Finders Keepers

His potential exceeds his paycheck. Low risk, high reward.

If LMA , Greg, and/or Joel go down, he’s a great insurance policy. Good chemistry guy and loves stumptown. I was tempted to say Joel (and could kind of go either way due to his work ethic and defensive toughness), but I see Channing as a little more versitile. Also, if LMA or Greg goes down, we need whomever steps up to be an offensive weapon. Joel kind of has us playing 4 on 5 on the offensive end (a la Rajon Rondo).

I have to say I know his faults:
1. Defense questionable.
2. BBIQ more than questionable.
C. Potentially more attractive outside our organization than within it (surprisingly, sort of a fault).

BUT!!

Strengths:
1. Has huge potential.
2. Has improved every year.
C. Is the longest-running Blazer and fan favorite.

“C” of the Strengths has the most influence on my decision. This is a franchise that holds a LOT of stock in loyalty. We picked Oden because we didn’t think he’d fly after his rookie contract; we’re hoping Roy, LMA, Rudy, etc. don’t do that, either. We have team chemistry up the wazoo.

We’ve done a fair share of house-cleaning in the past couple years, and the brass has shown trust in Outlaw. That alone seems like reason enough to keep him, but just by virtue of the fact that he’s made the agonizing reappraisals over the years speaks to his character and worth to this squad.

Also, I can’t tell you how many people I know who are VERY casual Blazer fans (often, first-timers when watching them with myself) who instantly like Outlaw. Happened to me, as well. He may not be a team leader, may be valuable trade bait, may fetch us a higher-ranking (though, obviously unproven and uncertain) draft pick, but he is, in many peoples’ eyes, the “people’s” face of this franchise, and that MUST enter into the equation.

I haven’t had much an opportunity to engender myself to this Blazer team, but Travis was the first player I, and many others, came to like, and to get rid of him would speak not only on what the Blazers are but where they’re at. I haven’t attended any press-only meetings or season-ticket-holder functions, but I can definitely sense the integral part he plays in his involvement within the team and beyond. To cut him would gut our team.

Travis Outlaw.

Silly athletic, young, with potential for greatness.
A team player and a very good contract.
First Team All Interview with his goofy charm.

What’s not to like?

because I believe he can/will be starting for us when we win a championship

he doesn’y have the potential that outlaw or webster have, so he is not the “sexiest or edgiest pick”, he is more of a noan(sp?lling) factoer. But with 2 staring centers, both defensive monsters…..

They are two of my favorite Blazers and are both very loyal to the franchise. It upsets me to see so many posts about trades involving Travis. This kid was our third leading scorer last year and our sixth man!!!!!! Dont trade him!!!!

I watched a handful of videos of him and GO at Stack.com and he seems like a swell guy. I want to watch him play.

I subscribe to the school of not trading our valuable pieces away this year and waiting until 09 to acquire a major new player when we have the cap and had more time to evaluate everyone (which doesn’t rule out a smaller deal on draft day). But if I had to “protect” one of our role players from getting traded away it probably would be Joel.

Oden is a beast, but will need time to adapt to the play in the NBA. He watched it closely for a year, yet standing on the field is literally another level. He will make typical rookie mistakes. And if we don’t find a great perimeter defender to stop drives inside, there will be quite a lot of nights when he gets in foul trouble or even fouls out (see his summer league performance for what it’s worth). Those are the nights when we will need the Vanilla Gorilla with his inside presence and rebounds to back him up badly.

all the rest is potential, Joel is fact.

You could search far and wide and not find a better back-up center. Team player, inspirational, loyal, nice contract, will give you a good day’s work. And…I’m sure, in Joel’s mind, Oden hasn’t locked up that starting spot just yet…

When looking at the roster from the perspective as it was posed, apart from the Big Three (and possibly Joel), everyone else is expendable (sorry, Atf).

