Is KP that good of a GM anyways ?

that’s a sore spot. But, there is much to learn from the bumbling of the Broncos…don’t fire a popular, successful coach in the middle of a recovery era, don’t alienate/trade/let go of your best players, don’t bring in a young, arrogant, unproven leader, don’t drive off your most successful assistant coach, etc, etc.

Not a slam on Bayless, I just like what Jack brings to the floor.

And was rightly ignored by many. What’s KP going to do? Make public comments on a weak story and in doing so completely undermine the confidence of our second best player during our playoff run? The idea that KP would not acquire Bosh for Aldridge is one I have trouble giving much credence to.

my impression of it range from Bosh being polite in declining the idea of coming here with a truthful excuse (nevertheless an excuse) to him showing sportsmanship (after all, can’t look like a sore loser, has to give credit to a team that you lost to) to him just saying something more for the ears of his team (how the Blazers have overcome so much with heart whereas Raptors don’t have any). In other words, an off-handed comment.

I don’t recall how any of what he said can, implicitly or explicitly, be read as him wanting to play here.

it would just be better to get there with these guys. Plus I think if we can get healthy there is a strong chance at a string at championships, a dynasty as it were. As you pointed out, the future of the Celtics is not bright…

Management felt like they made a mistake drafting Oden and aren’t going to repeat it. Learning is good, right?

No matter how much pull KP has or doesn’t have, it seems like it would be extremely difficult to justify firing Nate.

We have no credible evidence to support this assumption.

We don’t, but Allen and the Vulcans do. So if they’re showing less confidence in KP now than in the past it could be a tacit signal that he’s dropped the ball

Larry Miller gave KP the proverbial “vote of confidence” last night, and that may be a good sign. But the team’s results are still being measured and the pressure will never be off KP or Nate.

This isn’t Utah, where you get a contract for life as long as you don’t screw things completely up

…that’s stating facts…

I agree with you and am glad I don’t have to write it… Just second it!

the last 10 months would’ve transpired very differently had ’Dre been on the team at this time last year. Here are a few plausible scenarios

1) the team might’ve won more or less games down the stretch and faced someone other than Houston in the first round. With Miller and not Blake starting at PG (assuming Nate would’ve inserted the newly-acquired Andre in the starting lineup…which as we learned later is no sure thing) the Blazers might have advanced to round 2. I suspect this would’ve been more in tune with Paul Allen’s timetable for the team’s projected success

2) The offseason would’ve been different without the capspace. No Hedo or Millsap offers. Blake and/or Outlaw might’ve been dealt (ECs) or not. The draft priorities would’ve probably been about the same, but that’s difficult to predict

3) Fall camp probably would’ve been less stressful, assuming Miller came into the season as the proven #1 PG. There wouldn’t have been concern about his conditioning or ability to play alongside Roy

Sure, it’s all woulda, coulda, shoulda…but after Miller was signed last July we learned that Portland had interest in him at the previous trading deadline. We have know way of knowing “how far along” the trade negotiations went with Philly…but if Andre could’ve been acquired for (say) Frye, Sergio and RLEC this “parallel universe” Blazer team might be considered “further along” in the quest for a championship as compared to the current impression that is (allegedly) held by the owner. Regardless of the injury status to the centers.

In Feb 2009 KP held his capspace in hopes of a better summer time FA deal, and to preserve team chemistry. This appeared to be the “right” choice until game 1 against Houston. Since then, this deadline hesitation has come under more scrutiny. Perhaps not by most Bedgers, but very likely elsewhere (Mercer Island?)

This thing is like a capper to the season!

I hope that post didn’t come off as KP hating. Assembling the best young talent in the NBA trumps nearly everything negative a guy could do as far as GM’ing is concerned.

Miller helped get us Camby, another straight up baller

I don’t know how Marcus could’ve refused the deal that brought him to Portland, but having an ex-teammate (and Howard) around has probably eased the transition. If all goes well in the next 30-45 days Miller will probably be a part of the “Camby recruitment process” behind the scenes in July

Yeah, if it’s us or LA, and the pay is the same, they’ll likely go to LA.

But the guys available with cap space, Hedo turned us down, and Millsap and Dre didn’t. I don’t think we really had a problem. Hedo got more cash, and to stay in the East. That’s not a big deal.

The real test will come with the MLE… can we get the best vets to believe in our team giving them a chance to win? That’s when we see how we can pull someone in.

Morty

all we could get for trout and Blake is Camby

Turn that around and Clips fans are saying “all we got for Camby is Blake and Outlaw?”

Camby was needed, but it is not like he is an all star.

Steve and Travis are not future all-stars. And they are nowhere near league leaders in any department like Marcus is (rebounding, blocked shots)

I’m not over-valuing Camby any more than I overvauled Blake/Catfish. They were all expiring contracts, and to get a center for a backup PG and a reserve stretch 4 was a coup for KP. We can be sure that his rival WC GMs were not pleased with the news of the deal, and Warkentein was scrambling to get Camby for the Nuggets as news of the Portland trade came down

because even knowing what we know now, I would still select Oden over Durant

The T-Mac comparison is valid, and a hypothetical Roy-Durant combo would’ve been about as dynamic as Drexler-Vandeweghe was, in Blazer history. But Clyde-Kiki didn’t advance in the post season, either…it took the additions of Buck Williams and Kevin Duckworth for the late-80s Portland team to reach the finals

I can kind of understand it by looking at how well Turk and Howard ran the high PnR in the post season. Somebody at Blazer’s HQ saw Orlando’s success in the playoffs and extrapolated that Hedo could do the same thing for Greg than he had done for Dwight. But the 5/50 offer was too long and for too much to justify the short-term improvement to the Blazer’s front court

that’s how guys like Patty Mills and Sergio Rodriguez get drafted and hang around past their due date

Patty Mills was the 55th pick in the draft. Sergio Rodriguez was acquired for cash. So it’s not like we’re sacrificing real assets to feed this “fetish.”

And the last time Sergio Rodriguez played a game in a Blazers uniform, he was tied for the being the second best point guard on a team with no NBA starting level pointguards. So it’s also not like we were hoarding a bunch of quality PGs without any use for them. Sure we could have got more than a second round draft pick for Sergio by trading him 9 months earlier, but we would have needed to get a replacement because he was our backup PG at the time.

It was the Oden draft. Oden was the best player if healthy.

Let’s see how Oden comes back before we call this a bust.