We need bench scoring.... badly.

I think it was Zags who first said my source was a pizza guy?

 

Last time we played Halfway House, we got Shawn Kemp...

...Has Odom lost 80 pounds? Is he dunking again?

 

Ahhhh okay. My mistake. I thought you used it for a smoke screen.

 

There are certainly no shorts to hold at this point. That was a very specific thread from direct information that couldn't have been any better and it ended up happening exactly as they shared in blockbuster fashion. It was a lot of fun and sadly that source is now gone.

This is more general chatter heard by a couple of teams and it's lucky that there are some contacts with those teams that have been quite reliable. At this point, they were just confirming inquiry.

 

I do remember that scenario years ago. It was fun!

I like all hypothetical scenarios and enjoy reading takes, even if it's not an inside source.

 

It certainly does make for great banter and fun discussion doesn't it. If memory serves, that thread got so large (twice) that they had to remove it from the board and we just kept going. I believe that was Randolph, Dan Dickau, Fred Jones and draft rights to Demetris Nichols, for Steve Francis (bought out), Channing Frye, and a 2008 2nd round draft pick. Oddly enough, that pick became Omar Asik which the Blazers then traded to the Bulls.

Zach had just come off a season averaging 23/10 so it was a huge deal at the time.

 

Appreciate the insight TB. We go way back (hoopsworld boards!)

I trust Neil. I remember him saying that he regretted not upgrading the bench last year when it became apparent that we were a good team.

If I'm Neil, and I look at where our team is right now, I'm thinking that we could actually be contenders if we add the right piece(s). I'm also probably looking at Mo and Wright and realizing that they won't get it done. Neil upgraded our bench last summer because he wanted to make LA happy and he wanted to give us a legit chance to make the playoffs. Now that we have the best record in the west, I'm sure Neil is thinking "holy shit, we could win this thing..."

Aldridge is playing the best ball of his life.
Dame is struggling a bit from the floor, but he's putting up All-Star numbers.
Lopez is easily one of the best centers in the west right now.
Wes and Nic are playing excellent ball.

The bench is the weakness, but where do you ugprade? Point guard? Center? I have to think that he wants to wait and see what CJ can do before adding another wing, so that leaves point guard or center. Lowry is supposedly on the block, and he would certainly fit the bill.

 

I was sworn to silence, but I could confirm the trade at the time because my sister met Zach when he put his house on the market (she worked at John L Scott at the time).

 

Ahhhh. This is why so many posters lump "hold on to your shorts" and "deal coming soon" together.

 

Wow....that is old school. Did we ever meet at any of the Draft Parties? If memory serves, I think we did at one point.

 

Not a draft party. We met at a couple times at that sports bar in Beaverton that no longer exists on Cedar Hills. I think they were just regular game nights though.

 

Yes we are near the bottom of the league, but a part of that is by design since we have our four main scoring options in the starting lineup. When the bench comes in there is always a starter on the court who is the primary scorer. Other teams have one of their primary scoring option coming in off the bench.

I would like to see more efficient shooting from Mo and Wright, its something to keep an eye on during the next 10 games but its not a drastic problem with this team.

Similar to my point above I don’t think that should be the focus. A team like the Lakers by design plays their bench more than their starters and gives them numerous shooting attempts. We’ll never have bench scoring near that level and in of itself that doesn’t mean our bench is less effective. The Thunder have Lamb and Jackson coming off the bench to score, but start defensive players like Sefolosha.


Many people have mentioned Lowry, yes I would definitely prefer him to Mo if it doesn’t cost us significant assets for a player hitting free agency in a number of months. I definitely would not give up CJ, TRob, or a future 1st round pick for that brief of an upgrade. I don’t think Toronto would accept Mo and Meyers. Even if they did would Lowry be willing to play a backup role before he becomes a free agent? Both of those sound unlikely. So I don’t think we will be able to get that type of deal done.

Olshey should definitely keep his ear open to any clearly beneficial opportunities but I suspect a trade is highly unlikely during the season.

 

The "Hold onto your Shorts" was because we had the information quite a bit ahead of time that Portland would be trading Zach. It got the point that Peter Vescey basically borrowed a quote from one of the posts and used it in his blog. Not sure if he got if from there or saw it where someone else had used it but we all had a good laugh that it came from the forum. I don't remember how far ahead we had that but it was a good month or so before word came out anywhere else and then the subsequent trade.

Beware who is at the door listening.....lol.

 

Okay, that sounds familiar. Was Discovery69 there as well?

 

That was such a god awful trade though. I don't think I could sit on that for a month. I'd be leaking it in hopes that the fan backlash would convince them not to do it.

 

Yup, and El President, otherwise known as AgentDrazenPetrovic/xXEricXx/or any of his other million handles that he's used in the past ten years.

 

Oh yeah, now I remember. He was up visiting from L.A. or something like that. As for D69, what a wealth of Draft prospect information that guy is. I went back over the last 10 years of his projections and who he thought the Blazers should pick. All of it was done before the Draft and only on one occasion, did he mess up. In every other instance, if the Blazers had selected who he liked, they would have come out WAY ahead. And I am a witness, he wanted Durant over Oden. I should go find that and re-post it. He does a great job with his scouting.

As for the trade, it was awful but it came out of 'necessity'. That is where the "Shorts" thread came from. My source gave the details around the discussion, where it came from and what was going to happen. At the time, it was quite a shock.

 

I was on the fence about Durant/Oden. I remember even thinking we were in another Jordan/Bowie situation, but how could you turn your back on Oden? I would not have been unhappy if we took Durant.

 

You know while the Raptors are blowing things up I wouldn't mind getting Marcus Camby back and I sure as hell wouldn't mind getting Terrence Ross back in the Rose City!

 

Camby was one of the malcontents on the team fro ma few years ago.

Pass.