Fresh off a series sweep at the hands of the Pelicans, the Blazers are looking ahead to an offseason of uncertainty. Many have already suggested that the backcourt pairing of Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum need to be broken up since it represents the team’s best option to improve. However, Lillard doesn’t see it like that.
“I don’t agree with it,” Lillard said breaking up the Blazers’ backcourt (via Ashish Mathur of Pro Hoops Digest). “I think it’s that simple. I think it’s the easiest thing to say. I don’t agree with it, though. I’m not the guy making decisions.”
The point guard went on to call the Blazers “a great organization” while giving praise to his team and coach Terry Stotts, who reportedly may be on his way out of Portland. “I think everyone has done a great job. Coach Stotts has done a great job since Day 1. We’ve been in the playoffs five years straight.”
The Blazers unexpectedly captured the third seed in a loaded Western Conference with a record of 49-33. Despite the success in the regular season, Lillard understands that adjustment
I agree. Coach stays and give that world-class backcourt another shot at it.
Do you keep nurkic? He’ll be expensive. Gotta dump turner somehow.
Collins and Plumlee are fine. Let Nurkic walk, I think.
Turner is going to be tough to trade with that contract. There’s just that group of guys that sign those four-year deals two summers ago that are overpaid there’s like 10-15 of them and if they just got lucky with the timing of the salary cap increase.
But he’s a pretty good player. He doesn’t hurt you, it does a lot of things pretty well, and he’s a good teammate. He’s just not the star you need on the wing to compete in the West. But he’s a good player Off the Bench albeit over paid. Just a pill you got to swallow.
Plumlee isn’t on the team. He got traded for Nurkic and a 1st last year. When you’re a 3 point shooting team that moves the ball decently well, Evan Turner DOES hurt your team by not being able to hit the 3 consistently, giving you worse spacing, and the fact that he’s the only ball handler outside of Dame, CJ, and Shabazz, and that most of those posessions end in mid range fade away bricks doesn’t help either. It’s more of a dead end for Portland than you think. It’s not going to be easy to fix this at all. Even it you trade CJ, he’s set to make like $25 million a year next year. There are very few teams that can give us the young players AND salary relief we would need in a trade for him. And there’s no way to trade Leonard or Turner, so the problem would still remain even after trading Dame or CJ.
i think they should find a way to get marc gasol or cousins. keep the backcourt for atleast another year… they were the 3 seed this year.
Cousins or Gasol when they can’t afford Nurkic?
But there are going to be centers available for less money than in the past. Nurkic might be one of them.
The situation is not horrible because the weakest position is center. Sure they need a wing but so do the Pelicans!
Are you a Blazer fan, what would you do with that roster coach Etc?
Both them dudes got locked down, they both are not athletic and when you throw more athletic wings at them like a Holiday they shrink. Rondo is not at his athletic peak but is as savvy as it gets on defense, the only way you keep CJ and Lillard together is if you bring in an all-star big or develop Zach into that stretch big down low. If they re-sign Nurkic that will
Be the biggest mistake ever, not worth it and way too inconsistent.
Yes I agree with that pretty much but I think you got to give that back court One More Shot. 3 seed in the west is a big accomplishment and worthy of one more try. Let the big fella walk away in free agency don’t match the contract and find an awesome wing.
3 seed in the West but it took Lillard playing at an all time high. Lillard is a great player but there’s no way he’s ever getting out of the West with that team. They need to hope Zach takes a step next season and maybe bring in DeAndre.
DeAndre? Isn’t the game going away from one-dimensional big guys? You need a awesome Wing man to compete in the West.
I don’t know who you can get it who’s out there but that’s why I’m not the GM
Michael Porter Jr
Wizzards 2.0
Put together a CJ package for Kawhi…