Blazersedge Season Awards: Biggest Disappointment

And that will anger me. I’m gonna say Martell because it is not his fault and that makes it ok to be disappointing.

I was told he was going to make the world stand on its ear. He spent most the season on the bench.

He looked primed for The Leap this year, and either moved sideways or took a small step backwards. He had a lot of focus problems.

I’ll be disappointed if Greg wins this award. He may have earned the “Most underrated” award by the end of the season.

I’ll be disappointed if Greg or TO wins this one, but one of them will. I have to go with Channing Frye, because he was really solid coming off the bench in 07-08, but totally inconsistent this year. I guess part of that has to do with getting less minutes this year, but still.

I didn’t think I’d ever worry about our backup power forward. I now do.

just because of his strong summer league showing. Not that that really should mean much since it is just summer league but he looked pretty darn good.

I would say Travis but I have learned not to expect the leap everyone is pining for year after year.

Just so he can stay humble…heh

for martell having to sit on the bench all year

just because it wasn’t his fault doesn’t mean it’s not disappointing.

I’m sure he feels the same way.

I like the guy more and more off the court but on the court he makes me cringe. He seemed like this year was going to be where he solidified a place on the roster after the end of last season. Instead he just pretty much dug his own grave one jumper at a time.

Oden will probably take this one but that is a little unfair as he could not control injuries or his lack of athleticism coming of the micro fracture surgery. The guy had never even played a game in the NBA. Lots of people built Oden up to an unreasonable level where if he didn’t dominate and get 20/10 a night he would be some kind of failure.

What more needs to be said. Seriously. His game speaks vomits for itself.

Because he wants to leave instead of stay and fight just a litle bit longer.

she went to jared.

He was supposed to be better than Jack out of college. He may yet be, hopefully, but this season?Blake’s replacement couldn’t make the second unit.

I really thought he would be better and I thought all his hard work would pay off, but he seemed to get worse as the season progressed.

wait, most disappointing or disappointed

Ike July 08- “Yes! I’m going to Portland! I can smell the championship now!”

Ike March 09- “Oh man, I gotta go to Sactown? At least they could end up with the top pick in the draft.”

Ike June 09- “Man, Portland was nice.”

For real, I would love to go Bayless or Frye, but have to go with Martell. Oden gives him that vote. I didn’t expect a ton from Oden right away, and he did pretty much around what I was thinking (mind you not what I was hoping for). The reason Oden gives Martell that vote is because if Oden suffered a season ending injury you would be betting your bottom dollar that he wins this one hands down. Besides I love me some Martell and am quite disappointed that I couldn’t see him on the floor.

I know I voted him for best rookie, but I don’t see a contradiction in that…

Bye Bye

This one is a landslide! Expectations vs. production Bayless disappointed almost every time he got on the floor. I think he’ll be fine, but this was a horrible year for him, as a lottery answer to our point guard dilemma.

One vote for Frye

He has so much potential and never seems to live up to it.

not that it was his fault necessarily, but it was pretty darn disappointing not to see him play.

I thought he would thrive in the competition for backup PG, or at least pick up some passing skills, but none of the above. Hopefully next year he’ll be a shoo-in for most improved.

Oden wasn’t awful per minute and I didn’t have the unrealistic expectations that many did. (He didn’t quite meet mine anyway, but oh well.)

Webster is a negative because I don’t hold an injury against him.

Bayless was a guy that was supposed to be top 5 pick level talent and… yeah I don’t think many top 5 picks would be behind Sergio in a lineup.

I could have voted for Martell, but I was not disappointed in his play — only in the fact that he didn’t play. Channing, I thought, based on late last year and the preseason, was ready to show some good stuff this season. Unfortunately, he did have that early injury and then just couldn’t get it going in the brief minutes he played. I still think Channing can be a good player, but he seems to need more and steadier minutes to get in his groove, and — barring injury to LMA — that doesn’t seem likely in Portland. Great guy, of course, as everybody agrees.

We had nothing at the back up PF which cost us a few times, including in the playoffs

Not that he played horribly, though he wasn’t at his best. I just really hoped he would be a contributor cause I hate to see him leave the team.

1. Although it’s not just his fault he didn’t get the minutes he needed to show what he can do and develop

2. Martell, though again it’s not his fault

3. Greg, mixing good performance with underwhelming aspects

If only one of them would stick out as a bad guy, and I’d fire away.

They all tie for “not disappointing.”

I was hoping this vote would change by the end of the season, but he is the biggest letdown for me because:

1.Bayless showed his stuff in summer league, but it was summer league, i know how nate is fickle about PGs, and i knew segio and rudy would roll together a lot.

