Doctors, not GM's, vetoed Blair draft.

Apparently team doctors have the power to prevent a General Manager from drafting a player.

"More than 1 NBA exec. texted me curse tonight for team doctors refusal to draft DeJuan Blair with bad knees. Spur had 19 boards for Rockets"-Wojnarowski

over 2 years ago Nick Van Excellent 33 comments 0 recs |

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I still would be worried about his knees. lets talk again after the season and see if he has had a career ending injury. I think everyone thought he might be fine for a while but long term they are really worried about his knees. If i remember correctly he knees locked just destroyed on MRI’s

I hope I can get a bunch of championships, like 15. " - Greg Oden

by mxpx5678 on Oct 8, 2009 3:09 PM PDT reply actions

No they don't. He just had ACL surgery as a teenager, and because the family couldn't afford it doctors just inserted a graft.

Same problem with Carl Landry, Leon Powe, some football players. All of whom perform well. It’s a red flag, but it’s the decision of the GM to take the risk. And the risk-reward in that case is mighty good. The Blazers problem could have been that they already had a number of players with knee problems in the past, and management wants to sleep tight.

"I think he can still play" - Kevin Pritchard on Juwan Howard

by Norsktroll on Oct 8, 2009 3:13 PM PDT up reply actions

Doesn't always work

Powe, at least, had a major knee injury within three full years of being in the league. We’ll see how he looks on the Cavs this year now. So you’re not only risking the fact that maybe the guy might not be that good (a risk for all rookies, although arguably less for Blair), but also that you only have him for two years. If the Blazers really think Pendergraph and Dante both have a decent chance to be good it could make sense to take them over Blair, even if their odds of becoming great are less than Blair’s just because they could be decent for a long time rather than flame out quickly.

For the Spurs, though, it’s pointless to plan past about 2011 now anyways, so even if his career’s done before Claver even makes it over, it doesn’t matter to them.

by Royster on Oct 8, 2009 3:30 PM PDT up reply actions

it’s the decision of the GM to take the risk

Exactly. RC Buford rolled the dice. KP stuck to his board. Which GM has the trophies?

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Oct 8, 2009 6:09 PM PDT up reply actions

"Which GM has the trophies?"

Hmm, let me venture a guess …

R.C. Buford!

Stupid people have stupid ideas.

by AK1984 on Oct 8, 2009 10:59 PM PDT up reply actions

Silly comparison

He’s been at it for years, and has had a great team.

KP started with a 20 win team which has increased by 10+ wins a year. Five years from now, if he doesn’t have any trophies, you can ask which GM has the trophies. At this point, it’s silly.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 8, 2009 11:13 PM PDT up reply actions

"[...] you can ask which GM has the trophies"

I didn’t ask the question, for two4larue did that.

Yet, I sure as heck went ahead and answered it.

Stupid people have stupid ideas.

by AK1984 on Oct 8, 2009 11:40 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah, I know

I was calling BOTH of you silly. I wanted to respond to him, but since you answered….

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 9, 2009 2:25 AM PDT up reply actions

I agree.

But… this is the first I’ve heard that doctors actually prevented GM’s from drafting a player. Clearly KP has been looking for a backup power forward, so I guess it’s possible that it was the doctors who prevented him from drafting Blair.

It doesn’t really matter, and I think drafting Blair may have been a mistake anyway, but if Blair was passed over because of doctors orders, then all the GM’s who passed are in the clear.

KP wouldn’t have a black mark on his record even if Blair is successful, and the criticism he gets for not taking Blair is misguided. Basically it just goes to show that we don’t always have the full story. Making judgments about what happens behind closed doors is tough when you don’t have all the info.

by Nick Van Excellent on Oct 8, 2009 4:01 PM PDT up reply actions

At the time of the draft

The official word was they were not even considering blair and had not thoroughly examined him because they did not consider him falling to them (especially with 31 and 33) to be remotely plausible. By the time he did fall, without their own look it would seem like he might be completely screwed up.

by lurtsman on Oct 8, 2009 4:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Makes sense.

But that’s not even remotely KP’s fault.

by Nick Van Excellent on Oct 8, 2009 4:55 PM PDT up reply actions

I thought at the time it sounded like a semi-cover story to excuse it

I remember the same thing, when asked about Blair, the talked away the reason by saying they didn’t think he’d fall to them and they had pinpointed who they wanted. Now, in actuality, they’ve changed who they wanted to draft in the late 1st and 2nd rounds based on who falls to them, and they would have done their homework on Blair.

