Where in The World is Cho?

by Mike Daugherity on Dec 21, 2010 1:13 AM PST

The Blazers have trade exceptions, injury exceptions and expiring contracts just lying around. What do you do? You go out and get a guy with known heart problems and then replace him with Sean Marks, I wonder how Cho sold that to Paul Allen? You hear rumors that Cho has offered Batum and Przybilla for Iguodala. When I heard this the first thought that popped into my head was of a fantasy basketball GM rather than a real life NBA GM. Your teams star player Jonathan Bender, err, I mean Brandon Roy is all but done. Greg Oden is done for this year maybe more? Andre Miller and Brandon Roy don’t get along; Nic Batum went from being a potential superstar to barely being effective in games. I blame Nate for Nic Batum and Rudy’s growth as players in the NBA. Cho needs to step up now.

You have a coach with no real playoff experience except with Seattle when he had Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis in their prime. You get quotes like this from Nate about Rudy, Rudy's a guy who needs minutes," Coach Nate McMillan said. "He likes to get into a flow. He doesn't like the pressure of having to come in and be a scorer. He likes to play team basketball, which is what you want. With the short minutes, you don't get a chance to see that. He's getting those minutes now, and he's doing a good job." Way to go Nate, glad it took you 3 years to figure that out. The first move Cho should make is letting Nate go.

You have previous GM's signing and drafting players with known knee injuries. Ownership approved all of this. Ownership stopped caring about winning championships and more about what people thought of them. Signing good character guys with bad knees is not the way to go about competing for a championship. I want the old Paul Allen back, the guy who wanted to win. He basically let the luxury box owners decide who was a good person and who was a bad person. I personally never got caught up in the Jail Blazers thing. People make mistakes and people deserve a second chance. This is an equal opportunity country right? Now fans are stuck with good guys with bad knees and a coach that doesn't know how to get them to the next level. Year after year it’s the same thing. So do you think its time to make a change? Yes! Now, right now.

I’m not interested in a team that just wants to make the playoffs, I wanted to be interested in a team that will go out and get players that can win a championship. Stop overvaluing young players on this team and make a move. Do the Blazers want to become the Kings, the Clippers or the Nets? I don’t want to follow a team that is satisfied with the 8th spot in the playoffs anymore. I want to follow a team that is going to make moves for championship reasons. I don’t want to hear about being patient and wait a few more years. The window has closed on that. It’s time to start talking rings and parades. It’s time to get a championship culture back in the Blazers front office. Come on Paul Allen step up and show John Canzano he is wrong that the Blazers will never win a championship as long as Paul Allen is the owner of the Blazers. From the looks of it right now, he might just be right.

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"We are building a fighting force of extraordinary magnitude. We forge our tradition in the spirit of our ancestors. You have our gratitude." - Rich Cho

by Sexual Tyrannosaurus on Dec 21, 2010 1:19 AM PST reply actions 1 recs

Cho is evaluating our roster

I wouldn’t make so much of trade rumors.

I wouldn’t make so much of shock-jock Canzano.

Enjoy the Ride

Blunt+Sharp

by DigitalDaggers on Dec 21, 2010 1:44 AM PST reply actions 1 recs

...

- www.ichabodmedia.com
- www.twitter.com/ichapod

by brandonmitchell on Dec 21, 2010 1:49 AM PST reply actions 6 recs

What is your gameplan if you are Cho?

There are reports that some mid-level near-stars are available. So what would you do to go about getting someone(s) to help this team?

/////
((o))
///// #20 Always remembered.

by Dep H on Dec 21, 2010 4:17 AM PST reply actions

Depends on your goal

Simply being good or winning a championship. Mid-level near-stars might help us be competitive and maybe win a playoff series now and then, but we won’t win a championship without a legit star. Obviously, landing a legit star is like winning the lottery, but it’s impossible if you blow all of your assets on mid-level near-stars, locking your team into mediocrity for the foreseeable future.

I think Cho is doing what he’s said, evaluating the team. He’s assessing all of the options out there. I’m sure he would jump on a great deal if one existed. But they typically don’t, hence the lack of movement.

