I do like how we did not give up any of our bigger pieces.

but they are misguided. As you correctly pointed out Dave, we got him for nothing. We have taken not one single gamble. here. Jack played more of a “combo guard” position, as Bayless will. Except Bayless is freaking way better than Jack with WAY MORE UPSIDE… I’m stoked, and can’t wait to see what happens next. As far as everyone else we got, I really don’t think they’re significant at all right now. Maybe later, but right now this is all about Bayless. I’m sorry, BUT I’M SOOOOO GLAD JACK IS GONE.

I don’t even care about who’s coming and going all that much… seeing what KP did and how he did it is the real adventure.

YOINK!!!

Read Mike Barrett’s new blog entry: http://mikebarrettsblog.blogspot.com/

Make no mistake, KP wanted Bayless all the way, he was even close to crying in an interview because he couldn’t take about it! He was that excited!

so two years ago it was Paxson and Ainge. Last year it was Ainge again (for his role in tanking the season). This year it’s Larry Bird and Daryl Morey.

What GM will get absolutely Pritch-slapped next year by KP?

I mean, he straight up bullied those guys. KP could be a master manipulator.

“Damn the Blazers. Damn them to hell. They are working the rest of the league like a speedbag.”

Perfectly said Bill, Perfectly said.

sad about the CD-R negligence. I’d have much sooner taken a flyer on him than look for a Euro to trade for next year’s second-rounders, time crunch and all. Otherwise, loved it. Except for the whole Darrell thing.

Are actually pretty good picks:

Portland Trail Blazers for Denver’s 2009 regular second-round pick, the New York Knicks’ 2009 regular second-round pick (acquired from New York on Oct. 4, 2005 in the Eddy Curry trade), and Chicago’s 2010 regular second-round draft pick.

There is a good chance that the Nuggets and Knicks won’t make the playoffs next year, crazy good trade by KP.

Link

Whether or not it was due to Portland smokescreens over Westbrook, Alexander, and Augustin remains to be seen; however, I know without a doubt KP grabbed the best player to pick in the draft. We basically gave up a 2 spare parts and a draft pick for a player who was going as high as #4 as early as 3 days ago! I’m still shocked. Jarret Jack reached his ceiling as a backup/fringe starter in the NBA, we got a potentially all star caliber guard in exchange. Amazing. Catholic saints have done less to become canonized. In fact I think I will make KP a temporary Hindu deity, an incarnation of Krishna perhaps, I don’t have any such authority to do so but I’m numb, in a good way.

Remember all those trade talks that had us giving up Martell, Travis, and Frye or RLEC to get a prospect like Bayless? Losing 6mil in cap space and Martell for the 5th pick? Remember how that was a great deal? WE GAVE UP JACK AND FREAKING MCBOB. Pritchard must have given Larry Bird an atomic super wedgie to intimidate him into making that trade. I mean was that really the best offer he got for Bayless? Sure Jack and Brandon Rush are nice, but he gave up a potential allstar. My dad said “highway robbery, how’d he get away with that”. Look at me turning into Simmons including an extraneous comment by my father, I’m gushing, October cannot approach fast enough.

I think Bayless dropped because of
A. Team needs, as much as GMs tout BPA most of them don’t follow that rule on draft night (Darrel Arthur anyone?). Filling in that weak spot is the safe choice.

B. Connected to part A. GMs make the pick they decide on. I think most of them went in with the mindset, “I’m never going to get Bayless, so why even bother thinking about it”. When Bayless dropped that low, they still went with the pick THEY decided on. I think most humans work this way. “Sure this way is better but I’ve already decided on this option”. The herd mentality assists this, “If they don’t want him why should I? There is probably something we don’t know about him”

C. Gut instinct pick by Presti. Good GM but I think he decided at the last minute on Westbrook and grabbed him way too high. He should have traded down, I think he’s going to be kicking himself in a few years, he let his emotions get the best of him.

