Well, I certainly don't think Cho is an upgrade over Pritchard, which is what I expected. I also expected a greater sense of urgency. You obviously followed my posts. What point are you now trying to make, and where did I say I "wanted collaboration"? You are all over the map today, and you're not making much sense. You've now whiffed on sarcasm, opinions, and reading comprehension. The Tree weeps for you tonight.
You didn't REALLY expect an upgrade over Pritchard, did you? I don't remember reading a single post where you gave any indication that the Blazers management was anything but incompetent. Ed O.
You said you "are all for it" with respect to more collaboration. Yet not long ago, you were really upset that Miller didn't appear to be rushing to find a new GM. Why was it so important to find a new GM if you don't care who makes the decisions, and you "are all for" more collaboration?
Does it matter? I hope Blazer management proves me wrong, but I'm not holding my breath. The good news for Paul Allen is that Cho is very awkward and seemed uncomfortable in his interviews. Perhaps that's why he was hired? I'm guessing we'll see a lot more of Larry Miller as the "face" of the franchise.
Sure it matters. You're either telling the truth or you're not. I've tried to get the management-bashers to name available candidates that they would consider to be better than KP, and I wasn't able to get a single name out of you as I recall. But here you are saying you expected an upgrade over KP. Ed O.
As long as he's not on vacation. Basically I was deffo wrong about all of this. We didn't replace Kevin Pritchard with Cho. We replace Tom Penn with Cho. The GM position is now a magic vapor made up of the minds of Vulcans and Sea monsters that have a massive calculator that tell Larry miller what to say on TV. I love this team!
Thanks, I appreciate the nice comment. I've always enjoyed reading your posts, too. Yeah, I understand what you're saying. You want someone with more certainty to close the deal in terms of title contention. It's somewhat akin to wanting a veteran player addition to a title hopeful, rather than a touted rookie. To go slightly stats geek in my terminology, I just want the highest expected value, even if there's significant variance. Whether that value comes from a veteran or a young guy isn't too important to me. Hopefully, Portland did hire the guy with the best chance to be a high level GM. I, personally, am comfortable with the uncertainty involved....largely because the guys with more certainty (like Danny Ferry or Randy Pfund) didn't seem to me like guys who necessarily could "close the deal." If a guy with more certainty and compelling ability, like an RC Buford (or a Kevin Pritchard ) were available, I'd rather have him.
I guess I thought there was a plan in place to replace Pritchard. I gave Paul Allen too much credit, which is my fault, unless the plan all along was to replace him with Larry Miller. EDIT - you never asked me for my choices for GM. I'm not doing the hiring; I was questioning the firing.
I love you, Minstrel. I'll add that I think that we just hired Tom Penn's replacement. I think that Larry Miller is basically the GM at this point, with help from Cho and the scouts.
Replace him? Or to get an upgrade? Those are two things. KP's definitely been replaced. Whether it's an upgrade or not is another matter. I find it intellectually dishonest for you to have been bashing Paul Allen and Larry Miller for weeks and, now that they've made a hire, to bash them for not living up to the expectations you claim to have had all along. Ed O.
I find you intellectually dull. Plus, Cho is Penn's replacement, IMO. Miller is the new Pritchard, which explains the bizarre hand-holding we witnessed today by Miller.
One things for sure. After listening to Cho, they deffo found a guy who won't be doing "too many" radio interviews.
I think Cho was being groomed as more than a cap expert by Presti, as evidenced by Presti having Cho take a larger role in scouting and player development with the Thunder. I'd be surprised if Portland hired him purely as a "cap guy" with only minimal input on talent acquisition and I'd also be somewhat surprised if Cho wanted that job. It's not like he was obscure and this was his one shot at a GM position...I think he would have waited rather than taking a figurehead GM position where he'd largely be marginalized.
He said on the radio today that his leadership style is more communal than singular (IMO) (not those words exactly, sorry nitpickers) (I don't have direct quotes). Presti may have groomed him, but I just don't think the guy has the juice to be the face of the front office. Not his fault, and I'm sure he's very good at his job, but it was a somewhat weird spectacle today with Larry Miller jumping in to give answers.
Most front offices are, more and more. I'd say the trend of sports has been away from the Red Auerbach type of hierarchy, where there's one all-powerful executive at the top and a bunch of scouts who report to him and more toward a Billy Beane/Theo Epstein type of hierarchy, where the GM has some lieutenants which are almost co-GMs and they make decisions together. I don't know what Larry Miller's role would be but, at minimum, I think that Cho will be collaborating with Born and Buchanan. I think that was probably the case for Pritchard, too, but Cho being less experienced at this point will probably need to rely on them more heavily. I don't think Cho currently has the cache to be the face of the franchise. That said, I don't think Pritchard did either when he officially took over. Those of us who followed the franchise closely knew him well, but I don't think many non-Blazers fans thought of Pritchard when they thought about the Blazers initially. Pritchard built his reputation and profile, and developed into the face of the franchise. Cho will have to do the same. He can still be a non-puppet GM in the meantime, though.
Better perceived as dull than perceived as dishonest. Did you expect an upgrade or a replacement? And were you giving Paul Allen and Larry Miller--the guys that you have been bashing for weeks and maybe months--too much credit, even as you were calling them incompetent? You're talking out of both sides of your mouth and it's ridiculous. Ed O.