Webster has shown flashes - agonizing, jaw-grinding flashes - of being the perfect complementary small forward to play alongside our big three. He’s got the potential to be Shane Battier, except more athletic, able to attack off the dribble, and with the capacity to explode on any given night to boot.

I like Trout, and I hope we hang onto him because he’ll be an awesome off-the-bench scorer for the next two seasons. But his isolation-heavy style of offensive play will never fit into the starting unit, barring injuries to our core; and he’s a liability defensively on the perimeter (which isn’t as much of a problem playing against second-unit 3’s or as an undersized PF—another reason to keep him coming off the bench). If Martell realizes his potential (not as big an “if”, in my opinion, as some folks around here seem to think it is) then he will be the perfect SF for this team as our championship window starts sliding open.

It’s hard to ignore some of the other guys, but in truth I think they are easier to replace than Joel.

He gives you everything he can bring. And like Steve Blake he always wanted to be here.

Normally I would be writing about Travis and his 4-point play that sent the toronto game into double over-time. But I gotta go with Webster as the guy outside of the 3 that I would most like to keep. He has extremely high BBIQ, excellent shot, length, speed, and pull up, his one issue is, and always has been is his confidence. While Travis’ value lies in his ability to create his own shot, Martell is a guy who we can legitmately run our offense through. Our team is going to need that outside consistency that JJ33 was able to provide this year again in the future, and Martell can do that and much more, once he gains confidence.

It was a close call for me between Webster and Outlaw, but I’m going to back Webster because Outlaw can defend himself. Webster is a young kid we plucked IMO too early out of High School. He’s struggled with his development. However, the flashes he shows from time to time are amazing. Not just good, amazing. Anyone who can score 24pts in a quarter is worth keeping. I believe it was the same game inwhich Webster had a missed dunk where he ended up about waist high even with the rim. Could Webster never really put it all together consistently? Certainly, but he’s shown enough that if he ever put’s it all together he could become a very significant asset. So for this season, I’m for keeping Webster. I am worried with the addition of Rudy and the emergence of others as well as The Blazers moving out of the development stage and more into the “win now” cycle that playing time might become scarcier for Webster.

I could make an argument for just about every guy mentioned so far. (We haven’t seen enough of McRoberts to make any sort of judgement on him.)

Travis came to mind first. But then I remembered that Webster has All-Star written on him and just possibiliy, superstar. Steve Blake and Joel are two of my favorites on the team. I think both are going to be important pieces, but it gets a bit tougher to argue for either as the “one” key guy. Rudy pops into mind, except we haven’t even seen him suit up yet. Still, if he’s anywhere near as good as a lot of us are thinking, then there is a pretty good argument to designating him as the one guy outside the big three who can’t be traded.

So I’ve whittled it down to 3 guys. And then Channing Frye makes an appearance. Here is a guy I was pretty critical of the first 2 months of the season. Then he steps in for Aldrisge during the streak and plays good basketball. Not only that, but as the season progresses, it becomes apparant that Frye is getting better as a rebounder. Finally, he closes out the season on a strong note (much as Travis did last year). The result being that I keep getting this little twitch telling me that Frye might end up being one of the 3 or 4 best players on the team.

So, I can’t narrow it down it one guy. We have a plethora of young talent with lots of room to grow and get better. Which is why I am so vocal on challenging those who like to talk about trading for this guy or that draft pick.

"Ya’ll gonna’ lose,” Outlaw said. “Mississippi State going to whip you. We bad. Ya’ll ain’t physical like us. We just big, you know what I’m saying? They produce studs, like myself. The state of Mississippi produce studs.”

‘nuf said

He is offensive option # 1, 2 & 3 on the second unit. Other than Roy he is the only blazer who can consistently create his own shot even if his only move is the two dribble pull up jumper.

