We do have a reputation for standing by our injured guys lately it seems.
All three of the options for the last spot were great guys I would like on the team, but Mills is more interesting if just because he is more of an “unknown” entity. We can home for something special to happen. And KP has been doing pretty well on spotting talent. Plus, any injury to one of our points could provide an opportunity for the kid, similar to Batum, who nothing much was expected of when Webster went down. Could happen, and I like having him on tap.

I’m sorry, jscot, but I’ve got to stand by that line of reasoning. Your conjecture is all warm and fuzzy, but I think it completely misses the mark.

There seems to be a little bit of damage control this summer over the idea floating around the league that Portland thinks of it’s players only as assets.

The Darius Miles situation got a little sticky because people had a hard time believing KP was sincere when he said he wouldn’t play someone who might risk sever health problems down the road. A few months latter Pritchard passes on the “perfect” backup PF in the draft who happens to risk sever knee issues down the road. Coincidence or strategic marketing strategy?

Now Patty Mills and Jeff Pendergraph both get injured and the Blazers treat their situations as gently as can be. Deep down you know KP would probably burn someone’s house down if he thought it would improve the team, and yet here he is, making shaky basketball decisions because it’s the “right” thing to do.

Sergio Rodriguez is a much, much, much, much better PG than Patty Mills, and I am not a Sergio fan, at all. If they don’t need Sergio, then they certainly don’t need Mills, especially now that they signed Andre. It would have made more sense to just keep Sergio around another year rather than PAYING someone to take him. If they really wanted this much PG depth Mills Sergio would still be here. There really wasn’t any need from a basketball standpoint to get rid of him except that it built good will. Spanish players like Sacramento for some reason and Pritchard seemed determined to send him to a better situation. The only person who really benefited from that trade was Sergio.

It’s almost like KP is trying to say, " Hey look at me, I don’t think about players like they’re objects! They’re people damn-it and I want what’s best for them. Look at all the humanitarian work I’ve done this summer. I paid for Sergio’s new home. I signed Pendergraph when I didn’t have to. I signed Mills even though he’s really terrible, doesn’t fit, and has a gimpy foot. I passed on Blair because I truly do care about my player’s knees. I’m a stand up guy. I have a heart."

Pritchard could have drafted Blair and cemented his status as a draft day guru. You know it, I know, and he certainly knew it. He would have been a media darling for the next two months. Portland would have received an A+ on it’s off-season moves in ever single article on the planet. But he risked coming off as insincere and arrogant. He just made a big stink about retiring Miles for knee problems that aren’t nearly as worrisome as Blair’s. Teams have reportedly been less willing to deal with Portland, partly because of Pritchard’s perceived Golden boy status.

Maybe, just maybe, this is about repairing Portland’s reputation as cold calculating, emotionless, Vulcans.

But I am more pleased with this move because it doesn’t give Nate the temptation to play Ime. I would rather that time go to Martell, Rudy, Batum, etc… And you know Nate would use Ime. You know it.

But as a human being, I like retaining Patty Mills, and I would like my team’s management a little less if they hadn’t done so.

[Emphasis added.]

its because he leaves the most cap space.

this isn’t a conspiracy theory.

Blazersedge.com is going nuts

S

Next year Oden will get a max contract.
Roy: 15+
LA: 13+
Oden 15+.
Three players more than 43 millions.

Next season Bayless, Rudy and Nick could cost about 18 millions, IMO.

We´re talking about 6 players costing more than 60 millions.

And the Blazers still need to fill the roster with 9 players, at least 3 or 4 reliable ones if they want to contend for the title, and the cheaper way is finding something out of the draft. That´s why they have 3 rookies this season and Claver, Koponen and Freeland in Europe.

whoever is the 15th man is unlikely to play a lot if any, so you might as well take the person with the most long term potential, or at least someone who can someday make an impact. plus as dave said, the 15th man is the GM pick, and that will definitely be the guy KP drafted.

We drafted Mills, albeit with a late second rounder. We invited him to camp. So before all this happened somebody liked him.

One thing you can say for certain with what has happened with Pendergraph, Cuningham and now Mills, and even going back last season with Batum, is The Blazers have a lot of confidence in their scouting and talent evaluation. If we draft a guy, there’s a reason we drafted him, even if he’s a deep second rounder.

So we gave our last roster spot to Mills, injured and without the benefit of being able to see him compete in pre-season.

For Mills as they say, “Somebody up there likes him” be it KP, McMillan or Allen. I’m guessing unless this REALLY irks McMillan, eventually we will get a sanitized comment from KP concerning the signing of Mills over Udoka and Collins. I’m sure someone named Quick will ask, sometype of answer will be forthcoming. Ultimately it seems The Blazer protocal in situations like this is to argue and debate behind the scenes but eventually show an united front. We may never get anything but No Comment from McMillan and a Press release like statement from KP if this was a last minute end run overide by Mr. Paul Allen.

I’d like to think it was as nice as your speculation. That it was all The Blazers doing the “right thing” but I don’t buy it. Somebody (probably Allen) really wants to keep Mills. Plus as far as reputation being helped throughout the league and with agents? You could look at the flip side and say this is damaging. Up to the last moment, it really sounded like this was a active competition for the 15th spot between an active Udoka and Collins. The mantra was that their play would determine who got the spot, Well it certainly wasn’t Mills “play” that earned him the spot. In the future, if I’m the agent of a marginal, fringe role player type of guy, do I recommend he competes on The Blazer Pre-Season roster for a spot? How could I look at the guy and say, “Well you’ve got a chance to make the roster if you can impress McMillan and Kevin Pritchard” when the history is that evidently the guy you need to make sure is on your side is Paul Allen?

Allen has every right encumbent as an owner to make whatever decisions he wants to make. Plus his history has been as an involved and active owner, but not one that interferes to the point of detriment. In the past the feeling expressed was that Allen has become over the many years a pretty sharp basketball mind and worked in concert with his management, not inspite of his hired management.

I’ll give Paul Allen this one, because A-I have no choice, B-He is a great owner and deserves it, and C-Maybe we might all find out he was right about Mills.

But I’d like to know how upset McMillan may or maynot be about this, McMillan has a lot of pride and if memory serves me right he left Seattle inpart because he felt a disconnect between himself, ownership and management. Have we kept Mills at the cost of alienating McMIllan?

I suspect KP is too much of a company man for us to ever hear if he really was for or against keeping Mills. In the end, he will make the statement most politically correct for the franchise.

why not keep Mills? We are talkin’ Michael Ruffin/Ike Diogu/Shavlick Randolph position here…whomever fills the spot WILL NOT PLAY unless we are getting blown out, or are facilitating a blow out. May as well save the money and keep the player with the most upside. I love Ime, but he really would be a locker room presence only, and we now have Juwan and Andre for that.

So what is the mystery? The Blazers are the fricking Minnesota Timberwolves and need an intervention.

Wow I think this is going a little overboard for the 15TH ROSTER SPOT.

I figured all along he would be kept even before Ime and Jason were playing in camp. The blazers brought him here to check on the surgery and I felt they would want to sign him because he was hurt playing for Portland.

Thanks for posting it!!