The Advantage of Playing White

I just found out…. Like a kid in a candy shop with a billionaire Grandpa!

can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings. Though I did call in to Gavin’s show today and stated that I’m concerned that we expect too much out of KP at this point, and might be setting ourselves up for disappointment.

To take a page out of Moneyball the worst move you can make is when you feel you have to(Marion for Shaq?). Acting first leaves all the other teams thinking about playing catch-up.

he keeps one-upping himself. How many picks do we have? I mean it feels like he could assemble any team he wants.

after a big shot pretending like he’s holding up his giant cojones with his hands? Does KP do this around Blazer headquarters? These are things I’d like to know.

This wins.

Hornets fans, Suns fan too probably. If we keep buying picks We’re going to become the Duke of the NBA. Or the Lakers of the NBA.

The more you know….. Da da da da

This is a no-brainer move for Paul Allen.

There are some things that money alone can’t buy. An NBA title is one of them (debate over how Boston “bought” the title this year aside). Spending money is but one factor in getting a title. At the end of the season, your team has to outwork the other team for 48 minutes 16 times (after playing 82 games to even qualify for the playoffs), and teams do this by having better players. All the money in the world won’t buy those players if you don’t have the rights to sign them.

If the Blazers have one resource that most other teams cannot match, it is Allen’s pocketbook. Anytime you can use that to your advantage to convert that to an asset of another kind, like a draft pick, you DO IT.

Why complain? It’s not your money. He won’t miss the money. The worst possible outcome of this for Portland is that there’s a player the Blazers have to cut to trim down to 15 players by the end of October. Maybe even the one we take with this pick. What has it cost? Money. Not your money. Not any money that Paul’s going to miss. So why worry about it?

Getting a good player or draft pick in this league is like winning one of Willy Wonka’s Golden tickets. At first, Charlie figures he’ll sell it to get the money to feed his family. Then Grampa Joe explains it to him. There’s only FIVE of these things in the ENTIRE WORLD. Only an idiot would sell something as rare as that for something as common as MONEY. Okay, so with NBA first-round draft picks, there’s 30 of them, rather than five, but the point still stands.

Gather all the draft picks we can. If KP can’t package #27 together with other pieces for a player he likes, or find someone to pick himself, he will no doubt find a few teams on draft day that will still have someone on the board that they like after pick #26 has been taken. At this point, we trade it for a player, or possibly another future first round pick (NOT just for money).

But I say give KP all the ammunition possible to make a deal on draft day. It makes no sense NOT to buy the pick, if there’s any team, at any position, willing to sell it for mere money.

my choice!

What a steal after the false heath scare dropped him.

the first Pritch-slap.

Then I had one little worry and that was that maybe this would put all the other GM’s on their toes and make them weary of KP. Weary of the Pritchslap. (Do they know this term or is it just our little secret?) And being weary of KP and his ability to come out on top in trade scenarios, they might run from him or not pull the trigger when we want em too.

Whatcha gonna do with the Pritch comes after you?

I think at least a few of the places where “Pritchad” appears above you could probably replace with “Allen”.

I look at this as payback for the j*ilblazer years that we had to suffer through.

We are now in a positio of power in this years draft, as you stated sp brilliantly Ben, we have fired the warning shot over the bow as to state that, “We are here and we are ready for anything that may come.”

We have the hardest working GM in the league and the richest owner in all professional US sports, basically we have the biggest gun and about 16 billion rounds of ammo to load it with.

I say we come out of this draft with Alexander AND Westbrook, with a few Euros to come in a few years.

Pretty soon, and you’ll be as bad as my little cousin who relates everything to online shooter games

Two of my favorite players in this draft are the French C Alexis Ajinca, and SF Nicolas Batum. If we were able to get one or both of those guys in this draft, I’d be happy. The benefit to getting a European player is that we can stash them overseas for a year or two (Rudy, Petteri, Joel), without it effecting our cap situation, or our young players playing time.

I’d prefer to find a way to get Devin Harris (priority #1), and would be okay with giving up Webster/Outlaw, Frye and #13 (maybe Jack) to get Harris and #21. Then #21 and #27 could come back aces with my two French players.

I think KP’s a great GM but everyone is getting excited about the 27th pick. A lot of folks weren’t too excited about the 13th pick.

You choose your opponent, someone you can defeat. Precisely not KP.

If I´m forced to play again Pritchard, I choose the Sicilian defense. I call the consigliere so he decide the round KP will fall down pretending a K.O..

I almost always prefer to play black. I’ve liked the Caro-Kahn Defense since I was 12. White’s moves from the King’s Pawn Game are predictable enough to handle, and Black’s pawn structure holds up generally well and provides a tough defense to crack.

Playing from a position of stability seems like another Pritchard trait. Is he playing both sides of the board? Dang! No wonder he always wins.

what a way to start my wednesday morning. This makes me giddy lol.

I think KP is just toying with the NBA right now. He’s calling them up saying, “Hey, it’s KP, what ya got for me?”

I’d like to see us get the Knick’s pick. A little wheel’n and deal’n and get the 6 spot—but without taking on any of the New York garbage. How’s 13 and 27 for 6 and future pick sound?

... but I think only #3 has any validity.

This deal just shows us that Pritchard is smart enough to make use of his advantage of working for the richest owner in the NBA. As long as you can draft and stash players overseas, there is no real drawback to having multiple picks. Meanwhile he gains an advantage by having extra assets to include in any deal he might try to set up.

He may sleep better at night knowing he has more resources available to him. But I don’t think it gives him any sort of psychological edge over his counterparts. They may wish they had an owner with as deep of pockets, but at the end of the day, it is still a matter of horse trading. If I’m a GM, news of this move has me checking my draft board and analyzing whether Portland looks any better as a possible trade partner. I’d look on it as a possible advantage. Worse case is it gives Portland more assets to get a deal done that I too am interested in. That makes me a bit envious of KP, but it doesn’t detract from my abilitiy as a GM. If anything, it’s a goad to work even harder.

I realize that this is not Ben’s manifesto about race relations in the United States… I will now go back and read the article…

and generally let all but the best opponents take white.

I play defensively while I feel out how an opponent plays, where their strengths our, what styles of moves they’re not as comfortable with. About half way through the game I redirect and generally take over the initiative even if it’s just to TAKE it, and then focusing on keeping it while I force the opponent into the moves that work for me and if I lose initiative I make sure I can productively take it back within a move.

I rarely lose and I don’t lose twice in a row.

I rather like chess.

In that game… KP could be black.

Trade picks… KP has never done anything I disagree with and usually I’m rooting for it. The only difference was the Chris Paul vs Webster debate as I went for perceived team need over best player available.

and the purchase of the pick…

We’re either stockpiling someone we really like over seas or we’re combining and trading to move up for the pieces we want. Possibly one of the trades on the table will drain our roster and so we’d be drafting someone to fill it?

This is definitely a sign something is going to happen though, me thinks. Otherwise it makes no sense and KP is only moving to make the move, which is a bad thing. (My opinion). He strikes me as smart and he strikes me as someone who moves with a purpose.

Now everybody knows our plan: KP is planning to win.

Is to trade the whole shooting match of picks for a decent shot at a lottery pick in next years draft – Ricky Rubio….

Nothing like having a great big sofa/piggy bank on your Aircraft
Carrier, er Yacht.

By the way PA, you can get the Blazers on the high seas ….
but no BLAZERS HERE IN So. OREGON !

YOU OWN CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS. GET IT DONE or else !!!!

...the Blazers aren’t really about chess.

From now on, they’re going to be about GO.

And the komi will be high. So it’s time to say “atari” to the rest of the league.