My gut reaction was to say “nobody outside LMA/Oden/Roy” but I think Pryz is important to the fabric of the team and a great backup C to have while Oden is learning the ropes. I’m not really attached to anyone else outside the 3 but he took less money to play here, turned down a ring with San Antonio, and has treated Portland really well. He deserves to be here.
I’m not really enamored with anyone else on the team though and hope that KP shakes things up a little to add a little more quality to the roster.
Outlaw: inconsistent, low bball IQ, mediocre D
Martell: sorry, he was a reach at 6 and we just want to justify skipping Paul
Channing: soft, inconsistent (although always an entertaining quote)
Blake: defense, general mediocrity
Rudy: let’s see him play an NBA game first
Some combination of those “others” (although I’d like to lose Rudy least of those) and the 13 might just get us a starting-caliber player (on a good team, not a lottery team) to enter the mix.

ONE player you think the Blazers absolutely cannot do without…a player who should not be available for love nor money.

But if someone were holding gun to my head and I was forced to pick one it would be Joel.

For a couple of reasons. First you can’t go trading a guy with his potential before giving him a chance, that would be bad and wrong, badong if you will. Second, he is the only guy with true playoff experiance on our roster. Not only does he have great playing potential but he may serve as a great leader when things get rough.

I would second jscot’s post in regards to Mortimer as well, he is my hero. However, as Mortimer is everywhere at all times, even if we traded him he would still be here.

I’m going with Von Wafer, he’s our man!

I’ve always been impressed with his toughness, work ethic, maturity, and loyalty. Besides, Greg’s gonna take some time to develop, and I see Joel playing a big role in the education of young Mr. Oden.

If Rudy lives up to the hype, however, I may have a completely different answer by the end of the season.

I really like him. Joel is the correct answer but I think James Jones has got the kind of attitude that this team needs more of. He will come off the bench in the Finals in a year or two and score 18 and get a couple steals and a block and lead a huge comeback that will be the pivotal moment in the series. Brandon will win MVP but JJ will be that secret hero that real fans talk about for years. Mark my words.

This last year, Jack has taken a pounding for his lack of defense, especially since he was rated so highly in it coming out of college. The problem is not in Jack, however, but out mushy middle. A defender always plays with his back to the basket (or should), and always has the disadvantage of running backward when the offensive player runs forward. The offensive player has the advantage vertically every time. What helps make up for this is horizontal movement. The defensive player can force the offensive player to go right or left in order to get around them. So the goal for the defensive player is not to stop the offensive player by themselves (a nearly impossible feat in the NBA), but to send the offensive player into another defensive player. This doesn’t work though when the player being directed towards doesn’t actually do anything. The problem lays in the mushy middle, not with Jack, as so often appears. Heck, even Blake, who has been known around the NBA for being a good defender looked horrible with our interior defense last year. The arrival of Oden should help solve this almost immediately.

His other foibles: turnovers, holding up the break, are things overcome with experience, which he has only three years of. His positives: getting to the basket, capable 3pt shooter, excellent FT shooter, can distribute, is exactly what we are looking for in a starting PG. Will he be an All-Star? no, but he is exactly what we need.

Can’t do dinner and a ball game without Trout. Tastes good with Chardonnay and plays great on the court. Gotta be wild caught, though. None of that farm raised junk.

On the court, Trout is indispensable because of his athleticism and he dead eye jumper. Don’t forget too, he’s a good free throw shooter. Teach that kid how to take it to the rim consistently, and he’ll be among the league leaders in scoring. As an added bonus, he can play the 3 or the 4, so he’s good insurance in case one of our forwards goes down with an injury. Heck, he can even play some center.

Just to start off with I am a huge Joel fan. He solidified this last season when after KG hit LMA with a cheap shot, Pryz got right in Kevin’s face and forced him to back down. Awesome-ness. But… He is a good starting center in the NBA and I am surprised for the amount of votes for someone whose future role on this team is as a bench player, or a good starting center for another team. This is the one guy who would be on our reserves that clearly deserves a starting position on a team, and is a very valuable trade asset. I am not saying that we should be actively looking to trade him, but the amount of people who gave him votes here surprises me. He is absolutely a player who we can get someone of high value with, and is at a position where we will have a strong starter at, and while he is committed to the Blazers franchise, and I think would do an excellent job behind Greg, I wouldn’t be surprised if he would not be to happy coming off of the bench. He is an excellent character guy, and can definitely help Greg in the short term, and I would be very happy if we kept him, but he is by far our most valuable tradeable asset.

