The Trail Blazers Have To Prove It

Only Elliot Williams thinks Elliot Williams is a point guard.

that’s what the extra-long offseason is for.

it is good that they are trying something else

Also, how many draft picks actually stick in the league for more than their rookie contract?

honestly, for what we gave up, I don’t mind the deal that much. All we gave up was Miller – who we also, at best, had for one more year (we probably weren’t going to re-sign him at age 35), and turned him into 26-year old starting PG. We can debate Felton’s merits, but he has shown he can be a starting PG in the NBA. Also remember, he was rally good running pick-and-roll with Amare Stoudemire, he should at least be somewhat successful with LA.

We didn’t have to give up Batum or our pick to make that happen, so in all I don’t think it was a bad deal for us

Would I have taken Nolan Smith with the pick? Probably not, but he also wasn’t a terrible pick.

Here’s to hoping Oden comes back strong – at that point this would still resemble a pretty good team

don’t really have a vision of what they want to put on the court and how the pieces ought to fit together, unlike say, San Antonio or OKC, or Dallas.

They just seem to think that talent can be lashed together and the the magic will happen.

Rudy is a classic example. I refuse to believe he’s an awful basketball player, he has a pre blazers body of work that says he isn’t. But he was never used the way he should have been, and it was preordained, he was never going to be playing behind Roy. By the time he got his chance he was already done with Nate;’s system.

Batum seems to be similarly out in the weeds. We now have a point guard whose strengths don’t apparently fit the skill set of the team’s best player. I dunno. I would rather have watched the kids grow up together than this mish mash.

Not feeling overly positive right now. Each draft, you can make an argument that it makes sense, but when you look at the teams body of work, not so much.

The guy excels at pick and roll and running, neither of which are major parts of both of which have been notably absent from Portland’s arsenal.

He changed it THIS season in terms of actual plays run. He has always payed lip service to getting out and running. Last night he said Felton would run “pick and rolls”, I can only assume with Lamarcus.

In light of all that, this next season has three big questions:

*Can Nate change his possession squeezing ways enough to allow this roster to flourish?

*Can Nate and his staff coach and game plan an offense that contains a proper pick and roll?

*Can LMA learn said play?

Obviously, Oden and Felton have contract issues that need to be resolved moving forward. But as a group on the court, I think this team has a chance to be pretty damn good and Lamarcus has a chance to become a truly legit all star.

They basically swapped PG’s with Felton being younger and a modestly better shooter.

Rudy burned his bridges with management and his role was never well defined here.

They did not give up any major pieces.

Without context of other teams draft successes, how big the Blazers failures in the draft compared to the league is unknown.

Given that this draft was pretty weak, I think the Blazers made a decent move to get younger while still getting veteran experience at the point. I like that Felton’s contract has only one year left. It gives the Blazers time to evaluate him without long term risk.

and it only tells half the story. think of all of the point guards we didn’t draft.

…or, don’t.

and it’s spelled Claver

as he likes Smith.

We all know Sammymohawk is good with the pick as well.;)

Speculation persists that the Blazers passed on Faried as a wink wink / nudge nudge portion of the Andre/Felton swap. Interesting theory but I doubt we’ll ever know for sure.

Basically, Smith is a solid backup. Will he better than Jackson, Norris Cole, etc.? That’s tough to say. Dude can play some D though. He’s a winner too. That makes him a ‘Nate’ guy IMO, so at least he’ll get some minutes.

We are a much better team now then we were 5 years ago. Look at Nate McMillan’s first year in Portland, the 2006 roster(Basketballreference) VS Our projected 2012 roster(RealGM). This roster is significantly better, full of young quick athletes who by all accounts are model citizens.

The Felton trade brought in a guy who is not only 8 years younger, but he has experience with our other recent acquisition, Gerald Wallace – That should not be discounted. This team needs a starting center. A consistent, healthy veteran pivotman like Emeka Okefor to play next to LaMarcus Aldridge(Keeping Aldridge on 4’s & Wallace on 3’s). Some would call us the Portland Bobcats but those teams didn’t have LA & Wesley next to Okefor/Wallace/Felton. If we managed to grab Okefor for say Camby + Batum or Oden I’d probably pull the trigger.

With that said, we would then be even less deep. Relying heavily on the likes of Diebler and Babbitt. Though just like the Heat, I think our core of Felton/Matthews/Wallace/Aldridge/Okefor(Laying it out like this, it looks like we could very well have the best starting lineup in the west) is good enough to attract quality veterans down the road.

sure looks different to me than building around Roy-Aldridge-Oden

Very modest production.

What?

Who will end up as the backup PG next season. Nolan Smith, Elliot Williams, Armon Johnson, or Patty Mils?

I’m not saying Roy is going to be much of a factor with Portland going forward – but if he is, it’ll be interesting to see if he can play with such a ball dominant PG in Raymond. Although Raymond can spread the floor more for Brandon to work down on the block.

