尽管达米安-利拉德最近的表现令人震惊，一个接一个，我向你保证，如果没有他们的板凳的贡献，开拓者不会在第三种子。Dame和CJ都是非凡的篮球运动员，但是我们去年都看到了，他们比Nurk和Chief需要更多的帮助。戴维斯受伤,纳皮尔表现不佳时,开拓者成为最大的失望2016 - 17个NBA赛季,尽管里沃德和McCollum职业生涯最好的赛季,波特兰41只赢得了游戏和刚刚溜进了季后赛之前被配音。我们需要我们的板凳。这个赛季，艾德在波特兰打得很好，他是我们在防守上取得惊人飞跃的决定性因素。当他受伤的时候，Shabazz能够顶替Dame，目前正在享受他职业生涯中最好的赛季。他可以通过他无与伦比的速度和速度得分，这也使他成为一个伟大的防守者。即使西部联盟从3号种子到10号种子的竞争比以往任何时候都要激烈，波特兰仍然有可能取得50胜甚至是50胜的战绩，而我们上个赛季拥有的几乎是同一支球队。即使这意味着要多给两家公司一些钱，奥尔希也必须明白，没有他们，我们就不能成为一个竞争者。由于我们糟糕的薪水，我们可能无法在这个休赛期签下任何大牌自由球员，但我们必须接受这一点。 We made a mistake, let’s move on. Now, do I think we’re a contender with this squad we’re running right now? No. Defiantly not. Meaning us Blazer fans must be prepared for a big decision come July. We can’t head into next season with the same team. We will never beat the Warriors or the Rockets, but we are a good team, meaning we won’t land a good draft pick. Now, Dame is 27 and CJ is 25, so they still have a few more years in their prime. Zach Collins has really impressed me this season, and I believe he can be a great player. The problem is, how long will it take for Zach to reach his full potential? Lillard and McCollum aren’t going to stick around if we continue to run he same team every season, and even with Collins at his full potential, can we really contend for a championship with teams like Minnesota and LA on the rise? So it really comes down to getting rid of our bad contracts such as Turner or Harkless. Both of them are important parts to our team, and are solid players, but definitely not worth the money. If we can somehow get rid of them and clear up enough cap space to sign a star player and re-sign Davis and Napier, then we’re set. There will be injuries. There will be upsets. And if we can bring in a star forward like Aaron Gordon or whoever it might be, we don’t really need to re-sign Nurkic. Is it really worrh throwing another huge contract at a player we may not need come next season depending on who we sign? Jusuf is a good player, and, if you can believe me, is only 23 years old. He is restricted as well.