Definitely not just to get Claver. Regardless, I am stoked on Pendy. I think he will go down in history as one of the top 8 players in this draft (a la Boozer). Jut a hunch, but I am psyched to have him.

You and Ben have already made 4,312 posts today. Call it a night.

This guy proved at the Olympics that he is ready to contribute (20 points against CP3 — check Paul’s comments post game). He might not have the hyped name of some of the other top school studs, but he will be a player and KP knows this.

1. We moved from 24 to 22 because it was a no-brainer opportunity. It cost us nothing except low 2nd round picks (you can always buy more if you want them for some reason). There was no reason to suspect a grand plan for the 22 pick, just a chance someone might be available at 22 that wouldn’t be at 24.

2. No one in this draft would be a starter for the Blazers next year, so there was no reason to try to trade up into the high picks.

3. At 22 there was no one left in the draft that would help us that we couldn’t get at 31, so we drafted the best Euro we could stash for a couple of years. Standard operating procedure. No reason to suspect it is part of some other deal later.

4. We moved up to 31 in the 2nd round because KP must have worried that Pendergraph might be taken at 31 or 32. The surprise to many Blazer fans was just how little Sergio’s trade value turned out to be. I’ll bet it was quite a surprise to him too!

5. We passed on Blair because KP thought Cunningham had a better chance to succeed. GM’s usually know more about players than fans.

6. KP thought Mills was the best available player at 55, so we took him. He will probably never wear a Blazer uniform except in the summer league.

What’s so complicated about any of this? I guess it’s been so long that many have forgotten what it’s like to be a relatively high playoff team in the draft.

we (the collective Blazer GM) voted to trade out of the first round.

As we saw last night, there wasn’t a lot of value placed on trading draft picks….so KP went one better and did the Eurostash. That’s why he’s KP and we’re here. He thinks this through at another level.

It is impossible to say that KP was “smart” during this draft. We will not know how “smart” he was until a few years from now when we find out exactly what Claver is all about. Our second round picks were good picks but not “smart” picks. They were simply the best players available at a need position. End of story.

Is the apparent implication that either Pendergraph or Cunningham > Blair, since we drafted the former and passed on the latter. With all due respect, I haven’t heard any convincing explanations why. The two explanations I have heard are:

1. 30 GMs can’t be wrong/are less likely to be wrong than any number of non-professionals, and injuries/lack of size/weight problems were sufficient to scare them away until the Spurs bit.
2. The management team literally blinded themselves and methodologically omitted Blair from consideration.

Has anyone advanced another notion? Anyone find either of these explanations as dubious as me?

I’ll save my judgment for:

A. when this kid manages to make it on the roster

B. within a month after the free agent signing period has started and we do upgrade our roster

C. when a trade is made before opening night to upgrade our roster

I respectfully disagree that this was a smart move. On a scale of one to ten, one being I think I’ll marry Cortney Love and 10 being I was smart enough to buy Texaco stock the day after GWB was elected in 2000, I’d put this at about a six. Nothing in the draft at 22 was going to make a difference for our team anyway, I was just hopeful they were going to sell the pick or trade it away along with Sergio. Bummer.

The real question then is why did the Blazers pass on Blair – they could have had him 3 times. You either trust team management or don’t. So if you take Blair out of the equation, did they do a decent job with what they had? I give them a C because all their primary plans must have fallen apart – somebody scooped them – they got slapped – too bad we may never know what happened.

Unbelievable but true — one of the big winners of this draft was San Antonio. With one trade and one second-rounder, they just propped themselves up into title contention for a few more years.

Only time will tell whether the Blair pick was successful or futile, but why not try it with a second-round pick? The Spurs weren’t going to do better with that pick, so it was a great move for them. If the Blazers had grabbed Blair, maybe he would have been a key piece for us, maybe not, but at least he would have been off the board.

I think the Blazers are up to something in FA…duuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh

Mills seems like a good pick at 55 even if he doesn’t pan out. It’s like buying a lottery ticket for 75 cents the other guys are paying a dollar for. Picking two forwards makes it seem likelier Travis is on the move, right? And/or the team is less confident about Marty’s comeback.

I like trading Sergio. I hope the guy goes to… wherever and becomes a star. But it just wasn’t happenin’ here.

is Cunningham going to be Outlaw’s replacement for a Hinrich trade? Watching some video’s of him, there are similarities between the two…

How do you think Blair would fit people? Playing 2nd unit with Joel. 2 guys who can only make put backs? Everyone makes a big deal of Blair’s wingspan, but Cunningham’s standing reach is exactly the same, because he is taller and he jumps better. If he can make the 15 foot face up jumper like they say, he may be a Carl Landry type, who by the way killed us in the playoffs. As for Mills, it’s hard to believe a guy coming out 2 years early would accept going overseas. He may force the Blazers to sign him or release his rights.

Here’s something from earlier in the week that I keep coming back to:

“His presence was a reminder of just how far today’s draft workout crop have to go: Frye would ball all of those dudes up. And it wouldn’t be close.”

If We’re moving up the timeline for championship contention, we’ve got to go after veterans who we know will fill our needs.

