Minnesota Sports Forum

Is Pek better than Chandler individually? Yes, but Chandler makes his 4 other teammates on the floor with him better on the defensive end and Pek does not. Pek doesn't have that same impact. He is a solid player, but he doesn't make anyone better on the defensive end like Chandler. I would rather have the guy who makes his teammates better than the guy who is better overall, but doesn't make his teammates better just by being on the floor. Ricky's value is in making his teammates better. Love's is by being a great individual player. Most of you talk like Ricky is the guy we should covet more because of that attribute, but when I bring it up in a player like Chandler, you say you would rather have the better player.

Riverside_Viking wrote:Thank you Camden it's nice to see so done has common sense.

Now for Aldridge I honestly if the blazers offered him straight up for Love I would probably take that, Aldridge again has the higher PER and would fit with Rubio and Pek a lot better than Love., and Love doesn't seem overly excited about being here. Aldridge is also the better defender and just as good of a scorer the only thing we take a hit at is rebounds.

Oh my god... you would trade Love straight up for Aldridge, but not Pek for Chandler? This is prepostrous. You say blocks are everything on team defense, and Pek is a great man defender so Chandler is not defensively better. Yes Pek is a competent man defender, but he is a poor team defender. No let me rephrase, he is a good pick and roll defender and man defender, but he will never do anything to help if a defender gets by a player. With Ricky going for steals, Kevin Martin being a pretty poor defender, Brewer running around going for deflections, and Kevin Love getting out of place for rebounds, an elite help defender would be amazing.

Honestly, Pek is a good center, but Chandler is pretty damn good himself. He is a tall player with a nice wingspan, and is a great athlete. It just makes a ton of sense. Plus, with Ricky he would average 12 points a game easy. Plus, we would be making a rival worse because it would be Pek and DWill for LA to the Knicks. Pek wouldn't be as good without Ricky, so Portland would become worse making it easier to make it to the playoffs. I just don't get why this trade doesn't make sense.

Camden...I live in Portland....the Blazer Fans are much better then Wolves fans. This team simply sells out every game...no matter the record or team performance. True the Wolves have a better roster and Coach, but the Fans in Portland have incredible fans, both for the Blaze and Timbers Soccer.

Jakapoo -- Yes, Ricky makes his team better and we value that. But that's also a much different case in that he's 23 and is NOT a finished product, meaning he still has upside. Chandler has zero upside and is more likely to get worse than he is get better. Pekovic can get better. Chandler can not. He's tapped out. It makes no sense to me to trade Pek for Chandler in these circumstances. If this was when Chandler had just won a ring with Dallas, I might think about it, but I'm still not even 100% sure that I'd pull the trigger.

With your description of how our defense will be, hell we won't win a game next year. You made it sound like every one of Sota's players are flat out horrendous and every opposing player can get past them with ease. "Ricky going for steals" , "Brewer running around going for deflections" , come on man. Neither one of those guys play their defense to the point you made it sound like. Two pretty above average to good defenders and you made it sound like they're on the court running around like idiots.

Could our defense be better? Of course. But you have to look down the road. Trading Pek for Chandler isn't the best move for the future, and I don't believe it's even good for the now, but it's debatable I guess.

Camden wrote:Jakapoo -- Yes, Ricky makes his team better and we value that. But that's also a much different case in that he's 23 and is NOT a finished product, meaning he still has upside. Chandler has zero upside and is more likely to get worse than he is get better. Pekovic can get better. Chandler can not. He's tapped out. It makes no sense to me to trade Pek for Chandler in these circumstances. If this was when Chandler had just won a ring with Dallas, I might think about it, but I'm still not even 100% sure that I'd pull the trigger.

With your description of how our defense will be, hell we won't win a game next year. You made it sound like every one of Sota's players are flat out horrendous and every opposing player can get past them with ease. "Ricky going for steals" , "Brewer running around going for deflections" , come on man. Neither one of those guys play their defense to the point you made it sound like. Two pretty above average to good defenders and you made it sound like they're on the court running around like idiots.