Although Faried was going to be the safer pick, Smith has more potential to be a game changer, IMO. But he’s bigger gamble.

Rudy should finally live up to his potential in Dallas. He’ll be more comfortable with Carlisle’s system than he was with Nate’s.

The biggest loser in all of this is Aldridge. He just watched 100 lob passes go out the door, yesterday.

No team shoots anywhere close to 50% when it comes to drafting. You don’t think the hornets wouldn’t still be looking for a PG in the draft had they not lucked into getting him when they did? Every team has pieces it’s constantly trying to get, obviously we have holes much like every other team. I think the problem lies in how we acknowledge who it is we have our eyes on in the draft. I wish we just kept that information to ourselves. Instead we acknowledge just how much we like a kid, and everyone on the planet knows it. A retired farmer in Iowa knew just how interested in Faried we were, its a shame really. I like chris Johnson anyway, we have enough non shooters on this team. I’m in favor on continuing my support on Oden anyway, with Camby and Chris Johnson and LA we really can be a better team. We can space the floor better now with Felton, more speed, Its not that Nate doesn’t want to run… do you go to the games? He was constantly trying to get players to move the ball up the floor quicker. Now we have space enough on the roster to allow roy and batum to be the primary backups at the 2/3. Felton and Smith at the Point with Roy as a backup. Wallace is still our starter but can help at the 4 when we need him. It again comes down to Oden! I’m excited about this team… not sure exactly how you envisioned us moving our pieces without giving up much more than an ‘not getting any younger Andre’ and a ’never really showed up Rudy"

Well-researched. I’ve been waiting to see it laid out like this.

I feel like I’ve had an inflated perception of the Blazers’ draft success because of the excitement inherent in the KP era. Now that the chips are down, very few players of that era remain.

Specifically, this organization’s failure to develop a PG is shameful, especially when they have a former PG for a head coach (although maybe that is the problem). Luckily, there haven’t been any stars-in-waiting that Portland has shipped (unless Bayless continues to improve). All the same an at least we didn’t totally screw up mentality is not going cut it.

I think you underestimate Felton. Hes good, and he brings things to the table (like the pick and role, its a positive addition not something that will be wasted like this article seems to state). Miller rode the bench in the finals times where Felton will now be dominating. I think this was a good move.

My question is, could we have just said screw the swap, take faried keep dre fir this season and try and get Felton next year in FA?

when either Quick or Freeman start over-homerizing my stink-o-meter goes up.

The point guard of the future who’s going to make this team so much better has one year remaining on his contract, meaning he’s in position to extort the team into paying prime money for an average-level player simply because they have no alternatives.

Depending on the rules of the new CBA, this is probably not going to happen. It certainly couldn’t happen under the current CBA.

Felton, under the current CBA, would only have Early Bird Rights next summer. As such, the most that an over-the-cap Blazers team could offer him would be the Average Player Salary in the 1st year of a new contract.

If Felton sticks, he won’t be overpaid. He might leave for more money elsewhere. But he won’t make $10+ million with the Blazers, at least not right away.

Don’t get me wrong, I think the trade was a good deal. But I’m a little scared about his pending free agent status.

The Blazers apparently get like three first round picks per year.

I don’t think Portland is a great drafting team, but there are only a handful of teams who are and the rest of the league stinks. It’s a shame that the team isn’t good at drafting, but neither is the rest of the league.

We have Nic and LA to show ……….that’s right up there with weatherman %!

geared toward the pieces acquired in Felton and Smith, but the seeming lack of direction this team has. Two days ago, this was a fringe playoff team in the West. The same can be said today. I think these guys will play hard, finish in the 7-10 range in the conference, and lose in the first round if they make the playoffs – not any material difference from last year. In a lot of ways Portland is in the worst spot you can be in the NBA – not a contender, but not in a future oriented building phase either. Instead, it’s a mid-tier squad that will play hard, give the fans some moments to cheer about, but at the end of the day, is not anywhere near being in the hunt. There’s only one franchise in the West that hasn’t been out of the first round in the last 10 years, and that streak is only getting longer after next season.

Thanks for the information.

The 21st pick in any draft is a crap shoot. How many mock drafts got it right? At that point in the draft it is a guessing game. How many players make it for 5 years in the NBA who were picked 20th or later vs how many total picks there were in the last 5-10 years. Not many is my guess. Sounds like a lot of fuss over nothing.

We go into the 2011-2012 season with the same storyline as the last several years:
“Trailblazers enter the season with a stable of unproven guards and a complete lack of depth in the frontcourt.”

I think we’re stuck in the worst possible place, sitting right at the playoff bubble, with a roster that isn’t good enough or deep enough in the frontcourt to win a series, but too good to go in the tank and earn a high draft pick to bring in a game changer.