It’s good to hear that fans of other teams recognize our front office’s turnaround, and I have to agree that it’s nice to see what they’re doing (understatement of the century).

What I am confused about are the Kool-Aid references… does the stuff make you crazy? Are you hypoglycemic (or is it hyper, I forget which)? I for one am a huge fan of their invisible flavors, where it looks like water, only it tastes like WHAT IS THAT, CHERRY?! It’s a total trip.

Isn’t that the foundation of placing your faith in somone or something? Your faith is only as good as the object which you place it in.

KP, more so than any other front office guy, earns his paycheck. We tend to be jealous of people who make more money than we do, especially when it seems like they have their head up their backside. They get paid big bucks and constantly do things that make you scratch your head. Could you imagine how miserable it MUST be to be an Atlanta Hawks fan? I would not blame any of their most die hard fans if they gave that team the finger and took their loyalties else where. That franchise is like a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t even there.

That has not been the case with KP at all. I don’t believe there is a GM out there that works harder than he does. He is very smart and surrounds himself with good people, who in turn help him to look good. He has a plan, is flexible, and is opportunistic. Should the day come where he leaves this team, (unless he has gone insane or something) it would be a major blow to this franchise, and his replacement would have a lot to live up to.

God bless KP, and God bless America.

he has my social.

well done.

‘cause I trust KP to do the best job he can of whatever it is he does for the Blazers. I trust him 100%. But that’s not to say that I think he’ll actually do the best thing 100% of the time. He’s been on a roll, but he could definitely make some mistakes. We have yet to see how some of his moves are going to play out in the end.

Is that KP will likely look like a genius who is batting 1000% for the next decade or so (which by then his legend will be firmly established and become FACT, not opinion, ala Red Auerbach or Jerry West) because we ALREADY GOT WHAT WE NEED!

We got The Oden, The Roy, The LMA, The Either Best Bench In The League or Future Starters, we’re set, game, match. AND we get to add a player for ‘free’ with cap space.

No matter who we add, or if one of Rudy/Bayless/Travis/Batum/Martell don’t work out, we’re still in amazing shape and KP comes out smelling like roses—of course, he deserves the pleasent scent, as he created his rose garden we’re living and loving in.

There’s not really going to be a situation where KP can be “wrong”. Just different shades of “right” from here on out, since we already GOT our team.

We got questions; we’re too young to not have ‘em. Those will be answered by the players though, with KP reacting to those answers. We will consolidate or trade a few good players for what we need. Even if, say, Bayless gets traded and becomes the next Arenas for someone else, we’re still going to be a great team so no one can argue with the move—they’ll say a scorer like that didn’t fit (which might not be the case, but that is how it shall be seen since we are good).

Basically, he’s set himself up so well that he has to try really hard to make a mistake. There won’t be future draft picks to muck up and get a bust (we’re gonna be mid-to-late 1st round, you can’t call someone a bust there in any meaningful fashion). The free agent/trade we make with cap space might end up not being the best move we coulda’ done, but again: we’re gonna be good either way so it’ll look like the right move no matter what happens.

So, KP can take the next dozen years off, let things sort themself out, and all the while never be ‘wrong’.

Mortimer

I think it’s hard to make up a 1 to 30 ranking of the best GMs and front offices in the league, also because that gets influenced by their scouts, luck (Boston, anybody), etc. But you should be able to roughly group them. Here is a try, probably forgot someone who is new or not that important:

Best of the best:
Kevin Pritchard, Portland
R.C. Buford, Spurs (can’t argue with that many titles, can you?)
Sam Presti, Seattle/OKC (really good for the environment and players he has to work with. Go convert 1 player into 4 first round picks)

Best of the rest:
Joe Dumars (one horrible draft for Darko Milicic, but apart from that he is solid)
Mitch Kupchak (upgraded due to the Pau Gasol trade and managing not to let Kobe go)
Rod Thorn, New Jersey (converted Marbury into J. Kidd, then Kidd into Harris)
Danny Ferry, Cavaliers (reportedly one of the hardest negotiators in the business, worst mistake was signing Hughes)
Bryon Colangelo, Toronto (found Amare Stoudamire for Phoenix, does a solid job for Toronto)

Kind of okay:
Randy Pfund, Miami (acquired Shaq, but made two horrible deals for Ricky Davis in his career)
Donnie Nelson, Dallas (good overall job, but should be achieving much more considering his GM is willing to spend like Allen)
Daryl Morey, Houston (acquired Luis Scola from Suns, Ron Artest deal, and others)
Danny Ainge, Boston (horrible before he pulled off the the trades in 2007)
John Paxon, Chicago (has a really bad owner, and e.g. pulled off a great deal that landed them Deng, but also made mistakes)
Otis Smith, Orlando (Howard > Okafor and other good decisions)
Jeff Bower, New Orleans
Kevin O’Connor, Utah
Ed Stephanski, Philadelphia
Donnie Walsh, New York (good job with Indiana, first actions for Knicks don’t look too good)
Ernie Grunfeld, Washington (found Michael Redd, manages to keep the players he wants)

Barely passing, would have expected more:
Rod Higgins/Michael Jordan, Charlotte
Larry Bird, Indiana
Rick Sund, Atlanta
Chris Mullin, Golden State
Steve Kerr (the other end to the deal with Presti, if Shaq doesn’t work out at all he could be gone quickly)
Whoever now is GM for the Bucks, Milwaukee

Why does he still have a job:
Elgin Baylor, LA Clippers
Chris Wallace, Memphis
Kevin McHale, Timberwolves

Good that he doesn’t have a job anymore:
Isiah Thomas, formerly with New York
Billy Knight, formerly with Atlanta (at least we drafted Webster instead of Paul)

Transcript from KP’s call to Fred Jones.

KP: Fred, buddy, what’s up? It’s KP.
Fred: Hello Mr. Pritchard, I sure am excited to be playing with Greg Oden next year.
KP: Oh yeah, about that. Hold on a sec. I got someone who wants to talk to you. To someone else: Hey baby, you can take a break for a second, come up here and say hi.
Familiar voice: Hi Fred, it’s your wife. I’m with KP and he wanted me to tell you that you’ve been traded to New York, so he and I can be together forever.
KP: Yeah, sorry Fred, I’m boning your wife and I traded you with Zach and Dan to New York for a contract Mr. Allen will buy out and Channing Frye.
Fred: How could you do this to me? My wife? My dream to play for the Blazers? I gave up money to come here!
KP: Yeah, thanks for doing that. Since you already did me one favor, will you do one more for me and take this {expletive deleted} with you to New York? We have this hot sideline reporter coming in who loves party and I plan on hittin’ that.

KP would step over his own mother for a trade exception.