State of the Franchise: Thank you Darius Miles...

by Portland Dynasty on Jul 12, 2009 8:02 PM PDT

After an overachieved 54-win season and home-field advantage in the playoffs last season was a huge deal for this Blazers franchise, and the off-season has the reasonable expectations of improving the roster.

Most of us Blazers fans believe that our roster will be improved organically simply by growth out of Greg Oden, Rudy Fernandez, Nicolas Batum and Jerryd Bayless (who were all rookies last year) which all could have small step to huge leap improvements. It is realistic to believe that Martell Websters presence would be a nice compliment to the team, and that those players who carried Portland last season (B.Roy, LMA & Pryzbilla) are going to be back for another great season...

But our GROWTH improvement is nothing that KP & Crew have been doing this off-season to improve the team. The free agency opportunities that Portland had this off-season were cut in half when Darius Miles made his "comeback" with Memphis. That "comeback" cost Portland essentially $9-million dollars of cap space this offseason. Having $15-$18million of capspace rather than the $8-$9million that Portland actually had to work with. Seriously, there is such a better chance of success in free agency with double the cap-space. So thank you very much freaking Darius Miles.

PF Paul Millsap definitely is a great rebounder and post-presence, and I like the deal he was signed to. Millsap improves the strength our inside game across the board, but definitely renders Travis Outlaw's PF slot to nothing... If we keep Millsap in the fold, Travis Outlaw should be traded this off-season. If Millsap is in fact going to be a sign-n-trade player, then keeping Outlaw is really a piece that we trade if need be. Other than Millsap at the back-up PF, if he is in fact used as a trade chip, Portland no longer has Brandon Bass as an option, but David Lee and Glen Davis are both still available, so there are quality options at the backup-4. The only problem with the PF's is that this/these moves would not improve Unit 1, just Unit 2. I do feel that an improvement on the starting line-up should be made before this off-seaosn is done. Steve Blake just wasn't good enough and Portlnad really does need a more effective and more consistent 3rd scorer. Outlaw hasn't risen that far, either Turkoglu or Hinrich would've been the upgraded starter who takes that 3rd scorer option very well. Is there anything that can get done to improve either the starting PG or starting SF spot with using Blake and/or Outlaw?

I feel that a healthy Martell would improve the first unit... just not to the point of a 15+ppg scorer that either Turkoglu or Hinirch or Harris would be in this system. IF Portland can't bring in a new player then Martell, Bayless and especially Rudy Fernandez needs to step up and be a big-time contributor...

Out of the draft, 6'10" PF Jeff Pendegraph, 6'1" PG Patty Mills, 6'9" F Victor Claver and 6'8" Dante Cunningham are all solid prospects... none are earth-shattering, but I think at least two of those four will pan out well for this team. It was good, just not spectacular...

All in all I still believe that Portland is going to be in the conversation come playoff time... but the off-season chances for making huge improvements took a dive with that "comeback" of Darius Miles.

There is still time for KP & Co. to make some moves... do you think Portland is going to be in the Top-4 of the western conference next season?

Poll

Do you belief that Portland will remain a Top-4 team in the Western Conference next season and get home field advantage with this current roster?

Yes.

335 votes

No.

69 votes

404 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 36 comments | 1 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

i thought steve blake did fine.

"There are a few teams you have to watch out for in the fourth quarter."
"Yeah, but Portland definitely is not one of them."

-New Orleans Hornets broadcasters at the end of the third quarter with the Hornets leading 74-59. Portland later ends up winning 97-89.

"They don't mind him shooting that shot at all. Rudy Fernandez is not that great of a 3pt shooter."

-New Orleans Hornets broadcasters right after a Rudy Fernandez missed 3pter. Rudy Fernandez finished the game with three 3pters on six attempts.

by Tofu Anonymous on Jul 12, 2009 8:44 PM PDT reply actions

agree completely about Blake

Big D from Blog-A-Bull - "Pritchard is such a genius that teams just give him players for free."

Greg Oden - The only other rookie with more than 500 points, 400 rebounds, and 65 blocks in under 1400 minutes played. Since 1946

by FiveOhThree-RipCity!! on Jul 13, 2009 8:40 AM PDT up reply actions

I voted no because I am not sure what field Portland plays on????

by FlyinSouth on Jul 12, 2009 8:59 PM PDT reply actions

lol

by Mr. Nation on Jul 12, 2009 9:08 PM PDT up reply actions

Actually a home field advantage could really work.

The ball would barely bounce on the grass, and visiting opponents would not be used to that at all.

