I’m not sure which way I’d prefer this to go, or have went. One way cements KP as the ultimate GM, willing to do anything and everything to get his players at his cost, but the other way seems to be far more likely. Jordan making the mistake of assuming he could make a deal after the fact seems far more likely than KP agreeing to make a deal and then backing out.

As a Blazer fan it makes me less excited to think that my team even considered Augustin in the same realm as Bayless. I’m of the opinion that Bayless is by far the better catch of the two, and he was their true and only target after both got to the #9 spot. Either way, whether this was a 3 team Pritchslap or merely a 2 team Pritchslap, the bottom line is that KP is the best in the business.

I think MJ let his gambling side get the best of him and he made a gut call instead of playing the numbers. He drafted DJ in hopes of trading him to Portland without a firm deal in place.

if the teams can’t talk to the media about trades, why can the tell the media about them that first time?

What’s the point of the no trade information rule anyway? And aren’t Wheels et al. for all intents and purposes Blazers employees (or perhaps they actually are), so why can they talk about them?

think that when Cats where picking KP called them and said that he wants DJ. So MJ asked to give him something like Webster and 13 for DJ, but KP said that he will give them Jack instead of Webster, MJ said no, but was thinking "since they like DJ they will come back to me", so Charlotte drafted DJ. On the other hand KP called Charlotte and purpesly said that he wants Augustine so Charlotte would not pick Bayless, because the price for him would be even greater. KP knew that Bayless would fall all the way to 11, and thats why he called Indiana before the draft and made the deal then. Indiana already just traded for TJ Ford so they didnt need a point guard. But its still is weird why did Indiana didnt ask more for Bayless

since I see comments and questions popping up on the site.

I think Ben’s piece, both in its original form and now, is very good. I knew the moment I saw it that it would receive wide attention. Because of this there was one precaution we needed to take. In his original piece Ben had included some factual, observation-based information about what the view looked like on draft night from the media room. He also included some provocative and well-thought-out theoretical musings on what might have been behind those observations (e.g. a possible deal, or at least assumed deal, in place with the Bobcats). In the original post the line between the two was somewhat fuzzy, leaving readers open to the idea that there WAS a trade in place with Charlotte that the Blazers backed out of just as there WAS frenzied communication in the media room that night. Not having talked to Kevin Pritchard, Michael Jordan, or anyone on either staff about this issue we couldn’t leave that line unclear, especially since the post was going to be re-echoed throughout the ‘net. My stopgap solution was to put a small disclaimer at the front of the post and leave it as-is. Ben preferred to split the observational and speculative aspects of the post into two posts and two conversations, taking down the original. Since he is the author I left the decision in his hands.

In no way did I disapprove of Ben’s writing, in this story or otherwise. The piece and the conversation surrounding it was, and will be, excellent (as is usual with Ben’s work).

—Dave

I don’t know if anyone can call this a “Pritchslap” at this point.
Brandon Roy was a Pritchslap. LaMarcus Aldridge was a Pritchslap.
How are we to know that Augustine isn’t going to be the next Brandon Roy, or Deron Williams? Everyone is eager to dismiss him as a bust because he is 5’11” but have you seen the guy play? He has talent, that is a fact.
While Bayless may seem like a better fit for either team right now, Augustine is likely to be a very solid pick if you are trying to change the chemistry of your team. It’s not like they were on track to win anything with Felton running the show. Many times, I have thought to myself that Charlotte is a team full of underachievers. Augustine might be the guy to turn that team around.
Let’s hold off on calling this a Prtichslap until we see what both of these players do at the next level.

Indiana was the problem. I would assume there were a number of talks with Charlotte AND New Jersey so the Blazers could move up. Everyone knew that both Indiana and Sacramento were going to pick up Bayless/Augustin/Westbrook if they were available. I think the problem for Charlotte was Indiana pulling off the TJ Ford trade just before Draft day, which brought another trade partner in the mix. Once that trade happened, Charlotte had to have seen what was coming. I think the real twist is that KP may have over hyped Augustin, knowing that Bayless had a chance to fall. But lets get real, this is the poker game that every GM in the league plays, including Charlotte.