1. great jumpshot
2. team offense
3.hard worker
4.potentially great defender
5. young
6.improving
7.reasonable contract

we need him to mentor greg and also provide adequate competition in practice

Fernandez might be our 4th most talented player, but I’m going to cheat and not include him since he isn’t yet officially on the team.

Trading away Przybilla puts way too much pressure on Oden. Therefore Przy is the easy choice for 08-09. If Oden proves that he can consistently play 35 minutes per game, and we have an opportunity to move Przybilla around the All-Star break I could change my mind. However, I would be very surprised if Oden ramps that quickly.

If the same question is asked of 09/10 and salaries are taken out of the equation, it’s Martell Webster. His potential is why he was selected #6 out of High School vs. Travis Outlaw ~#21. He seems to get it, and has course corrected from a rumored sour attitude in 06/07 – I’m confident he will have a breakout year in 07/08. Unfortunately, I expect he will get some attention on the free agency market. Not sure if the Blazers would be willing to match a $6-$8M offer. Which would take him out of the 2009/10 opportunity the Blazers have when they still have Roy/Aldridge on the cheap.

Which brings us to Travis Outlaw, who as one of the earlier posters wrote, is one of the best values on the team. He could be retained for only $4M in 09/10, and the Blazers could field a team with commitment to only 7 core players at a cost of ~$32M. (Blake, Roy, Outlaw, Ald, Oden, Przy, Fern). Clearly, another player could and would be added, but that feels early and despite Boston’s success I’m skeptical that a player added in the same year would bring home a championship.

By 10/11, Outlaw will either be very expensive to resign or it will be clear that he never is going to develop that basketball IQ. I actually don’t see him being with the team in either case.

Channing Frye might be wise to tone down his comments about how much he loves living in Portland, when it comes to contract time – but for now, I’m eating it up. I see him signing to a more reasonable contract and being the best Blazer value over the next five years. If you measure it on projected value alone, then Frye gets the nod.

That money is whats going to bring us the free agent we need to win a title. Hold on to him until Roy and LMA come up for new contracts, use part of his expiring to cover that and then recycle his body and get a stud FA to come in and push us over the top in 2 years

You don’t find a legitimate starting center that’s cool with being on the “white unit” and leads the team like he does. Benches win championships, and when you have that good of a center coming off your bench you’re in good hands.

Which is easir to replace?

This year’s draft alone has “Travis-like” players, perhaps Joe Alexander and Donte Green. Even lask year’s draft included atheletic and lengthy forwards such as Al Thornton, Thaddeus Young, and Jeff Green. In this perspective, I would keep Marty. With Rudy’s upside, Rudy could be our “6th man” and then pair him into a two-man game with another big-man (Channing, McRoberts, or any upcoming SF/PF out there)

In an offense that will demand defensive attention to Roy, Aldridge, and Oden, shooters is paramount. (I’m quoting KP, but don’t know word for word.) Nevertheless, the need for shooters is a no brainer. Martell has improved in each of his first three years, defensively, behind the arc, and in confidence. Consistency will come with time. Shooters in the league are scarce, especially ones that are 21 years old and still have potential. Martell’s upcoming and future contracts may also be easier to manage.

See ya Travis

................. because Oden is going to be a 25 to 30 minute guy due to foul trouble, and Frye is not an adequate substitute at the low post, his nice last 10 games notwithstanding.

Either Martell or Travis will be involved in some trade for a point guard. It’s necessary to keep ONE of those two, but from my perspective, either could be dealt if the other is retained.

But Pryzbilla—no substitute on the roster and they’re not drafting a center…

t