"...it was like he brought his own personal cross-wind to the arena." - Dave

by DC Blazer on Dec 21, 2010 9:10 AM PST up reply actions

If Roy is not Roy - we'll need two impact players - not one.

I disagree with the concept that the Blazers have all the pieces to make a trade – if you’re talking about getting an impact player and not simply shifting chairs on the Titanic. Camby and/or Miller are not going to get the team any great value because of their age, and even if traded, they simply leave a hole which we’d have to fill to be a very good team. We don’t remotely have a backup PG that can step into Miller’s shoes, for example, and both Camby and Pryz have a history of injuries at the Center slot. Camby, for example, cannot play consistently at 30 mpg or more, and Pryz is not all the way back. Trade one, and who’s the backup? Marks? Come on now.

What’s left? Aldridge and Matthews are the cornerstones of the future, and Fernandez was untradeable last summer given his public position (Cho couldn’t even get a lower 15 1st round for him, which leaves Batum, an injured Roy, an injured Oden, an injured Williams, rookies like Bobbitt, Jordan, Miller, and a third team tweener in Cunningham. Of course, we do have a lower 15 1st round pick from NO, as well as our own.

In the end, it comes down to Roy. Without Roy playing like the old Roy – we don’t, as Cho commented when hired, need one more piece to go the distance, we’ll need two. You can slice and dice this anyway you want, but there aren’t going to be any “big” moves for the simple reason that this team was built for Roy with the hopes that Oden would be the missing piece. If Roy is not the old Roy this team was built for, then to get where you want to go will begin and end with keeping the only two or three players likely to be here for the long haul, which would be Aldridge, Matthews and possibly Batum, (Oden is a complete enigma right now) and then rebuilding over the next three years. That means the strategy will involve not only trades – but the draft.

by Eben Calder on Dec 21, 2010 4:36 AM PST reply actions

Other than firing Nate, what moves is he going to make?

The roster is set. Other than maybe a couple of the vets with expiring contracts.

The Leeroy Rule: being insistent >>>> being correct

by leeroyjenkins on Dec 21, 2010 7:15 AM PST reply actions

Most of the good deals and lopsided trades don’t occur until the trade deadline. If we don’t get a deal we like for Miller and Przy we can pick up the option on Miller and have Camby and Miller next year (solid move by KP, he wasn’t all bad). I also think a lot of the reason for patience is that we don’t know what the new CBA will hold. We do know it is likely to be way different so the prudent move might be to stick it out until we know what the rules are. Although if a deal comes along were we can change one or more of our vets into a young solid player (not that likely) then do it.

witty statement here

by Escrote on Dec 21, 2010 8:15 AM PST reply actions

Also this is 2010-11 not 2009-10… expiring deals are a dime a dozen. No one is trying to make cap space either because they have no target number to shoot for. Our only real asset is Miller and the young guys… Przy maybe if he can get into shape but he is still just a back-up center for a contender (if that).

witty statement here

by Escrote on Dec 21, 2010 8:17 AM PST up reply actions

It takes two to tango.

With the Blazers in the position they’re in, no team out there is going to offer Portland an even deal. Everyone sees Portland’s problems, and while they’re willing to take pieces off of our hands, they’re not exactly willing to give us future cornerstones for our franchise. So Cho is doing exactly the right thing, just like he did when he didn’t trade Rudy. Did Paul Allen have some influence over that? You bet. There’s no team in sports that doesn’t have ownership involved in making decisions, especially when the roster is only 15 guys.

So what do you do? You wait for the right opportunities to present themselves. And I think they already have. This tough spot with Roy has opened up Aldidge’s game. Hopefully this new revelation of Aldridge can be sustained, but I’m going to enjoy it while it’s here. Likewise with Rudy. Nobody thought Rudy would still be here, and lo and behold, with patience, he’s looking good out there, especially paired with Aldridge.

So I would rather have the right move, than movement for movement’s sake. Because who knows what we have in Roy? Not the same thing we did, but that’s about all we know. Not even Roy knows what’s ahead for him. But patience may be the absolute right call. And really, it’s the only call. Because no one is going to give anything of value for Roy. Best we’re going to get is bad contracts that may expire a year earlier, while giving away a player whose instinct is brilliant, even though his body is less than willing.

