Bob Whitsett vs. Kevin Pritchard

I remember growing up having real pride in being a Blazer fan. Regardless of the winning, it felt like we were the villans. I followed the team, but with no where near the fervor as when they dumped Whitsitt. In fact, I told my rep at the season ticket office that I didn't plan on renewing if Trader Bob was returning.

My Redskins now feel a lot like the Whitsitt Blazers. Of course, at least the Blazers won.

 

The Yankees are scum. I despise the Yankees and everything they represent.

 

I liked being the bad boys of the league!

 

Bob had a better coach

 

I always marveled at Trader Bob's ability to make a series of trades to accomplish a goal. It's like he was playing chess while the rest of the league was playing checkers--he thought several steps ahead.

 

Swagger like us!

 

Sure, as an A's fan, I agree. But Yankees fans are pretty happy. I imagine if Portland could and did bring in LeBron James and Chris Paul and won 4-5 titles, I'd be quite happy even if a lot of fans from other teams considered the Blazers high-spending scum.

 

I loved that Whitsitt didn't let fiscal responsibility or player character get in the way of building a winning team. The team was fun to watch, had a swagger, and won games.

I didn't love that while building the team, Whitsitt had put the team in cap hell after the title window had closed. He seemed to be gunning for one title, and when that didn't happen, there was no Plan B. What was witnessed in the latter Whitsitt years, and the Nash and Patterson years, was the direct result of gunning for one title. Had we seen that title, I'd judge Whitsitt in a very positive light. Since we didn't, and since he basically went all in and then lost, I view his as a reckless gambler who hamstrung an entire organization for more than a half decade.

 

There is only one "character" trait I really care about, and that is showing up every night and playing hard. Who of the current Blazers exemplifies that? Miller, the "mercenary".

Bravo for life's little ironies!

 

Plus nasty players get it done. Half the problem with the team now is it is just too god damn nice. No killer instinct. Nobody plays with anger. Nobody tries to get into the other teams head. Nobody talks junk. Nobody lays the opposition out with a mean pick. At least, nobody who plays significant minutes.

 

Pritchard is only now in the position that Whitsett was for most of his tenure: KP has a good team, and he's got to make it championship-calibre.

Whitsett had 2-3 seasons when the Blazers had a window. The 2000 WCF collapse basically undid all of Trader Bob's very good work, but Whitsett is due a lot of credit for building one of the best Blazers' eras since the team began.

What KP has done to date, Whitsett didn't have to: take a miserable team, and make it better. Plus, KP had an additional mandate: don't bring in any more numbskulls (and get rid of the ones here right now).

I'd say KP and Whitsett both did quite well at the jobs they were assigned. Whitsett ultimately failed to reach an NBA Final, even with a team stacked with talent, paid to the gills, and with character as no concern. KP's job could be harder, since Paul Allen is less willing to spend gobs and gobs of cash (the next CBA may make that harder as well), and the Blazers are more concerned about character.

For that reason, I believe that if KP can get the Blazers to a Western Conference Final, I will consider him a better GM than Bob Whitsett. If he can't then he's at best his equal, but probably not even that.

 

Good addition to my post. You're right, Nash and Patterson were inept. Whitsitt was not inept, yet he put the franchise in a very bad situation that the inept PatterNash (love that, btw) exacerbated instead of improved. Cupboard bare after Whitsitt? I suppose not. Cap hell with little hope of improving a declining roster with the linear thinking of PatterNash? Yes. I thnk I've erased a lot of those seasons from my brain's database, but I at times have what seem to be fantastical nightmares about Sebastian Telfair being the future face of the franchise, Charles Smith starting a season at shooting guard, and two Russians I've never heard of on the wings.

 

It wouldn't feel right to me. I recognize that puts me in the minority, but most of the fun of winning comes from the building of the team from an embryonic stage.

 

I had a love-hate relationship with Whitsitt. I hated a lot of his moves - sometimes I was totally wrong (I hated the Strickland-for-Sheed trade), sometimes I was right (I hated the Kenny Anderson signing). But for a while there he was unbelievable. He started with an aging team with a bloated payroll and managed to completely rebuild it without dropping out of the playoffs. That's practically unheard of. Even the vaunted Jerry West, with the HUGE big-market allure of LA to attract FAs couldn't do that.

But...

His jump the shark moment was the Kemp trade. In retrospect, if he hadn't tried to get something for Brian Grant, and had just let him walk and promoted O'Neal, maybe things would've been better. Or maybe if he'd've replaced Dunleavy, because it was plain that Dunleavy had given up on O'Neal. I dunno.
Whitsitt summary:
Perhaps the greatest trader ever (Pippen, Steve Smith, 'Sheed, got Bonzi for nothing)
Underrated drafter (Z-Bo, drafted ALVIN WILLIAMS deep in the second round)
Got Sabas to come over.
Overall negative on the FA front (Brian Grant, love him, but we did have Sheed, but Kenny Anderson and others weren't so hot)
Couldn't stop tinkering.

Best that can be said for him: he spared us the pain of rebuilding for 5-6 years.
Also the indirect cause of one of the most painful sports memories I'll ever have - the last quarter of that '2000 game 7.

BUT: not being Ed, I can't really say I loved that Blazers team (apart from Sabas), whereas I unequivocally loved the Clyde Blazers, and I'm raring to love the current bunch.

Whitsitt is better than Pritchard at some things, no doubt. And we don't know that Pritchard could do what Whitsitt did, because Nash did the demolition job before Pritchard was hired. But I'm very happy with Pritchard, and can't honestly believe the amazing whining about him on this board.

 

I fully agree with this evaluation. Whitsitt's flaw was too little "let it bake." Sometimes, you either have the right team or none of the possible moves would benefit the team. In those cases, moves are counter-productive.

In general, I agree with Whitsitt's "optimize talent level" approach, and I think Pritchard has that, too. I think Pritchard has a better level of patience, though, which I think will translate into a longer "good stretch." But it remains to be seen.

 

I'm not too high on Pritchard. After the Roy draft he's been very mediocre. His legacy hinges on the creaky joints of Greg Oden.