Trading Brown for Dame doesn’t get us closer to being a contender. Only if you could trade for Dame without giving up either of the Jays does this truly move the needle. That said, that’s not happening.
However, where the Blazers are is where this team is looking like it’s headed for in the future: 2 allstar type players (dame/CJ), an impressive role player or 2 (melo/nurkic), a generally weak supporting cast, incredibly entertaining, always a tough out, never really a serious contender.
If we run it back, this is who we’ll be. C’s either need to find a gem or take a risk sooner or later.
Kemba and Smart are significantly better than Melo and post-injury Nurkic, and this team has more often than not progressed to the ECF, rather than getting bounced in the first round more often than not. I think that's a key difference.
Tatum and Brown are significantly less flawed than Lillard and McCollum too. Wings with above average positional size and length who play good defence are more suited to playoff basketball than small guards who are bad defenders. This is the other key difference IMO.
You mean during the time when we had Hayward and/or Horford?
The C’s had so much talent before, that’s undeniable. But between losing Horford for nothing, losing Hayward for nothing, losing Kyrie for nothing and essentially “trading” Rozier for current-day post-injury Kemba... we’ve been hemorrhaging talent.
Not saying those specific 3 guys would’ve been the answer today (or 3yrs from now) but my point is, having that level of talent wins. Underdogs rarely win in the NBA.
Which playoff series wins did Hayward contribute to? I’m not trying to say we’re not in a precarious situation, but I think it would take considerable mismanagement to end up like Portland
The do-nothing is Portland. Is Kemba still going to improve? Is Smart? They’re high level role players at this point. All this talk of run it back, keep the core, ship out Carsen Edwards and Semi for players of equal talent & impact, is headed towards Portland-tier. Maybe we could be better than them, to your point, or a tougher out, but there’s a leap that needs to be taken to go from perennial tough-playoff team vs one of the favorites to win a title.
People are discussing crazy possibilities like Dame or Beal, and that’s great. I’d love either player on the C’s. But we need to keep the Jays while landing those guys. If we can field Dame+Brown+Tatum, that’s a potential championship trio to me. If we give up Brown, then we’re likely incrementally better but aren’t likely one of the favorites (unless Tatum transforms into an MVP talent instead of an All-NBA talent).
The sad truth is, underdogs rarely win a championship in the NBA. They might win a series, but rarely 4 series in a row.