Hilarious reference, bagwan. Just plain funny!

I’d be curious to know what was said between Charlotte and Portland. I hope we didn’t explicitly say “Take Augustine and we’ll trade you pick 13 and X”. If you tell a team to take a player, with certain conditions in place for you to end up with that player you shouldn’t back out.

To do that, knowing you have a different deal in place and just say it so they don’t pick your player is completely wrong.

I have no clue if that is what happened, and I hope it isn’t what happened. If you do that as a GM too much you’ll find yourself without partners to trade with.

Said that the bobcats were trying to trade Felton leading up the draft. I don’t think there was any funny business, Bobcats don’t like Felton and thought it was time to move on.

I’m a D.J. Augustin admirer, and I think he’ll be an improvement over Raymond Felton eventually. The Bobcats were shopping Felton before the draft and I think they’ll keep doing it now.
-Chad Ford

From Chad Ford’s draft grades and Chad Ford’s podcast

Do I get any credit for smelling out the deal between the two teams?

I started with one and switched to another… between reading the reports and comments of the teams and knowing both of their teams and wants…. I just knew something was a brewing….. Just curious if you guys remembered my contribution, haha…. have a great season, you have a pretty good team!

This deal is also a perfect example of what separates the Blazers ownership and front office from almost every other team in the league. I would be willing to bet that they had a colloborative effort that fleshed out every possible draft scenario that focused on success and making the team better. Not on who got credit, not on saving a few dollars. Then Mr. Allen handed the reins to KP and allowed him to do what he does best. Moves could be made quickly and smoothly. They had a plan for everything and then probably contingency plans for those plans.

Having had a chance to think about the situation, I believe that it only could have happened under very narrow circumstances. Every domino had to fall just right. Charlotte had to believe that Augustin was Option 1 for the Blazers, Indiana had to believe that they had more to lose by keeping Bayless than trading him to the Blazers, and Sacramento had to think that Bayless was off the table because of the supposed Charlotte deal.

The Blazers also put all of the focus on Westbrook, Augustin, and Alexander pre-draft. I remember thinking it was strange that the media were reporting the supposed top people on the Blazer draft board. In hindsight, a beautiful magic trick that added to the mystery on draft day. Listening to KP interviews right after the draft, I sensed a distinct giddiness that I had never heard from him before. I don’t think he could believe that he and the Blazers had really done it.

that when Bobcats picked DJ, Jason Quick messeged KP, “Is this your guy?’ By the time KP had seen the messege it was Pacers selecting Bayless(KP was Busy), so KP replyed yes. So here is where the rumor came out about portland trading with Bobcats. This is a rumor too.

Perhaps it is a poor idea to lock dozens of media members in the same room, as it creates a ripple effect for reporting, coupled with the obvious connotations of the old kid’s game “post office”, where you started whispering a message on one end of the chain and had a good laugh when you saw what it sounded like on the other end. I tend to believe that people will do what they’re trained to do. Media folks will get the scoop and report, sometimes even when there’s no scoop yet. (This is the same reason, by the way, you don’t send soldiers or riot police out unless you really mean to use them.) Nobody’s intentionally doing anything wrong. Stuff just happens.

I would guess in this case stuff just happened. A miscommunication here, a jumped gun there, a bunch of people running around the corner and looking at the sky to see what the first guy saw when he did it. The simplest explanation is probably that Michael Jordan liked DJ Augustin and maybe is looking to move Ray Felton while the Blazers’ deal with Indiana was set well before the draft even started.

That’s not nearly as much fun, however!

