NLL Insider - Team by Team: Portland Trailblazersby Rootsey, updated on Friday, October 28 2016, 01:34 pm EST  2015-2016 Finish: 16-66 Season Highlight Portland, the city of Roses, proud home to a small parcel of land floating in the middle of the Willamette River, named Waiters Island. Clearly the highlight of the season is the game to game excellence of Dion Waiters. For what he lacked in efficiency he clearly made up for in quantity. While shooting 41% from within the arc and 29% beyond, Dion racked up 22 points a game. You've got to start somewhere and a flat out scorer is a good place to start. Season Lowlight Games 1 through 82 probably werent a fantastic experience for the Blazers last season. They finished the season with the second worst record with 16 wins and 66 losses. It was especially bad if they were stuck playing at home, winning only 5 of the 41. After now two seasons of slippage there is a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon, a massive budget to spend on FA with Waiters taking a home town discount and a number of young players looking to make their mark on the league. Best Trade The Portland Trail Blazers send Channing Frye and Jordan Adams to the Sacramento Kings. The Sacramento Kings send David Lee to the Portland Trail Blazers. Hard one to pick due to djdrew not having a huge amount of assets to send out, meant he was never going to get much back. At the time the trade was lauded with comments such as "Great deal for Portland if this is all that is to it. Drew putting work in" and "I like this for the Blazers. Lee is a baller." Lee has a unique set of skills that he can deploy at a moments notice, he can rebound and get close buckets, handy skills to have on the court. Sending Frye out isn't bad, but a stretch 4 may look like a better fit in the future. Worst Trade The Chicago Bulls send Cartier Martin to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Brandon Rush and Patrick Patterson to the Chicago Bulls. I'm guessing there must have been more to this deal, because what the heck is a Cartier Martin and why is he worth even one tenth of a Patrick Patterson. Brandon Rush is a forgivable throw in due to his recent injury history as at the time of the trade, but 2Pat has legitimate NBA skills which find him on an NBA roster year after year. Other Notable Trades *****Blockbuster Alert***** The Charlotte Hornets send Robert Sacre to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Charlotte Hornets receive 1 GM points. The Portland Trail Blazers trade -1 GM points. Nothing to add The Houston Rockets send Jose Barea to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Shabazz Napier to the Houston Rockets. The Houston Rockets send a 1st-Rounder (Hou) to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send a 2nd-Rounder (Por) and 1st-Rounder (Por) to the Houston Rockets. Roundly critised at the time, and actually still contends for the Worst Trade quite well due to the addition of the Portland 1st Rounder. Trading away 1st rounders for average players seems to be the modus operandi for djdrew, with a repeat performance earlier in our offseason of .... The Boston Celtics send Jarell Martin to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Boston Celtics send a 1st-Rounder (Min), 2nd-Rounder (Bos) and 2nd-Rounder (LAC) to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send a 1st-Rounder (Por) to the Boston Celtics. Jarell Martin is still on an NBA roster...just. Not surprisingly he is still suffering foot issues. At least in the JJ Barea trade djdrew picked up a Houston 1st rounder... The LA Clippers send Frank Kaminsky to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send a 1st-Rounder (Hou) to the LA Clippers O. k. Kaminsky. Jury is still out on how effective a 2k player/NBA player he will be. Benefit of the doubt given for the fact he was actually a first round pick recently. I suppose keeping first round picks is only valuable if you are on time to the draft.... The Portland Trail Blazers send Kris Dunn to the Toronto Raptors. The Toronto Raptors send Jamal Murray to the Charlotte Hornets. The Utah Jazz send Jaylen Brown to the Portland Trail Blazers. Well at least that worked out well in the end for everyone. One more trade of significance... The Chicago Bulls send Brice Johnson to the Portland Trail Blazers. The Portland Trail Blazers send Robin Lopez to the Chicago Bulls. The Chicago Bulls send a 2nd-Rounder (Tor) to the Portland Trail Blazers. Actually could work out well. Like Kaminsky. Time will tell, but at least that starts the season off with young assets a plenty. Best FA Signing Robin Lopez, played well all season for the Blazers, started every game and even netted them a rookie in a future trade. Counts as a win for djdrew Worst FA Signing Sonny Weems. He was supposed to come in from a Euroleague final four in Russia with CSKA Moscow as a mature player who would earn valuable minutes and make a case as a valuable bench piece for a contender. He didn't live up to those expectations and only last 27 games for the Blazers while not quite scoring 2 points a game. Star Dion Waiters, as mentioned above, when the call went out to the team that they needed someone to score buckets. One Man Answered. Surprise Team looks mildly competent to start the season. Now I'm not predicting playoffs, but you run through the list of young fellas on the books and the resemble what could be a team (pending resigning in free agency). Kaminsky and Lee upfront, nice balance for a hi-lo post game. Waiters and Jaylen Brown at the wings. Real life best buddy Ramon Sessions or Terry Rozier at the one spot. Throw is Sam Dekker, Joe Harris, Brice Johnson, Semaj Christon, the aforementioned Jarell Martin and Kyle Singler, you've got a squad of 11th men, but with the potential to grow into their roles. PLus there is the matter of a lazy 60 Million under the salary cap after they resign everyone. Could Dwyane Wade head to the North West? Goat The man who is charged with the duty of convincing djdrew to stop trading away his own 1st rounders. He really dropped the ball, until the team is a mid tier team with potential to grow, why trade a pick away for someone who isn't a top 5 rookie talent? Picking up players who aren't up to that standard, you may as well play the Charlotte and Clippers game of rebuilding through the draft. Draft Report Card I don't care too much how he ended up with Jaylen Brown, but he did and it was the right thing to do. I kinda like the mindset and personality Brown has and believe that with the right tutelage and his existing athleticsm he can be a really good player. Jake Layman has played well enough in preseason to earn himself a contract. He might not see much floor this year or next, but he will earn his next contract in his limited minutes and on the practice court. Looking to the Future Again I have pre-empted myself, this year rides on their success in free agency. If they strike out there, it's going to be another long season. On the upside the young team will get a good run and we will all see a lot of Waiters and Brown. There might be enough to upset the apple cart in the early weeks if the team can gel on the practice floor and get their systems in place before everyone else. Upcoming Free Agents Dion Waiters (RFA) - he'll be back at a discount ready to lead the team in scoring or being a spark plug off the bench if a big name signs. Ramon Sessions (FA) - hard to see him walk away, but he's not worth 99 GMs to keep him. As they say in the classics. If you love someone set them free, if they come back they're yours. If they don't they never were. David Lee (FA) - It would be a shame to see Lee walk out that door, but again the GMs may be better spent on the open market. Joe Harris (FA) - actually put up a good NBA game for Brooklyn the other day, might see a ratings upgrade throughout the season if it continues. |
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