Could our defense be better? Of course. But you have to look down the road. Trading Pek for Chandler isn't the best move for the future, and I don't believe it's even good for the now, but it's debatable I guess.

Ah, my wording was off. I meant Ricky and Brewer going every once in a while. Behind Conley Ricky is the best defender at his position in my opinion. He is this because at times he makes gambles (as does Brewer who is pretty good) and when the gambles do not pay off, a help defender is very valuable. I just believe that Chandler is a perfect fit. The only thing that actually makes me not do it now that I have thought about it (Captain Backtrack, haha) is that Chandler is one major injury from being nothing. That actually scares me a lot now that I think about it. If Chandler didn't have injury problems which I had not looked at before, I would do it easy.

Jakapoo wrote:

Riverside_Viking wrote:Thank you Camden it's nice to see so done has common sense.

Now for Aldridge I honestly if the blazers offered him straight up for Love I would probably take that, Aldridge again has the higher PER and would fit with Rubio and Pek a lot better than Love., and Love doesn't seem overly excited about being here. Aldridge is also the better defender and just as good of a scorer the only thing we take a hit at is rebounds.

Oh my god... you would trade Love straight up for Aldridge, but not Pek for Chandler? This is prepostrous. You say blocks are everything on team defense, and Pek is a great man defender so Chandler is not defensively better. Yes Pek is a competent man defender, but he is a poor team defender. No let me rephrase, he is a good pick and roll defender and man defender, but he will never do anything to help if a defender gets by a player. With Ricky going for steals, Kevin Martin being a pretty poor defender, Brewer running around going for deflections, and Kevin Love getting out of place for rebounds, an elite help defender would be amazing.

Honestly, Pek is a good center, but Chandler is pretty damn good himself. He is a tall player with a nice wingspan, and is a great athlete. It just makes a ton of sense. Plus, with Ricky he would average 12 points a game easy. Plus, we would be making a rival worse because it would be Pek and DWill for LA to the Knicks. Pek wouldn't be as good without Ricky, so Portland would become worse making it easier to make it to the playoffs. I just don't get why this trade doesn't make sense.

Tell me how picking Aldridge over love is like picking Pek over Chandler cause the metric stats like PER tell me that Aldridge was a better more efficient player than Love last season and the same goes for Pek being better than Chandler. Aldridge had a PER in the 20s and Love had a PER of 18. ( Pek had a per of 20 and chandler had a per of 18 btw) plus Alridge I think would be the better fit for the team while being the more efficient player. So tell me how trading for Aldridge would be rediculous again.

Chandler won't make us better. In fact, if we did do the pek+ dw for chandler then that leave us with only love and Martin as scorers. The improvement in defense wont be more significant than what we lose on offense. Also, Pek may not be a rim protector but he is a pretty good positional defender.

You also consider that pek wins his matchup on most nights, he can make good defensive centers look mediocre or put them in foul trouble. Him and love together gives opposing bigs trouble. We saw how hibbert dominated against the Knicks in the playoffs because chandler was not a threat on offense. Pek being there makes it easier for love and harder for opposing bigs.

Love played 18 games last year with a broken hand and was still only 3 points behind LA in PER when Love TS% was bad because of the hand. You have to reach pretty hard to say LA is better than Love because of last year. Love was 3 points better in PER 2 and 3 years ago and by 2 the year before that. Talk about cherry picking to make your argument look good when it is the worst comparison of a four year stretch in which the better player was injured in the year you are comparing him. Love is a better fit for the simple reason that he can stretch the floor to the 3 point line and LA cannot. When you have a PG who can't shoot, it makes it even more important that everyone else be able to stretch the floor and 24 ft gives Ricky a lot more room to work with than 15.

PER has nothing to do with games played, in the 18 games last year love didn't play as good as Aldridge did.

Riverside_Viking wrote:PER has nothing to do with games played, in the 18 games last year love didn't play as good as Aldridge did.

Obviously. He only had a fractured hand, and was rusty as hell. Man what a bum compared to a guy who played the whole season healthy. The fact that he is losing by two PER points is a disgrace. Trade his ass.