Keep in mind that everything I know about basketball I learned on Blazers Edge.

by pualo on Jul 12, 2009 10:15 PM PDT up reply actions

Yeah with Miles we would have probably not have a last second challenged for Turk

So we would have Turk and another 9 million to play with in free agency who would we pick up. Maybe put it in a trade? Would we have picked up Bass? Maybe we would have made a play at Ariza.

"Knowledge will get you from A to B. Creativity will get you anywhere." Einstein

by Garden of ODEN on Jul 12, 2009 9:01 PM PDT reply actions

Portland lets face it you need to upgrade your PG

The SF’s that are on your team are good enough to not hurt you but Blake is just not cutting it. I don’t think Bayless will be the answer your looking for either.

Andre Miller would be perfect for your team. A big physical point that can punish the smaller PG’s in your conference (Brooks/Parker) He also has tremendous passing skills and basketball IQ.

by Souwantmyname on Jul 12, 2009 9:31 PM PDT reply actions

We would like an upgrade from Blake

But Miller is not that player. He doesn’t play any D, needs to be in an uptempo system, can’t shoot the three ball and is getting kind of old. That’s 4 strikes against him. If management wanted him at this point, he would be had fairly cheap, but they don’t have any interest.

by KitIsh on Jul 12, 2009 9:35 PM PDT up reply actions

You realize you just described Steve Blake as well

by Souwantmyname on Jul 12, 2009 9:43 PM PDT up reply actions

How do you figure?..

Have you ever seen our Blazers play? Blake can definately shoot the three and nobody has ever accused him of needing an uptempo offense to thrive. You’re obviously not a regular here but the Miller train has left the station. His defense isn’t even really an upgrade over Steve in my opinion and he’s never won anything… anywhere.

by Ilikeemall on Jul 12, 2009 10:14 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

You must be thinking of a different Blake

Perfect he is not, but he’s got little in common with Miller.

by levelhed on Jul 12, 2009 10:21 PM PDT up reply actions

You should probably google his stats before you say Blake can't shoot the three.

Blake isn’t at the usual NBA peak age and he definitely isn’t an uptempo player either.

by Benjamanic on Jul 12, 2009 10:56 PM PDT up reply actions

So why pay twice as much for Miller?

This seems like a poorly-thought-out argument. Belive me, it’s been gone over here a thousand times and the near-unanimous conclusion is that Miller ain’t the answer.

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jul 20, 2009 12:35 PM PDT up reply actions

I watched Blake in the playoffs and I gotta say he does nothing to help Roy or Aldridge

He doesn’t slash and dish to Aldridge enough and he cant knock down the 3 consistently enough when Roy breaks down the D and passes out. He’s just a good bbackup PG that your starting

by Souwantmyname on Jul 12, 2009 10:27 PM PDT reply actions

Do you mean...

that we need Jameer Nelson?

by BVandy on Jul 12, 2009 10:30 PM PDT up reply actions

Try that again...

Do you mean the Blazers need Jameer Nelson?

by BVandy on Jul 12, 2009 10:31 PM PDT up reply actions

You no can HAVE!!!

by Souwantmyname on Jul 12, 2009 10:38 PM PDT up reply actions

And obviously you only watched the playoffs...

We know what we have… and don’t have in Steve. Whose your team there stranger?.. I’ve seen you tonight in a couple posts… Do you have something to add or are you just here to take shots at “our” guys?

by Ilikeemall on Jul 12, 2009 10:41 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

I'm a Magic fan that has a secret love for the young Blazers team

Shhhhh!!!

by Souwantmyname on Jul 12, 2009 10:43 PM PDT up reply actions

Your secret is safe with me...

by Ilikeemall on Jul 12, 2009 10:59 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions

He spreads the floor.

Unlike Miller, you can’t leave Blake standing alone at the 3pt line.

by superfly05 on Jul 13, 2009 12:48 AM PDT up reply actions

Just what we need.

It’s bad enough to have Blazer fans who think they are experts constantly criticizing players on out team. Now we get fans from other teams coming to do it.

You can throw rocks at Blake all you want. That makes you a rock thrower, not an expert NBA analyst.

hakkaa päälle !

by timg56 on Jul 13, 2009 12:14 PM PDT up reply actions

Are you Miller's goofy agent ?

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jul 20, 2009 12:36 PM PDT up reply actions

but yes a Nelson type of PG

Penetrate and dish and nail the open 3 40% of the time. That’s all he has to do since you have 2 studs in Roy/Aldridge.

