to the 6 seed and then they get spanked in the first round? and they do this until dame cant walk anymore?

they tried like 8 times with this core and couldn't get over the hump of being a mid-seed team, at some point you have to assume thats the ceiling and stop spending resources prolonging it

obviously i am worried the celtics are entering the same spot now

blazers bottom five defense three years running

celtics wont have that at least

i kinda understood holding out and not trading dame for simmons assuming he'd still be That Guy but he might not be That Guy anymore and hes gonna get paid like $50M in 24-25 fuckin woof

if you’re trading dame idk why you’d choose simmons over the more recently popular package of “every draft pick you have.” might as well trade CJ too and just tear it down. you could keep CJ, get maxey and simmons and prob still make the play in game and maybe even win a game given how mediocre the west is this year but it certainly isn’t changing your ceiling and is prob only prolonging the inevitable full rebuild. i guess it comes down to whether ownership is ready to swallow 4 years of being really bad.

i guess it all comes down to what dame wants and what he thinks of the team. they’re only 2.5 games out of the 4 seed. it’s a really down year for the conference. but the advancing beyond round 2 seems impossible in even the best case scenarios

in my mind its dame for simmons+all the picks, but point taken

philly cannot be allowed to get him

and yeah theres prob a better trade out there anyway

the major question is whether portland lets dame choose his next team or whether they just take the best offer

It’s pretty difficult to come up with a Dame trade

No, here it is:

in my mind its dame for simmons+all the picks, but point taken

― class project pat (m bison), Sunday, December 5, 2021 11:55 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://i.imgur.com/XES0S6I.png

We're all good with Tony Snells, thanks.

Still think the Blazers would move CJ before dame unless dame has made trade demands behind the scene

As long as Dame wants to stay a blazer, no GM could get away with trading him for anything less than a proven MVP.

did you see tony snells numbers last year? i think they're getting a proven mvp

As long as Dame wants to stay a blazer, no GM could get away with trading him for anything less than a proven MVP.

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Sunday, December 5, 2021 2:21 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is understandable and also wrong. they cant build a strong team around him, CJ is not a strong enough trade chip to meaningfully pivot with dame. they should trade both.

As long as Dame wants to stay a blazer, no GM could get away with trading him for anything less than a proven MVP.

lmao

they should burn it all down obv, a complication to all this is ownership probably wants to sell in the coming years and it’s harder to max profit when you’re selling a routine basement dweller in an untrafficked corner of the country that lacks stars or pizzazz, but could be the richies are more savvy to how rebuilds these days

a GM needs to please the fan base. presumably the imperative to drive deep into the payoffs is fan-driven, but if keeping dame for the next few years means more to the fans than diving straight into a rebuild that might possibly achieve more playoff success three or four years out from now, then the fans should get to see dame in pdx and postpone the rebuild.

caving to sentimentality is possibly the worst instinct an executive could have in this situation. Mob rule also not good!

If the Sixers like Lillard for '22-23 then buying him while he's injured is a good opportunity. But I have serious doubts about his viability for this season.

you can call it mob rule, but you need to keep your fans happy and engaged, buying tickets and merchandise. plus, the fan numbers are what the advertisers care about. alienating your fans immediately undercuts your team's revenue from any source apart from the league television contract. pdx fans seem pretty tolerant of poor playoff performance, but they love dame.

they could trade cj and nurk and tank while keeping dame. he's not going to move the needle that much

I thought for sure they were going to trade nurk last offseason

pretty sure nothing significant is going to happen with a front office on fire, and an interim gm and president

clay is there a local angle on jody allen? i can't tell if she's planning on selling the team or not.

well the front office has, since paul allen's death, been very insistent that the team is not for sale they and are thinking long-term about developing a winning franchise, but it's a bit of a thou doth protest too much situation (what other franchise is constantly like "NO!!! WE'RE NOT FOR SALE AT ALL!!!!" in the local press without being low key for sale). They're also penny pinching in pretty ugly ways, and basically everyone in portland believes the team will be sold in the near-future.

since jody's takeover they've publicly and nastily dug around to fire a long-term GM (not without warrant) who may have been a detriment to a sale, the long-term president left outta nowhere to find other work, and they've turned over dozens upon dozens of front office staff behind the scenes (some of it covid-related, most of it using covid as an excuse to find younger, cheaper folks). it has been ugly and jody has been nowhere to be seen. i don't think she's done a press conference? or even an interview? or at least she hasn't since her very early days as owner.

my feeling has been they plan sell and are waiting for the likely 2-team nba expansion in a few years that will be a free couple hundred million cash to ownership. they'll do everything they can to keep marquee names around until then, when new management will presumably strip the team for parts a few years after the expiration date.

rip city, baby!

If clay's vision of the blazer's future comes to pass, the team will move to another city within 5 years after it's sold. And I won't care, because you can't do that and keep your fans.

fans are pretty malleable, bro and they tend to have short memories for anything but glory and beef

More fools they.

anyone who sat through the interminable jailblazer years but throws in the towel because management gave up on a perennial 6-8 seed is wildin frankly

My allegiance to the jailblazers weakened all through the late 1990s and I had mostly stopped following them in 2000. I didn't even watch the infamous WCF game 7 meltdown. Brandon Roy lured me back in 2007.

32 points on 11-15 FG, 4-6 3PT and 6-6 FT from miles bridges tonight to beat the hawks in ATL tonight w/ half the team out bcuz of covid

shams will prob have all the details by EOD

― lag∞n, Friday, December 3, 2021 1:14 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Dozens of coaches, front office members and team staffers were interviewed as part of the probe — Blazers players were given an opportunity to speak with investigators but all of them declined. The firm concluded Olshey often confronted staffers and cursed toward them, sources said. According to individuals with knowledge of the probe, Olshey allegedly made an inappropriate comment toward a female staff member, which was cited during the investigation.

Olshey earned a reputation for his temper during his 10 seasons in Portland, often privately disparaging co-workers. Staffers described Olshey as abrasive and controlling. Olshey had two more years on his contract worth upwards of $20 million total. One source said the Blazers believe they had cause to fire Olshey, which voided his contract. Olshey may challenge that stance.

https://theathletic.com/2999270/2021/12/06/inside-the-trail-blazers-firing-of-gm-neil-olshey-and-what-comes-next-with-franchise-cornerstone-damian-lillard/

Multiple sources have told The Athletic that Lillard would like to play with Philadelphia 76ers three-time All-Star Ben Simmons. The Trail Blazers’ league-worst defense would instantly improve, and sharing a backcourt with a non-shooter could work given Lillard’s high-volume usage.

Sources say the Trail Blazers, under Olshey, discussed the framework of a trade for Simmons, moving CJ McCollum, a first-round draft pick and a young player such as Nassir Little or Anfernee Simons to Philadelphia. The 76ers, sources said, at one point asked the Trail Blazers for McCollum and multiple draft picks and multiple draft swaps, which Portland rejected. Olshey maintained significant confidence in the roster he constructed. Now, it’s unclear if there’s a deal to be had with the 76ers. But with Olshey out, who among chair Jody Allen, vice chair Bert Kolde and Cronin would be the one making the call on a Simmons trade or any acquisition designed to alleviate Lillard’s concerns?

seems like a cj for simmons trade could still happen

so scratching around for an excuse to fire olshey was more penny pinching

and a sub par gm gets paid 10m pa?? far out

with curry and maxey playing well i'm not sure why cj would be all that appealing to the sixers.

so scratching around for an excuse to fire olshey was more penny pinching