—Dave

1. I disagree with those who keep disparaging Augustine’s abilities. I doubt many of us have even seen him play that much, and I’m guessing most of those comments are based on the fact that he’s 5-11 and reminds people of Stoudamire. Fact is that even though he’s short, he’s absolutely a better playmaker than Damon ever was in terms of setting up his teammates.

2. As an extension of thought #1, I disagree with those who are calling MJ an idiot for making THIS pick. Clearly MJ has made many a mistake throughout his executive career, but I don’t think this pick is necessarily one of them. At least not until we know how good he’ll be. Are we forgetting who the new Bobcat coach is? Mister “I love pure point guards” himself, Larry Brown. For my money, I’m betting Brown told Mike, “Look, I can’t do anything with this guy Felton. You need to get me a real point guard, and I need him now.’ Hence the Augustin pick. The notion that they might be able to consummate a trade with Portland to get even more value out of the pick probably stoked their fire a bit for Augustin. But I don’t think for a second Charlotte acted on the knowledge that they might pull a trade without thinking to themselves, “Well, this trade might not go down, so are we going to be happy with this pick if we have to keep him?” I’m guessing they answered yes to that question before they made the pick.

3. I agree with someone else (forgot who) who questioned calling this a pritch-slapping of either team. Clearly KP manipulated the draft to get the player he wanted, but who’s to say he got the best player? They all have potential, but nobody knows anything yet, and nobody will until they all play some games.

4. Lastly, to expand on the previous point, I don’t know that you can judge this trade at all on a basis of who got which player. Bayless and Augustin are completely different players! One excels at scoring the basketball while the other excels at setting up his teammates. If they both did the exact same thing and Bayless did it significantly better, and yet we convinced Charlotte that Augustin indeed did those things better, then yeah, you could say we pulled one over ‘em. But that’s not the case. It’s all about what a team values. We valued scoring because we already have a number of playmakers on our team, so Bayless was our guy. If Roy wasn’t such the playmaker, then you very well might have seen us make a deal for Augustin instead.

I have noticed a tendency for BEdgers to completely miss the boat when it comes to figuring out other team’s motives and needs, especially when it comes to trade rumors… although this is hardly unique to BE.

DJ was getting some HUGE hype leading up to the draft, drawing comparisons to prolific PG’s, past and present. He supposedly wowed the Blazers at his workout. If DJ ends up being half as good as the hype, Charlotte will be lucky to have him.

But I’m still ecstatic with Bayless for our team (even over DJ and over Westbrook).

man, this is getting out of control over such silly stuff.

Oh, and take it easy with that Pritchneesh thing… people might catch on that it’s a reference (the Rajneeshees don’t have such a favorable rep after all), and then you’ll be under fire again.

umm I guess what ever it takes i guess the picture you just painted leaves a bad taste in my mouth.. but at the same time you have to step on toes to get to the top.. I say we just sit back and realize that mr pritchard and mr allen are committed to getting us hardware ..and let them do what they do

...where are we? Still speculating. Not until we hear from the principles will we know the truth.

The real issue here is the very human tendency to value “news” over fact. It’s the natural course of things to want to bring that juicy steak to a salivating public. That’s why it’s so important for those in the business of providing information to exercise objectivity and restraint.

I appreciate Ben’s unique inside edge. I like his writing. I accept his clarification.

Could we move on now? When the gag order is lifted, perhaps we’ll learn what really went down.

“In a three-team trade, Portland acquires the draft rights to Nicolas Batum from Houston; Houston acquires the draft rights to Donte Greene and second-round selection in 2009 from Memphis plus Joey Dorsey from Portland; and Memphis acquires the draft rights to Darrell Arthur from Portland.”

“In a three-team trade, Chicago acquires the draft rights to Omer Asik from Portland; Portland acquires a second-round pick in 2009 from Denver plus two future second-round picks from Chicago; and Denver acquires the draft rights to Sonny Weems from Chicago.”

Should it worry us that the Bayless deal isn’t officially announced by the NBA yet?