But, it’s a quick excuse to say instead of saying “we didn’t want to take the risk”. They can’t insult the player, after all.

What they said could be true, but with how much our guys prepare for the draft and do their homework I can’t imagine that it was true.

Morty

by Mortimer on Oct 8, 2009 5:18 PM PDT up reply actions

Nate said Blair "wasn't on the board"

That could’ve been due to a medical red flag, or the scouts not bothering to do their due diligence (because KP wasn’t planning to madke a trade up to acquire DB, and they didn’t expect him to slide down to the 20s…)

OTOH, on draft night Wheels said that Portland was interested in Hansbrough, and afterwards Quick reported that KP had several deals “fall through” on draft day. This could have been efforts to “trade up” and select Psycho T (who worked out at the PF, on the same day as Pend/’Ham)

This is what I said before the draft, and it hasn’t changed: Portland needs a backup 4 who can push LMA. (Millsap was a good “target”) Aldridge has a tendency to “float” and not mix it up inside (the word ‘finese" comes to mind, similar to Mychal Thompson, back in the day) His backup shouldn’t be a player with the same kind of tendency, like Frye or Outlaw or even Howard. LMA’s backup should be a banger/beast like…Dejuan Blair

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Oct 8, 2009 6:23 PM PDT up reply actions

I do agree with all of that

But I also agree with, from what we know about Blair’s knees, that it may be too risky and perhaps even unethical to rely on his knees not exploding.

I want a backup rough housin’ banger ruckus rocker type too, to push LMA and to give us a different look some nights. I don’t want a poor man’s LMA, I want a poor man’s Charles Oakley!

Morty

by Mortimer on Oct 8, 2009 7:58 PM PDT up reply actions

Scouts not bothering to do their due diligence?

That’s just crazy. If they tried to trade up for Psycho T, then they were definitely trying to get into the range where Blair might fall. If you are trying to trade into that range, you most certainly will do your due diligence on all the players who might be there.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 8, 2009 11:16 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah

I don’t get that statement. It implies that everyone in the organization forgot how a draft works.

by tominhawaii on Oct 9, 2009 7:05 AM PDT up reply actions

Hansbrough worked out in Portland

Blair did not.

Allegedly, KP and the scouts tried to move up to draft Tyler, and they eventually drafted 2 of the other bigs from that same pre-draft workout

That tells me they had certain players on their board, and possibly they suffered from collective “tunnel vision” on draft night. DeJuan slipped by 31 and 33 because the eyes in Portland’s draft room were fixated on the guys they had actually worked out. No one thought Blair would be available, so he didn’t agree to workout for Portland, and the on draft night he was “out of sih, out of mind”

Now, if the news leaks out that there was a tremendous debate in the war room about taking Blair, and that the brass voted 4-3 to take Pendergraph instead, perhaps I could deal with that. But I suspect otherwise, based on Nate’s comments (“Blair wasn’t on our board”)

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Oct 9, 2009 6:51 PM PDT up reply actions

Blair wasn't on our board

because due diligence had already been done, and the decision had been made not to take him no matter what.

He wouldn’t have been taken if he was available when we picked Mills, either.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 10, 2009 1:37 AM PDT up reply actions

If we had a back up for who could push LA, then we'd be too deep and have to trade one of them

By not drafting Blair, trading him becomes a non-issue.

by tominhawaii on Oct 9, 2009 7:03 AM PDT up reply actions

Yeah, if we had Blair

someone would be saying we should thin the herd.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 10, 2009 1:38 AM PDT up reply actions

Team doctors have no official veto power

An owner or GM might say “our doctor advised against it” but still go with the risk.

Eddy Curry has a heart disease that could kill him at any moment, but he can still play in the NBA, he just can’t get insured in the standard group contract. League doctors checked out Blair at the pre-draft camp in Chicago along with every other player, and provided their findings to the teams and the league. Apparently he was deemed fit enough to be considered for the draft. And San Antonio took him, not exactly a team that is known to be not thorough in their draft preparations.

"I think he can still play" - Kevin Pritchard on Juwan Howard

by Norsktroll on Oct 8, 2009 5:25 PM PDT up reply actions

They have veto power if the owner gives it to them

because he’s wary of paying big money for a player who can’t play.

