KP chats with Chad Ford today on ESPN

unless it was the first few games… then i’d cry again.

Regarding the draft, basically there are 2 franchise players, then 3-14 are in the same boat, then 15-25 (I think) is another boat. He said Oden may have to go to rehab because he got addicted to pain killers after his surgery. He said the injury on his knee was tiny and not in a load bearing spot so he should be good to go. He said Rudy can do good oop passes. Didn’t cover Rudy too much because it’s not official. Then he broke down 5 prospects but I cannot remember the names.

The rest was basically what is in the notes in this article. He didn’t say much else.

I thought there was great info on this clip, Chad Ford tries to flatter Kevin Pritchard at the beginning of the interview. KP was like “Guru? I’m not too sure about that.” What he meant was, “Sorry loser, the word is Pritch-slap. Watch yourself or I might teach you what you don’t want to know about the Pritch-slap.”

KP talks very proudly and excitedly about Oden’s health and fitness, as well as the impact that he expects him to have on the team and says his work ethic is unbelievalbe!

KP breaksdown Rudy Fernandez’s game as a guy who can really handle the ball, great size, good pick-and-roll player. KP talks about how Rudy won 3 MVP trophies in the 4 tournaments that he played in, while proving that his perimeter shot has become much more effective, and opened up the rest of his game (compared him to Kevin Martin) he can get to the basket, slash, a dynamic player who can throw lobs (hello Outlaw), a great kid who puts the team first .

This quote is from the clip starts around 07:30 on this link….

Here is the question we are all asking: Rookie or Vet?...

Chard Ford: "You’ve got so many young players on your team, Kevin. As you look at your team, do you think you need to add another young guy or is it time to make a move on the Blazers to package some players and picks to add a veteran to this team?

Kevin Pritchard: "Well I think one thing has changed. Because Oden didn’t get to play last year. It really allowed some guys to grow, get better and take on some roles they might not have had. Now we think that (Oden) is going to be a big-time impact player. It may take him 40 games, it may take him a year. It may take him a while. Bigs tend to take some more time. We don’t want to put to much onus on him, at least early on.

The big thing for us is that, Even next year is an evaluation process for us. Because we do not know how these young guys are going to play together, and we really don’t know how these guys are going to play with a guy who, in our opinion, we think is going to be a dominant big man in Oden. So, One of my biggest fears is that we make an early move that we are not sure about. So anything we do, we have to feel very good that it is, not so much going to make an immediate impact, but a long term impact that is very positive. That is the big thing.

Regarding 13, I am okay adding youth to this team. I think we get caught up in saying that "that team is too young." Well we have been the youngest team in the league for three years and we have shown progress. We went from 22 to 32 to 41 wins. And we still stayed young. I’m okay with that as long as they are part of what we call our culture… What we feel like is important to us. Hard working, put the team first, has talent, but puts everybody ahead of themselves for the good of the team. And because of that, I am not against adding youth to this team. That being said, you know that in this business you have to look at every option. And If I feel like we can get a good player for us at #13 that will make sense for us…"

A great quote from the clip, by KP: “Even though the (Blazers) has a lot of youth, there is some experience with our youth and the guys can play which allows me the flexibility to either draft for upside talent or a guy who is able to come in and play immediately. We could go either way, draft a player who is a project rather than an immediate impact guy, or trade the pick, move up, back or out.”

Also, here is excerpts of KP’s response to Chad Ford asking about a few prospects that may be available at pick #13:

Joe Alexander: big time athlete, big time learner, learning the game, self-confident could be moving up in this draft.

Donte Greene: Talented, like a little pony who is growing into his body, learning how to play with other effective players, has a chance to be pretty special

Brandon Rush: Solid, good worker, a winner, reminds me of a Bruce Bowen on the defense who can really shuffle his feet and keep people in front of him.

Kosta Koufos: Finesse, shooter, Ilgauskus like, needs to become a better rebounder, definitely can step out on an NBA floor quickly and contribute

Alexis Ajinca: Long, rangy, more skilled than people think, will have to gain weight to handle the inside, but he can become a spread-4 in our league, and those guys are becoming very difficult to defend (KP says that Ajinca does not run the floor like LMA though).

That is some good info from the Guru… thanks KP.

If KP was doing serious research on Greene I’d think he’d come up with a better description.

That’s what I describe as the Danny Granger, Josh Howard, Teyshaun Prince type of pick—a guy with a great college career, good body and size, but percieved as having little of that delicious upside GM’s crave. I picked Brandon Rush as that guy this draft. He is solid, good defender, good body, he has no real holes besides not being raw and then having upside.

Brandon Roy was that way also. His knock was ‘will help right away, but no upside’. ALWAYS happens—GMs get fooled just like any of else, hoping for that home run and getting tricked by the potential and not paying attention to the person behind it.

Of course, there are guys who are solid and can help right away and do just stay at that level of play. I know Big Baby Davis is just a rookie, but does anyone think he’ll be all THAT much better than what he is now? Just more experienced. Paul Millsap, same thing. GOOD PLAYERS, solid, and can help you every night. Just not the same as the Granger/Howard/Prince type.

GMing ain’t easy. Well, some make it look harder than it should be.

Mortimer