2. Martell just hurt is foot, how can you be disapointed in an injured person, you can be upset they can’t play, but the onus shouldn’t go on them

3. Oden is still getting over his surgery and is a rookie, and still made an impact on the game.

Frye doesn’t really have any good excuse, He is not a rookie. I didn’t expect him to produce like LMA or Roy, but I did expect to see improvement. At Center, he didn’t protect the paint, at PF, he didn’t make his jumpers. He fouls too much. Out of all the people on a short leash by Nate, Frye deserved it more than any blazer this season.

with the logjam at the 1, but still thought he was going to be much more of an impact player this year.

It COULD be:

Martell (for reasons beyond his control)

Oden (due to the HUGE expectations that came with him), or

Bayless (the highest pick of the four rookies, who ended up playing the least)

You could even say Travis due to his playoff disappearance,

but I’m going to have to go with Channing Frye (aka DP – CD). I had high hopes for him, but he seemed to start the season in a funk and never pulled out of it.

i was told he would improve this year, not regress

I never got to see him play and I wonder where he’d have been at and the team would have been at if he had played.

I admit I was also disappointed with greg. not because of HIS performance but because the Blazer brass hyped him up so much, i was expecting more. He actually performed fairly well at what I expected BEFORE the hype. He’s good and amazing and still VERY raw. I love that Frye was very honest about that during a summer interview last year.

The only reason I didn’t pick Bayless is because he’s a rookie.

Oden was fine but Channing just didn’t appear to care…

Looking back (which these awards are focused on) he should done something with RLEC. PG or PF would have helped down the stretch and in the playoffs… so ok he’s only batting .900 now.

Personally I am shocked he’s not running away with this one. How CAN’T he be considered a disappointment so far??

I realize the expectations were out-of-this-galaxy, but he was the #1 OVERALL pick! When I hear people saying hopefully or defensively that he can “still be a 15/10 guy on a great time” that kills me. You can’t remove the expectations from being the #1 overall pick.

I think Greg is a great guy and I sincerely hope this time next year he’s running away with the most improved award. But I think we have to be honest, this year = disappointment.

It has to be, right? Former No. 1pick Michael Olowokandi had better numbers in his first season!

But why?

Work ethic?
Coaching?
Recovery time?
Mental toughness?

You can guess what it is but you have to admit we don’t really know. We hear stories but only he knows, and even then, he may not know.

One thing you can’t argue is that he is in the right situation here in Portland for success. The support he gets here in Portland would be hard to match if he were in any other NBA city. The opportunity is there.

What can we do?

Wait and see… just wait and see…

Doesn’t matter if it was a factor beyond his control. Doesn’t matter if his loss was Nic’s growth opportunity. I think there’s good arguments for some of the other player’s mentioned, but on a personal level, that disappointed me the most.

But I’m going to have to go with the injury to Martell.

GO and Travis did about as well as I expected them to. They did fine.

I didn’t expect as much from Bayless as most, and he couldn’t get the minutes he’d need to develop, so I’m not disappointed that he was unable to produce.

Frye dealt us all a crushing blow in the Celtics game in Boston. He had been getting regular minutes before that game, but he basically didn’t bring any grit or professionalism to that game and it cooled Nate on playing him. He basically ended his tenure as a Blazer during that game, he will be replaced with someone who competes every game, regardless of whether or not the performance is there.

Still, not having Martell all year was a huge blow.

I don’t like him. At all. I liked McBob, I liked T-Green, I liked Von Wafer, but I really really do not like Ruffin.

He just faded away

Greg was a dissappointment only becuase he was hyped soooo much. Travis never really developed that “got it” mentality to his game and pretty much looked like the same player as last year and I had high hopes for him. I really though Bayless would be able to take the back up point spot even with his lack of point skills just because he is a Nate guy, tuff as nails and ready to play. But Jerryd just couldn’t seem to make the players around him better when he was on the floor, that was a dissappointment. I guess my biggest dissapointment is not being able to see what Martell could do this year. I was excited for him coming into this season. But the offset is that I was introduced to Batum, the future at the SF position

I expected to see the growth but didn’t get to. Not his fault but there were high hopes and expectations over last season and pre-season. I had no expectations for Bayless and few expectations of Oden. They were both rookies. Frye might be the next closest but my expectations of him were tempered knowing the Aldridge was going to get all the playing time.

My knee-jerk reaction is Bayless.

Then there’s Oden’s fouls which would take him out as he was just getting going…sigh….

But if “disappointment” is truly it’s definition, “to defeat the fulfillment of (hopes, plans, etc.” – then I would have to say Martell.

He came in best shape in his life, was leaping out of the building and was a ball of fire seemingly ready to make his mark. It wasn’t his fault, but, in keeping with the definiton…

A buffet of liver, cream corn, tofu and stale rolls (burp!) was Frye’s season. Too bad, he cost himself a ton of money on his next contract.