So it may well be that some GMs couldn’t pick Blair.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 8, 2009 6:02 PM PDT up reply actions

I can see that for a 1st rounder, especially a higher one

but with the non guaranteed 2nd rounders, it’s hard to believe. Plus, it’s hard to imagine that if a GM felt strongly about taking a guy that he wouldn’t be able to convince an owner to take a guy as long as he had all his appendages.

I’d guess that most teams have a policy to not take guys that have been flagged, but I can’t imagine that a GM is unable to override it if he has good reason. I think most GMs just didn’t feel that strongly about Blair to stick their neck out with the owner to make an exception to the policy.

by Royster on Oct 8, 2009 6:08 PM PDT up reply actions

It depends obviously.

KP is in a tricky position because he just made a big stink about medically retiring a guy with bad knees. Arguably one with less worrisome issues.

If he ignores the doctor’s advice on Blair, maybe it looks bad that he was so adamant about their expertise when it came to Darius, especially if an appeal is still ongoing. Certainly a possibility that he didn’t want to open that can of worms, risking the perception that he’s a hypocrite.

In the end an owner could certainly give the Doctors the power to veto. It certainly sounds like that’s what happened in some cases.

by Nick Van Excellent on Oct 8, 2009 6:20 PM PDT up reply actions

I agree

When you add all the other knee injuries that have recently occurred on the Blazer’s roster, adding another guy with potential for knee injuries seems like bad juju.

by tominhawaii on Oct 9, 2009 7:07 AM PDT up reply actions

the irony, of course

is that they took the “lesser” injury risk in Pendergraph, and he suffered the hip impingement

meanwhile, Blair is grabbing 19 boards in 22 minutes

When reached 39 years of following Portland basketball you have, be as passionate of the Trail Blazers you will not!

by two4larue on Oct 9, 2009 6:54 PM PDT up reply actions

How is that ironic?

Players get injured. One has nothing to do with the other.

It’s funny, I was playing basketball with my father today. He doesn’t have an ACL in one of his knee because he blew it out like fifteen years ago while playing basketball during a lunch break at work.

He knows nothing of Blair and barely follows basketball anymore. I told him about the situation and asked him what he thought as someone who has a similar injury. He gave Blair a year and a half before he has serious knee problems. He said he feels fine 99.9 percent of the time. He can run in a straight line and jump fine. He still kills me at basketball and tennis, but every once in a while he loses stability and his leg twists.

Ticking time bomb.

by Nick Van Excellent on Oct 9, 2009 7:43 PM PDT up reply actions

Old men with bad knees

can still whip the youngsters sometimes. Old age FTW.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 10, 2009 1:39 AM PDT up reply actions

Doesn’t he have no ACL/MCLs? Nothing to tear!

by 50backflips on Oct 8, 2009 3:11 PM PDT reply actions

Either way I can understand

The Blazers had the situation with Miles, then Oden. I don’t think any of us would have liked to see the heat come down if we had two injury prone guys out of the rotation.

The Thunder have taken a different approach by taking guys who seem to be physically rock solid. They seem to be the only other “young” team in others minds. I would hate to see them have more success because they kept drafting and keeping solid assets while we were keeping up after injury after injurt that did not materialize to deep playoff success.

Land Rondo.

by loyal_blazer on Oct 8, 2009 10:15 PM PDT reply actions

Durant missed 8 games last year with a twisted ankle - just like any player could

They have Shaun Livingston on the roster, whose knee could implode again and whose legs are still rail thin.
Late 2008 first round pick D.J. White missed all but 7 games due to a treatment for a benign tumor.
Desmond Mason – now in Sacramento – only played in half the games.

It doesn’t seem like OKC has a special strategy to find more healthy players.

"I think he can still play" - Kevin Pritchard on Juwan Howard

by Norsktroll on Oct 9, 2009 2:26 AM PDT up reply actions

how much of a risk was it ?

he was taken with a 2nd round draft pick. most 2nd round picks don’t last a year in the league. heck i’d guess many never suit up at all.

if blair has a career ending in his 3rd year in the nba he would still probably have produced more than most 2nd round picks if he continues to be what many people have forecast healthy.

i don’t think it was a risky pick at all.

by colinmarsh on Oct 8, 2009 10:26 PM PDT reply actions

There's the ethical question involved

With Miles, one thing KP said was he didn’t want it on his conscience if Darius blew out his knee. Some people thought he was blowing smoke, but it’s a legitimate ethical concern.

It depends on how great the risk of injury is.

I can tell you how to make an Excel spreadsheet that proves Portland wins 62 games this year.

by jscot on Oct 8, 2009 11:18 PM PDT up reply actions