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal." - C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

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by T Darkstar on Dec 21, 2010 10:10 AM PST reply actions 2 recs

rec

patience is essential…there’s no need to be hasty. Question though, Oden’s injury exemption expires on the 30th correct? Do you expect to see us utilize it?

"If I had a dime for every basket I made today, you'd still suck!" - from the book 'John Dies @ the End'

by sammymohawk on Dec 21, 2010 12:05 PM PST up reply actions

Can't utilize it if no one wants to get rid of anyone.

Most teams don’t like to give away their players without getting something in return.

"Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal." - C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, 1940

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by T Darkstar on Dec 21, 2010 1:09 PM PST up reply actions

Woiuld you rather he make a bad move to appear like he is doing something?

I think he’s just being patient. I honestly think big moves are coming, and with Brandon being out now, and the complexion of the team changing, those points that formerly went to Brandon will go to other players, players that don’t have great value as of right now. I think their value is climbing. I guarantee you at least one GM has seen Lamarcus’s box scores the last 4 games and thought “hmmmmmm…..”

Be patient. I think moves are coming.

Always intense.

by dario argento on Dec 21, 2010 10:12 AM PST reply actions

"trade exceptions, injury exceptions and expiring contracts just lying around"

Trade exceptions:
$2,292,600 exception that expires on 10/23/11

Injury exceptions:
$3,380,262 exception that expires on 12/30/10

Expiring contracts:
Joel Przybilla ($7,405,300)
Greg Oden ($6,760,524)
Sean Marks ($799,105)
Patty Mills ($937,195)
Dante Cunningham ($762,195)

[NOTE: Andre Miller is not an expiring contract. He is under contract for the 2011-12 season. However, since his contract is fully unguaranteed if he is waived before 6/30/11, he could be seen as a potential expiring contract by another team or by the Blazers.]

by Storyteller on Dec 21, 2010 10:41 AM PST reply actions 2 recs

Time

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.

I give Rich Cho some time. It takes time for a GM to put his stamp or direction on a team. To anyone complaining about what Cho has done or hasn’t done I would offer this advice. Give Cho at LEAST one off-season, and one draft cycle…evaluate him in a bigger time frame.

I agree that change is coming, must come. But fans want “Instant” results. Losing Streak? Where’s Cho! Do something!….

It isn’t that easy. I’ve always said being a GM is practicing the art of the possible. And I often think there is a huge gap between what some fans instantly want…and what is immediately possible.

I’m not giving Cho a pass, or a blank check. Sean Marks, the Bayless trade, both are underwhelming moves. BUT he get’s time. Let’s see what moves or what happens in the off-season, or as the next draft approaches…and quit obsessing about what may or may not be happening today, tomorrow or next week.

"Mother Nature started this fight, I think it's about time we ended it!"

by Krang on Dec 21, 2010 11:53 AM PST reply actions 1 recs

Better use the injury excepption expires 30th

OSU '06
Trade for Gerald Wallace!!

by TyboOSU on Dec 21, 2010 12:10 PM PST via mobile reply actions

Im confused

Starts with a Cho Headline, then bags on Nate, and throws in some Paul Allen hate for spice?

Who are you really mad at?

We shall overcome

by DRock 4 Blazers on Dec 21, 2010 12:17 PM PST reply actions

We’re not even two months into Cho’s first season as the Blazer’s GM and you’re already calling him out? I’m sure Rich is doing a fine job behind the scenes. Behind being the key word. Unlike Pritchard, Cho is smart enough to realize that the media in Portland spin whatever he says into whatever they need to attract an audience. There are probably dozens of trade ideas he’s proposed out there which we don’t know about. Give the guy a little time. At the very least give him until the trade deadline before you start making accusations.

"You know, when you are in the game, you hear 20,000 people behind you, you don't feel anything."
- Nicolas Batum on playing through his shoulder injury during the 2010 playoffs.

by halo_on on Dec 21, 2010 1:46 PM PST reply actions