Finally a postseason award that is being debated! I vote for Frye because in the off season I read a ton about how hard Channing was training and how he was in phenomenal shape. I realize he had the injury at the beginning of camp that set him back some, but for all intents and purposes he was healthy throughout the season and didn’t have much to show for it on the court.

I don’t give it to Greg because I think the expectations were unrealistic. I predicted him to struggle with fouls as most big men do their first years in the league. He still changed games and helped us win games. While he may not have lived up to all the hype (yet), I think the gap between realistic expectations and on court production is smaller than what it was for Frye.

Travis was a contributor the entire season. Say what you want about his style of play, defense, and/or rebounding, but at the end of the day he provided what the Blazers asked of him and for the most part what I expected from him.

Bayless may not have produced as much as people wanted but he was a rookie learning arguably a new position (distributing PG vs. scoring guard). I think most people realized he was going to require some development time. Even still, he had moments of valuable production on the court.

we were lead to believe by the organization and players that Oden was a man child, dominating practices and in general being a juggernaut. He was anything but dominating, unless you think leading the league in fouls per minute played is dominating. Frye is a thin shooting PF who can’t really shoot, but we knew this. Bayless is a 6’3" rookie shooting guard being forced to play the point, how does that not equal bench warmer? Martell didn’t get a chance to play, so how is he even in the equation for most disappointing? The player who was pumped up to be the biggest addition to our team flatly failed to impress. He has a lot of work to be doing, and it shouldn’t be done in summer school at THE Ohio State. I think Oden will work out eventually, but I’m not going to pretend like I’m not disappointed he’s not the center he way hyped up to be.

1) Oden: From one perspective, a definite dissapointment, especially considering how he was sold. However, despite his constant foul trouble and limited minutes, he still had very good averages for a rookie Center, especially a rookie coming off of surgery, and suffering a couple of in-season setbacks.

Dissapoint-o-meter: 6/10

2) Channing Frye: No question, Frye was not very good this year. However, he wasn’t good last year either until he stepped in for an injured LMA, and in extended minutes (critical for a rythm shooter like LMA or Frye) did pretty darn well. This year Aldridge played the most minutes on the team, and Channing never got enough playing time to find his stroke. I wish him the best, and next year I see him starting for a new team and averaging 15-5.

Dissapoint-o-Meter: 8.5/10

3) Jerryd Bayless: After setting the Summer League on fire, Bayless was supposed to come in and challenge for at least the backup point guard spot. Instead, he lost out to Sergio (except for brief spurts) and looked for all the world like a rookie point guard. That wouldn’t have been such a shock if he hadn’t just blown the SL competition back to the D-league.

Dissapoint-o-Meter: 8/10

4) Travis Outlaw: It feels a little weird to call a player who pretty much matched his totals from the previous season, while also adding the 3-point shot to his arsenal as disapointing, but Outlaw was supposed to go into the season as the starter, which he did. For one game. I expected more from Travis, you expected more from Travis, heck Travis probably expected more from Travis. I really though he was going to take the proverbial “next step”.

Dissapoint-o-Meter: 9/10

don’t get me wrong – I <3 TROUT! But I really expected him to have the kind of year where you could look back and say “He really stepped it up this year!” But, ummm… No I can’t say that, and it really disappoints me.

Because I.am a . fanboy.

I thought this year would be the break-out, now I think it won’t ever come. His playoff “performance” didn’t help.

not his fault of course, but he was supposed to shore up the SF permanantly

Granted, neither got the necessary minutes to jumpstart their game, but unfortunately for Frye, Bayless gets a free pass on that being a rookie and 3rd on the depth chart @ PG/SG… Frye basically played his way out of productive minutes with a weak opening to the season, and while I like the guy and have seen him do some dynamite things both on the court and off, his lack of steady production is why Channing gets my vote.

I hope Channing will return to Portland after his career is over, because he fits the city like a glove, and vice-versa.

But Channing Frye is my biggest disappointment in 2008-09

and he had plenty of chances to win minutes, and couldn’t capitalize on them. So my most disappointing (ex-)Blazer is Ike Diogu. – Elgin

but the guy could barely make it 10 minutes without nearly fouling out. All his beautiful dunks will never be seen when he is on the bench.

It was a tossup for Frye, and Bayless also, for reasons already outlined by many others.

I really wish we could see what we could have been with him, even if it meant we would have to decide on him, Batum, and Travis.

he should take this one hands-down. he was a favorite of mine last year, but his game left a lot to be desired this year. not saying it’s all his fault, but it was definitely a disappointing year for him.

but that was less disappointment and more just a damned shame.

