You can't very well be a Blazer fan with a pulse nowadays without being excited about the future with our bright young trio of Greg Oden, Brandon Roy, and Lamarcus Aldridge. It's occurred to me, though, that our hopes and dreams pretty much ride on all three of them panning out. No, strike that...we're all assuming that they're going to be as great as their promise seems to indicate.
I want to announce right here and now that I believe those three ARE going to be great, each in a different way. In fact short of adding Kevin Durant and Deron Williams to the mix I doubt I could be happier. But let's just pretend for a minute that our optimism isn't going to bear fruit in at least one of these cases. Chalk it up to injury, mental blocks, misuse, or us just overvaluing our players. The reason doesn't really matter. Here's the question:
If one of those three players isn't going to fulfill their potential, which of the three would you want it to be so as to make as small of a negative impact as possible?
I must confess I am torn myself when I consider this. Oden is the supposed franchise center and you just can't replace that kind of player and it would probably be disastrous for him to flop. But Lamarcus is likely to be the best scorer with the most potential for well-rounded greatness. My head tells me to not choose either of those. But my heart feels like the soul of this team--on the court, in the locker room, and out in the community--is Brandon Roy. I suspect he will be the leader and the spearhead of any eventual championship aspirations even if his numbers and his style aren't as flashy as the other two. In some ways he'd be the last guy I'd pick. So there you go...I'm stuck.
What do you think? Which player out of those three could we most afford to lose or have come up short? I am curious to hear your thoughts and analysis.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)