Jaynes: List of Blazers' mistakes in landing Hedo

Sometimes when you swing big, you miss big. It happens. Would the "dog and pony show" have been an issue if Hedo had stuck with us? The Turkoglus wanted Toronto, for any number of the reasons already mentioned ad nauseum. We got played, sure, but it's not like Toronto came out smelling like roses; that contract is ridiculous, as noted even by some Raptor fans.

 

Yes ... yes he was and if you watch the video posted up on Oregonlive.com you'll wince when you see it and say to yourself "minor league"

 

So, what do you call Bryan Colangelo getting worked over for a ridiculously bloated contract? Is that "major league"? This will go down as a poor decision for that franchise.

Another link to help soothe our small-town egos: Hedo to Toronto for 12 mill a year?

 

I think that was more of it than actually turning Hedo off with our sales pitch. Dwight seems intent on focusing on public perception in most of his takes, including everything that's happening with PGE Park and the Beavers.

There was a weird sense of overconfidence from the whole thing with the interviews with Hedo immediately when he stepped off the plane, I think we all just assumed he was coming here but as we know, the deal was far from done. And in the event Hedo did turn us down, we weren't going to look good in the end.
But there was nothing the Blazers did to turn Hedo off.

 

Agreed. You've got to love the fact that the one bolded sentence in his article was about baseball:

Jaynes is suffering from Big Stadium Envy, no doubt about it.

 

Just because I'm dogging KP for being a little "small town" doesn't mean I think Colangelo is making a good move either, in fact a couple of days ago when I saw the rumors that Toronto might waive 5 players to sign Hedo for up to 60 million dollars I openly mocked him for being an idiot. Frankly the whole Hedo soap opera has been a comedy of errors on all sides.

I'm just glad that this part is over and hopefully KP will skip the public displays and get down to business instead of treating the process like a college recruiting trip

 

I don't see the big deal in making it public, although I feel for Jay Jenson.

My problem with the whole thing is that the actions of KP and Company at the trade deadline and then again at the draft all revolved around them having capspace this offseason and signing a good FA, yet they seem to have put all their eggs in the Turkey Basket and now they're left holding their jocks. Whether this was any fault of their own or not, if you plan for a single event for an entire year you better get it done. They didn't.

 

LOL so true

 

The first bolded section is you not seeing why it was a big deal for them to make his arrival public, the second bolded section explains why it is a bigdeal and why you shouldn't unless you are 100% sure it's going to work.

 

Jay Jensen holding that sign was priceless. Infamous

 

No, the only problem is they only seem to have had one option in free agency and it didn't happen. Whether they made Turkeys visit public or not, the result would have been the same. I don't really care if some people view KP's efforts as small market or not, I care about improving the team.

 

I agree. It seems the only winner here was Hedo's wife. (And maybe, to a lesser extent, Hedo himself, depending on how much he enjoys losing.)

On an unrelated note, I sure have been appreciating the ignore feature on these boards. Golden.

 

I sincerely doubt it was "Hedo or bust", certainly he was their first target, but it would been a pretty soft-sell if they had conveyed to Hedo that they were interested, but actually had 3 or 4 other guys they were considering.

You're right the small time stuff is a sidebar and is just kind of embarrassing and doesn't really affect anything but public perception of the city and the team, the real meat and potatoes is improving the team with their available cap room -- hopefully something positive will materialize and hopefully KP will keep a lid on it (at least not make it a big public thing) until it's truly a done deal.

 

You're missing the point. All the fluff and hype didn't cause us to miss out on Hedo. But the organization could have saved themselves the egg on their face if they didn't make it such a public courtship. Now they have to deal with the embarrassment on a bigger scale.

 

Considering it's come to light that he actually agreed to sign on Wednesday night before he ever arrived in Portland I see no problem with what Portland did. They thought they were welcoming someone who was definitely going to sign with them and had given his word.

 

If what Hedo's agent and the reports say is true, there was a verbal agreement before he actually came. So, again, Dwight Jaynes is an idiot.

Now, if those reports are wrong, then I still stand by my statement that Dwight Jaynes is an idiot.

 

Jaynes isn't entirely wrong, but he's such a glass half-empty whiner, it's hard to take him seriously. As someone above said - the Blazers swung for the fences and missed. If you don't swing for the fences once in a while, you shouldn't be playing.

Also, as I understand it, the Blazers were under the impression from the Turkoglu camp - following the dinner Nate had with Turkoglu - that Turkoglu was going to sign, so Jaynes' whole "you don't fly them out if you're not sure they're going to sign" is off base.

Obviously, there were some details to work out, and Turkoglu wanted to be wooed a little more. So, you go with the big production.

Did the big production lose Portland Turkoglu? Hell no.

It was the Raptors stepping up and saying "we're going to pay you more, and to manage that we're going to jettison at least three players." All the Blazers could say was "well, we're using all our cap space on you, and we're losing two guys we've never had."

The bottom line is a small town reality, but not the one that Jaynes is harping on: Portland is not the international city that Toronto is, and it probably never will be. People who want that, don't move here, or else they're disappointing about the Rose City's limitations.

 

I don't recall Sacramento, San Antonio or Orlando being "not cosmopolitan". I don't buy the excuse.

 

Wow. Big shocker. D-bag Jaynes opened his mouth too soon. Everything coming out now says that Hedo has given his commitment to Portland Wednesday night, BEFORE flying to Portland. That was one of his points. Good job, D-bag. Know the story, then write it. BTW, who are you writing for now? The Oregonian? They let you know? What about the Tribune? What? No? They also let you go? You wrote your article, then it came out that your story was incorrect?

You fail.