KP looks like a savant for getting the 27th pick from the Hornets. Darrel Arthur is completely redundant on our roster, but a real steal for 27. Packaging him with Dorsey (who will be a solid role player) for Batum is a little iffy for me. But even if Batum is a bust, it isn’t going to cost us anything, and we already have 2 solid options for that 3 spot. I could see him becoming a decent contributor in a few years. A long lanky defending small forward with high basketball IQ, isn’t that what we’ve always wanted? Arthur would likely want to play right away but won’t find minutes. Whereas we can afford to take on a project like Batum, who won’t complain if he doesn’t receive much playing time. Batum not playing much will still hold value because of his high potential (think Sergio) where Walker will likely degrade to the point of a throw in.

The second trade is defensible but debatable in my mind.

Mike Jones off our D league team? Well I guess he wanted a pick for the lulz, grabbing another 2nd rounder off the perpetual suckitude that is the Clips wasn’t bad. I remember Stuart Scott laughed as he said “The Clippers have had 1 winning season in…16 years”. A Quality Pie move, even if it was in the 2nd round.

The Asik move is great. A high second rounder from NYC and another high second rounder from Denver in 2009, plus the Chi 2010 pick. Lurves it. Asik might not even play in the US! If Chicago wanted a big man they should have drafted Beasley. EVEN if he is any good, I still feel like Greg will curbstomp him on the court.

My only fear is that KP will decline in 10 years or so when we need to be restocking, but I feel like Pritch keeps a great staff that helps him make all these balanced and thoughtful decisions, so it’s not as big of an issue. He’s a brilliant manager because he leaves a lot of his managing to his employees. I’m a fan of that mentality because an individual, no matter how talented he is, can make catastrophic mistakes, the likelihood of 10 or more committing the same mistake is significantly less.

So yeah. We should sent him a Thank You card from the BEdge.

Awesome.

This reminds me a lot of the 2006 draft, when I posted about KP’s dealings on Blazer Thoughts. I wasn’t going to say anything that night, but I remember how Jorga and some of the others were down because they believed KP had gotten fleeced. I had to explain that giving up Kryapa to get Aldridge wasn’t a big deal. That we grabbed Foye when Minnesota tried to screw us out of Roy. It is a game of maneuvering, deflection, and misdirection. A few GMs can do it, but most don’t. They think they are getting the better of KP. Their egos don’t allow them to think otherwise.

The parallels are eerily similar. Giving up Jack to get Bayless won’t be a big deal. Indiana tried to leverage Bayless into something more, until KP leaked to Quick that we were doing a deal to get DJ, then they straightened up. Then we maneuvered around S.A. to get Batum.

KP is the hardest working GM in the league. And it shows.

With Blake probobly starting at least initially, and Rudy and Bayless playing virtually all of the reserve guard minutes (both needing to be developed), I can’t see there being any time for Sergio to play. I think its time to trade him for a future first round pick or the best value we can get.

If every person in the state of Indiana takes the time to yell at Larry Bird before July 1, can he tell us never mind?

can indian reject now?

KP is the John McClane/Jack Handy/Paul Harvey of the NBA.

I wasn’t sold on Bayless to begin with, when he was rated as the 4th pick in the draft. And his falling to 11 didn’t do anything to improve my opinion. It will be interesting to see where he is compared to Jack in 2-3 years. For that matter, it will beinteresting to see who turns into the better NBA player, Bayless or Rush. I also can’t get excited about Ike Diogu. Someone convince me he’s an improvement over keeping McRoberts.

But as I trust in Pritchard, I am going to have to assume that Portland came away with a good draft.

Wow.

I have to admit I have a few doubts about bayless, but he’s a DEFINITE steal and KP had targeted this guy. KP KNEW the entire draft down to number 15 and nailed it in his mock.

We now have our PG of the future (barring a secondary trade for Harris or someone because I never underestimate KP), and the only question marks are:

1.) How is the SF position going to shake out? I like Webster… but I don’t know how much time outlaw will have if we keep him. I suppose we’ll see.

2.) We have SOOO much talent, do we need to thin things out a little more? I see us heavy with Frye (love the guy) and a little heavy with the guard positions if Finland comes over. I haven’t heard anything about Finland which makes me suspicious about KP actually being done this summer. If we were trading him we’d be talking him up and with Rudy/Roy/Blake/Bayless at the guard position, that would make sense.

Bayless is definitely better and with more potential than finland, but I thought Finland would be a better fit for the blazers.

