There's some truth to this. However, Miller finally became a starter and KP made a shrewd move to get us help at center. We also showed we had a fairly talented team depth. I'm a bit surprised, but not amazed.
dude we started howard at CENTER for at least 30 games. thats amazing imo we came out over 500. we started bayless and webster at times. amazing we are over 500.
With the right first round matchup, the Blazers have a chance to move on. I would prefer 6th or 7th, because the team in that bracket will move up most easily. Outside of LA, the only team I fear in the brackets is Utah. Denver would probably beat us, but it would be competitive and entertaining. Utah on the other hand, I felt they took our best shot the last time they played Portland, and still came back and won. That was disheartening. There is another factor that hasn't really popped up yet, and that is the fact that some players play better in the playoffs than the regular season. Andre Miller typically plays well in the playoffs, with only one year where he didn't perform better in the playoffs than he did during the regular season. With that being said, I look forward to having 2 players in the back court who elevate their game come playoff time. Some of the teams up above, might be playing in their highest gear already. It is the teams that have another gear come playoff time, that will win the day.
That, or else our GM assembled so much talent, and talent that overlapped, that the team could withstand all of these injuries and still make the playoffs. Good job by KP, eh? Go Blazers
Shrewd? Everyone was calling for him to get a big guy for Blake, Outlaw, and/or Webster. So he did it by paying off Mr. McDonalds with millions of Paul Allen's money. Cash is why the Clippers gave Camby to us instead of to another team. Not Pritchard's shrewdness. Why doesn't he pick up a couple of cheap experienced players EVERY summer? Because of his youth movement. Howard wasn't amazing. He's a normal pickup for every other GM, but extraordinary for ours because of the stubborn, pigheaded youth movement.
It isn't "luck" that we are in the top 8. It isn't "luck" that has us near 50 wins. This is an extremely deep team. We have a ton of talent at every position. It had nothing to do with luck. In fact, I'd say we've been completely unlucky and we're still in the top 8. We're still near 50 wins. Fuck being lucky. We're just good.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a team playing better than we are right now. We've not only beaten some good teams, but we've beaten them when they've played well. BTW, we finally got some breaks tonight with losses by DEN, LAL and SA. Okay, so we can't catch the L*kers in the standings, but I think it's great news any time they lose.
What youth movement are you talking about? There is none; stubborn, pigheaded or otherwise. The youth movement ended in 2008, when they picked up Bayless and Nic. Last year they didn't move up to get another young guy in the 09 draft; in fact taking a Euro to stash overseas until he develops (or not.) Do you seriously have a problem with taking flyers on Dante and Jeff in the second round, both 23 years old, and both with lots of college experience? When do you think they should have started adding cheap veterans each year? Maybe the year after the team won 21 games? No. They should add veterans after the core is in place, they evaluate the buttload of role-player level talent, and move toward being a playoff team. The young core is in place and developing. Last year was the first time they made the playoffs in, forever. KP evaluated what the team needed, and signed some veterans to fill in the holes. If they hadn't had all the injuries this season, this team would be lean and mean; trimmed and consolidated. Does KP take advantage of PA's money? HELL yes! And he'd be a dumb shit if he didn't. Feel free to think that is some kind of bad thing, but I'll chalk it to having a great owner. Go Blazers
The current one in which we are overloaded with young lousy players who don't know how to play, but supposedly will someday, somehow. For example, Webster, Bayless, and Fernandez. I define experience as having learned more than one system in one's career. The way a player learns is to go through more than one coach. Barring a coaching change here, a player can get that only by changing teams. Batum and maybe Cunningham look like the only ones who will amount to anything without getting experience around the league. McMillan's coaching style isn't succeeding with the other youth players. (Aldridge would vastly improve under a different coach, too, but I'm not including him as tradebait.) The core is rotten. Webster, Bayless, and Fernandez need further coaching to become reliable wandering journeymen, which is their ceiling. Pendergraph will be the same. Management should have started long before they won 21 games, by not giving away the experience we had for too little. For years, we have given up wins each season because of the strategy of a youth drive instead of an experience drive. New experienced guys might only last with the team a couple of years before they fade, but they're cheap, so if we keep them coming in, we have a better team than we do now, in which we count on players who don't know how to play. ...Because for several years, management shed veterans (beginning with Sheed) and replaced them with youth (or lesser experienced players). You say we needed to wait for the team to make the playoffs before adding age, but it's the opposite. Lacking experience was what caused us to leave the playoffs, and then delayed the return of the playoffs. So we needed to accelerate adding age, not wait on it.
I can almost guarantee that Rudy Fernandez will go somewhere else and be a borderline All-Star the rest of his career. He doesn't fit Nate's system. Not at all. He would thrive somewhere like New York or Phoenix. It's funny because if Phoenix had kept him, I think he would have been the perfect fit next to Steve Nash. One day Blazer fans will look back and wish we had kept Rudy, similarly to Drazen. He is not going to be a "wandering journeyman."
Webs - Picked in 2005, five years ago. 24 years old. Part of an ongoing youth movement? Maybe by your definition, but not mine. JB - Acquired in 2008, two years ago. As I mentioned, he is the end of the youth movement. Rudy - Acquired in 2007, three years ago. 25 years old. How is Rudy part of any ongoing youth movement? I guess Roy, Oden and LMA will never amount to anything because they haven't had more than one coach? lol I've noticed that LeBron and Kobe have always suffered because they didn't have more than one coach, too. Your definitions remind me, a lot, of some of MIXUM's 'truths'. No wonder he's your favorite poster. Roy, LMA, Greg and Nic are rotten? How is it that they will win 49-50 games again? With all of that inexperienced lousy youth, how did they win 54 games last year? I'll bookmark this. Rudy will do well, either here or with another team. He's not a great fit with Roy here, which has little to do with multiple coaches. Bayless will have you eating crow. I'll be sure to serve it up for you. Webs...who knows? What makes you so confident that having another coach would make Webs reliable? What experience did management give away? Are you missing Steve and Trav already? And there will always be a supply of experienced, skilled vets, at the positions that the Blazers need them, willing to come to PDX for cheap? Good plan. We don't need no steek'n draft picks. Yeah, like keeping that idiot was going to allow the team to win the rings? (BTW, they traded Wallace for SAR, Dan and Theo. In case you're not following, they were not youthful.) So, the year that we won only 21 games for the season, we should have been moving the young guys for vets, so we could win the title? Whatever. Go Blazers
I guess I'm the only one who wants Pritchard to change his modus operandi and add more experience. Well, I'll give up here and go catch up on the last 2 days of Blazers Beat. Blazers comment of the day: Fans pleased with the play of the 30-somethings http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/03/blazers_comment_of_the_day_fan_2.html Portland 92, Oklahoma City 87: Leave it to the 'old guys,' Blazers say http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2010/03/portland_82_oklahoma_city_87_l.html
Thanks again for the personal update, but you forgot to include what you had for dinner, as well as the time and size of your latest bowel movement. Details, my man!
Would you like my internet reading list of the last 24 hours? You might learn something, if you could keep up. As for my next bowel movement, I'll try to keep you in my thoughts. ...Oops, I almost left without mentioning that I'm having a couple of ham sandwiches for dinner.
