Portland Blazing a trail....MO

[slimcalhoun27 [enjin:6640095]]

I must say, I just moved from Portland a few weeks ago down to Southern Cal once again, but this Summer has been a strong one for the Blazers. Looks like they added one of the best 6th men in the NBA again (Crawford) in Mo Williams to a reasonable contract. When I say reasonable, I mean 5.4- 5.6 million for 2 years.

http://hoopshype.com/rumors/tag/portland_trail_blazers

How does this affect the competition in the conference? And why can the Wolves not seem to sign guys to efficient contracts? (Brewer, Budinger)

Thoughts on Blazers level of competition this season and this new addition.

Lillard, Williams
Matthews, McCollum
Batum, Wright
Aldridge, Robinson
Lopez, Leonard

** underlined equals Summer Additions

[foye2smith [enjin:6593248]]

It's not even close and I think with the Williams acquisition it places them ahead of the Wolves overall. Some playoffs is obviously better than no playoffs for the Wolves considering their drought, but they're going to bust their asses to be an 8th seed.

In no particular order; San Antonio, Memphis, Houston, Los Angeles Clips, Golden State, Oklahoma City will be clearly better than Minnesota

Then like I said Portland with an improved bench I've got ahead of Minnesota so they'll be duking it out with Denver(dependent on Gallo's return), New Orleans, Dallas, and the Lakers (dependent on Kobe's return).

The West is disgusting this upcoming year. Not enough teams riggin' for wiggins this side of the Mississippi.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I'm not on board with those who think Portland had a better offseason than the wolves. Portland has added depth, I agree, but a team that went 33-49 doesn't have the luxury to only add depth. 33-49 means your starters aren't good enough, and you need to seriously upgrade your starting 5 before you start looking at depth. The wolves realized they needed more than depth...they seriously needed an elite 3-point starter, and they got that in spades with Martin. Portland added a gaggle of back-ups who are either in decline (Williams, Wright) or never were or will be (Lopez, Robinson). Those four names are not going to take a team to the second round of the playoffs.

The other offseason move is the draft, and I am on record in other threads that Muhammad/Dieng is a better draft than McCollum. The jury is out on this one as none of the three looked very NBA ready in Vegas, but Portland has to be concerned about CJ's 35% shooting combined with more turnovers than assists.

I think Portland improved 7-8 wins tops, the Wolves closer to 15.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

Portland had a great offseason. They clearly added depth which was their biggest weakness and they didn't have to overpay for it. Long, you dismiss Williams and Wright as in decline, but Williams is 30 the same age as K-Mart and Wright is just 27. They were bargains considering what Portland paid for them. Robin Lopez really started to improve his game last year (he is an efficient scorer and can protect the rim) and he's 25. Robinson has been a disappointment like DW, but he might develop into a quality rotation guy. McCollom, I thought was one of the steals of the draft, and I think he will fit in well next to Lillard.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Please tell me you didn't just compare Mo Williams to Kevin Martin... Yikes. You're also a bit too high on Robin Lopez.

[foye2smith [enjin:6593248]]

Please tell me you didn't just compare Mo Williams to Kevin Martin... Yikes. You're also a bit too high on Robin Lopez.

He compared their ages settle down, He's just saying it's unfair to assume Williams declining if we're going to tout the Martin signing.

Robin Lopez is an absolute upgrade for them considering he's an actual center. I know PER isn't everything but which was ~10th in the league for starting centers and his TS% was ~5th for starting centers. (Depending on who you count as centers. I left Bosh, Aldridge, Monroe, and Lee off while counting) So he can bring most of what Hickson brought on offense but protect the rim too,

[Porckchop]

This is the reason I would trade Love for whatever assets you can get back and build for the future( 2 - 3 yrs from now) With Love gone this team will be in position to get a top 5 pick this coming draft. With a lil luck u might get Wiggins or at worst one of the other top five freshman. Then you got something to work with.. The top teams in this league have a star wing player carrying them every night.. Not a flawed power forward who doesnt play good defense.

This team will be competitive and fun to watch but its not good enough to be a contender and it wont have the money to get the perimeter player needed to become one becuz of Loves contract.

[slimcalhoun27 [enjin:6640095]]

this team is not built for a rebuild. We have invested too much in mid level players, which even with Love gone, we could still be pretty decent. Lottery team but not in the lowest 5. Wiggins would be incredible, but we needed to make moves with Barea, D Will and one of our Lotto picks to get that next high quality starter instead of putzing around and signing dudes for 5 mil. I do like Martin a lot, but feel Portland did a much better job over-all to gain traction with there depth.

[kekgeek]

This is the reason I would trade Love for whatever assets you can get back and build for the future( 2 - 3 yrs from now) With Love gone this team will be in position to get a top 5 pick this coming draft. With a lil luck u might get Wiggins or at worst one of the other top five freshman. Then you got something to work with.. The top teams in this league have a star wing player carrying them every night.. Not a flawed power forward who doesnt play good defense.

This team will be competitive and fun to watch but its not good enough to be a contender and it wont have the money to get the perimeter player needed to become one becuz of Loves contract.

Ya lets trade a top ten player in the NBA, for a chance to get the chance to draft a unknown commodity

[Coolbreeze44]

This is the reason I would trade Love for whatever assets you can get back and build for the future( 2 - 3 yrs from now) With Love gone this team will be in position to get a top 5 pick this coming draft. With a lil luck u might get Wiggins or at worst one of the other top five freshman. Then you got something to work with.. The top teams in this league have a star wing player carrying them every night.. Not a flawed power forward who doesnt play good defense.

This team will be competitive and fun to watch but its not good enough to be a contender and it wont have the money to get the perimeter player needed to become one becuz of Loves contract.

Having Love is not the problem on this team. You trade him and it might take another 10 years to get a true star just like him. You're right that we need a stud wing player, but trading Love for a chance to get one doesn't make sense. At least not right now.