Every team's fans tend to overrate their own players in terms of value on the open market. It's a prerogative of fandom. But I think over the years Portland fans have been especially prone to over-valuing their players. Maybe it's the one-town, one-team thing. A massive amount of energy and affection flows towards the team when things aren't falling apart. Role players who play reasonably well are loved and never forgotten around here. Sometimes it's hard to remember that they're not necessarily so treasured everywhere, at least not in trade terms.
So to even this out some I wanted to ask you for some general comparisons of trade value for our current players. The idea is simple: take any Blazer player you choose and give me another player you think is of the same relative open-market value.
--It doesn't matter if either player is actually on the block. Neither do you have to worry about whether the Blazers would actually take that other player in a trade. These are not actual trade proposals! We're just making guesses at theoretical value here.
--This has nothing to do with position, size, skill, or anything like that. You might think Jarrett Jack has the same relative value as some low-block, defensive center out there. That's fine.
--Please use only current players in the league and only players from other teams in your comparison. (No comparing Blazers to Blazers.) Also make sure it's a one-for-one comparison.
Basically the template is: "I think [insert name of Blazer here] has about the same relative value on the open market as [insert name of one other player here]." Let us know what factors into your analysis.
You can pick any Blazers you want. I am especially interested in Zach and Jarrett, of course, but I'd also love to know what you think of Ime, Travis, and Martell. Heck, do the whole team if you'd like.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)