Harrison Dang Diddily Do Damn Diddily Darn Barnes

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

There's definitely something to be said for him wanting to be here. He couldn't have made it any more clear, though. I mean, his twitter and facebook pics were of him in Blazers gear. And then, when I saw him dressed for the draft..... that made it pretty damn clear where his head and heart were. And then you see the red socks.....

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Anybody remember when David Kahn drafted Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio back-to-back with the 5th and 6th picks, and then Ty Lawson with the 18th pick in the same draft?

Kahn is as close to a "BPA" devotee as it gets, and out of the 3 'BPA' PGs, he traded away the most productive (Lawson), Flynn was a complete bust, and Rubio was a 27% shooter his last two weeks before messing up his knee. Then, Minnesota used that Denver pick for Lawson to trade for ... Martell Webster, while also trading away Luke Babbitt.

Ty Lawson for Martell Webster.

This entire thread seems silly to me. Nobody knows who was the BPA, who will be the BPA, and what BPA even really means to the Blazer organization. If there has a been a bigger nothing basketball thread here in the last year that actually lasted, I'd be hard pressed to tell you what it is.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

That sounds like a failure of talent evaluation, not philosophy. Though I don't really agree with your implicit assertion that Rubio was a failed selection. The Ty Lawson trade shows why it's fine to select multiple players at a position: you can use depth as trade bait. Kahn simply made a terrible trade. I don't think Kahn is a particularly good GM, but not because he drafts for BPA.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

I like how you add your $0.02, then proceed to trash the thread. Post of the day!

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Lawson has been the best of those three PGs three seasons after that draft. Kahn talked literally at the time about taking the "BPA", regardless of position. I agree with you saying the "BPA" is basically subjective; I've been posting that in my numerous posts in this thread.

Seems to me that talent evaluation/BPA go hand in hand, but I accept the premise of your semantics. Typically in a trade, I assume the end goal is to get the better player for a given situation. Clearly, Kahn failed miserably when he botched the Lawson trade. It remains to be seen if trading the 16th pick for Martell was a good move, but as of thus far, it isn't. It's impossible to evaluate the Budinger trade right now, other than to point out that statistically, Budinger really hasn't improved from his rookie season in terms of advanced statistics.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

I don't think my distinction was purely semantics, but you are right that they go hand-in-hand...going after BPA is kinda useless if you aren't capable of discerning who the "BPA" is.

My point was that I don't think Kahn's problems stem from being fixated on going after the BPA in his drafts. If he had selected three stud point guards, I don't consider that a problem...he could have kept the one that fit his team's system the best and other teams would have been happy to trade for his other point guards. The problem was that Flynn was a terrible choice (not remotely the BPA as it turns out), Rubio was a gamble that may still pay off but hasn't yet and he traded Lawson for a handful of non-magical beans.

I do think it's the right philosophy to target the most talented player still on the board, even if you already have a good player at the position, rather than targeting the highest player on your board at a specific position. Use the draft to collect the most talent, use trades and free agency to "balance out" the roster. However, if two or three possible draftees are close together in value, I don't have a problem with using need as a tie-breaker, essentially.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

I happen to think that evaluating the overwhelming majority of players in a draft is extremely difficult, and I assume that a team wouldn't draft a PG they have rated far lower than, say, a SF who may drop in a given draft. This is why I find the BPA argument a red herring, because BPA isn't a constant, and even when people think it is, it still isn't an exact science.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

I think the Blazers concluded Lillard was either better than or equal to Barnes, and at a position of greater need. I also think Lillard was the safer pick of the two. He won't be the next Jordan, but he's not likely to disappoint either. We're lucky to have him.

Note that on draft night Lillard was wearing Blazers red and black, right down to his socks. That was no coincidence.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

You're right it wasn't a coincidence. His agent told him to wear them after knowing that it was the Blazers who were almost certain to pick him at 6.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

This is our future (yay!). Lillard and LaMarcus / Lillard and Leonard pick 'n roll/pick 'n pop, with Matthews/Batum/Babbitt hitting threes, and E-Will and Barton slashing to the rim. It's going to be more fun than Nate ball, win or lose.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Both Lillard and Leonard were dressed for Blazers success during the draft. They knew too.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Oh, hell no!

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Hire The Glove to coach him up. Lilliard already idolizes the guy and worked with him apparently during the lead up to the draft.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

I am all over hiring Gary to coach Lillard and Joel to teach Leonard. Worth every penny. Sadly, the Blazers have shown no such inclination to follow such a prescription in the past.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Actually I think it's kind of a bad idea to have a team pay for a personal development coach, too many opportunities for conflict with the real coach and the real possibility that you'll piss off the other players on your roster by giving preferential treatment.

If Lilliard or Leonard want to hire their own guys then they absolutely should, but I don't really think the team needs to do that for them.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Hadn't thought of it like that. IOW: Do it in the off season.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Grg's has never been a lead assistant and he's never wanted to. He's a player development guru.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Whatever they do, I want Przybilla on this team working with/practicing against Leonard. I'll stop repeating myself now.

 

Re: Harrison FUCKING Barnes

Can we hire the Suns' medical staff as our head coach?