Hate to say it, because I love the guy (he fits this town like a pvc rubber glove), but I have to say that Frye was the biggest disappointment. Our lack of a solid REAL backup PF hurt us in certain crucial situations…

I’ll be sad to see him go…really…

Hard to live up to all the hype. Did well at times but I admit I excpected him to be the man from the first tip of the season

Sure I was disappointed in Webster, Oden, and Bayless. But in those cases you can attribute it to outside circumstances (injury, recovering from injury, youth/new position). With Frye, all we heard about was how hard he was working at bulking up, improving his outside shot, etc., all with a hint of desperation as he was entering a contract year stuck being the emerging LaMarcus Aldridge.

Very disappointing… but I really like the guy and I hope he can emerge from this to have an effective career whether it’s here or elsewhere.

Frye for President; and somebody elses bench.

he’s had the PT.. he’s been in the league long enough.. he was barely good enough to secure the backup PG position.. and drove Nate to rightfully just pretend there isn’t a backup PG

im not disappointed with oden because i wasn’t one of those loser oden fanboys.. i think oden did his thing and i’ll judge him and bayless in the near future.. not this year..

the player everyone wanted to do well… the one who showed such fire and progress at the end of last season.

He was gonna be so good and he still might, but he sure wasn’t this year.

not really his fault, but disappointing

I thought he’d be a better version of Jarrett Jack, but he didn’t even come close. Here’s to next year, Rex!

because you can’t blame Martell and Greg for the injuries, and Bayless for the lack of pt

Frye and Outlaw comes in second and third

I was not disappointed in any one player this season really. This team overachieved too much for me to take that stance. However, I was disappointed that we had ANOTHER season ending injury, this time to Martell. I was geared up for how many open looks he was going to drain with the attention that had to be paid to Oden in the post and a driving Roy. I was also very curious how he was going to perform with Rudy after the Sac preaseason game. All of this, along with a healthy obsession with Martell in the first place, culminated in me being disappointed at this stupid foot injury.

What a disappointment that Toronto game was… Had he not be hurt again, he could have been shooting us past the Rockets with the shots that Trav was missing.

That my friends is a disappointment.

Go make me some Fries, Frye

With the beginning of Oden’s career, Joel being a servicable backup, and Aldridge getting big minutes, I knew he was the odd man out.

Outlaw didn’t disappoint me because after 5 years in the league, everybody here should know what to expect from him. Nobody makes “the leap” after playing 5 years. And to prove me right, he had his 3rd consecutive year with almost identical PER figures as the two prior years.

What disappointed me most was Bayless, especially after Summer League. I know summer league results should be taken with a grain of salt, but really, his play was pretty bad. After all we hyped him up to be, he couldn’t deliver.

The Blazers had an amazing season and I could not find a single thing to be disappointed with on the team. To me, this year was an assessment and experience year. The team accomplished that and grew from it. This last year was a big step up. I hope the lessons learned will produce more mature and more ready players to play playoff basketball in the future. Each player and coach can take something into summer to work on to be better next year. The fans, as well. have some work to do to understand. Watching the Conference Finals games illustrates how much more physical the referees allow the games to be and the work still to be done to get there in the future. These are very good teams and the intensity level they maintain is not where we have played yet. We have that capability on the Blazers, I believe we will be ready to play in the Conference Finals next year.

I am not calling anyone out here for what you say. I understand the need to vent the energy impact of losing to the Rockets. I appreciate your passion and desire for championships and share them as well. If a driver wanted to race at the Indy 500 he/she would need to take lessons in race driving and race in lower-level for years to hone the skills and earn a ride in the big one. Likewise in basketball the NBA playoffs seem to be another level akin to moving from high school to college or college to the NBA regular season. The game is too fast at first at each next level. Then the players make the adjustments and it slows down to enable consistent success. So I direct my passion and desire on seeing the adjustments already made and the huge progress this last year and hoping for a continued growth and adjustment in the coming year.

Especially in the playoffs, but if anything I thought this year was a step backwards for him, when I really expected him to step up and become that (key word here) CONSISTENT third scorer for the Blazers, and also learn to d up and rebound a little bit. But he was as inconsistent as ever and he continued to be hit and miss on the rebounds and defensive end. After six year a guy should get it. I just don;t think Travis truly ever will. He is probably at the peak of his production and learning the last couple of years and so we should trade him now while his value is highest.

As for Bayless and Oden they are both rookies and so how can they disappoint? Anyone who had any expectation for either that was more than, “they will be rookies” has a problem with their expectations not with Jeryd or Greg.

As for Frye, it is hard to not disappoint when you minutes are completely random and inconsistent and there is absolutely ZERO commitment to him. I love the guy, but he needs to move on for his own sake. He can always live the off season in P-Town.

I think he played great, I just really wanted him to be the next Shaq…. I feel awful for voting him

I thought Aldridge was the biggest disappointment. I had high hopes for him entering this season, for him to take that next step forward and improve his game across the board — becoming a 20+ppg scorer, to improve his rebounding, to get his defense up.

I thought he’d become an out-and-out All-Star and he wasn’t that.