Then again, not many other blogs feel that way about us.

He said he was BETRAYED by the team this year. Betrayed. Think about that. How did we betray him? He was the starting 2 guard in the playoffs and the team asked him to pick up his scoring in Brandon’s absence. He’s done here. Irreconcilable differences. He just doesn’t fit with Nate. Trade him now before he demands one.

then I don’t think there’s anything that I can do to ’splain it to you

Fernandez would’ve already been traded if his agent wasn’t out there poisoning the wells in small markets and on teams where Rudy would have to actually fight for his minutes

And any GM can eat his shorts that a Spanish top 3 club would make an attractive offer for Rudy – even including a nice buyout to offset PA’s costs.

Some teams have TPEs worth $15 million and more right now, and could well split that on 2-3 players. But only one can come in a trade at a time. Similar to the MLE, which can also be used in smaller portions if a team should wish to do so.

Only the anyway rarely awarded injured player exception can only be used for 1 and only 1 replacement player making up to half as much as the injured player.

He gave off the perception that he actually had a plan and with a couple of exceptions, was able to execute the plan. That’s what impressed me the most with KP’s tenure, especially in the first 2 years.

Before that, it was as if the team was just waiting for a gamble to pay off. No real direction. Willy nilly trades that didn’t make much sense. Huge contracts to those who didn’t really command the prices.

And now, this summer, it’s actually looking like Aldridge’s deal isn’t so out of whack, compared to a few of the recently signed contracts.

what ULC was saying is that the next GM will almost certainly be worse. I agree with douglast, the Blazers hired Nate and Kevin to rebuild the roster basically from scratch and they’ve done a super job. But does this mean they’re the best choices to take the team to the next level? Paul didn’t think so with Kevin (and there were plenty of office politics and shenanigans that contributed to KP’s firing) but so far McMillian is still the head coach.

I’m looking forward to a new GM who can flip young talent into experienced veterans, because that’s what I think the team needs the most to advance in the playoffs. The Blazer’s scouting department will continue to acquire talent via the draft without KP in the GM chair, but the new GM might just pleasantly surprise us when he takes some of that talent that KP, Mike and Chad have drafted and turn them into a deep and experienced starting lineup and bench

I love Miller, but besides Miller, and Juwan as a roleplayer, who else did he acquire as a FA?

KP could have used RLEC (and a few Blazers who are no longer with the team) and acquired Andre Miller. If he had, then the team could very well have advanced into the 2nd round in 2009 and saved KP’s job. Or not

but Kevin chose to let the cake bake and we all know what’s happened since

That’s just one example. If you listen to national writers (not just A-Woj) who talk to agents everyday, they’ll tell you how KP overvalues his own players and won’t budge on deals. That can be good because he doesn’t make any dumb trades, or bad when he has too many of one kind of players (like wings, last summer) and doesn’t balance his roster with enough big men to weather a rash of injuries

But enough about Kevin, I know I’m not going to convince his fans that he wasn’t going to put a championship-caliber lineup together, just as much as you all won’t convince me that if he had stayed things would’ve improved between KP and PA.

don’t swing the pendulum back to the Trader Bob era, that’s a red herring

there is a balance re: roster building. KP and his scouts are on the “add young talent side” and that’s fine—up to a point. But what Brandon and Nate need right now is veteran help, not 3 more rookies. I’m not of a mind to blow up the roster, either. But I do observe the team his collected 5-6 assets that count against the cap who probably aren’t going to contribute for years (if ever) so what would be bad about flipping them for a couple of veterans with experience? Nothing, and I think that Pfund would be more likely to do that than Kevin, if he’s hired later this week.

Don’t stress about what might happen to the roster, because changes are going to be made regardless, and the Blazer’s brass will justify them with the time-worn mantra “we’re just trying to improve the team” Whether the team actually improves or not depends on a lot of factors that are out of a GM’s control, as we saw last winter

and drive Timmy to distraction. Joel’s knee is well on the mend and he hasn’t had any more setbacks. He’s going to be right back in Boozer and Amare’s face next year, proving all of his doubters wrong

Or are you just letting the Playmates recover before round three?

I’m not comfortable with our depth. I’d like to see Matthews signed and Rudy traded for a young back-up 4 to replace Camby eventually.

Unless you count on Babbitt and Dante at the SF, or playing Roy there in a three-guard rotation.

you have to pay the freight, and Matthews is far from the worst offer that has been made during the last 7 days. He’s going to get a huge bump in pay percentage-wise, but he earned it out on the floor last Nov-April—which is a lot more than I can say for some of these guys who’ve been cashing in