Brandon Rush :(

1. KP was in discussions with every team in the league before the draft.

2. KP knew who the other teams were going to pick. It’s not really that hard for a guy in the know. If Draft Express can do it, KP can as well.

3.The first thing that was leaked was that Portland would be taking Rush at 13. This was info given to Ben from Quick, which came from either Nate or KP. It matched a lot of the mocks, including Chad Ford’s.

4. The Charlotte rumour came next, from Ben via Quick, 1 minute before Sacramento made their pick and Bayless was already off the board. It was said this information came from KP. As Ben stated, this was a mistake. Chad Ford, Wheels, and 95.5 had the correct info out there 2 minutes later when Portland was on the clock.

5. Was the Charlotte rumour leaked to throw off Sacramento? Sacramento anticipated DJ or Bayless would make it to 12, so they didn’t have a trade in place. Indiana had just picked up TJ and traded JO, they would probably pick a big. Portland was probably picking Rush. When Indiana picked Bayless, Sacramento did not know if Indiana picked for themselves or someone else. They simply ran out of time to explore options and picked the guy who they felt was the BPA for them after Bayless came off the board. Regardless, the rumour WAS NOT leaked to throw off Sacramento – it came one minute before their pick was announced and could not have any impact on their decision.

Nothing under-handed here, simply typical draft night dealings…

But I wanted to say that I still think Ben wrote a good piece and I never really had issue with it. I see why people got a little worked up about it, as did I, but I just know that if it had really been something this bad, it would have gotten out by now thru a source.
All in all, I want to say good job Ben for bringing us the story, standing true to your initial thoughts, and giving us something to talk about

This explains why I was so confused in the open thread. What I was watching on ESPN did not match what I was reading here. I had no idea what was going on. I might be too old for open threads.

he’s the king of wild speculation and thoughts covering the spectrum of opinion.

I like your insight, Ben. I appreciate that you were able to go and witness that, and then to write it down and give us your own account of the evening. Please, keep up the great work.

This is a nice topic to speculate on, but the facts all add up against this being true.

1st, many mock drafts had Charlotte picking a PG. Saying they don’t need one due to Felton is like saying we don’t need one due to Blake or Jack… it’s the opinion of someone who doesn’t follow Charlotte closely. If you do follow the Bobcats, you know they are far from sold on Felton and that new coach Larry Brown absolutely fell in love with Augustin.

2nd, Charlotte, and any team for that matter, is smarter then to draft someone they absolutely don’t need just because “they MAY have a deal in place”. You either know you are going to get something (ie. OJ Mayo pick) or you pick for yourself. I find it really, really hard to believe that Charlotte picked DJ ‘thinking” that ””maybe”” Ptown would do a deal.

3rd, and most important, reading Mike B’s blog will tell you that KP made the statement going into the draft that “Indiana would select a PG”. He would never have said anything even remotely close to this if there was even the smallest possibility that Charlotte was the team picking for us. Think about it.

So, while it is fun to think that KP tossed up smokescreens, faked people out and then “Pritch-slapped” everyone, it is just not true. KP was prepared, he knew the 3rd (and final) of the 3 PG’s he wanted (Bayless, DJ and Westbrook) was going to be picked in the #12 slot… so he made a pre-draft deal with the #11 team, Indiana. That is smart, but not exactly “genius” and it is certainly not a “Pritch-slap” to Indy. If anyone got over in this deal, it was Indy – as they got the man they would have selected at #11 (Rush) AND they got to take on JJ1 with a Diogu/McRoberts swap as well. A no-brainer for Bird in Indy.

If anyone got “Pritch-slapped” it was Sactown. They should have seen this coming and had a better deal in place with Indy, or a different deal in place with the #10 team. Sactown was the ONLY loser in these trades (that is, if they really were going to select a PG, maybe that was a Bird rumor to get KP to give him JJ1?).