Just shut Oden down for the rest of the season

What does this have to do with shutting down Oden for the year to appease still-unknown message board posters? You are all over the map and seem a bit irrational at the moment.

 

How do we know they would have improved our team this year without comprimising what we are building for the future as well? KP has stated that his goal is to build a team that can compete now and for the next 10 years, and I stand behind him with that.

Most of the people on this forum want to make the playoffs this year as bad as you do, and i'm sure the Blazers players, coaching staff and front office wants to even more than us.

 

All you need to do is go through the numerous threads about us not making a deal and read posts from several people saying "we aren't going to make a deep playoff run anyway ... what's the point of a trade?" This logic is the same thing. Why risk damage to the tissue surrounding Oden's knee with the bone chip in there? Shouldn't we just have the surgery done so he can play pain-free in the future? We aren't making a deep playoff run this year anyway.

-Pop

 

This would not be good for Odens finances down the road. Teams will think he's the next coming of Tmac or Bynum and good luck getting a franchise sticker put on ya then. If I was his agent I'd tell him to play. Fix knee in offseason and don't make to much of it.

 

Maybe this subject should be brought up again when we know what exactly is wrong with Oden and if he even requires Surgery.

 

You show me all the teams that have been significant title contenders over the past 10 years, and I'll counter that with a response that most, if not all, of them have been very active on the trade and free agent market. Even the Spurs have made significant signings or trades to bring in veterans to go with their core.

-Pop

 

Come on, man. We have been very active as well. Do you remember what our team was like in the 05-06 season? Even last year we changed up the team... Jack, Jones, Bayless, Fernandez, Batum (even Oden is added). I think we will be ok. I agree its disappointing no trade was made, but you just got to have a little perspective here.

Edit - again, I would have done a Nazr Mohammed/Wallace for Raef/Webster/Sergio deal in a second because we get better now and don't comprimise our future. But we don't know if that trade was on the table... for all we know they may have wanted us to add Batum and take Nazr back, and KP and Allen didn't want to do that.

 

Hmm, yet their core players were all draft picks.

 

It's not remotely the same thing. A team with championship hopes can legitimately argue that burning some future capital for present gain is the rational thing to do. A team with no real championship hopes would have a hard time making that argument.

A trade that nets present value often burns something of future value. You can speculate all you like that Portland could have gotten a player to help them now without losing anything of future value, but there's no evidence to support that.

Oden should be shut down if playing more would damage his chances of being healthy in the future. But, again, you have no evidence for that. Barring that, it actually benefits Portland's future to have Oden play, because Oden needs experience from playing to improve.

Your logic is pretty weak here.

 

I'm in full agreement with keeping our core in tact. The problem is we have all these young guys surrounding our core who are not going to put us into contention in the near future.

-Pop

 

All I advise is to wait and see what happens this summer. If nothing happens and if the team stagnates early next year, I'll be right with you in criticizing KP.

 

Bayless and Batum don't seem all that far away. As soon as next season I can imagine them playing significant parts for a team that can make a deep playoff run.

 

Well we are definitely going to need Oden to be playing much better for us to be a contender in the future. So it is going to take another year or 2 for us to get that production from our core. So that is why I don't think trading for RJ or VC would have really been beneficial for us because I don't feel the rest of our team was good enough to make that run we all want. I know you don't want to hear that, and neither do I, but I think its the truth that the rest of our team outside of Roy and maybe LMA (And Joel) aren't where they need to be for a title run. So I think we need to give them time or have a major roster overhaul and get players that are ready to go right now or by next year.

I guess my stance is that if we did trade for a Carter or RJ (again, you may not even be talking about those 2 players, but those were the two most likely) we MIGHT have made the second round. That would be awesome, but I heard MIL wanted Rudy, Travis and Raef for RJ and Ridnour, so stuff like that I don't think is worth it.

 

Something just clicked about Batum. Perhaps he is the reason a deal for a SF didn't go down. Perhaps this decision was made within the past two weeks. Perhaps the real target has shifted to a veteran PG, and perhaps the team wants to evaluate the available players and pounce this summer.

Basically, not making a deal for one of the SFs is a huge vote of confidence for Batum by the organization.

 

You're trying WAY too hard.

You really are. In fact you know the answers to your own questions. You're being nothing but disingenuous and you know it.... what a useless thread.

 

I really think the organization is high on Batum. I'm high on Batum. Players make the biggest leap from their rookie to sophomore year in the NBA, so hopefully he will do the same. His ceiling is super high in my eyes.

 

FYI - We are in our "championship window" NOW. I have no doubt about that. Hopefully it's a 10-12 year window.

 

My thoughts on the championship window is that it goes with Oden. I think he is the key.

 

I agree. His defense was pretty surprisingly good from the start and, more and more, he looks more confident and in flow on offense. It's like what scouts say: He LOOKS like a basketball player. Even if his numbers aren't great yet.

 

I don't understand how saying we should keep our roster as it is today, is the same as benching the #1 draft pick for no reason.

I think the whole idea is that we need to develop our young players and give them the playing time to grow. Not wanting an over the hill former all-star instead of a young rotation player is not the same thing as preventing your young center from being able to grow.

I can already see the threads after we lose our next game. This place is turning into a zoo. Everyone needs to take a deep breath.