3.) Does this mean we’ll have to wait an extra year for a ring? I thought it would be two years but I think Bayless may push it out to three. I also think he makes sure that we are an uninterrupted dynasty. I hope he’s hungry for some revenge on every team that passed him up. (although one could argue that it’s all KP’s fault and Bayless has a right to punch him for cheating him out of the cash of a 4th rounder…)

on 95.5 right now…

I´m no expert but what the scouts say is that Bayless is great off the ball. So he doesn´t need tha ball to be productive. He´s not a good point guard on the half court but that´s not a problem for us.

He fell on the draft because he needs to be in the right situation to be successful and I believe that we have it here in portland.

The Batum pick aims at perimeter defense. He has lock down potential. We didn~t need arthur, we have LMA and Frye.

KP is a genius. I have been worried about how we were going to get a PG update without giving up Travis, Martell or Frye and some of our cap flexibility. With this draft he cleared some of our roster crunch and picked up the PG upgrade we needed all while keeping all of our cap room for next year. I expect we are done for the summer unless we can get a big upgrade at SF for Raef and change. We will have until at least the trading deadline to see what we have at SF and PG. If the guys we already have blow up we can stand pat but if we are still not sure we can go and get a max contract type player.

“Unlike many European players in this year’s draft, Batum is expected to sign with the Blazers and will be with the team at the start of the 2008-09 season. “-NBA.com

I heard he was going to stay in France, but wouldn’t he be better off in the D-league? I’m not sure how tough the French league is.

Blazerwizard puts the draft in perspective. Yes, as Dave said, KP showed masterful subtly in this draft, probably outmaneuvering both Sacramento and San Antonio for desired picks. Yes, Pritchard was like a magician. You think you have an idea what he’s going to do, then-puff of smoke & presto-change-o-Rush/Jack/McRoberts turn into Bayless/Diogu. And not just once, but a second time-puff of smoke & presto-change-o-Arthur/Dorsey turn into Batum. That sweet music we Blazer fans hear in the background? It is not gears of the Blazer Draft Machine grinding, it is, indeed, the sound of gnashing teeth emanating from GM mouths south of Portland. Yes, it was a wonderful show. However, in the immediate future, after the smoke clears and the music of other’s anguish dies, it essentially reduces to this: The Blazers got Bayless for Jack. (Batum and the four second rounders are later.)

We knew Jack and his limitations-metal lapses, ball handing mistakes and average defensive skills-and we’re happy to part with them, but Bayless is potential; he’s the dream we’ve yet to actually date. It’s easy to exaggerate his virtues and ignore his limitations.

Here’s why Bayless is questions: he’s nineteen; he played only half a season as point guard at Arizona; his assist-to-turnover is a bad 1.33 (By comparison, Jack, who is virtually identical to Bayless in height and weight, had an A/TO ration of 1.75 in 2007-08 and Sergio, who is also 6’3” tall, had an A/TO ratio of 2.86 in his first year and 2.3 last year.); he has not been a good defender; McMillan has little patience with sloppy ball-handling and poor defense.

He’s what DraftExpress says about Bayless’s defense on 26 March:

"Bayless did not make up for his lack of aggression offensively with his play on the other end of the floor    
     unfortunately. He struggled to fight through screens on numerous occasions, giving his matchup plenty of time 
     to set his feet and get a clean shot off. When he was defending players head on, his lack of length, height and 
     energy was clearly a poor mix in terms of contesting shots." 
                    --http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jerryd-Bayless-1067

If Bayless works hard on point guard skills, if he can learn to be a better defender, if he can stand to do a lot of sitting during the regular season, if Rodriguez continues to stagnate ahead of him, and if McMillan can abide his rookie mistakes, then Bayless may indeed turn out to be a significant upgrade over Jack.

But so far, I’m not sure.

Anyone else think that Ike sounds a bit like Brian Grant (sans dreads & rasta tats)? He could be an interesting sparkplug off the bench if we’re needing banging…

He shot 84% from the line. The guy takes it to the hoop and not afraid of contact. This is exactly the time of guard we are looking for. He gets to the hoop and draws fouls and also hits outside shots, 40.7% from behind the line.