That is why Pritchard was going after Hedo. Hedo’s best attributes are his driving and ball handling and his spot up 3 pt. shooting. He actually was the best PG type option on the market and I suspect KP knows that is exactly what you need

by Souwantmyname on Jul 12, 2009 10:42 PM PDT reply actions

sick of the pessimism

first off…don’t use Darius as the scape goat. The front office and PA were at more fault for even giving him the contract in the first place. 2nd of all…I’m hoping we would have acquired some impact players as well. However, what if standing pat is the best course of action? The grass is not always greener on the other side, and our players could be sufficient in the long run. We don’t need to make huge moves that may jeopardize our chemistry…we just need to tweak a little bit. I believe that is why the Hinrich bandwagon is so sure that Kirk would be a success here. He brings a similar skillset to Blake that should not disrupt our offense or flow, but is an improvement on the defensive end. If we were to get an impact player, that’d be nice…but it may result in us changing our game plan/style of play.

Senior Asian ambassador of Blazers Edge

by Philthyanimal on Jul 12, 2009 11:01 PM PDT reply actions

Is it possible that Miles $$ has had a neglible or even beneficial effect on our off-season plans?

I’m probably trying hard to look threw rose-colored glasses here, but if we had had more money to throw around, I’m not sure it would have landed us a PG upgrade. Maybe we could have done a lopsided trade, but who is out there that we couldn’t have landed with the $9M we have available now? There certainly does not appear to be a FA PG we would have gone after as we did so little to chase the ones available.

Surely we would have thrown even more money at Hedo. That is where the Miles $$ may have been beneficial to our off-season. Obviously that is a topic of debate, but perhaps we can all agree that the last year or 2 of that contract would have been ugly. Imagine if we had thrown even more money at him.

People can debate how Millsap fits our needs, but his contract will be relatively easy to move at any point during his deal. Obviously, more cap space wouldn’t have prevented Utah from matching Millsap’s deal. We could have offered PM more if that was our objective and chose not to.

The biggest negative, in my mind, is that it would have been nice to add a piece like Millsap and still had cap space to do a lopsided deal as we went into the season. No doubt! Of course, my point is that Miles $$ hasn’t exactly hurt us this off-season. While that’s not intuitive, I’m not sure it isn’t accurate.

by 52therim on Jul 12, 2009 11:15 PM PDT reply actions

Why are there always a small percentage of people who vote against the obvious answer. If there was

a poll for Portland to trade Oden, Roy, and Aldridge for Matt Bonner there would be a few votes in favor of it.

by BRoyInThe4th on Jul 13, 2009 6:35 AM PDT reply actions

I want to be a Top 1 team...

"A bizarre and extremely rare hybrid Blazer/Laker fan, Timbo has always struggled to contain the Beast Within, like Dr. Jekyll, Bruce Banner, or Ted Kennedy." — Miled Animal

by timbo on Jul 13, 2009 9:26 AM PDT up reply actions

All that would have happened is that KP would have landed Turkoglu for $12M per year instead of losing him for $10M...

The free agency opportunities that Portland had this off-season were cut in half when Darius Miles made his “comeback” with Memphis. That “comeback” cost Portland essentially $9-million dollars of cap space this offseason. Having $15-$18million of capspace rather than the $8-$9million that Portland actually had to work with. Seriously, there is such a better chance of success in free agency with double the cap-space. So thank you very much freaking Darius Miles.

"A bizarre and extremely rare hybrid Blazer/Laker fan, Timbo has always struggled to contain the Beast Within, like Dr. Jekyll, Bruce Banner, or Ted Kennedy." — Miled Animal

by timbo on Jul 13, 2009 9:24 AM PDT reply actions

And that would have been a bad signing

So……….. Thank you Darius Miles.

Moreover, I find it a bit strange to vilify someone who just wants to play (I don’t think anyone could be arguing he’s following his carrier for the sake of annoying the Blazers…).

by Blenzer on Jul 15, 2009 6:43 AM PDT up reply actions

lol @ Miles wanting to play

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jul 20, 2009 12:36 PM PDT up reply actions

can’t do anything about it now. Miles came back, it sucked. Just gotta move on and forget the what if’s

by robi s on Jul 14, 2009 3:30 AM PDT reply actions

If I were Miles I would make a comeback...

Can’t blame him for that. Thank the previous Blazers management for badly overpaying for Miles. Thank the current Blazer management for pouring gasoline on the fire… No more letters or Pritchslaps. From now on, KP is “Mr. Win Win.” Let’s make sure the other GMs realize he’s got their backs! ;)

by JStal on Jul 16, 2009 2:24 PM PDT reply actions

If you were Miles you would eat Haagen Daasz and play video games

Just sayin’

Blazer Fan

by leeroyjenkins on Jul 20, 2009 12:37 PM PDT up reply actions

rec

for calling out the Darius Miles situation as it us. He hosed us straight up…He wasn’t interested in making a real comeback. He was interested in getting paid and sticking it to the blazers.

I have my P.h.D in unreliable hyperbole.

by Eat Politicians on Jul 16, 2009 6:10 PM PDT reply actions