I am not a doctor, but I am close to a man who is one. He also happens to be a Blazer fan. His very informal diagnosis is that "Oden is fucked. He seems to have something genetically wrong with him, maybe a touch of gigantism or something, and it shows in his face. It may be hard to tell exactly what he has, but you can pretty sure these injuries aren't coincidental." This is not an exact quote, but even the densest of homer-fans can't deny that Oden is fragile. He's not meant for the NBA, unfortunately.
Miller + Przy + Oden = $21 million in expirings. Some contending team (read: Boston) would LOVE camby We need to shop everyone except Batum, Wes, LA and Johnson (and maybe even LA if we get a good return) and blow the team up. We CANNOT be a middling team and expect to get better. We need to start over with great players or great picks.
That was almost the exact words of Greg Anthony tonight. He said that there is absolutely "zero" hope that the Raptors could do anything to turn their miserable existence of a franchise around.
Specific targets please. I think packaging Batum + expiring can really help us out. I wonder if Andre Miller + Rudy + picks can get Devin Harris from the nets.
I am not a GM. I don't know who or what is realistically on the table. But in my mind, it really is as wide open as this: Virtually the WHOLE ROSTER is available, and we need to get pieces to build around a few promising players. The Blazers absolutely cannot expect to compete without Oden and Roy, and I am assuming that Roy's days as an All-Star are done. So what does that leave us with? Not nearly enough. We got Camby and Miller, and fuck if they wouldn't have been enough to make us very close to contenders if we had a completely 100% Brandon Roy and a 90% or better Greg Oden. Since that won't happen, we need to start afresh instead of remaining a tweener team with no hope to help itself in the draft. Trade our expirings THIS YEAR and turn them into something good. That's my logic.
Without a superstar on the team, no rings. Sure, Detroit did it...but really. We need a top tier player and that's not happening. You absolutely need a superstar to win a ring or hell, even make the conference finals. With Roy wobbly and Aldridge kind of meh....and in big contracts, you're not going to get superstars that will compete in the finals. You can have a pretty "threatening" team....that may be dangerous in the playoffs...but that's it. We should trade Miller, JP and Pryzbilla to fill out our roster. Deal with the Oden situation when it presents itself. Its not going to be overly expensive and even though, it could be a short contract. Might as well, we're too dialed in.
I think trading Batum is a mistake, as I believe his potential is higher than the value we could get in return. Devin Harris is not worth as much as your trade suggests, in my opinion. He's 27 years old, and is less effective than Andre Miller. But you could always hope he pulls a Nash and gets better as he ages.
Trading Miller and Joel? Sure. Camby? For the right price, OK. I can see how this season is a wash, and we need more pieces. Trading Oden and Batum? That's silly. Oden is going to be cheap to retain and still (IMO) has a future in the NBA (even if it's distant). Batum is the kind of piece that you want to draft, not trade away so you can draft someone like him. There's no reason to think that a rebuild has to be all the way down to the studs (or giving the studs away). Ed O.
That was the most depressing press conference I've ever seen. Gotta' feel for the training staff. Jay fighting back tears was tough to watch. Greg will probably give it another shot because he's so young, but man you gotta' wonder if this guys body just isn't cut out for professional basketball.