We got our man, but he was always our man in the 2nd round. A lot of very smart basketball guys looked at our three 2nd round picks and decided they weren’t likely enough to contribute to use a first round pick on.

1. Dallas didn’t want him, otherwise they wouldn’t have traded.

2. Sacramento was CLEARLY going for Casspi.

He either freaked out and squandered the picks or else he is being disingenuous about saying that was his plan all along — my guess is that he had something going using Casspi, which fell through.

Going 24 to 22 at a big cost is ONLY a rational move if the target was Casspi.

I didn’t pay attention to the draft this year because I didn’t expect anything from it. The only two things I see are a removal of Sergio (happened) and a thinning at the SF position which has yet to happen. I suspect the thinning will give us more cap flexibility or a vet point guard in which case Blake would be gone too (although he’s a pretty nice vet at this point). I didn’t and still don’t have a huge expectation of something major back.

Or, we actually don’t have a crowding issue at SF because Webster’s foot is far worse off than expected. Seriously… how did he miss an entire season? I have an eyebrow up on that one. I could see us giving webster away just to make room for outlaw, although I’d prefer to keep Webster myself… if he can be 100% healthy. Heck, maybe front office is concerned and that’s why a bigger trade didn’t happen so we didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot.

I do suspect that KP was thwarted a little regardless of what they say. It happens though. When you’re good, others become that much more cautious and pay closer attention to every wink, smile, and sneeze looking for clues.

So, to sum it up, I think KP wanted to make some moves, was thwarted or the price was too high and so he went with a different plan that still got him a few things he wanted.

So, I’ll wait and see how things shake out.

I’m surprised Blair fell and we didn’t snag him, but that only underlines my belief that we had a set plan in place with an eye on trades and contract stuff in the future. The near future, like a few weeks from now, not the 2012 future or sumthin’.

Claver can become a great, KP-esque pick. He looks good. He’s a very valuable trade chip (who doesn’t like Euro talent stashed and cheap overseas?), or we do the Rudy-like recruitment push and bring him over for peanuts. It’ a swing for the fences either way, and we like that. That is rad.

I’m still hoping we can get a Hinrich, a more for-sure backup PF, etc. But the best thing about this draft is that, if anything, it helped us on our way to that. Because that is what we need… not more fun and hot young rookies.

Mortimer

There may have been some plans of trying to snatch someone, but they didn’t pan out. We’ll never know. What we probably know:

Pendy and Cunni become the new Frye/Shavlik/Ruffin’s of the bench.

Claver simmers on the back burner – who knows if he ever comes over.

Mr. St. Mary’s – same story. But in the meantime your roster is free of yet another young buck for Nate to not have to worry about.

We are on the hunt for veterans. Nate wants them, the team wants them, we need ’em.

High Vegas odds for Captain Kirk, and Hedo to be suiting up for us next year. Not sure if that puts us that much higher up the food chain, but…

Also smart money says now is when the real war room gets going.

Is there a blockbuster, I-can’t-believe-we-got-him trade out there?

Portland’s core is fairly set and can be tweaked or improved with a trade.

I’m just ready for the season to start again.

The Blazers already have a very solid core of players. Improving the team on the margins through the free agency and trades is less risky than doing so through the draft. So, increasing flexibility in free agency and trades and minimizing the importance of the drafts is the prudent strategy.

by geting 2 of the guys I wanted in Claver and JP,I was hoping for Llull at 33 and not suprised he passed on Blair. Donte was completely under my radar and Mills could be something special.

Understand.
This was brilliant seeming inaction on the Blazers’ part.
Is this Hinrich talk all a smokescreen?
You bet.
A source in the Raptors’ front office called me, asking my advice on the franchise’s future. It’s clear that Chris Bosh is tired of border crossings and nightly dual anthems and an underachieving franchise.
Being on the phone, I couldn’t look into his eyes and read his soul.
But I could hear it in his voice.
Toronto’s slashing payroll. They’re ready to deal Bosh. They’re ready to deal anyone.
And I hear the distant strains of “ole, ole, ole!”
For Jose Calderon will soon be a Blazer, acquired for Travis Outlaw and either Steve Blake or Jerryd Bayless.
You want a real Spanish connection?
You got it. Jose to Rudy, all year and for several more years.
The Spanish embassy will be in Portland, Oregon.
Bet on it.

Can we agree never, ever, ever to call him “Cunny”?

The Blazers wanted Hansbrough but were not willing to pay that much to move up to get him. 22 was probably the highest they could move without overpaying and then the Pacers took away any hope of getting him at all. Therefore the Blazers went with their second choice in Claver.

When it comes to Blair, I don’t get that stuff at all. The Blazers are loaded in regards to Blair’s strengths, and it is the back up power forward position for KP’s sake. Who cares who is playing the back up power forward for the Blazers.

Is this Cunningham kid related to Richie’s older brother? You know, the basketball player who mysteriously disappeared after the first season of Happy Days…..

Adios Sucka! I never liked Sergio.

We got an absolute Steal in Patrick Mills! This guy can flat out shoot. He didn’t play a ton last year because of his broken hand but this guy is a baller!

Patrick Mills is lightning quick. Anyone check out the Olympics?